I’ve just spent a pleasant time after breakfast paging through “Homespun,” a monthly magazine “celebrating the art of creative living.” It’s edited by Amy Sharpe and Louise Johnson and is published in Ironton, MN. Amy and her husband, Bob Carls, operate Ripple River Gallery, located attractively on a country road near a lake. Bob is a craftsman in woodturning, and the gallery regularly features his own work and work by other regional artists as well. Bob and Amy are friends of mine, although, at a distance of a hundred miles from Duluth, we don’t see each other regularly.

The October issue of “Homespun” is a celebration of autumn that is a marvelous combination of lyricism and practicality. There is talk about storing baskets of apples, about what squirrels have done to the remaining sunflower heads, and about shelves in the storage room filling with glistening jars of pickles and jams. And if you want recipes, “Homespun” has them. You can also read a review of a book by a regional artist who teaches the craft of printing by inking paper directly from leaves and blossoms, a craft especially appropriate to the fall season. And there is an article on autumn by a regional writer who quotes a passage from “The Fairie Queene” (1576) in which each season of the year is delightfully personified. You can get ten issues of “Homespun” for 19 bucks–just go to the Ripple River Gallery website.

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