From the Rose Room
June 16 – June 21 Weekly Round-Up
June 22, 2025
Editor’s Note
Fifty-five letters. I didn’t realize that until I typed it just now. Fifty-five letters and this week, we reached something that feels like a hinge.
Calliope found the writing shed. A place hidden beyond the orchard, mapped out behind the nursery wallpaper. And inside: a trunk, war documents, dried violet ink, and a letter addressed simply “FOR L.”
It’s hard not to feel the strands tightening. The story looping. The way this letter, this shed, this family, all fold back into each other.
And maybe into mine, too.
Because my grandmother’s name was Lillian. She was born near Ashford. She died before I was old enough to ask her anything that truly mattered. But now I wonder if the questions I didn’t get to ask are being answered through someone else’s ink.
Thank you, as always, for following these threads with me.
This Week in Ashford
June 16: The Ashes in the Jar
Behind the hearth: a hidden jar, filled with scorched paper. Someone once tried to destroy these letters but not all were lost.
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June 17: A Half-Burned Letter
From her husband, to “E.S.” Just one page, but it ends mid-sentence: “You were right. I couldn’t tell her.”
June 18: The Return of the Bird
The bird comes back, this time wounded. It limps in the nursery. She tends to it with a gentleness she doesn’t quite understand.
June 19: The Map in the Wallpaper
A tear in the nursery wallpaper reveals a map, hand-drawn. It leads beyond the orchard, where something is waiting.
June 20: The Forgotten Path
She follows the map into the woods and finds an old writing shed. Ivy-covered. Silent. As if it had simply fallen asleep.
June 21: Inside the Shed
A violet envelope, a line that haunts her: “You are not the ghost I expected to haunt me.” And with it, the feeling she was meant to find this.
A Few Threads I’m Tugging On...
Was the writing shed a sanctuary… or a confessional?
And who was trying to burn the letters? Were they hiding the truth or protecting someone from it?
If you have theories or impressions, I’d love to hear them.
👇 Leave a comment below. Your thoughts help guide the threads I keep pulling.
Behind the Curtain
The map in the wallpaper? That came from a real story I once heard from a neighbor, who peeled back a loose wall panel and found an old school atlas used to patch a hole. It had names penciled in some were crossed out, others circled and for a moment, it felt like she’d stumbled onto a portal.
Ashford’s map is a kind of portal too.
See you next Sunday,
From the Rose Room