Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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You are here: Home / Archives for animals

Rain and A Surprise Visitor

May 9, 2025 at 9:04 am by Claudia

Well, we got through about 36 hours with no rain, but it came back last night and will last through tomorrow.

Sigh.

So, much of our time on Wednesday and Thursday was spent mowing. If we didn’t mow, it would have been impossible to cut the grass when this bout of rain ends. Everything is growing by leaps and bounds, including the grass, and the amount of rain that has fallen this week has intensified that growth.

On Wednesday, Don thought he saw something in our culvert, which was full of water from the storms. We looked closer and this is what we saw:

Can you see him?

A closer look. A froggy in our culvert! You can see the pipe that runs under our driveway. He peeked up at us, then disappeared into the culvert. Every once in a while, he’d emerge again to see if we were there.

It was quite magical. I’ve never seen a frog in our culvert before, but we’re not usually down there after a lot of rain. But since we were mowing in that area, we were fortunate enough to see him. I looked for him yesterday, but he wasn’t there. I wonder if he lives in the pond on our neighbor’s property?

Speaking of the pond, the peepers stopped peeping this week. I miss hearing them. But I’m grateful for nearly two months of joyful peeping.

The lilacs are sagging – the rain has been pelting them. I took a quick sniff of some of the remaining blooms yesterday.

Our bridal veil spirea has started to bloom.

Next up will be the huge spirea by the porch. I meant to cut it back this year but didn’t get around to it. Darn it. Next year, that will be a priority.

We are amazed by how deeply green it is everywhere. Once the transition from winter to spring really gets going, the transformation is stunningly speedy.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

 

Filed Under: animals, flowers 16 Comments

Books and a Bear

May 15, 2023 at 8:38 am by Claudia

Reader Jeanie sent some miniature books to the girls. They’re in German. One is about Einstein and the other is about Leipzig. Wouldn’t you know it, Nina and Sophie know German, so they’ve started studying them.

Thank you, Jeanie! The girls love them and send their thanks. Though Sophie looks like she’s read enough for the day.

Story from yesterday: Around 11 am, I was upstairs in the bedroom getting ready to make the bed. I happened to look out the window and saw a bear about 5 feet from our kitchen door, right between the funky patio and the memorial garden. I couldn’t believe my eyes! I yelled out to Don: “Don! Don! Go to the window!” He kept yelling, “What window?” But I was so stunned that I could only say, “Just get to the window!!!” I finally heard him say, “Oh, my GOD!!!”

By that time, the bear had turned around and was heading up into the corral and Don got a photo of him.

Sort of blurry as Don was using his iPhone and trying to zoom in. Plus, the sun is shining on his coat, so he looks sort of brown on top. He isn’t. He’s a black bear and I got a really good view of him.

Don thinks he was not full grown, kind of a teenager. I think he’s right.

Anyway, we’ve never seen one that close to us before. He proceeded to go up into the back forty and then over to our neighbor’s property. I told Don to call them and warn them because they have chickens. Our neighbor said she was looking at him at that moment; he had crawled under the chicken house (which is raised quite a bit off the ground) and he was eating their food. Oh, my!

Later, after I’d posted the photo on IG, my neighbor who lives across the field that runs behind our property, asked me what time I saw him. Apparently, he was in the neighboring campground around 12:30 walking around near the canteen and front entrance – they’re not open yet for the summer. And my neighbor discovered that her trash cans had been raided. So, he left my neighbor’s property, walked across the field, ravaged her trash, and then went on to the campground. He/she was hungry!

Black bears are not aggressive. If, for example, I had been outside when he was approaching the property, he would have run off.

An amazing experience and it makes us wonder how many other times a bear has been around and we just didn’t happen to look outside at that moment.

I was really tired yesterday – allergies, I think – so I didn’t accomplish much other than a few chores. But today, I’m going to mow the corral, the last section of the property that hasn’t been mowed in the last week.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.

