Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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Decluttering Blog-Style & Other Tidbits

July 2, 2014 at 7:38 am by Claudia

You might have noticed that I’ve changed to a new layout here on the blog. This idea came to me yesterday and, like a dog with a bone, I spent all day on it. All day. I took a break to take a shower, water the plants and to feed Scout, of course, but the rest of the day? Lost in cyber world. Don was lost in music composing world, so it worked out well. No one felt neglected.

I’m on WordPress and I use the Genesis operating system, which uses what are called ‘child themes’ that individualize websites and blogs. So, changing the blog involved working with a new theme while my current theme was still running. I thought I had it all done but when I hit the button late in the day to change over, it looked like a mess. Back to the drawing board. I still need to tweak it a bit, but I really like the new post font and the amount of white space there is on the blog. The old theme was feeling a bit crowded and cluttery. Having ads can do that. And though I’d still love to cut down on ad clutter, I need them. So, adding some ‘air’ to this space helps a bit.

It’s a change and if you loved the other theme, it may take some getting used to. I loved the other theme, too. But a girl has to try something new every once in a while.

Here’s the one snag. I cannot get Leave a Comment to show below the post. I’ve got a support request in and hopefully will have it figured out soon. But in the meantime, you have to scroll back up to the top of the post to click on ‘Comments’, okay? Scroll back up, click, and you’ll be taken to the comment page. Update: Fixed it!

Where did this peony come from?

I strolled down to the mailbox yesterday and glanced at the peony bushes, which had long since stopped blooming. Wait a minute….what is this? A pale pink peony. Neither of the bushes has flowers in this color. I’m amazed. I wonder if it will open?

It was a nice surprise for this girl who hated leaving her cottage when the peonies had just opened.

This is what I got Don for his birthday:

don's-sign

I found it at the Country Living Fair. I saw it on my first day there, didn’t buy it, and kept thinking about it after I got home. So, the first thing I did on Saturday was find the vendor who was selling the sign and grab one.

Don loves signs. He loves the Beatles with a devotion that has never wavered over the years. What could be better than a sign with these lyrics that remind us to avoid fussing and fighting and sweating the small stuff?

Now we have to figure out where to hang it. We’ve used just about every bit of wall space in this little cottage.

tuesday-garden

The shade side of the big garden bed is full of crown vetch and ground covers and catmint and grasses and soon-to-be-blooming white coneflowers. Every bit of soil that was bare had been taken over by humongous weeds in my absence, so I had to do a lot of weeding on Monday. Everywhere.

How is the weather where you are? Boy, is it hot and humid here! It was that way when I left Chautauqua, too.

Not a fan of humidity. It makes my hair curl and my brain turn to mush.

Not a very attractive picture, is it?

The winner of a copy of Supreme Justice is Donna. Congratulations! I’m sending you an email, Donna.

Happy….wait…let me check the calendar….Wednesday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

Filed Under: blog, blog design., Don, flowers, garden 40 Comments

Flowers & Some Blog Business

May 28, 2014 at 8:57 am by Claudia

rocket

This looks a bit like phlox but it’s Rocket, a plant that grows all over this property. I suppose it’s a wildflower (I much prefer that to ‘weed.’) The beautiful blossoms are lavender and white and they have a lovely scent.

It’s raining as I write this, a welcome change to the high of 85° and high humidity that was yesterday. We haven’t put in our window air conditioners yet – I try to hold off as long as possible – so last night was not the best night for sleeping. But now the rain has come and the temperatures are dropping. Scout will be especially happy about that.

We hiked about 4 miles yesterday but because the humidity was so high during the hike, I was really, really tired afterwards. And my allergies? Off the charts. Anyone else experiencing worse than usual allergies this year? I must have sneezed thirty times yesterday!

catmint

The catmint is just starting to bloom. Soon there will be lavender colored blossoms everywhere.

A dear blogging friend of mine wrote me and mentioned that some pop up ads had appeared while she was trying to read one of my posts. She was being a pal and letting me know about it. The pop up ads are not coming from BlogHer or AdSense, which are the only two ad companies I use and, therefore, the only ads that appear on my blog. Some of the BlogHer ads will expand if you move your cursor over them, but moving your cursor away from them will take care of that. If that kind of thing irritates you, simply make sure you are not moving your cursor over the ads.

But that is not the same as a pop up ad. I read my blog on two browsers, Safari and Firefox, and I never encounter those ads. On a rare occasion I might see that little pop up that floats along the bottom of a site and is some sort of survey. I see that on all sorts of blogs but very, very rarely on mine.

And I’m experimenting with an ad opportunity from BlogHer where a small ad might appear on a separate line of text in a post that is clearly different from the font used for the body of the text – lately they have been for American Express – but nothing at all happens with that ad unless you deliberately click on it. I don’t have and will not have the ads that come out of a highlighted word in the text. I find them annoying, because they automatically show an ad if your cursor moves over them.

All of my ads are separate from the post content.

As for what you can do? You can block Pop Up Windows, those annoying windows that sometimes appear on websites and have to click out of. It’s in your browser’s Preferences.

