Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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Ta Dah!

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My first bunny sighting – shot through the kitchen window screen. This is a little guy! I love, love seeing the bunnies on the property – they have a home in our woods. I also saw one of the groundhogs/woodchucks who live under our shed. He was dining on our grass – they are vegetarians, did you know? Just like me.

I finished the last 3 squares last night:


Left to right: an egg cup with an egg, McCoy pottery with yellow roses and forsythia, and my initials and the year.

Here’s the whole 39 (really 40) Squares project:


I’m going to try and get a better photo but this will do for now. What fun this was – I’m already thinking of stitching one with Don in mind. I’m also doing Teresa McFayden’s Freestyle Embroidery EZine, but I will hold off working on that until I am in San Diego. Yes, embroidery floss and sewing basket will be packed up and shipped to San Diego. I have to have something to work on and I think these little embroidery projects are the perfect creative outlet.

I think I will take my 39 Squares project with me. It reminds me of home and everything I love. Perhaps I can find a frame at one of my favorite shops.

Some of you have asked why I will be away so long and why San Diego. I will be the Voice/Speech/Dialect coach for the Shakespeare Summer Repertory at the Old Globe for the third year in a row. I will be out in San Diego for 10 weeks. A long time – but not as long as last year, when I also taught for a semester – that involved a six month stay. Don and I used to live in San Diego – I worked at the Globe for eight years. I have many friends there, as well as Don’s family. Nevertheless, I still don’t want to leave Don, Scout, Riley and MHC.

I will be blogging from what I call MHC West – sharing some of my favorite antique stores and barn sales. Oh, there is so much eye candy out there!

I’m off to pack some boxes for shipping to San Diego.

Hyacinths & Squares 35, 36 & 37

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Such a pretty hyacinth! And the scent is heavenly. Thank you so very much for your lovely, supportive comments on our recent losses. It has been a tough time for us, as well as for many others who loved these wonderful men. Don has lost the 3 most important men in his life in the last year. It sometimes doesn’t seem real…I suspect this is a natural coping mechanism. One can only process so much at a time.

I hope your Easter was happy. The weather here has been absolutely gorgeous. I’ve been working out in the yard, trying to get everything ready before I leave for San Diego on April 17th. Then I have to leave my gardens just as everything gets ready to bloom. I’ve decided that this will be the last time I leave for such a long time in the Spring. Gardening is one of my greatest pleasures and I waited many years to have my own garden. This will be the 3rd year in a row that I’ve been gone at this time of year. By the time I return in July, many of the spring flowers will be gone.

I played catch-up on the 39 squares project this morning. I’m actually stitching 40 squares so I did three this morning. Two of them are combined.


In honor of Spring – my favorite Spring flower, the tulip.


Home = Heart. Only three more to go!

Have a wonderful Monday.

Lives Well Lived

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Happy Easter to everyone. We are experiencing more sadness in this cottage as we learned of the passing of two of our friends yesterday. Both men were part of the The Old Globe Theater, the place where Don and I met, and where we both spent so many years of our working life.

Raul was a stage manager who I adored and worked with many times. He was a true gentleman, kind, funny and gracious – a man of great integrity. He fought chronic illness for years with grace and dignity. He traveled the world. He was recovering at home from heart surgery – well on his way, we thought, to a full recovery when he died quietly in his sleep.

As I was trying to cope with the news of Raul’s passing, my husband broke the news to me that Craig Noel, founder of the Old Globe, also passed away yesterday at the age of 94. Craig was the most wonderful of men – I was so lucky to have known and worked with him. He was also a mentor to my husband. Craig discovered Don when he was a teenager and helped guide him into the world of professional theater – he gave him his Equity card, as well.

Craig had a wicked sense of humor, a true passion for theater, a generous spirit and oh, the stories he could tell. When our lives took us from the west to the east, we would call Craig on holidays. Last summer when I was working in San Diego, Don and I spent an afternoon with Craig. At 93, he was very frail but we caught him on a good day. We reminisced together about productions, people, places and we laughed and laughed. I am so grateful we had that time together.

I worked on many shows that were stage managed by Raul and directed by Craig. How strange that they left us on the same day.

Too much loss lately…too much loss.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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