The June 1904 Issue of Hearth & Holler Has Arrived

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Today marks the beginning of something new.

After much thought, planning, writing, illustrating, and more than a few cups of tea, Hearth & Holler has taken on a new format as a Monthly Magazine — a collection of stories, people, places, gardens, recipes, traditions, and adventures from across Honey Hill Country.

For readers visiting Honey Hill Country for the first time, the stories and features in Hearth & Holler are set in the fictional world of Honey Hill Country in the year 1904, the home and time period of my primary story character Little Red Bear. Through the eyes of its residents, contributors, and occasional bears and animals, we explore a simpler time filled with gardens, front porches, festivals, railroads, riverboats, animals and humans living side-by-side, and everyday life.

Inside this month’s issue you’ll meet one of Honey Hill Country’s most beloved shopkeepers, climb to Inspiration Point with Willow Meadows, visit a Jeffersonian garden in bloom, enjoy strawberry season at the Packet House Hotel, and travel with Felicity Merriweather to the St. Louis World’s Fair.

You’ll also find hummingbirds, festivals, good-natured nonsense, front porch reflections, and a few surprises along the way.

Rather than presenting everything in a single post, each feature now has its own page, allowing readers to explore the magazine much as they might wander from article to article in a traditional publication.

I invite you to pour yourself a cup of something good, settle in, and spend a little while with us in Honey Hill Country.

👉 Click here to visit the June 1904 issue of Hearth & Holler.

Thank you for visiting and spending part of your day with us!

— Jim  (and Red!)

The illustrations accompanying this issue were created with the assistance of AI and lovingly prepared in a watercolor style for the world of Little Red Bear and Honey Hill Country.

Life Without Supervision

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The Continuing Adventures of a Very Small Warden

A few weeks ago, I said goodbye to my little Chihuahua, Allie.

At fourteen years old, she had been my writing companion, supervisor, schedule keeper, occasional employer, and friend for a very long time.

Like many good dogs, she occupied far more space in a life than her small size would ever suggest.

As with many small doges, Allie seemed to have 120 pounds of heart, adventure, and spirit all crammed into a little 12 pound body. It is always amazing how a creature so small can leave such a large space behind and oversized hole in your heart.

It has taken me a few days to come back to this.

Not out of reluctance . . . . but out of respect, I think.

Some things do not ask to be written right away.
They ask to be sat with first — quietly — until the edges soften just enough to be held without breaking.

Continue reading →

A Conversation on the Morning Air

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There are some Spring mornings that feel as though they’ve been set out just for noticing.

Last week offered one of those.

The air had that early-season softness — not quite warm, not quite cool — in between — the kind that carries sound a little farther than usual and lets the world arrive in layers. Across the street stood a White Dogwood in full bloom, its branches lifted and spread like open hands, each one holding those unmistakable cross-shaped blossoms that seem less like flowers and more like small, quiet declarations.

And there, settled comfortably among them, was a Cardinal, its crimson feathers glowing in the sunlight.

Not just present — but singing.

Filling the morning air with his full-throated melodies. Steady, and sure of himself, as Cardinals tend to be. The kind of song that doesn’t ask for attention so much as assuming it will be given.

On my side of the street, just ahead, stood a Red Maple — not yet committed to Spring, its branches still mostly bare, holding back just a little longer before leafing out. And from somewhere within those branches — though I could not see him at all — came the bright, quick voice of a Carolina Wren.

It is one of those things, where if you know that sound, you know it — sharp, cheerful, almost insistent, as if every note matters. Such a loud song coming from such a tiny bird.

And then something curious happened.

Continue reading →

The Hearth & Holler Gazette No. 11 — “A Stirring Week Across Honey Hill Country — Business Opens Its Doors, Concerns Rise, and Work Awaits”

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A Weekly Visit of Tales, Tidings, and Old-Time Country Comfort

Welcome!

It’s been a full and eventful week in Honey Hill Country, and one worth talking about.

As always, The Hearth & Holler Gazette is a work of fiction set in a place that exists most clearly in the imagination — though from time to time it may resemble somewhere you have known. But for first time visitors, it may help to know where — and when — we are, and what I am talking about

The Hearth & Holler Gazette hails from Honey Hill Country, a small, rural corner of the Missouri Ozarks, as it might have been known in the year 1904 — a time of front porches and wagon roads, oil lamps and handwritten letters, when news traveled at a human pace, and a Saturday paper was meant to be read slowly, with coffee close at hand. This is not a paper of breaking news or loud headlines. It prefers instead to notice it — the small, human-sized moments that once filled a morning without asking much in return.

The Hearth & Holler Gazette is a work of fiction — a made-up paper from a made-up place, written in the spirit of an earlier time. Any resemblance to real towns, people, or events is entirely coincidental, though we do our best to make it feel otherwise.

This must be understood at the beginning — the towns, fields, and citizens described here exist only within these pages. With that firmly agreed, the small and ordinary wonders of the week may unfold as they will. That is the way of things here. That is all we need to know, and that ought to be enough.

So, with that said  — Please come on in. Your paper awaits . . . . . . 

And would you prefer Coffee or Tea with your newspaper?

 

Continue reading →

The Hearth & Holler Gazette No. 10 — “March Madness Days Come to a Joyful Close”

/ jrmilson / 2 Comments

A Weekly Visit of Tales, Tidings, and Old-Time Country Comfort

Welcome!

It’s been a full and lively week in Honey Hill Country.

From the rabbits’ tooting sound of joyful Carrozelas across the hills to the gathering of neighbors along the roadside, the past several days have brought a great deal of movement, merriment, and shared moments worth noting. As the season’s celebrations draw to a close, there is both much to remember and, perhaps, a little quiet beginning to return.

As always, The Hearth & Holler Gazette is a work of fiction set in a place that exists most clearly in the imagination — though from time to time it may resemble somewhere you have known. But for first time visitors, it may help to know where — and when — we are, and what I am talking about

The Hearth & Holler Gazette hails from Honey Hill Country, a small, rural corner of the Missouri Ozarks, as it might have been known in the year 1904 — a time of front porches and wagon roads, oil lamps and handwritten letters, when news traveled at a human pace, and a Saturday paper was meant to be read slowly, with coffee close at hand. This is not a paper of breaking news or loud headlines. It prefers instead to notice it — the small, human-sized moments that once filled a morning without asking much in return.

The Hearth & Holler Gazette is a work of fiction — a made-up paper from a made-up place, written in the spirit of an earlier time. Any resemblance to real towns, people, or events is entirely coincidental, though we do our best to make it feel otherwise.

This must be understood at the beginning — the towns, fields, and citizens described here exist only within these pages. With that firmly in mind, the small and ordinary wonders of the week may unfold as they will. That is the way of things here. That is all we need to know, and that ought to be enough.

So, with that said  — Please come on in. Your paper awaits . . . . . .

And would you prefer Coffee or Tea with your newspaper?

 

Continue reading →