Farewell 2015....

The final bloom of 2015. Many buds on plant, waiting to bloom for 2016. And so it goes...

Baking Blitz...plus

Well... I have added Irish Brown Bread, Scones, Homemade fresh Ginger Beer, and Apple Brownies to my culinary repertoire. I am scaring myself silly.

Happy Yule-tide, 2015!

My grandma's tree...one ornament each for most of our years together...some years, couldn't afford ornaments, so simply held hands and were silently grateful for each other before the tree.

 

A good and ethical approach to gun ownership:

November poem

Full bloom Winter Rose
Clings in swaying dance to slender green
November-chilled yet tender still
As the Rose, I dance.

--msd 11/2011

We continue to endlessly mourn. Endlessly.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2015/12/gun_violence_and_child_labor_are_not_the_price_of_liberty.html
 Important article. Right now, too horrified to comment further.



update after recovering somewhat from plain shock:

Reality check, USA:

The NRA is the true terrorist organization, aiding, abetting, and supporting those who murder with guns.

Happy Samhain

Anniversary!

Karmic Balance

Took in some acting classes last night to try to get some "sparking' ideas for a book I'm trying to write. Along the way, met some very nice people who very nicely balance, in a karmic way, some of the absolute idiocy we put up with on a sadly regular basis here in ye olde Salem. Even got a ride to the subway from a "stranger" who simply smiled at me and said,"of course I'll give you a lift" when I mentioned I was nervous about walking alone at night in the part of town where the classes were held ... Balance!

Maggi's Books on Salem's Walkway!

Aran Islands Ireland 2015

return to Ireland 2015

Heartfelt thanks to the Trolley Depot

With Many Heartfelt Thanks

For many years, The Trolley Depot, and its sister store 
Salemdipity, both in Salem, Mass., have carried both of my books, consistently and in charming manner....

AND they were also placed in the Salem Museum gift shop at Old Town Hall!

 I want to sincerely thank Betty Jayne Bouchard and staff for this amazing support over the years! (Plus those stores are just so cool!)

			A history of spiritualism and the occult in Salem : the rise of witch city by Maggi Smith-Dalton  Print book Language: English   Publisher: Charleston, SC : History Press, 2012. Database: WorldCat
			Stories & shadows from Salem's past : Naumkeag notations by Maggi Smith-Dalton  Print book : Biography View all formats and languages » Language: English   Publisher: Charleston, SC : History Press, 2010. Database: WorldCat

Happy Birthday, USA

Lincoln Center's Dark Legacy

 Lincoln Centers Dark Legacy

Important article: "How Art Became Irrelevant"

 How Art Became Irrelevant

Reading up on Yeats in prep for travel to Sligo, Ireland reminded me....

Reading up on Yeats as we prepare for  trip to Ireland and a couple of days in Sligo reminded me of the Golden Dawn, and here's a gal I would have loved knowing.  Shaw is also one of my faves, although he didn't particularly cotton to her "magical" interests.

Louka is a part I performed as a (very) young actress.


"...Farr originated the supporting soubrette role of Louka, the vivacious and insolent servant girl who steals the affections of the hero from the play's lead ingenue..." in Shaw's "Arms and the Man."  *




http://www.golden-dawn.org/bioffarr.html
http://www.glopad.org/pi/en/record/digdoc/1854
http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search2…

 

*sorry to quote Wicked-pedia there...

Urgency

Jaws. Um....

Gardening ... Roses, Garlic, Tomatoes, Living in Harmony

My only casualty from the harsh winter we had seems to have been the climbing rose planted in our front garden box.

All our other roses are not only coming back but they're coming back strong.

I took it lovingly to the back garden "hospital" and replanted it with lots of encouragement and food. I hope it revives...

In its place is a new, quite lovely, double knockout rosebush. Settled between a garlic plant and a tomato plant, I blessed it and fed it and hope for the best. This fall, I will mulch as if Jack Frost and Brother Ice themselves were going to rent the garden for the winter.

Later that day....

Can't hear you. I'm in an alternate universe, tried to reach you, but the wormhole collapsed as soon as you entered.Wait....there's a garden here...try planting something beautiful.

I feel like singing "I'm so tired" a la Madeline Kahn/Lili Von Shtupp

.....aaaarrrgggh......I've been working for months on our new website (just went up!) and yesterday finally completed an audio/video demo reel. I also finally got us our own YouTube channel. We have audio and video on our website now, links to products on ITunes, Amazon, CD Baby, History Press etc etc etc....AND I've started a new book (I have written the first page about 12 times and then went back to work on the website.) July 1 our new web store goes live and there's much to do for that. Yesterday I baked bread and made scallion pancakes (3 future meals in the freezer too).


NOW I WANT JUST WANT A GLASS OF WINE AND ABOUT THREE DAYS IN THE GARDEN AND A COUPLE OF GOOD BOOKS.


Lili, I hear yah. 

Thank you!

Thanks to everyone who came out to share music with us last night! It made us even more grateful for our recovery from the flu ...finally abating enough to allow us to make an hour or so of music with such truly wonderful people!

Please join us for our April 1 Concert at the Boston Conservatory!

Join us at our April 1 Concert at the Boston Conservatory!

Spring!

Just sayin!

coming up

Coming up... April 1 performance at Boston Conservatory!

http://www.bostonconservatory.edu/event/faculty-performance-jim-dalton-and-maggi-smith-daltonhttp://www.bostonconservatory.edu/event/faculty-performance-jim-dalton-and-maggi-smith-dalton

Faculty Performance: Jim Dalton and Maggi Smith-Dalton

Wednesday, April 1, 2015 - 8:00pm

Studio 401

Take a sometimes haunting, sometimes amusing, musical journey through America's past with A Celebration of American Music 6, featuring a performance on voice, guitar, mandolin and banjo. Enjoy the Daltons' trademark varied palette of styles as they carve a broad path through the American past, from 18th-century ballads to 20th-century blues. This year’s concert features special segments celebrating the birthdays of Ralph Towner and Dan Emmett, honoring the cause of Women’s Suffrage, the end of the War of 1812 and the Civil War, and musical highlights from 1965! 

A manual for the future?

I am re-reading "How to Be a Victorian." It seems to be a manual for the future.

Read the section on workplace (non) regulation, sans unions, for instance. and..."Before antibiotics, and with the new crowding and population explosion brought on by the Industrial Revolution, cholera, measles, diphtheria, whooping cough, tuberculosis and typhoid were looming threats. And with no regulation of the advertising industry, manufacturers could claim pretty much anything. Which is how the ingredients in Tuberculozyne, which purported to cure tuberculosis, could be potassium bromide, glycerin, almond flavoring, water and caramel coloring...."

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/28/books/review/how-to-be-a-victorian-by-ruth-goodman.html?_r=0

January 2015

12th Night