Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Life in our little cottage in the country

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Trash, Books & Minis

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5-14 kitchenmorning

I know a good trash can is a necessity in a kitchen – in ours, we need one that is really secure, since various critters fly inside our house during the summer months. We had one for years that was made by OXO and it was great; except for the lid, which had structural flaws in its design. Eventually, no matter how careful we were, the plastic portions would disintegrate and it wouldn’t work. OXO was very helpful, sending us replacement lids throughout the years. We must have had at least 6 different lids. But the flaw actually got worse, and the latest replacement fell apart in less than two months.

So we bit the bullet yesterday and bought a new one. Not the most exciting thing to buy, but a necessity. We rewarded ourselves by going out to breakfast and stopping at the bookstore.

5-14 bookfinds

I picked up Let’s Just Say It Wasn’t Pretty – a memoir by Diane Keaton (I am a huge fan) and then I got a discount copy of The Shining Girls  by Lauren Beukes. I read her newest novel, Broken Monsters, a few months ago and really liked it.

I also ran into Michael’s to get some plastic storage bins for my minis – right now, they’re all over the place.

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And I found this mini table – I like the color and the lines.

Then we came home. Driving up and down a busy highway full of stores and strip malls isn’t really our cup of tea. We were relieved when we got back to our little cottage.

All this running around meant I didn’t get the seeds planted in the Chicken Wire Fence Garden, so I’ll do that this morning.  And by the time we got back home, I realized that I had to pick my health plan before the end of the day, so that became a priority.

But there was a little package waiting for me in our mailbox. It was from my pal, Linda.

5-14 eggcupsfromlinda

Oooh! The egg cup on the left is Harlequin by Homer Laughlin (in my favorite color) and the egg coddler is a lovely one from Royal Worcester.  Thank you, Linda! We both collect egg cups, by the way, so we are definitely enablers.

She also sent along three mini record albums for the TSP, but I am unable to get a good shot of them this morning. I’ll remedy that later in the day.

We might get more rain later in the day, so I’m going to attend to gardening and potting later this morning.

Happy Saturday.

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The Ongoing Planning That Goes On In My Head

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The sun has finally come out this morning after a day of rain yesterday. I can still smell smoke from the wildfire. I hope the rain helped to bring it under control and that what I’m smelling is just the residual smoke that will be hanging around for a while.

I sat at my desk yesterday, staring at the TSP, and got absolutely nothing done. I did come up with an idea for a desk, so it wasn’t entirely a bust, and I decided to hold off on the final paint color for the deck/porch until I add some stonework at the base of the building. See? Even though nothing seems to be accomplished, I realized later that I did  in fact accomplish something, even if it’s simply sorting things out in my brain. Planning.

I finished the first book in the Harry Hole series, The Bat, by Jo Nesbø, which was excellent. Uh oh. I’m hooked on another series. Next up is Cockroaches. So I just might be taking a little drive to the bookstore today because once I’m hooked, I’m hooked. I have to get a dowel from Michael’s (which is right next door) and maybe some raisin bread from Target…

I just started That Darkness by Lisa Black – which is in the form of an eGalley from NetGalley. It was officially published yesterday, so I’ll write a review when I finish it. So far, so good. I’m thoroughly engaged.

What else? I’m trying to juggle the demands of Anastasia’s  schedule with a couple of other small projects. Since I don’t know when they’ll want me to come into Anastasia  next (this is all very complicated) and rehearsals in the rehearsal room will be winding down next week, I’m assuming I’ll be going to Hartford to watch a run-through on the weekend or early next week. But I have to wait for them to ask for me as I am contracted for only a certain amount of days. In the meantime, I have to go into the city sometime this week or next to consult on another project (about Martin Luther) so I think I’m going to try to get there tomorrow. And then I have to decide whether I want to take two days to go down to Washington D.C. to watch a performance of the other project (about C.S. Lewis) that I’ve been consulting on. That would be toward the end of next week.

This is the kind of stuff that is going on in my head most of the time, along with all the work I have to coordinate on the TSP. Planning – if only in my head.

Back to Jo Nesbø. If you like police procedurals, I think you’ll like this series. Extremely well-written and engrossing. I sat in my little old chair and read for several hours yesterday – completely into it – and had to shush my husband several times as I headed toward the end of the novel.

Happy Wednesday.

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Monday: Reading, Weather, Scout

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It’s early March, right? I live in the Northeast. Yet, the temperatures are going to be in the high 50s, the 60s and even 70s this week.

As Don said, “I want to go to Florida when it’s really cold at home.”

That might not be the scenario, sweetheart.

My sinuses are wondering what’s up, but other than that, I’m thrilled that we can open the windows and maybe, just maybe, smell a little spring in the air.

It’s a month today since we said goodbye to our girl. In the midst of the hundreds of reminders of her that we have each day, this morning I was enveloped in sadness at the thought of peanut butter. She loved peanut butter and we would always use a dollop of it to disguise her pill. No matter how badly she might be feeling, no matter how sleepy, she always wolfed it down.  Oh, my girl, I hope you can eat all the peanut butter that you want now that you’re free.

I could write a week’s worth of posts just on the many reminders that come to us throughout the day. Each of them makes us stop in our tracks and, more often than not, tear up.

We miss her so.

3-7 patconroy

I’ve been thinking about Pat Conroy since I learned the news of his passing. At the age of 70, he was too young. He had a lot more stories to tell. Don was going out yesterday, so I asked him to stop at the local bookshop to see if they had any of his books on hand.  I simply needed to drop everything and read some Conroy. In the meantime, I looked online at what might be on the shelves at our little library. South of Broad  was available, so I figured Don could go check it out if there was nothing in the shop. Wouldn’t you know it? Don walked in the door with this hardcover copy of South of Broad – he got it for $5. Much better to have my very own copy.

I cracked it open and was immediately plunged into the gorgeous prose of Mr. Conroy. I had to reread the first page, simply because it was so beautifully crafted and the images so dense and rich that I was stunned. I liken it sinking into a hot bubble bath. Ahhh. A familiar friend is back and I can relax and let myself go, to be taken away to another world.

That is why I have always loved the novels of Pat Conroy and why I mourn his absence. He leaves an empty space that no one else can fill.

Happy Monday.

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Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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