Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Life in our little cottage in the country

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Is That the Sun?

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We’ve had sunny skies for two days in a row and they’ll last through Wednesday. The difference this makes in a day is enormous. We’re so used to gray skies, rain, and heavy clouds that this little gift makes us very happy. Back to gray at the end of the week, but in the meantime, I’m really enjoying this.

We take my car in this morning for some minor repair work from the car accident. It will be done by late today or tomorrow.

One of my friends on the Blythe feed does a thing called “Flatlay Sunday.” A flatlay is a photo where a variety of things are arranged on a flat surface, usually with some sort of theme. All items must be placed flat against the surface. Then the photo is shot from above, looking down on the arrangement. She names a weekly theme. I don’t do it every week, but this week’s theme was “Play” which sparked an idea. (A lot of Blythe people have lots of little props scaled to Blythe size. I don’t, nor do I want to, which is why I usually avoid these things.)

Here it is:

Maeve is playing a little violin that Nina’s customizer included when she sent her to me. The piano is something Heidi gave me long ago.  That’s a tiny old music dictionary above the piano. And you are familiar with the deer, who, it turns out, can play the piano.

Maeve is so beautiful.

This was laid out on the rug in the den.

Anything I can put together quickly is the only way for me to go these days. The younger Blythe lovers spend a lot of time on photography and some of their photos are simply gorgeous and truly imaginative. But after taking photos for the blog for nearly 16 years, much of it on a daily basis, I no longer go for perfection. It’s their turn.

We are loving All Creatures Great and Small. We watched two episodes last night. Only two more to go in this season. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: this series is good for the soul.

I’m well into Wolf Hall, as well as The Poppy War, so I’m juggling two books at the same time.

Okay!

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.

 

Friday Bits

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♦ We woke up to the smell of propane. When the tank is running low, the smell becomes more intense. I quickly checked  when the last delivery was. It was on November 21st. Since we get it every two months, it turns out the delivery is ten days late, as it should have been on January 21st. So I was on the phone at 8 am and we are now on the schedule for today. I guess I have to go back to calling them to make sure we’re on the schedule.

We were awakened by the sound of a truck backing up at 5:45 am but thankfully, after a half hour or so, went back to sleep. So we got up later than normal and that, coupled with the propane problem, has thrown me off. It doesn’t take much these days!

♦ I’ve done more research on the Shirley Temple doll and she is definitely a knock off, or ‘clone’ as I see in some eBay listings. The middle of her body is cloth and Shirley Temple dolls were all composition – no cloth. And the face molds of the Ideal dolls looked much more like Shirley. (I can see why my mom was pissed off!) Her hair is a bit more blonde, as well, though all the Ideal Shirleys were honey-blonde. Her hair is a bit brighter. She has the dimples, though. I took the rollers out and she’s looking okay, but I had to reset a few of them, so I’ll have a photo for you tomorrow, after I’m sure the curls are dry.

♦ One of my Blythe friends had some extra Mickey Mouse mouse ears, so I bought a pair and Chloe is modeling them. Too darned cute! I remember watching The Mickey Mouse Club every afternoon when I was a kid. I thought wearing one of those white sweaters with my name on it and a pair of ears would be the coolest thing in the world.

♦ I’m not sure what Lucy and Zoe are looking at, but they look disapproving. Shortly after this, they disappeared for a while. I have no idea what they were up to. Suffice to say, they returned with a look that said they’d dealt with whatever was troubling them. There’s a lot of activity here during the course of a day. With 18 girls, you can only imagine!

I suspect they’ve been in the kitchen checking out Shirley’s transformation and peppering her with questions.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

 

 

Wednesday Thoughts

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♦ This girl always gets a lot of comments on Instagram.

It’s the hair, of course.

I wanted a Ferro Doll with curly hair for a long time. Though I envisioned her having dark hair, I ended up with this light-as-air curly blond hair. I’m happy it turned out that way.

♦ Oh, the weather. After a bit of snow late in the day yesterday, the rain turned to ice, and at some point today, it will turn back to rain. Any time ice is involved, we stay in the house until the issue is naturally resolved (if possible.) Looks like it will be resolved later today, so we’re going to sit tight in our little cottage.

♦ I’m trying to get motivated to start working on the Beacon Hill. For heaven’s sake, I’ve had it for at least 3 years and, except for my initial clean up and removal of unwanted large curlicues, I’ve done nothing. I think about it. I look at photos of other Beacon Hills. And I do nothing. Today, I’m going to look at IG miniatures accounts for inspiration. It’s huge, it’s blocking the light in my little cubicle, so it might as well block it prettily, you know what I mean?

♦ On a totally different subject, I want to address the cheapening of the standing ovation, something Don and I have observed for several years. When both of us were young actors, a standing ovation was rare. On those special occasions when you were on the receiving end of a standing ovation, my goodness, you felt as if you had landed on the moon! Everyone hugged each other backstage, holding that brief moment in time close. Amazing! Indeed, even into our middle age, they were rare.

Now? Every darned performance, the audience pops up immediately and applauds. It’s expected now, though why it is, I don’t know. It should be rare, magical, something to hope for but not count on.

I see a lot of theater, as you know. I can’t remember a time in the past 6 or 7 years – maybe even 10 years – where the audience didn’t stand and applaud. And, quite frankly, most of those performances, though good, did not deserve a standing ovation. They weren’t extraordinary, another word that is thrown around so much that it has lost its meaning. (I’m guilty of this occasionally.)  Yes, applaud warmly, acknowledge the work of the actors and everyone involved, but don’t stand unless it’s remarkable.

The audience has made a collective decision that applauding means standing as well.

It doesn’t.

I feel sad for actors nowadays who will not experience the wonder of a true, unexpected, and rare standing ovation. It really was something special back in the day.

When the automatic standing ovation occurs, I stay seated. Occasionally, as when I watched Hamilton, I surge to my feet, as well.  But only rarely.

There’s a whole list of things like this that have lost their original meaning and import and are now just another thing you say or do that means far less than it used to.

Don’t get me started on ‘awesome.’

This has been on my mind again since I saw the first preview of Dial M for Murder, which was okay but just okay. Nevertheless, like a collective jack-in-the-box, the entire audience popped up and applauded.

I stayed seated.

My thoughts for the day.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

 

 

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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