In Safari: Go to Preferences/Security and put a check mark next to Block Pop Up Windows.

In Firefox: Go to Preferences/Content and put a check mark next to Block Pop Up Windows.

I’m not sure of the exact setting in Chrome, but something tells me that Chrome might automatically block Pop Up Windows.

There is also something called AdBlock, an extension you can add to your browser, which will block pop up ads and windows and videos.

The other possibility is that an individual computer might have been infected with Adware, which is fairly common. I know very little about this, but if you google Adware, you can learn more.

Your browser could be an issue. But again, I’m no computer expert.

I have a security system on this blog that regularly checks it for malicious code of any kind and all is well on this end.

I hope this clarifies things. I watch this blog like a hawk and I don’t see pop up ads here. I regularly view it in different browsers. However, individual computers and browsers are a whole other thing that I can’t control. I can only give you suggestions that might help viewing on your end.

Just know that I have set places for my ads on this blog. There shouldn’t be any pop up ads.

I always try to address these things when they come up because this blog is very, very important to me. As are all of you.

buttercups

Back to pretty things. Buttercups have once again invaded (in the nicest possible way) part of our front yard. I know some call them invasive, but let’s face it, we live in the country. We don’t have manicured lawns. We have areas of grass among the trees and woods that border almost everyone’s property. And I don’t use any chemicals on the grass or in the gardens. So I consider buttercups and wild violets and dandelions to be little gifts from Mother Nature.

I like them.

Happy Wednesday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

 

 

 

Filed Under: blog, flowers 19 Comments

Blogging: Staying On Course

January 12, 2014 at 10:30 am by Claudia

lamp

Though I’m passionate about blogging and love the discipline of writing every day, there are the rare mornings where I feel foggy and have a hard time coming up with some idea that is blog-worthy. Where I don’t have the desire to pick up my camera and roam the house, looking for something that will spark an idea for a post. Where my morning cup of coffee has turned into three cups and I still don’t know what the heck I will write about.

Since I write a post every day, 365 days a year, it’s inevitable. I know a lot of bloggers plan their posts out ahead of time. I am not one of them. Since MHC is a daily journal of my life, I obviously can’t write about what just happened or is about to happen a week or two weeks before it actually happens. So, though I might have an idea the night before I post about what I might tackle the next day, often I don’t. I fly by the seat of my pants.

Every blogger works hard to shape their content, to define the blog, to give it her/his personal stamp. This doesn’t happen overnight, it takes time. Time to find your voice, time to find what works and doesn’t work, time to define the boundaries of what you will and won’t do. I’ve been blogging for nearly six years (in February) and I have wrestled, along the way, with these questions: should I have ads, should I try to be a ‘big blogger,’ should I narrow my blog into that niche blog territory that might get me more readers and more ad income. The niche question was contemplated for about one minute. I am interested in far more than one narrow category and I wouldn’t be true to myself if I did that. I’d also be bored out of my mind. And that took care of the big blogger question, because most big bloggers are niche bloggers. Not all, but most.

I have a definite idea of what this blog should be, what I will and won’t do, and where I draw the proverbial line in the sand. I earn a very, very modest amount of money from my ads. I would dearly love to earn more. (I want to be the one who pays for our health insurance.) I stress over the placement of ads within the blog. I choose not to have a big banner ad over my header, though I know it will bring in more money. I think that type of ad makes the blog look too commercial and that is something I don’t want. BlogHer has some changes they are going to implement and I might have to go with a very narrow rectangular ad right above the beginning of my content instead of the tower-like ads that are currently on the sidebar – we’ll see.

One of the latest forms of income that BlogHer and, I’m sure, other advertisers have offered is the one that highlights certain words in a post. If your cursor passes over that word, a link or a photo link will pop up. They are supposed to be potentially lucrative.

But, I don’t like them. I find them intrusive and irritating because I often find my cursor hitting one of the dreaded links. An ad will pop up and, instead of reading the post, my train of thought will be stopped as I deal with the annoying ad. And the very look of the highlighted word of text looks sort of spammy to me. If I feel that way, then I’m pretty sure some of my readers will also feel that way.

Please understand, I’m not criticizing anyone else for implementing that type of ad or any other type of ad. Go for it; do what is right for you. Many bloggers are trying to earn a living from blogging. I get it.

It’s just not right for me, that’s all.

What to do? Go for something more lucrative or stay true to my ‘line in the sand?” I have learned to never say never, but really? I have to go with my gut. And my gut says no. That’s not me and it’s not my blog.

I’m so proud of this blog. As of today, I have written over 1,615 posts (the first few years I only posted about 3 times a week.) I started with some very cautious and tentative dips of my writing toes into the waters of blogging. Over time, I have discovered my voice and, thanks to all of you, found my audience. I really think of this blog as my baby and I have done my best to shape it into something I am proud of.

I’ll probably still wrestle with some decisions as I go forward. But I promise to go with my gut, with what my heart tells me is right.

Happy Sunday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

Filed Under: blog, blogging 72 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.

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