Susan Branch > Quotes

“Breakfast! My favorite meal- and you can be so creative. I think of bowls of sparkling berries and fresh cream, baskets of Popovers and freshly squeezed orange juice, thick country bacon, hot maple syrup, panckes and French toast - even the nutty flavor of Irish oatmeal with brown sugar and cream. Breaksfast is the place I splurge with calories, then I spend the rest of the day getting them off! I love to use my prettiest table settings - crocheted placemats with lace-edged napkins and old hammered silver. And whether you are inside in front of a fire, candles burning brightly on a wintery day - or outside on a patio enjoying the morning sun - whether you are having a group of friends and family, a quiet little brunch for two, or an even quieter little brunch just for yourself, breakfast can set the mood and pace of the whole day.

And Sunday is my day. Sometimes I think we get caught up in the hectic happenings of the weeks and months and we forget to take time out to relax. So one Sunday morning I decided to do things differently - now it's gotten to be a sort of ritual! This is what I do: at around 8:30 am I pull myself from my warm cocoon, fluff up the pillows and blankets and put some classical music on the stereo. Then I'm off to the kitchen, where I very calmly (so as not to wake myself up too much!) prepare my breakfast, seomthing extra nice - last week I had fresh pineapple slices wrapped in bacon and broiled, a warm croissant, hot chocolate with marshmallows and orange juice. I put it all on a tray with a cloth napkin, my book-of-the-moment and the "Travel" section of the Boston Globe and take it back to bed with me. There I spend the next two hours reading, eating and dreaming while the snowflakes swirl through the treetops outside my bedroom window. The inspiring music of Back or Vivaldi adds an exquisite elegance to the otherwise unruly scene, and I am in heaven. I found time to get in touch with myself and my life and i think this just might be a necessity! Please try it for yourself, and someone you love.”
― Susan Branch, Days from the Heart of the Home

“The tension between what is, and what we dream of, is important. Not to discount what we have, but to hold onto that middle ground, because it's in there that the magic happens.”
― Susan Branch

“And beyond the timeless meadows and emerald pastures, the rabbit holes and moss-covered oak and rowan trees and the "slippy sloppy" houses of frogs, the woodland-scented wind rushed between the leaves and blew around the gray veil that dipped below the fells, swirling up in a mist, blurring the edges of the distant forest.

(View from Windermere in the Lake District)”
― Susan Branch, A Fine Romance: Falling in Love with the English Countryside

“Remember, childhood only lasts 10-12 years. There's a lot that has to be squeezed in to make for a lifetime of happy memories. ♥”
― Susan Branch

“Before Julia Child there was only onion dip.”
― Susan Branch

“Goodbye Darcy, goodbye Jean, goodbye stone cottage, scratchy towels, fields of wildflowers; good bye gorgeous Peak District ... OK English People, for your own good, get off the roads, here we come!”
― Susan Branch

“... because commonsensically speaking, a room full of good books had to better for your health than a room with no books in it at all.”
― Susan Branch, Martha's Vineyard, Isle of Dreams

“The path has a cottage garden on both sides; clumps of old-fashioned flowers ran all over each other: lamb's ear, mint, & rhubarb, roses, forget-me-nots, bleeding hearts & wisteria. I walked very slowly, savoring. At the end of the slate path was the house, very recognizable now... "As nearly perfect a little place as I ever lived in" is how Beatrix described it.”
― Susan Branch, A Fine Romance: Falling in Love with the English Countryside

“Spring is magic~ sweet to the senes & easy to celebrate.”
― Susan branch, Vineyard Seasons: More from the Heart of the Home

“I takes a pretty special man to take the place of no man at all.”
― Susan Branch

“England reminds me of a quote I saw on a packet of Swiss Miss instant cocoa mix: 'Like a basket of drinkable kittens, wrapped in a blanket, next to a fireplace.”
― Susan Branch, A Fine Romance: Falling in Love with the English Countryside

“The only feeling stronger than loss is love.”
― susan branch, The Fairy Tale Girl

“Once upon a time .... I want to have a little house with sunlight on the floor, A chimney with a rosy hearth and lilacs by the door. (Nancy Bird Turner)”
― Susan Branch, Martha's Vineyard, Isle of Dreams

