once

upon  a time

we were married

barefoot on the beach

with my white lace dress

swirling in the surf as the tide arrived

in a little seaside town in southern maine.

we lived for fourteen months

on the 2nd floor of a 3-story walk up

literally across the street from old mill factories,

one of which now holds the quince and co headquarters.

after a year of counting literal pennies

(and any larger denominations we could get our hands on)

we owned a tiny house.

pine trees in the backyard,

cast iron sink in the kitchen,

and an honest to goodness twoholer (outhouse)

in the attached two story barn teetering on the last legs of it’s stability.

we stoked both the woodstoves,

one for warmth the other for cookstove baking,

taking frequent walks to the town’s namesake, the ‘steep falls’

(rushing water just loud enough to drown out the clutter of every day

and just soothing enough to allow a deep breath and heartfelt gratitude for this spot).

the large flat stones where i sat

feeling almost a part of the dancing water

as it leapt and ran (gurgling happily like a child left free to play with abandon),

were beautifully ‘decorated’ by the friction between their stillness and

the passing speed of the frolicking waters.

the stitch pattern for ‘sokokis‘

was inspired by those marks of erosion

which the rocks wore proudly like badges

  of their steadfastness and long term endurance,

just up the road from that little house on sokokis road.

‘pine’ taken from 44:14 of isaiah.

the whole ‘scarves, etc’ collection can be seen in the lookbook here.