Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Life in our little cottage in the country

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All Creatures Great and Small

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Just a glimpse of all the activity going on around here. For each photo that succeeds in capturing a flitting bumble bee, for example, there are about 30 where he’s a blur. Our woodpecker friend, a red bellied woodpecker to be exact, has been ensconced on the property for a while. We hear the rat-a-tat-tat of his pecking in the catalpa tree. I’ve identified his calls; he’s very talky. Yesterday I walked out the door and there he was on the shed, moving from here to there, assessing whether the shed was peck-worthy. In the end, he decided it wasn’t. But I was able to slowly sneak up on him and grab some photos. I don’t have a telephoto lens, but this kind of situation is exactly the reason I want one some day.

Don posted a photo of him on Facebook and asked for name suggestions. I think Guthrie (as in Woody Guthrie) won out. So Guthrie it is. He’s a beauty.

The shed needs painting. I don’t see it happening for a long while. I don’t like to paint walls.

Hey, it has a weathered look. I sort of like that.

It’s raining heavily and has been since last night. Knowing that rain was on the way, I ran out to the peonies yesterday afternoon with my pruning shears. I wanted to grab the fully opened flowers because I knew that the heavy rain would decimate them. Into the Ball jar they went.

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Hello, beauties.

A fellow musician friend of Don’s is coming over today – he’s driving in from Connecticut. They’re going to practice together for a gig they have on June 21st. This guy is amazing; he plays the mandolin, dobro, steel guitar, you name it. Don met him recently and they seem to really get each other’s musical sensibilities. It’s a match made in heaven.

I can’t wait to hear them play. Perfect for a rainy afternoon.

(I was going to go to the Country Living Fair but I decided not to, for several reasons. It’s rainy and messy out there. I’m not real excited about the whole thing; I wrote on FB that I was feeling rather ‘meh’ about the whole thing. We’re on a strict budget here; I can’t really justify the cost of the ticket and the gasoline to get there, and I can’t really buy anything. So why go? If it’s a success, it will be back again. Right? But my friend Heidi has a booth there and I’m so, so happy for her!)

Happy Friday.

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A Splash of Red

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A quick glance out the kitchen window revealed a splash of red. My friend, Mr. Cardinal, actually stayed in the same place long enough for me to snap this picture. Such a gray day needs a bit of color, don’t you think?

He’s gorgeous.

Sleepless night last night. Well, not entirely sleepless, but frustrating nonetheless. And today I have to deal with my cable company. Again. I have a wireless router here that we use for our WI FI connection. After talking to the cable company one day, I decided it might be better to rent a router from them, so they could have access to both our modem and the router on their end should any trouble arise. I’ve had it around here for a month but decided I didn’t want to try installing it by myself. So they came out on Saturday. For some reason, their router didn’t work as well upstairs as mine had, so they connected it downstairs. A few hours after the installer left, it became very clear that our internet connection was about 10 times worse than it had been. I could barely get a signal when I was sitting 15 feet away from the router.

So they’re coming back out today to either solve the problem or reconnect my router. I think I prefer the latter solution. Boy, this has been a frustrating 3 days! It feels like being on dial-up again.

Don got his script yesterday and is memorizing his lines. This will be the kind of thing that American Experience does so well: lots of narration, interviews with the author of the book on which the program is based, interviews with other experts and several scenes with the actors. Don really looks like the man he is playing. Tall, imposing, same facial characteristics – and that is important when the production has a documentary feel to it. He leaves on Sunday!

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Today’s egg cups:

In the rear, on left: an egg cup with a rooster by Holt Howard, one of the first that I purchased. Unfortunately, I knocked it off the shelf last year and had to glue it back together. I was not happy with myself.

In the rear, on right: a brown transferware egg cup by Mason, part of the Mason’s Vista line of china.

In the front: a pink and cream chicken pulling a cart. It still has the Made in California sticker. There is a real California pottery feel to it.

More tomorrow.

Happy Tuesday.

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Crazy for Color

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I’ve got Spring Fever. I could hear birds singing away yesterday and it gave me hope.

The giant sheet of ice that covered a good portion of the parking area outside the door has finally melted.

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The ice was so thick and dangerous that I resorted to putting this attractive cone out so that delivery trucks wouldn’t park there. I had to park over there by the shed. Those little bits of ice you can see in the photo? I chopped up the last bit of ice with my boot yesterday.

Don backed into the cone recently and it ended up on its side. I let Scout out and noticed that she was staring at it for the longest time. Then she started barking at it. I have no idea what the heck she thought it was, but I had to go outside and restore the cone to its original position before she would stop barking.

She doesn’t like any changes on her turf.

Do you think it’s time to put the cone back in the shed? Or should I use it as the focal point for a spring garden?

Just kidding.

Unfortunately, we are due for some snow today and tomorrow. I don’t think it will amount to much – just snow, then rain, then snow, then rain. Those to the south of us are going to be hit harder. I’m not too upset because it’s going to hit 50° on the weekend, which is positively balmy for us.

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I need color. After months of a grayish brown landscape, I’m longing for some color outside my windows. Inside? I’ve got plenty of it, because you know I love color.

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I’ve been crocheting flowers like crazy and the colors make me happy. (I’ll list the new garlands for the Etsy shop tomorrow.) Yellow, Purple, Red, Blue, Tangerine, Pink….oh my. I think we can all use some color right about now, whether it’s in the garden or in a springtime banner.

What about you? Are you longing for color? Or are you one of those lucky ones who lives in a warmer climate?

Happy Wednesday.

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Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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