Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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Fading & Changing

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It’s still summer. But the signs of autumn are definitely here in the Hudson Valley. Leaves are turning color on the maple. The light is different. The mornings and evenings are cooler. The school bus came today to pick up the kids across the road.

The apple orchards have their signs everywhere. We will soon be seeing weekends full of leaf-peepers. Sigh.

I’m not ready to say goodbye to summer and I won’t, officially, until September 22nd.

Nevertheless, I walked around the gardens yesterday to see what flowers are fading and/or changing.

The brown-eyed susans are still going strong.

The coneflowers are fading. But I find this stage equally beautiful.

Goodness, this hollyhock is blooming like crazy! Stunning.

The limelight hydrangea is turning pink. There’s a little spider to the left of center that I didn’t see at the time I took this picture.

I did see this stick bug, however. These guys fascinate me. Remember the pair that I found mating last year on my front porch gate?

Today, some errands. Some more laundry. Some time with my husband before I have to leave tomorrow and he has to leave on Sunday. Another sigh. Changes are on the horizon, and quite frankly, we don’t like changes that involve us being apart. We like and are grateful for the work, but the separation part of it is not at all easy.

Happy Tuesday.

Biscuits, Rain & Dreams

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I hope you’re all enjoying an extra day off on this Labor Day weekend. Yesterday was a day of constant rain. At the end of the day the sun came out and I was finally able to get out on the porch to take a quick picture.

We ran some errands yesterday, including getting a passport picture of yours truly as I have to renew my passport.  I’ll send all of that info tomorrow.

Exciting, right?

We did get around to making dinner, but very late, because we ate a late lunch when we were out and about. So I wavered about whether to try the Cloud Biscuits or not. I ended up going for it. Don grilled some vegetables on the broiler, aka The Grillevator (yes, that’s the name), which caused our smoke alarm to go off a thousand times until we were finally able to dismantle it. Yikes. The veggies were great, a little more charred than we were aiming for, but the danged smoke alarm kept taking our attention away from the task at hand.

Because I was making the biscuits at night, the photos are pretty bad. Nevertheless, I promised to share them with you, so share them I will.

Before:

After:

They were amazingly good. Whether that’s because they are always good or because of Stella, I’m not sure, but they melted in our mouths. Oh, my heavens!

If I was a food blogger, I’d make this in the daytime and take lots of artfully staged photos of them from an overhead perspective. I’m not a food blogger, so this is what you get.

Just trust me: Stella can bake like nobody’s business! Yay!

I finished Sue Grafton’s newest Kinsey Millhone mystery yesterday and I started (barely) Glass Houses  by Louise Penny last night. Today? Time outside as it will be the only dry and sunny day this week.

Oh, I have to tell you this! One of the newer readers of this blog mentioned in a comment that she had gone back to read past posts and came upon one where I shared my Christmas Wish List. I had completely forgotten about that list; I described it as a fantasy list. It was posted on December 5, 2012 – nearly five years ago.

On that wish list was a vintage gas stove “preferably O’Keefe and Merritt.” And I used a picture from Country Living  of Kitty Bartholemew’s stove, an O’Keefe and Merritt. Here it is:

Except for the part-chrome part-porcelain top (ours is all chrome) this is the exact stove that we ended up buying. The exact stove. I had completely forgotten about this.

Boy, do dreams come true!!

Happy Monday!

The Star

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She’s definitely the star of the kitchen. Dare I say – the entire house? Photos are a bit problematic this weekend as it’s dark and rainy. Not the best weekend for those who have traveled to our area for the Labor Day weekend. I think the only day it isn’t going to rain is Monday.

You can see that we moved the chair nearer to the piano so we can see Stella from the living room.

We cooked on Stella last night – but no biscuits yet as we didn’t start dinner until later in the day and then I realized that we didn’t have any eggs. So, the Cloud Biscuits have been scheduled for tonight. Can’t wait!

Cooking on her was fun. Just a basic meal; some stir fry, some rice. Using gas again is so great -adjusting the flame, starting to ‘learn’ Stella, and then madly cleaning up any cooking mess that dared to fall on the chrome. I wonder how long I’ll be this meticulous about it?

I grew up with gas appliances, so did Don, and then it became electric as I rented here and there. I haven’t cooked with gas for years and I much prefer it. We were like little kids last night, playing with our big, big Christmas present.

This is the timer Don bought. I should have taken a better picture – the back of the red portion behind the dial goes to a point, so it looks very mid-century.

I’m absolutely crazy about her.

By the way, I have a little tour of Stella up on Instagram Stories. It will only be there until about 1:00 pm today, so if you’re interested in learning more about her, stop by.

It’s amazing how quickly the weather has changed here. It started last week. Suddenly we’re in cooler mornings and cooler nights. The light is changing. It’s still Summer, but Fall is definitely making itself known. The leaves are already starting to change color on our big old sugar maple. What????

I’m not ready.

I’m sitting here with a shawl on because it’s cold this morning and we refuse, absolutely refuse, to turn on the heat on September 3rd. No way.

Biscuit pictures tomorrow. I’m enjoying my time with my husband (and Stella) before he leaves for a month of rehearsals in NYC. We’ll see each other during that time, of course, but we are relishing time together in our home before the craziness begins.

Happy Sunday.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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