Hi, there! I’m Jane Horn, below with husband Todd and son David. I started this blog to share stories about my life in the town of Sandwich, New Hampshire, in the sweet spot where the Lakes Region meets the White Mountains. I’ve lived in some beautiful places, including Colorado and Arizona (where the photo below was taken), but it’s here in rural New Hampshire that I feel most at home. In June 2014, Todd and I packed up and shipped out from Denver. We didn’t exactly live an urban existence during our more than thirty years in the West, but our lives have definitely changed!
In our first life, Todd and I worked in independent schools, seventeen years in boarding schools and seventeen years at a day school. Todd was a science teacher and eventually an administrator and school head. I taught English and history and was a college counselor, helping to guide high school students through the process of selecting and applying to college. But enough of that! When the time was right, we decided to make a major change and lit out for the woods of New Hampshire. (I liken my epiphany to Mary Poppins realizing that the wind had changed direction and it was time for her to lift her umbrella and fly.) We loved our work but it never defined us, so off we went. Except it wasn’t that easy, of course.
We had enjoyed increasingly larger houses (all provided generously by the schools where we worked), and we were moving into a very small house in rural New Hampshire, which my brother Peter built for us in the 1990’s. We gave away most of our furniture and took endless carfuls of extras to the local Goodwill. We also recycled a veritable forest of paper, saving only our most cherished photos and a few pieces of preschool artwork from our now-grown son. Here’s what our moving rig looked like! As we drove cross country, we slept in the cute little Casita travel trailer that we pulled behind.
Our son David is thirty-six years old (impossible, I know) and lives outside of San Francisco in Livermore, California. He married Kelly Duncan on October 20, 2018, and they’ve started their own family with a sweet rescue dog named Copper. In 2021 they added our grandson Blake, making Todd and me a very happy Mimi and Pop Pop. So far away, but that’s what airplanes are for, and San Francisco is a great place to visit.
When we moved to New Hampshire our dogs were Beau and Gracie. They were fairly big, so when we emerged from the Casita with the two of them, I’m sure it was entertaining to watch. They were great friends, and life for them in New Hampshire consisted of energetic romps in the great outdoors and blissful naps on the couch. (You can read about some of their favorite walks in the “dog walks” section of the blog.) They are now both gone, buried in the pet garden.
Gracie and Beau
Since then, we have adopted a dog, Rosie, who was rescued from the streets of West Palm Beach, Florida, and transported north by a wonderful organization called the Darbster Foundation. Rosie was sadly emaciated but is now healthy, wildly happy, and learning manners. She’s livin’ the life here in the country, endlessly entertained by chipmunks.
I hope that you enjoy my blog. I love writing and am ever hopeful that others will enjoy reading my posts, trying my tips and recipes, and getting a glimpse of my life in this extraordinary place. Please feel free to leave comments. I look forward to hearing from you!
(If you’d like to read about how this blog got its name, click here.)
David, Kelly & Blake 
Rosie!