Bummer news. Five weeks after my initial call for small-retreat submissions, The Taunton Press had an unexpected and unfortunate change of heart. They’ve since given me a release and “kill fee.” It’s a bit of a blur, but from what I understand, they’re scaling back.

I was surprised by their decision, considering that there’s been great buzz and enthusiasm for the project on numerous other fronts. I greatly appreciate the web editors, writers, colleagues, friends, family, and House Enthusiasts who happily spread the word about my search for suitable projects to include in the book. Thanks in large part to their efforts, I’ve received dozens of top-notch submissions in the form of studios, guest houses, woodland and waterfront escapes, summerhouses, and quirky novelty structures.

I also want to thank the architects, designers, landscape designers, gardeners, and homeowners who embraced the book concept and generously shared their projects with me. I remain hopeful that another publisher will recognize the project’s potential. I think that many readers, in these trying times, can appreciate the appeal of creating small retreats of their own, in their backyards or beyond, where they can slow down, regroup, and refresh their lives. They simply need design inspiration. The imaginative retreats that I’ve collected over the past weeks beautifully exhibit the design characteristics that I aspire to share, so readers can create their own authentic, small retreats.

While I shop the project around to other publishers, I will continue to seek submissions. So if you have a project to suggest, please email me (Katie@katiehutchison.com). Check back with this category for updates. Together we can still shape an inspiring and informative book. We simply need the right publisher.

To immortalize a woodshed in this way both amused and heartened me. Of course, this isn’t marking any, old woodshed; this recognizes Henry David Thoreau’s woodshed, behind his cabin near Walden Pond in Concord, Mass.

The elegant, engraved, flush stone denotes a site vital to Thoreau’s solitary cabin life in the mid-eighteen-hundreds. It was here that he stored the wood, vital to stoking the cabin fire that warmed him while he wrote. Without the woodshed, perhaps he never would have had the cabin experience that led him to write Walden: Or, Life in the Woods.

I imagine that the notion of acknowledging and celebrating something as fundamental and essential as the woodshed would have pleased Thoreau, as would the stone marker itself. Simple and rugged, surrounded by a soft bed of leaves, it seems a fitting echo of Thoreau’s hardy life amidst the natural world.

It is, after all, the luxury of life’s essentials, like wood for a warm shelter, which makes our intellectual lives possible.

by Katie Hutchison for the House Enthusiast

I wrote about the 1846 Shaker South Family Dwelling, shown in the background, a few years ago for Yankee magazine. I paid the homeowners in Harvard, Mass. a recent visit and marveled anew at the stone barn ruin on the property.

I learned that it’s comprised of two wythes of stone. (Wythes are vertical sections of a masonry wall that are one unit thick.) The exterior stones have more regular shapes and are tightly coursed; the interior stones have less regular shapes and are more loosely coursed. The two layers are connected by select through stones that join one wythe to the other. Over time, the roof collapsed, and water infiltrated between the two wythes, subjecting them to the forces of expansion and contraction. Today, all that’s left are the lower portions of the walls, complete with enormous lintels, and some perilously tall corner remnants.

The owners have been collaborating with the Harvard Conservation Trust in hopes of raising funds to stabilize the structure to prevent it from deteriorating further. If you can help preserve this landmark, contact the Trust.

by Katie Hutchison for the House Enthusiast

Recommended New England courses in the creative arts

(Classes and schedules are subject to change so check program websites for updates.)

Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown 

It may not be too late to register for a creative, six-day, summer workshop at this well-respected program on the outer Cape. Thanks to Cynthia Huntington, who wrote about the FAWC in her book The Salt House, I thought to inquire about their offerings. According to their website, “The founders believed that the freedom to pursue creative work within a community of peers was the best catalyst for artistic growth. The Work Center has dedicated itself to this mission for nearly 40 years … The faculty and location have established the Work Center's summer courses in creative writing and visual arts as among the nation's finest and most attractive.” Sign me up. They did. You might find that some of these workshops spark your interest too:

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Click on this photo to see it in the note cards/prints gallery.Recommended upcoming New England tours

Newburyport 29th Annual Garden Tour & Plant Sale (Newburyport, MA) Saturday, June 14, 2008 10:00 am -5:00 pm, and Sunday, June 15, 2008 10:00 am - 4:00 pm

Guilford Secret Garden Tour (Guilford, CT) Saturday, June 14, 2008 10:00 am - 4:00 pm

Newport Spring Secret Garden Tour (Newport, RI) Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, June 20-22, 2008 10:00 am - 5:00 pm

South End Garden Tour (Boston, MA) Saturday, June 21, 2008 10:00 am - 4:00 pm

The Garden Conservancy’s Boston Open Day (Middlesex/Norfolk County, MA) Saturday, June 21, 2008 10:00 am - 4:00 pm

Hidden Treasures of the Berkshires Garden & House Tour (Great Barrington, MA) Saturday, July 12, 2008 10:00 am - 4:00 pm

Provincetown Art Association and Museum Secret Garden Tour (Provincetown, MA) Sunday, July 13, 2008 10:00 am - 3:00 pm

Camden House & Garden Tour (Camden, ME) Thursday, July 17, 2008 9:30 am - 4:00 pm

Enchanted Gardens of Cotuit (Cape Cod, MA), July  17, 2008 10:00 am - 4:00 pm

Private Gardens of the Kennebunks Tour (Kennebunk, ME) Saturday, July 19, 2008 10:00 am - 4:00 pm

Mount Desert Island Open Garden Day Tour (Mount Desert Island, ME) Saturday, July 26, 2008 10:00 am - 4:00 pm