Digging for gemstones
“You know, the beauty into which you were born is often the beauty you never see. Go dig the gemstone out of your own hill.” — Marguerite Steedman, quoted in the first issue of Foxfire (1967)
I was sure I needed to switch platforms, convinced that a new newsletter required new tools. But after a few weeks of intensive exploration on Substack, I decided it's not the place for me. I looked at other email services, but those weren’t quite right, either. So after a trip around the proverbial block, I'm back on Buttondown, the same platform I used for my previous newsletter.
As it turns out, returning to where I started is a bit of a theme lately.
In 2021, shortly after I sent the last real issue of Overlap, I moved back to Pennsylvania and bought a house in my hometown — across the road from my family’s farm, in fact. After two decades away, I was going back home to rural life. I kept my job in New York and still spend some time there, but my days in the city are offset by weeks in the country.
Overlap was very much a byproduct of my life and routine in New York. It was out on the street, stopping at neighborhood places, and pondering life between subway stops. But things are different now. My country life needs a newsletter with dirt under its fingernails and mud on its boots — one that looks more like I look these days.
I’ve spent the past few years fixing up an old house and building a new garden. The work is ongoing and will never be finished. My younger self would have felt overwhelmed and discouraged by this, but in my mid-40s, I find it strangely comforting. This slow and steady evolution — the shaping of a life and a place over time — is of great interest to me; I expect I’ll be exploring this idea in future letters.
The house and garden are on a south-facing slope in the Endless Mountains. I affectionately refer to it as “Seepy Hollow” because the ground was unusually soggy when I first moved in. (It’s better now, thanks to help from a water witch ... but that’s a story for another time.) This new series will take the same name and will be rooted in the same place: You are reading Letters from Seepy Hollow, issue no. 1. Welcome.
Until next time,
Jessica