Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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A Bit of Everything on Saturday

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4-23 hartfordstage

I’m back home after a long and satisfying day working on Anastasia.

When I pulled in the driveway around 8 pm, Don had dinner waiting, bless him. What a guy! He also spent the morning putting in our new mailbox. When the guys were here working on our culvert, they had to pull the mailbox out of the ground and when they put it back in, it was too low in height. Our wonderful post person, Lori, had to lean way over to open the box. As the mailbox itself was incredibly rusty after almost 11 years of service, Don replaced the whole thing. And he mowed the lawn.

First things first: today is the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. And April 23rd is also considered to be his birthdate, though we can’t know that for sure. Since a great deal of my work has to do with Shakespeare as I gradually work my way through the canon, I couldn’t let this anniversary pass without saying – once again – that I think Shakespeare was the greatest writer ever to walk this earth. I never tire of his work. No matter how many times I’ve worked on a particular play, I learn something new. He understood the human heart. He understood good, greed, temptation, passion, joy, love, jealousy, hate – everything we humans feel and fall prey to. He understood the metaphysical. He was simply a genius. Thank you, Will!

4-23 redrobinfarm

I posted this on Instagram the other day. When we were out and about on Primary Day, I saw this in our local antique barn. Oh, my heavens. It’s a dollhouse – or rather, a doll barn – called Red Robin Farm. Those doors slide open and the inside is a barn with stalls for animals. The roof lifts off.

I did a little research and this building was manufactured by an American company – Converse, based in Massachusetts – in the early part of the twentieth century. There were varying sizes of these buildings. It looks like this one was one of the largest.

If I’d had an extra $265.00 on hand, I would have seriously considered this beauty. It’s in great condition. Made of wood.

But I must tend to other things, like this little project:

4-23 tsp

As you can see, I have yet to deal with the front porch or the trim around the bottom of the building. And I suppose I have to put a roof on, though I don’t want to.

Decisions, decisions. Will I get it done in time for Don’s birthday on June 24th? I have ordered a few more components, but I need some sort of work table that is a bit taller than the temporary farm table I have in there at the moment. I need to figure out how to make a sound board. I’m ordering a couple of stools and I need a coffee maker. What else? A large rug to absorb sound while recording. Lots and lots of vinyl records. I want to make some sort of shelf to hold the records – something I can hang on the wall.

Can I do it? Cross your fingers.

Happy Saturday.

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From My Room

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4-8 hotelroomtable

Life on the road; a shot of my hotel room coffee table this morning.

I’m staying at Homewood Suites, a place very familiar to me as I have spent a lot of time here over the years. My room is very nice. There are a wide variety of them here, some too small, some rather large. This is mid-sized and perfect.

The best thing is that it faces an inner courtyard so I don’t hear the thundering bass coming from the local bars. That’s been a big problem in the past. I’m going to remember this for the future. Must have room facing courtyard. Everyone here is very nice – many staff members seem like old friends.

I was so tired last night that I fell asleep before 10 pm, which was fine, but the consequence of that was waking up very  early this morning. Ah, well. Homewood Suites has a free breakfast every morning, so I trotted on down to get some food and coffee. The in-room coffee is not at all good, but the ‘Robust’ version of coffee available downstairs is much better. It’s not Peets, but it will do.

4-8 hotelroom

The beds are wonderful. Firm. Good pillows. I slept like a baby.

Driving to Hartford was rather a mess because of the torrential rain that poured down for most of the two hour journey. I’m always amazed by the amount of drivers who don’t put their lights on during a storm. Really? I can barely see you!

It’s a state law in NY. If you are using your windshield wipers, you have to have your lights on. I don’t know what the law is in Connecticut, but there were a lot of cars without their lights on.

The read-through of Anastasia was wonderful, very moving, beautifully sung – very exciting! The music is beautiful. The cast is very talented. The room was full of the cast, the writers, support staff, producers, and designers. It’s going to be very fun to work on and I’m thrilled to be a small part of it.

Today, we’ll do some table work – talking about the script and the characters and the language. Then I drive home at the end of the day.

See you tomorrow.

Happy Friday.

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And I’m Off

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4-7 view into the kitchen

Late afternoon picture-taking in order to have something to post today. Do other bloggers do that? Frantically walk around the house, looking for some photo that will ‘do?’ I left it late, which created a too dark picture, which I then tried to brighten – there’s too much ‘noise’ in this one. But I like the canvas of The Lamb With The Party Hat on the wall. Logically, since this is the symbol of the blog, it should be hanging in my office, but Don likes it here. He thinks it adds a touch of whimsy to the living room.

I got a late afternoon call from the stage manager of Anastasia, asking if I could come in earlier to have lunch with Darko and also if I could stay overnight to be there for tomorrow’s rehearsal as well. Of course. So I’m off to Hartford to work for two days. Then on Monday, I have to go into NYC for the day to work on another project.

That’s why I’m rather hurriedly writing this post. I have to get ready and get on the road. Hopefully, I’ll be able to write a quick post tomorrow, but if I can’t, you’ll know why.

4-7 view stairs

I officially gave up on Beach Music  by Pat Conroy last night after yet another stab at reading it in bed. As I was trying to go to sleep, I finally came to the realization that this particular Conroy was just not doing it for me. I feel guilty, somehow, because I am such a big fan of his writing and I love the way he tells a story.

But this one? I didn’t like the characters much, though I tried very hard to feel something for them. The fact is that after 200 pages, I still wasn’t on board. That’s a long time to hang in there, especially when the book is over 700 pages long.

So I put it back on the shelf this morning.

My time to read has been limited lately. And reading is so important to me that when I do get a chance to open a book, I want it to be one that captures my imagination and takes me, happily, to another place. I’ll grab another book, as well as my Kindle, for the trip to Hartford. I have plenty of books in my TBR pile!

Happy Thursday.

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Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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