“Feed your soul with silence.
That's where dreams are born.”
― Susan Branch, Martha's Vineyard, Isle of Dreams

“What's the difference between ignorance & arrogance?
I don't know & I don't care.”
― Susan Branch

“My dad could go to work, he could get raises, he could be thanked for his contributions, he got a pay-check for his labor, but that didn't happen for moms. The best they could hope for would be a crayon valentine or a squashed, limp dandelion flower offered up from the damp hand of their wide-eyed
and innocent child. Which wasn't nothing. In all my days I'd never considered anything to be more important than home. In a chaotic world, it was sanctuary; it was where love grew.”
― Susan Branch, Martha's Vineyard, Isle of Dreams

“I don't think my parents ever knew what they did for us. They were to busy doing what needed to be done. As far as we as she was concerned, we were rich as Rockefeller; I never heard her wish for more. She made us feel like we had everything, and we though so, too.”
― susan branch, The Fairy Tale Girl

“Gardens are heaven~gardens & churches have a lot in common.”
― susan branch, Autumn: From the Heart of the Home

“The best 'aromatherapy' comes directly from the kitchen.”
― Susan Branch, Autumn: From the Heart of the Home

“If you cry, catch your tears in a cup, sprinkle them on your lover's pillow~ he will experience a great change of heart.”
― susan branch, The Fairy Tale Girl

“Together, Vita (Sackville-West) & Harold (Sir Harold Nicholson) had a passion bigger than them-selves, bigger than their marriage, bigger than everything~their garden. No matter what they did during their lives, the legacy they left for generations to come is pure magic.”
― Susan Branch, A Fine Romance: Falling in Love with the English Countryside

“It takes a pretty special man to take the place to no man at all.”
― Susan Branch

“The house was filled with Christmas joy and intoxicating expectations~ pies cooling on the window sill, mistletoe hugs and kisses, tree lights sparkling, music playing, screen door slamming with the coming and going of starry-eyed kids. Grandma had her boys, Mom had her brothers. And we had our two uncles to tease and play with. Everyone was happy.”
― susan branch, Home for Christmas

“The stories of my heroes provided me with MUCH better things to think about. Important things, meaningful things, real things that mattered and didn't depend on ratings. Learning about them, reading their words made me want to be a better person.”
― Susan Branch, Martha's Vineyard, Isle of Dreams

“Despite my broken heart, or rather, because of it, I was grateful to be where no one knew me. I was totally invisible here. I didn't have to pretend to be happy or nice or that everything was okay.”
― Susan Branch, Martha's Vineyard, Isle of Dreams

“Do not call anyone "mate" unless you have served on a boat with them.”
― Susan Branch, A Fine Romance: Falling in Love with the English Countryside

“Just when you think you have everything figured out, you discover you know nothing at all.”
― Susan Branch, The Fairy Tale Girl

“With times the way they were in the 1980s , I was worried that moms might have gotten the mistaken idea that what they did didn't matter. What I understood from the women's movement was that we had free choice to be anything we wanted. We could choose to stay home with the children or work out of the house, depending on our personal needs, and each of those choices deserved equal respect. But sometimes , watching Phil Donahue in the Pre-Oprah days, it felt like women were being pitted against each other.”
― Susan Branch, Martha's Vineyard, Isle of Dreams

“Until then (& I really do hate to admit this), I believed that everyone pretty much lived exactly the way we did where I grew up... at Reseda, California, USA. I thought everyone believed the same things, wanted the same things, read the same things, & thought the same things were funny. You grew up, got married, had children, & lived happily ever after. This was the way life worked. Ask Ozzie & Harriet, June & Ward Cleaver, Pollyanna's Aunt, or The Cunningham's. It seemed that's how it was for my parents, how it would be for me, & how it was everyone.
But this couple lived in a way I'd never heard of, or imagined, & yet, it all seemed to work out fine.”
― susan branch, A Fine Romance: Falling in Love with the English Countryside

“So!, I thought, for the first time, there's more than one path to happiness! I likes that. I thought they were brave. I didn't want to be them, but I liked that they wanted to be them. It opened a world of possibilities in my mind, just the idea that every thing was much bigger than I thought.”
― Susan Branch, A Fine Romance: Falling in Love with the English Countryside