Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Life in our little cottage in the country

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Curses, Pat Conroy, and Instagram

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Beautiful sunsets make me smile. This one graced us with its brief presence last night.

I told Meredith we were planning to leave on Tuesday. Hopefully, that’s still the case, but I tweaked my back (which was SO much better) yesterday and I’m hurting again. In fact, I had to get up during the night and come downstairs to the den where I used some Tiger Balm, turned on the heating pad, and proceeded to sleep sitting up for the rest of the night.

It amazes me that I actually pulled that off.

May I take a moment to say how frustrated I am with this whole thing? Just think of all the curse words you can and you have a pretty good idea of what I’ve been saying.

I actually like the smell of Tiger Balm, but I’m getting tired of both it and my heating pad. But ever grateful for them because they’ve really helped. (I always run these things by Mer, since she’s a therapist and my brother-in-law is a chiropractor. They know their stuff.)

Anyway, I’m going to be positive. I’m determined to get on the road sooner rather than later.

I briefly wrote about the passing of Pat Conroy yesterday. I truly loved his rich and beautiful writing style. He was an artist with words. One of my favorite blogs has a tribute to him today, which includes a short video of Conroy speaking to a group of his readers. What an amazing man he was. It’s here at Jungle Red Writers.

I need to read some Conroy ASAP.

I’ve been meaning to share two of my favorite Instagram accounts with you; both of them have to do with animals.

Black Jaguar White Tiger – Run by an incredible man who rescues animals, including lions and tigers. He is based in Mexico and the work he is doing is of the utmost importance. He posts lots of videos of these incredible creatures – the latest is of a baby tiger drinking milk from a bottle. Oh, heavens. Beautiful. The Black Jaguar White Tiger Foundation does essential work for the protection of our wildlife.

Pumpkin the Raccoon – a Bahamian raccoon that was rescued by a family and now lives indoors with his dog buddies, Toffee and Oreo. I love this feed.

I find Instagram intriguing. Most of us post brief descriptions of our photos, but then there are those who treat it like a blog, with long descriptive passages. Some of those IGers have blogs as well and they’ve, for whatever reason, turned predominately to IG. Others have never had blogs, so IG seems to be their version of a blog. Since Instagram is meant to be something you can scroll through rather quickly, I tend to avoid paragraphs of writing. I’ll look at the photo and continue on my way. Maybe because I also read blogs, I don’t have too much patience with lots of words in this particular form of social media. But I am equally sure that a lot of people tend to spend most of their social media time on Instagram, so they have no problem with that.

It’s free. It’s fairly quick. Maybe that’s the attraction in this time of short-attention spans. A blog post takes time to craft. IG is much faster. Though yours truly, not especially a whiz with a phone keyboard, finds it takes time enough with lots of curses along the way as I retype words, correct auto-correct and insert the dreaded hashtags.

By the way, whenever the heck we leave for Florida, I may not post everyday but I will do my best to post to IG as we make our way South. So follow along on my IG account.

New post on Just Let Me Finish This Page: Gone But Not Forgotten: Harper Lee and Pat Conroy.

Happy Sunday.

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Sunday. That’s the Best I Can Do for a Post Title.

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To say my sleep patterns have been erratic since I arrived in Hartford is putting it mildly.

Today I woke up at 5 am – too early for the long day that lies ahead.

Sigh.

It isn’t the bed, which is quite comfortable. It isn’t the noise because it’s fairly quiet here. All I know is that sometimes I wake up and it’s still dark, but I’m sure it’s later than it is – maybe around 6:30 – and my brain starts going or I get up to go to the bathroom and I look at the clock at it’s not even 5 yet.  I try to go back to sleep but it’s too late, usually, because I can’t turn off my brain.

So I get up and make some coffee.

I wish it would all even out, but I don’t think it will, so I simply have to go with it.

We start early today, working through some key scenes, and eventually do our first stumble-through of the entire play. A mutual friend of ours from the Old Globe days is in town and we’re all going to dinner after rehearsal.

I’m not going home on my day off because there’s really not enough time make it worthwhile and I’m tired. I think I’ll be able to grab a couple of days back at the cottage at the end of the week, when we move onstage.

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The Hartford Public Library, taken last Saturday, right before the snow arrived. If you look closely, you can see the café. I’ve never had the time to dine there, but maybe I will this time around.

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There’s a Jazz series every Sunday afternoon.

Oh, and I wanted to share my new favorite hand cream with you.

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Inexpensive and really lovely and smooth. And no animal testing. I really want to eliminate any products that are tested on animals from my life. It might take a while, but that’s my goal for 2016. I saw a photo recently of cats being tested and it sent a chill down to my very core. There’s no excuse for using a living being as a test subject. And I’m very firm on that one and no amount of debating will change my mind.

So I haven’t picked a ‘word’ for 2016, but I am vowing to do as much as I can to research the products I routinely use and throw them out if there is any animal testing involved. It’s time for me to step up.

That’s my goal.

I’m not preaching, except to myself.

Happy Sunday.

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Quite the Day

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We made the trip to IKEA yesterday, after I dug through my shoes (most of which are now too small for me) to find something I could wear that wouldn’t irritate or press on my still-tender ankle. The nearest IKEA is an hour and a half away from us, so we’re talking a total of three hours drive time. It’s an all day event, which for us is always a challenge because we have to consider Scout’s needs.

We walked through, I wrote down all the stock numbers/locations, and had lunch. Don had his favorite Swedish Meatballs and I had the Vegetarian option. And some chocolate cake for dessert. I was walking slowly and being very careful, but I have to tell you, by the end of the day my ankle was complaining loudly.

No reveals for a while. We have to paint the room and assemble everything.

It was quite the day. I came home and later that evening, the news that my parents’ ashes are being taken out to sea today coupled with Scout’s troubles and my worries about her – well, I simply lost it. A major cry. Then a bath, as prescribed by my husband, and bed.

Needless to say, I’m wiped out today.

We’ve lit a candle for my parents and it will burn all day long.

I want to share some gifts I’ve received recently over the course of the next couple of days. My longtime blogging friend Linda sent me a package which was a surprise and a delight. Linda and I share the collecting bug and both of us collect egg cups, McCoy, and miniature pottery. I guess you could say we happily enable each other. Inside the box were birthday and Christmas presents:

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Two Shawnee miniatures to add to my collection! Aren’t they lovely? Linda has the best luck finding these treasures! These beauties were my birthday present.

Then a sweet Christmas present:

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This adorable sheep to add to my collection.

And, what’s this?

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Caroline got a gift!

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A beautiful Paris cup and saucer. She’s thrilled!

Thank you, Linda!

Linda’s beloved cat Charlie, who is the same age as Scout, had a scare yesterday, so send some prayers his way, okay?

Happy Wednesday.

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Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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