Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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Day One Hundred Twenty-Three

July 14, 2020 at 9:50 am by Claudia

View of the rocks from the bathroom window. I had to resort to taking this photo because the groundhog (not sure which one) was dining on the grass and I didn’t want to scare him.

Another day in an endless series of days in this strange and unsetting time. I mowed the back forty, the corral, and the area around the shed yesterday and it was much hotter and more humid than I had expected it to be. Of course, I mowed more than I had planned to, as well. So there’s that. But boy was it overgrown out there! It needed it.

Needless to say, I didn’t accomplish much else for the rest of the day.

Today is grocery pick-up day. We’re really down to almost nothing, having made a vow to use what we had for a span of two weeks. We did it, I’m happy to say. So today’s pick-up is much needed!

Because of the aforementioned mowing, I didn’t get to the dollhouse yesterday. I just have a bit of stonework to finish on the back of the house and then it’s on to my experimentation with ‘grout.’ Wish me luck!

I’m currently reading another book from my TBR pile, Death at La Fenice, by Donna Leon. I’m enjoying it. She writes well and I love reading her descriptions of Venice. Beautifully plotted, as always. The fiction TBR pile is almost gone, so I’ll have to decide what to order or re-read. The nonfiction pile is still pretty high but, for me, nonfiction is not an automatic choice. I have to be in a certain mood to read it, as my preference is always for fiction. I really want to order Hamnet  by Maggie O’Farrell, which has been published in Great Britain to great acclaim. And I also want to read Michael Connelly’s newest, as I never miss one of his books. And then, on September 1st, Louise Penny’s newest, All the Devils are Here, will be published. Gamache will be in Paris!

Wish I was.

Stay safe.

Happy Tuesday.

 

Filed Under: books, reading, social distancing 37 Comments

Day One Hundred Twenty

July 11, 2020 at 9:41 am by Claudia

The limelight hydrangeas are starting to appear. That doesn’t happen until mid-summer. Are we there already and if so, why is the summer going so fast when we’re social distancing and every day seems somewhat the same? I don’t expect an answer. This is, as the King in the King and I  says,”a puzzlement.” (I played Lady Thiang many years ago, so I heard this particular song many, many times.)

I got going early yesterday because I wanted to beat out the rain. The big garden bed was getting really overgrown and I hadn’t weed whacked in ages. (Hyphen? No hyphen? I don’t know.) After finishing with said weed whacking, I started to prune a lot of the plants, pull weeds, cut back prickly plants, etc. Because the temperature was lower than it had been, I assumed that would make doing these jobs much more comfortable. Wrong. It was unbelievably humid out there – tropical storm humid – and I was wringing wet and exhausted. After I finished, I took a break, drank tons of water, and then went back out to put everything away. I never got to the mowing. It would have been too much.

I did virtually nothing for the rest of the day.

It rained all day long and into the night. We’re due for more storms today and there’s another heat advisory in place. Very humid. I swear, it’s like August around here.

Anyway, I’m glad I got the work done, but boy, was it exhausting.

The we watched the news programs last night and I became so enraged about Trump and William Barr and Roger Stone that I could barely sit still. The blatant corruption is stunning. I’m so sick of it all. I feel like I’ve aged faster than I normally would have because of all of this crap, day after day, year after year.

Then there are the horrific COVID numbers throughout the country. And it didn’t have to happen. But we have a malignant narcissist who is quite probably a sociopath, as well, sitting on his duff in the Oval Office, tweeting, conspiring, stuffing his face full of junk food, and not caring about a single human being other than himself. 

So as the day ended, we declared the weekend to be a news-free zone. I am going to retreat into the world of dollhouses and tiny things. Things I can control. Happy little make-believe lives and pretty houses.

I finished Faith Fox  by Jane Gardam. Truly excellent. Now I want to immediately read another one by this but the only book I have on hand is the third book in her trilogy, and I don’t want to read it out of order. Quality problem, of course. I’ll be forced to pick something else from my TBR pile.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

Filed Under: books, flowers, garden 37 Comments

Day One Hundred Eleven

July 2, 2020 at 10:04 am by Claudia

This day lily opened up the other day and this morning there are at least six of them open. I bought this a few years ago and it is just gorgeous. Ruffled edges = heavenly whimsey.

Yesterday ended up being all about ordering and picking up groceries. I have a little story to share with you. Last time we picked up, we didn’t wipe things down because we’d had messages saying it wasn’t really necessary and after doing a little research of our own we decided to forego that process. Yesterday, Don was questioning that decision – or at least feeling uneasy about it – so while I was driving to the store, he was googling for up-to-date information. He finally called the FDA in Washington, DC and spoke to a very helpful gentleman. He basically said the same thing that we saw on the website; that is most likely wasn’t necessary, just make sure you wash your hands, etc., but it you want to, here are some tips about wiping down packaging. After having that discussion, Don asked the gentleman if he himself had stopped disinfecting grocery items, and the guy said: No, I still do it every time we shop because my wife makes me.

So, there you have it. We wiped everything down. The thing is, no one knows enough about this virus, though we know more than we did. We’re not comfortable with abandoning that process. (Of course, we each have to do what we feel is right and what makes us feel safer.)

So I didn’t get to the dollhouse yesterday, but I did add a few pieces to the puzzle.

I’ll be back at it today.

I stare at this house every morning when I’m sitting on the sofa with Don.

I’m still contemplating what I want to do with it. I do know that I consider it folk art and therefore, whatever I do will be minimal and removable. As I’ve mentioned before, it’s not built to 1:12 scale, more like what is called ¾ scale. There’s not a lot of furniture out there for this kind of scale, so do I just go with 1:12 scale and accept that the pieces will look too big for the space? Or do I use some of the House of Miniatures kits, which in my experience, are a bit less than 1:12? Hmmmm. Now I’ve got myself thinking about that possibility. I have several of the kits and they are still accessible (though no longer made) on eBay and Etsy.

Maybe I should try assembling one and see how it fits in the house?

Of course, I could simply keep the house empty and embrace it as a piece of folk art, but I have this nagging feeling that it needs a little life.

Finished Where the Crawdads Sing. I liked it very much. Maybe because there was so much hype about it when it was first published and so much talk on book Instagram accounts, I find myself saying, “Lovely, but not great.” And it was  lovely. The descriptions of nature, especially, were beautifully written. The story was compelling. I was pulling for the protagonist. The ending left me a wee bit confused, and by that I mean, the last paragraph. The fireflies that were calling to Tate from the water – was that simply a poetic description and a way of referencing the title at the end of the book, or did it mean something more ominous or profound? Or am I reading too much into it?

Anyway. If I was grading it, I’d give it a B+ leaning toward an A-. (I hated grading when I was a professor.) Liked it a lot. Compelling. Well written and refreshingly different. But not an A.

Okay. Have to go.

Stay safe.

Happy Thursday.

Filed Under: books, dollhouse, flowers, garden 49 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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