Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

You are here: Home / Archives for Claudia

Busy, busy!

at by

It has been very busy here since I returned. Much time spent mowing our grass. We live on very uneven and hilly ground, so pushing the mower takes a lot of muscle and endurance. Since I’ve just spent a winter sitting and not moving, I need to GET IN SHAPE! I’ve also been working in the garden, lugging bags of mulch and compost to various destinations in our yard, digging holes, planting, cleaning the house and working at the store. I am tired! I’ve also begun work on this:

I bought this cabinet at auction for $5! Its very dirty, and the paint needs to be stripped and there are dirty cat footprints on the side; but my plan is to strip it, repaint it and shabby it up a bit. It will become the cabinet our television rests on and the cable box, dvd player, etc. will be on a shelf inside those doors.

I started stripping it yesterday and it is much harder than I thought to get that paint off! I am using a citrus stripper, supposedly healthy, but maybe the terribly strong chemical strippers work better? Anyway, between scraping away on this cabinet and putting down mulch and planting my new lilac bush, Mothers Day was busy.

My dear husband suprised me with a beautiful brunch, flowers, and cards from each of the dogs and him! I also received a wonderful box of chocolates. I hope all mothers had a wonderful day. I called my Mom, who hadn’t received my card yet, and told her what a great Mom she is. I also called my sister and my niece, great mothers, also.

This week I plan to drive down to see my niece and her kids. They are getting ready to move to Amsterdam this summer! Her husband’s employer is transferring him there for two years. What a fantastic experience for them! We will miss them but hope to visit.
More later.

San Diego Part 2

at by

More photos of beautiful San Diego flowers:

 

Beautiful Balboa Park:

and the gorgeous Pacific Ocean:

Now that I am back home, I am working on my garden. Plants are shooting up from the ground, birds are nesting (our starling friends are back in their preferred nesting place – tucked under the eaves of our porch roof – we watch their comings and goings from the picture window in our den) weeds are sprouting everywhere. I have to mulch, plant and tidy up. I just bought some hanging plants for our porch. I’ll take photos soon, but we have a few days of rain ahead of us. Next sunny day? Maybe on the weekend.

Back from San Diego

at by

I arrived back from San Diego late Sunday night. I had a wonderful time. I coach voice, speech and dialects for the theatre and this trip brought me back to our former home and my former employer. I was working on three Shakespeare plays to be produced this summer and the days were long but envigorating. This was the surrounding scenery:

I got to see some old friends, some who work at the theatre and some who are there as actors in the Shakespeare. Besides the work, the thing I most remember is laughing like crazy. Laughter really is the most wonderful thing, It makes the shoulders drop, shooing away tension and worries.

I walked from my hotel to the theatre every day and passed beautiful flowers:

I passed the dog park where my dogs used to frolic and which now has a fence around it. How that would have saved me from freaking out when my dog Winston used to take off and run down into the canyon because he “smelled” some critter!
Now the fence goes all the way around the park and keeps the dogs in.

This beautiful fountain was right outside the door to the rehearsal rooms:

And last, but not least, the Pacific Ocean! This is what I miss most about San Diego – I love where we live now with all my heart, but if we could just plop the Pacific Ocean down right here in upstate New York it would be PERFECT!!!

I have more photos which I will post in the next few days. I go back to San Diego in June for 10 days. Right now I am just happy to be home with my husband and my dogs. And, I get to garden!

More later.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

Thanks for visiting! Feel free to browse, read and enjoy. All content is my own; including photos and text. Please do not use anything on this site without permission.

Disclosure/Privacy Policy can be found in the Navigation Bar under ‘About MHC.’

Also, I love receiving comments! I do, however, reserve the right to delete any comment that is in poor taste, offensive or is verging on spam. It’s my blog. If you’re a bot or a troll you’ll be blocked. Thanks!

Archives