Search Results for: notecards for the Mansion

I don’t usually plug things on the blog, but the most wonderful notecards about animals and nature have gone on sale this week from an artist I have come to know and love.

Her name is Abrah Griggs and she lives in Vermont and is shy and unassuming, which is why she is charging so little for these cards, I think they are brilliant, and they reflect her very wonderful and idiosyncratic and ironic sensibilities about birds, lightning bugs, moths, frogs, spiders, butterflies, dragonflies, cats, mosquitoes and rodents.

It is increasingly rare to find a true original and individual spirit in label-crazy America today, Abrah is one of them. She is a very talented artist as well. She is one of those people who undervalues her work sometimes, and the notecards should fix that.

The notecards are funny and original and really appealingly priced -$3.75 for one, $13.00 for four plus shopping. I would say underpriced. Great notecards to use, and a memorable gift. And I see a lot of animal stuff. I want to tape some of them to my study wall.

Abrah is not yet set up to take orders online, so if you want the cards you will have to do it the old-fashioned way – s-mail and e-mail. You can e-mail her at [email protected] and see the notecards here: I’ve ordered five sets, they are very, funny, inventive and original. Abrah has mastered the challenge of being hilarious and touching at the same time. Not an easy trick.

Griggs, who is putting together the Mansion Book Of Stories, has a great and very dry perspective about life in nature.

I love the way she and her creatures look at the world. Once a year, she appears at one of our Open Houses, and I much look forward to her visits.

Abrah Griggs lives way out in the Vermont woods and ponders the bugs and insects of our world all the time. Like me, she has an ambivalent relationship with the outdoors, but finds it fascinating, we are lucky for that.

She puts some wonderfully funny words in the animals and insects mouths, and her imagination is refreshing and original. Her notecards are really worth a look, I think. There is something very special about them.

Maria and Red and I went over to the Mansion to wish the residents a Happy New Year’s Eve.

Thanks to Kenna Ogg, an artist and quilter from Boise, Idaho, and reader of our blogs, we had beautiful Poinsetta photo notecards to give to reach resident wishing them Happy New Year.

We saw four or five residents, we spent some time with Bill O. Bill is struggling to get  more mobile, he hopes to visit our farm in the Spring. He is still adjusting to his new life at the Mansion.  He lost his wife of more than 60 years,  Louella, last year, and had to send his dog Duke to a shelter when he came into the Mansion. He has not been feeling well, “I’m working through it,” he said, “I have to get well.”

The staff distributed Kenna’s beautiful cards this afternoon, every resident got one, Kenna made enough. Bill shows us the more than 70 cards and letters he has received from readers of the blog in the past few weeks They are in a plastic bag he keeps by his chair. He says he is reading them as quickly as he can, he says he will read every one of them, they are, he says, from everywhere.

“When in my life?,” he asked, “would someone like me get so many letters from people from everywhere.” I had no answer for him. We spent a long time listening to Bill tell stories about his life as a cook and family man. Sometimes, my work is just about active listening, like Red.

When people tell their stories, Red appears transfixed, as if he is hanging on every word.

I am thinking that the next meaning project for the Mansion residents might be Valentine’s Day, a time when they will be reminded of love, present and lost, and will need some love. I think it will be a good thing for people who wish to help them to focus on. Up here, Valentine’s Day can be heard, it comes right in the middle of February, when the winter here is usually at it’s most fierce.

I imagine that is a time when many of the residents will be thinking of love, as Bill does when he thinks of his beloved Louella. He said he never imagined outliving her.

I ran into the town postman today and he asked me what was going on at the Mansion, he said he had never  brought so many letters and packages there. I told him, and he whistled, he said everyone there was so happy. Bill and the other residents love to be known and loved, and they are feeling your love, profoundly. So is the staff there.

If you care to think about Valentine’s Day and the Mansion residents, you can write them c/o The Mansion, 11 S. Union Street, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.

The first names of the residents who wish to receive messages and mail are Jean, Mary, Sylvie, Diane, Alice, Jean, Madeline, Joan, Allan, Carl, John K., Aileen, Christie, Helen, Connie, Alanna, Barbara, Peggie, Bill O., Dennis, John R., Bruce, John.

I wish the residents of the Mansion the happiest of New Year’s, and the same to all of you reading this

At least I wasn’t shocked this morning, I knew what to expect.

Another huge load of notecards came pouring into my Post Office Box and overwhelmed it, spilling over into carts and lockers. It just about filled up the back of my SUV. Maria was busy selling out her potholders on Etsy, so Gus and I did some hauling.

I’m the big man in town at the Post Office today, and it says something that  Wendy, the postal clerk, knew right away that these packages were all headed to the Mansion in one way or another, she’s seen this enough times, although not quite ever on this scale.

A local man I didn’t know came up to me in the post office parking lot to shake my head. “I love what you are doing” he said, thumped me on the back and walked away. He knew these boxes I was hauling into the car were notecards for the Mansion.

I am just beginning to appreciate the power of my blog, and just how big the enormous hearts of the Army Of Good really are.

I want to say that I am grateful for every one of these note cards, envelopes, and stamps.

First off, they are fascinating, some are vintage and tell the story of America, and of families and lives. Secondly, every one of these cards, no matter how many there are, will be used and appreciated and put to good use, either at the Mansion, and also at hospice and other elder care facilities in the region.

None will go to waste, I promise you that, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for this astounding display of American generosity and graciousness and compassion. We are a generous and caring people.

These will make an enormous impact on the lives of the Mansion residents, making it so much more possible for them to communicate with the outside world. I will go there every day with notecards for them and the staff, and store many others in the Mansion basement for future use.

I already got a call from a local hospice and another assisted care facility pleading for a box. They will each get several.

I won’t lie, this is a bit overwhelming and it will take me (hopefully with Maria’s help) a good while to sort through them. I will not be able to thank each one of your personally (Wendy assured me more are on the way) but I thank you sincerely.

The Army Of Good is transforming many iives, including mine. I am so happy to be able to do this, to take your good will and transfer it directly into the lives and hands of the vulnerable. In these troubling times, I have never felt better, stronger, or more hopeful. I know what the news really is.

I might need to borrow another car tomorrow. This is remarkable, thrilling and humbling. Now, on to the Mansion to see the refugees and residents meet.