Claudia — Page 1653

Pumpkins, Color & an Aching Back

October 24, 2010 at 11:53 am by Claudia

Imagine a woman who simply wanted to clean the dirty siding on the far side of her house. There she is, bucket of water and bleach by her side, long handled brush in hand, working away at a task she has put off far too long. Lots of trips back to the inside of the house in order to dump the dirty water, then back outside to refill the bucket. As she blithely walks on the uneven ground, she steps in a hole, twists her body and falls to the ground, thereby straining the muscles near her right knee and badly wrenching her already problematical lower back.

Well, obviously that’s me. The knee is all better but my back? Not so much. I’m walking around like an old woman. Sitting makes it worse, standing eases the pain. Last night, I watched the last hour of the baseball game flat on my back on the floor. Right now, I’m wearing my flannel pajamas, an old shawl that I knit a few years back and a heating pad on my back. The pain is getting to me, yes, but mostly I’m just ticked off that I am so incapacitated. I don’t do incapacitated well.

So let’s look at my new pumpkins. I did manage to get out yesterday to buy some yarn – my need to make something during the colder weather has taken over. I’m going to crochet a throw for the den. On the way home, I stopped for some cider donuts (husband’s request) and I saw these neat pumpkins.

They’re called Cheese Pumpkins. The color and funky shape called to me. I was going to buy one but I was using my debit card and a $10 minimum was required. So I bought two. There is nary an orange pumpkin in sight this year at Mockingbird Hill Cottage. I’m loving this more subdued, subtle coloring. And I have to thank Tracie for jump starting this with her gift of 3 white pumpkins.

Don’t you just love that stem?

In other news, Don shaved off his mustache and goatee the other day and it took me 3 days to notice the change. Does anyone else have this problem? He was patiently waiting 3 whole days for me to discover and comment on the new look and I didn’t come through. See? I always tell him that it doesn’t matter to me whether he has a beard or not. Obviously, I proved my point.

One more photo of our trees in their fall colors:

Have a wonderful Sunday. Me? I’ll just be hanging around with my heating pad.

Blue on Blue

October 21, 2010 at 4:31 pm by Claudia

Thank you for the compassionate responses (I expected nothing less) to my last post. If I learn anything more about the mystery, I will pass it on.

I was standing in the kitchen the other day, after touching up the kitchen island with paint, and I realized that my seashell finds from Florida could no longer stay on my cake plate. Yes, they were under a glass dome….but the whole thing had somehow lost its appeal. I was on a mission to find some sort of jar to put them in. Enter Home Goods:

Timing is everything, isn’t it? There was only one glass container left in this beautiful blue. Hello! You need to come home with me. I think it was about $5. And doesn’t it go perfectly on my little table?

And there’s plenty of space left for more shells. That means I have an excuse to gather some more next time I’m down in Florida. Which may be sooner than I think. I will update you on my Mom in a future post. Suffice to say, things are complicated.

More blue, in the form of a bird:

The little nest I found the other day seems to have found a home. It seems entirely appropriate for a bird to carry her nest on her back. Maybe she’s moving and doesn’t want to go to the trouble of rebuilding?

We’ve been raking, carting tarps full of leaves to the woods, cleaning gutters, cleaning the house, getting our furnace cleaned, having the chimney experts check on our aging chimney (this house was built in 1891). Today they were here to clean the chimney, install a liner and make everything safe and sound until we someday rebuild the base of the chimney. Oh, and get a new furnace. Our old one is sadly energy inefficient.

Maybe I’ll win the lottery.

The House Down the Road

October 20, 2010 at 9:23 am by Claudia

On a road in our town – a populated, well-traveled country road – there is a house. At first glance, you barely see it. It hides behind a tangle of overgrown vines, trees and bushes. Then you realize what you’re really seeing. Amidst the yard strewn with debris, old dog houses, stuff – there is a house.

The porch is barely standing and is littered with old windows and doors.

You think: it must be abandoned. Yes, it had to be abandoned years ago and all of this overgrowth is a result of no one tending to it. No one loving it.

It was a big country home at one time. What happened?

There is a van in the front yard. The hatch is open in the back, as if someone is in the process of unloading groceries. It’s been that way – open – as long as I’ve lived here. Like something out of a movie where a town is suddenly abandoned, where time has stopped.

When I first moved here, I saw this place as I drove to our recycling center. I wondered about it, all the time assuming no one lived there. Then one day I saw her. She was walking around the side yard. A woman of indeterminate age – maybe in her 50’s…60’s? She had short hair, brownish in color. My first thought was that she must be someone trying to clean up the place. Maybe it was left to her?

My sightings of her were rare, but it didn’t take long before I realized that she lives there. This is her home. She’s not visiting. I can only imagine what it must be like inside. I think about it and stop myself. It’s best left unexamined.

My husband has never seen her. Every time we drive by he asks me if I really saw her. Yes. Several times.

Who is she? I don’t know. My friend tells me she’s lived there for years. Neighbors have offered to help, to clean up the yard. She wants none of it.

What is her story? How does she survive? Does she have electricity? Heat? I don’t see how any oil delivery truck could get close to the house.

Clearly something is wrong. Does she have anyone to reach out, to care for her? Any family?

Every time I drive by, I ask these questions. What is her life like?

When I returned from San Diego in July, the front of the house was more overgrown than I had ever seen it. It was as if the house had been swallowed up by a jungle. Then, one day, I saw that someone had cleared out a portion of the overgrowth – just enough to park a car.

There is so much mystery about this woman. Has she slipped through the cracks and become someone unreachable? I don’t even know her name.

I am reminded that she could be any one of us. There is a part of me that is solitary, almost hermit-like. If mental illness struck and I was alone…what would be my story? Would I cling to my home, while it slowly deteriorated?

Is there a house like this in every town? It evokes the memory of Boo Radley’s house in To Kill a Mockingbird. And I am reminded, once again, of what Atticus Finch says: that we never truly know what a person’s life is like until we walk around in their shoes.

Pumpkins, Color & an Aching Back

Blue on Blue

The House Down the Road

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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