Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Life in our little cottage in the country

You are here: Home / Archives for books

Saturday

at by

Evidence that Don had a gig last night. This one was far from us – too far – so a lot of driving was involved. He got back after I had gone to bed. We don’t have a lot of extra room around here, so he carefully stashes equipment under the piano bench and behind the sofa. He’s too tired to lug it all upstairs and, of course, he doesn’t want to wake me up.

He says it went well, with an appreciative group of listeners. I love seeing him full of that post performance energy I know so well. He’ll crash later today, but he always gets a boost from performing.

It’s still warmish here and, as I said yesterday, it’s supposed to hit 59 degrees here today. I bet it will hit 60. Snow is coming on Tuesday, but not much, thank goodness. I heard birds singing this morning when I woke up and the Carolina wren was flitting between the porch and the hydrangeas, singing away.

Yesterday we went for a walk at the library. I took along my library card and phone in case I got an email that the book I’ve been waiting for had come in. I checked my messages right after the walk. Nothing. Came home, walked down the driveway to check for the mail – nothing yet. Invariably, once I’ve walked back up the driveway after checking the mailbox, gone into the house, settled into my chair, the mail truck arrives. Yep. It happened again yesterday. So back out I went to get the mail. Within about 20 minutes of arriving back home, I checked the library online account. You guessed it, the book had arrived and was waiting for me. So I drove to the library for the second time and picked it up.

These are quality problems, of course!

Oh, friends, I am longing for spring. I try to keep myself busy during the winter months, although I often feel like I’m on sleep mode, but once spring hits, I start to come alive again. However,  it’s only early February and even if the groundhog is right and we’re in for an early spring, it’s still far off.

Books and dolls and old movies keep me going. Oh, and Don, of course.

I hope you have a lovely weekend.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

 

A Wee Bit of Spring Fever

at by

Thank you so much for your beautiful comments on Wednesday’s post. Oh, how lovely they were! Several brought tears to my eyes. You are so appreciated, my friends.

I’ve been a bit under the weather with… what? Sinus? Allergies? On Wednesday, I must have sneezed 40 times! I felt a tickle in one nostril all day long. Yesterday was a bit better, but there was still some sneezing. Anyway, the whole thing was odd and – given all the sneezing – exhausting. I hope today is sneeze-free.

Miranda was my comfort doll on Wednesday.

It’s been quite warm for this time of year – yesterday, the high was 51 degrees and today will be a bit warmer. It won’t last, of course, but yesterday was one of those days where I had a real bout of spring fever – that hopeful flutter inside that spring is on its way. That kind of ‘tease’ is wonderful, I think. Though you know spring is not on the way yet, for a moment, you allow yourself to believe it could be and everything seems hopeful and, somehow, lighter.

I just looked at the forecast and it’s going to be 59 tomorrow!

Of course, we’re due for a bit of snow on Tuesday, so there’s that.

I read first thing this morning, as I was behind on my reading of Wolf Hall. I needed a chunk of uninterrupted reading time. Now I’m all caught up. Hilary Mantel was a brilliant writer. I’m still reading The Poppy War  by R. F. Kuang, as well. And I have a couple of books on hold at the library – the much anticipated new book from Terry Hayes – The Year of the Locust. It’s a thriller. It was published on Tuesday and I think I’m first in the queue. And then, because we watched a documentary on fungi last night, I remembered a book that came out last year about the same subject – Entangled Life, how fungi make our worlds, change our minds, and shape our futures. I ordered that last night. I remember the author – Merlin Sheldrake – was referenced in Underland, a book I read last year.

Don has a gig this evening, north of here. He’s printing out his set list as I write this.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

Sorting, Walking, Curling, Reading

at by

Rest assured, it’s still gray out there. This was taken over a week ago on a rare sunny day.

I attacked that junk drawer with relish yesterday. Much was thrown in the trash, the rest was reorganized in a way that made sense. It is now a thing of beauty. I was in the mood to tackle it yesterday. If only I was in that mood on a daily basis! The result was very satisfying.

We haven’t done our walk since January 11th because of the weather. Lots of snow, bitter cold, high winds, lots of rain – that has been our weather for the past two weeks. Today, we have a rare dry day, so we’ll be back at it. Tomorrow, we have a rain/snow forecast, so we’ll see. After that, it should be relatively stable for the week. We have missed that daily walk at the library.

I’m reading The Poppy War  by R. F. Kuang and, though it’s very different than my usual fare, I’m quite enjoying it. And I just finished reading my required pages for this week in Wolf Hall.  I haven’t played with the girls much this week. I needed a break from my Blythe feed on Instagram. It can sometimes be a bit overwhelming – too much visual stimulation and too much buying and selling by people who have far more money than I. When that happens, I back off for a while.

Besides, little Shirley Temple needs my attention this week. The sponge rollers that I need for her hair arrived yesterday. The whole idea of sponge rollers sent me on a memory trip. I remember setting my hair with large pink sponge rollers. I’m not sure what I was trying to achieve with my straight hair, but that was what we did in those days. My mom used the bristly type of rollers that you stuck a pick into. Remember them? The women in our neighborhood – and Don tells me it was the same in his, as well – routinely put curlers in their, tied a scarf around them, and went shopping. Seeing anything like that nowadays is extremely rare. It took me years to finally accept the fact that I had fine, straight hair. It has a very slight wave when allowed to dry naturally, but basically it wasn’t going to do what I wanted it to do – whatever that was.

Stay safe, my friends.

Happy Saturday.

 

 

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

Thanks for visiting! Feel free to browse, read and enjoy. All content is my own; including photos and text. Please do not use anything on this site without permission.

Disclosure/Privacy Policy can be found in the Navigation Bar under ‘About MHC.’

Also, I love receiving comments! I do, however, reserve the right to delete any comment that is in poor taste, offensive or is verging on spam. It’s my blog. If you’re a bot or a troll you’ll be blocked. Thanks!

Archives