Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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Pruning, Buds, Artemis II

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I can’t help it. They are just so perfect, these crabapple buds. These buds are on the tree in the center on the front lawn. It sprung up in the same place that our dear departed weeping willow was. It took us a while to figure out that it was indeed a crabapple; it needed to grow a bit first,

I was outside yesterday for about an hour and a half and then I was tired and stopped for the day. I was pruning the dead blooms from the limelight hydrangea. Still have a bit more to go but they’re in the middle of the bush and I can’t reach them. I also pruned a bit at the bottom where it blocks the sun from one of our boxwoods. Lots of bending over, picking up sticks and branches and walking them up to one of our discard piles. At one point, a bird kept up a nonstop chatter and it was coming from the maple. I suspect I was too close to a possible nest location.

I also removed a lot of oak leaves from the culvert with a rake. They seemed to be clogging up things. Don did some work up on the trails in our little woods.

But there’s a lot of pollen out there and I’m definitely feeling the effects of it today.

I’m refraining from clearing the garden beds until we get through the not-quite-freezing temperatures of tonight. I’ll start on that tomorrow. We have a burn ban in place and there have been fire warnings the past few days as the humidity is very, very low and the winds are high enough to cause trouble. This happened last year at this time, too.

And oh my! We watched all of the re-entry of Artemis II and it was glorious! This mission has been good for my soul. Something positive and beautiful in a world seemingly gone mad. And so many WOMEN in key roles at NASA!!! Bravo! I now have a renewed fascination with space exploration, something I haven’t felt in years.

So glad the astronauts are safe and sound.

I’m off to figure out if I can do any work outside today. That means more coffee first.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

 

Buds

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Glory Hallelujah! Tiny little buds on the crabapple by the catalpa. I see light at the end of the tunnel.

Also:

Our little grape hyacinth is blooming right by the porch.

The daffodils that were in bloom are sagging because of two nights of freezing temperatures.

Today: 70 degrees. I can finally get out and start cleaning up the yard and the garden beds. There’s a lot to do out there, so I’ll take it slow, but boy oh boy, I am READY!

I feel that quickening that I get when I realize that we’ve made it through the winter and spring is finally here. My neighbor called the other night about some mail of ours that she received and at the end of the call we commiserated about just how hard a winter it was. Really hard. Their son, who was in the terrible motorcycle accident, is doing well. He only has one more surgery to go – in his shoulder – and he will be fully healed.

But other friends of ours are struggling. One just had a stroke. And our dear friend who was hit by the car is greatly improved but will never fully recover from her injuries. She is in her late 70s.

Work on the dollhouse is on pause while I attend to the outdoors. I also need to buy some more stain for the floors and I haven’t done that yet. And choose some more wallpaper. But, that will have to wait until we have some more funds.

Okay, my friends.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

 

 

More Wallpapering and a Little Project

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From no activity on the dollhouse for almost 5 years to lots of work for three days in a row. I will admit that I am hooked on this hobby once again. (But I do have to take a break today – too much overstimulation!)

I managed to wallpaper the wall on the left and another section of that same wall on Monday. This involved contorting my body while shoving a piece of copy paper into this section in order to trace the proportions and the doorway – because I can’t see it from my chair. I end up using that piece of paper as a pattern for cutting out the wallpaper. But I check and recheck because it’s all too easy to get it wrong and I had exactly one sheet left of this pattern. Amazingly, with very little tweaking, it worked. But since this particular brand of wallpaper is so thick, I had to put a book against the wall to make sure it stuck.

This is the other section that I completed.

Had to put some “Roseville”on that mantel.

Yesterday, I decided to hold off on laying down a floor in order to build a one day project. This took place at the kitchen table so I could chitchat with Don as I worked. I’ve had this kit on hand for a few years and it was time to tackle it.

The piano. It was tricky and messy, but I did it.

I’m so, so happy with it! Isn’t it cool?

It’s a kit from Mini Mundus, a German family-owned company that just recently announced their retirement. I would say “Why does this keep happening??” (my favorite miniature supply shop just went through the same thing) but then again, what are Don and I facing right now? Same thing. Anyway, they make beautiful kits and, thankfully, you can still find their products on eBay.

Lots of fiddly work, but very clear directions. I ended up changing out the fabric on the bench to this pattern.

Whoo, hoo! I’m just tickled by the way it came out. At the end of the day, I was so overstimulated that I couldn’t quite calm down. Today is cold and sunny and I’m going to think  about the dollhouse but I’m not doing anything with it. Except maybe clean up a bit because it looks like a tornado hit my tiny little work area.

I have lots of ideas, but virtually no budget for any of this – the problems with the economy/tariffs have hit us very hard, as I’m sure is the case for everyone – and neither of us has work. In the next month or so, I have to pay for plants for the porch as well as the cost of renewing my blog host/server for one more year. So, I need to be imaginative and do this as inexpensively as possible. I’ll buy wallpaper as needed. And I have some more kits on hand that will be fun to put together.

Anyway, there you go – the latest on the Beacon Hill.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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