Sidney Tynan answered the phone Monday morning with the joy and enthusiasm typical of her many letters to the Sakonnet Times brimming in her voice — “I’m doing just fine,” she said. “It’s such a beautiful day here!”

Looking out at her “Back 40,” the two acres behind her Tompkins Lane home that has become familiar to her many readers and fans, Tynan said she was looking forward to another beautiful day in the sun. At 103 years of age, she treasures them all, maybe even if they come with the things that have at times perturbed her in her letters and books — vegetable-munching deer, evil raccoons, scrappy blue jays and gobbling woodchucks.

A retired teacher and bookstore owner, Tynan has lived in Little Compton since the 1970s and has been chronicling life here for many years. Her letters have found their way into two self-published books, "Country Letters" and "More Country Letters," published in 2022. But all good things must come to an end, and with the publication this month of her third book of dispatches, "Even More Country Letters," Tynan plans to step away from writing, at least for now. She's not certain she's done for good, but “I feel as though a great weight has been lifted off of me.”

Summer seems like a good time to pause, she said, as there won't be much activity along the Back 40 to write about anyway until the air cools and the leaves start to change.

Writing about it or not, Tynan has found immense joy and inspiration in the flowered fields and bogs of her "Back 40." Every season's change is a renewal, every encounter with a rabbit or fox or hummngbird an opportunity to make a new friend, if one only takes it, she said.

"I don't need to go anywhere," she said. "I can go out and listen to the sounds and see this beauty."

Tynan's most recent letter can be found here.

Purchase your copy

If you want to purchase a copy of "Even More Country Letters," they will be available at the annual meeting of the Sakonnet Preservation Association, which will run from 6 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 23, at the Little Compton Community Center. After that, they can be found at the SPA office at 73C Simmons Road in Little Compton. If you're not local, you can buy a copy here. Just search for her name.