Filed Under: animals, black bear, Blythe dolls 28 Comments

The Porch and the Laptop

May 14, 2023 at 8:51 am by Claudia

Early morning shot of the porch. Nothing new here in terms of plants; I love my design plan and tend to stick with it every year. Impatiens are inexpensive and I love the calibrachoa in the vintage plant stand and the planter. They’re dependable. I know they’ll last all season long. I can’t afford to replace the contents of hanging pots or any pots as the season changes into summer, so I stick with my ‘dependables.’

Well. Yesterday was stressful for yours truly. I started the set up of my new laptop. Unfortunately, I couldn’t add the data from my backup because my rather old device doesn’t have the right connections to fit the newest Apple technology. That was frustrating. I’ve written to the maker to ask what kind of adapter I should use because I don’t want to drive all the way to the Apple Store (an hour from our house) if I don’t have to. So. I set it up without the addition of my ‘stuff.’ But it took me all day long. I had to find a way to reload my photo editing software. I had to find and sign into sites that I use a lot. I couldn’t remember the name of the font I use for the watermarks on these photos. There were just so many things to search for and find and set up – like the photo editing software. But I can use it now, as I am doing for this post. And a couple of hours later, the name of the font came to me and I found out how to add it to the software. But, EVERYTHING involved research.

Two things I am dealing with: First, the thought that keeps creeping into my brain – maybe I should just start fresh and not add the information from the backup. I remember when Don’s phone was stolen in Paris and he hadn’t backed it up. When he got the new phone, it was a blank state. And he liked that. Same thing when we were cleaning out the shed; I just dumped things. It felt freeing. I’ll see how I feel about this as the week goes on. As far as photos go, the ones I love the most are here on the blog, so I could pull them off the page and add them to photos on this laptop.

Second: I was depressed at the end of the day because anything like this – a stressful process – is much harder for me these days. Not to figure out, I can do that. It’s the stress of it that stays with me, exhausts me, and it takes me a long time to recover from it. One of the signs that I’m getting older. I simply don’t handle stress as well as I did. Don and I had a long talk about it last night. I feel older these days. It takes me longer to recover from those outdoor tasks, as well. He feels the same way.

I just sighed as I wrote this.

Anyway, back to the laptop. It’s much lighter than my circa 2015 laptop. And there is a bar at the top of the keyboard that lights up and has information or tools for whatever current task you’re doing. Right now, as I write this, it’s giving me word choices like an iPad or iPhone does. That is great! Just yesterday, when I was writing the post on my iPad, I was thinking how handy it was to have that option and it was too bad it wasn’t available on Apple computers. Well, it is. There are fewer ports on the sides of the laptop and they are all the same kind of opening. So I thank Wendy for the hint about buying a dongle, a device that has other ports which you can plug into the computer. They’re very inexpensive and I was able to get one from Amazon within a day. So I was able to transfer these photos from my big girl cameras, because there is no more slot for SD cards. 📸  See? Not that I’ll do it a lot, but there’s the camera icon that popped up on my toolbar.

Thankfully, I’m able to write more in a post with the laptop now available. It’s just plain difficult to write a long post when I’m pecking at the iPad on screen keyboard.

This morning I watched a bunny, a chipmunk, and the daddy robin conducting their business right outside my door. Oh, and a catbird taking a bath in the birdbath. Yesterday, some finches took a bath.

Mere sent me photos and video from the graduation. My nephew looked so happy, as did my sister.

Stay safe.

Happy Sunday.

Filed Under: animals, birds, bunnies, porch 32 Comments

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Welcome!

Welcome!

I live in a little cottage in the country with my husband. It's a sweet place, sheltered by old trees and surrounded by gardens. The inside is full of the things we love. I love to write, I love my camera, I love creating, I love gardening. My decorating style is eclectic; full of vintage and a bit of whimsy.

I've worked in the theater for more years than I can count. I'm currently a voice, speech, dialect and text coach freelancing on Broadway, off Broadway, and in regional theater.

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Scout & Riley. Riley left us in 2012. Scout left us in February 2016. Dearest babies. Dearest friends.

Winston - Our first dog. We miss you, sweetheart.

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