Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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You are here: Home / Archives for cottage

Scout, Cups & Morning Glories

October 1, 2013 at 9:46 am by Claudia

tuesmorningglory

Amazingly, the morning glories are still blooming here at the cottage, with new buds everywhere. If it stays relatively warm, I should be able to see these beauties for a bit longer. The zinnias are also still blooming, as are the cosmos and geraniums. Thank goodness! Otherwise, I would be forced to confront my severely injured garden bed and the now lopsided sugar maple tree. Seeing these flowers sure goes a long way toward lifting my spirits. Don and I sat on the funky patio yesterday, with the sun on our faces and flowers blooming everywhere. Much needed.

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Splashes of color and riotous growth along the Chicken Wire Fence Garden = there’s still a bit of summer left. Of course, everywhere I look there are leaves on the ground so it makes for an interesting contrast between the onset of autumn and the end of summer.

Scout is hanging in there. The doctor gave her some Acepromazine (a sedative) yesterday and she apparently cannot metabolize it very quickly, so she remained out of it most of the day. I wish he hadn’t done that. The same thing used to happen with Riley. It wasn’t until around 5:00 or so that she started to shake it off. She’s sore and antsy and is constantly asking for water. I can only give her a bit at a time. She seems to have an appetite but she’s also a bit nauseous, due to the drugs in her system, so we’re taking things slowly. I really felt strongly that one of us should be downstairs with her during the night, so Don took the first shift and I took the second. She was constantly getting up and down during most of my shift, which kept me from sleeping. We finally moved to the den, where I set up her bed by the sofa and after another hour or so, we both got some sleep. Not enough, but it will do.

There’s still a bit of bleeding, but much less than there was. I’m keeping an eye on it. Her butt was shaved, of course, and I see she’s getting a bit of a rash, poor thing. Anyway. She’s here, she came through the surgery, she’s a fighter and she’s getting mildly demanding. That’s a very good thing.

Update: we’re going to take her in for an anti-nausea injection and some fluids. She threw up this morning. All of this was very, very hard on her.

I can’t tell you how much your prayers and support have meant to Scout, Don and me. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Remember the oversized tea/coffee cups I bought at Anthropologie?

Here is what I did with them:

tuescupboard

I originally saw this glass drying rack, along with some snazzy cups from Anthropologie, on a post at The Inspired Room. That post is what got me thinking about those cups again. And then I thought about the rack, which was only $14.99 at World Market. Of course, mine doesn’t look quite as pretty because I don’t have white counters and subway tile backsplash, but it will do.

Tuescoffeemaker

Coffee stations seem to be all the rage right now, but I’ve never felt the need for one. I always place my coffeemaker under the cupboard that holds our glasses and mugs. It’s also usually right next to the refrigerator where the half and half lives. Just makes sense. Since we don’t use flavored coffees or k-cups or any of that sort of thing and counter space is at a minimum here at the cottage, why the heck do we need a coffee station? Believe me, it took some rearranging just to give this drying rack a home, but I wanted to have those pretty cups on display. This is usually a darkish corner of the kitchen and those beautiful cups add the perfect punch of color. I think I’m going to keep my eye out for a vintage tole tray to put under the rack and the coffee maker.

Oh, forgot to tell you. The car repair was relatively minor and we passed the inspection in the nick of time. Yesterday was the deadline for our inspection! Now we have to deal with the chimney and the trees.

Love to you all on this Tuesday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

Filed Under: cottage, flower, garden, Scout 85 Comments

East or West….

July 9, 2013 at 7:30 am by Claudia

Before I forget, I did a post about the Hummingbird Moth last year, which you might want to visit if you want to see a couple more pictures of these intriguing creatures.

Speaking of moths and/or butterflies, I spied this beauty through the kitchen window and managed to snap a few pictures. Again, I used my older camera with the zoom lens, which was handily nearby on the kitchen table.

butterfly1

He’s enjoying the milkweed.

butterfly3

Identified as the Great Spangled Fritillary. And, according to the description, they love milkweed.

The heat and humidity slogs onward here. Unrelenting. Temps in the nineties with 90% humidity make for a tropical rainforest-like atmosphere. I am mostly staying inside but I try to grab a few minutes here and there to pull some weeds, fill the birdbath and water my seedlings. The seedlings I am now thinking won’t turn into anything pretty until after I leave for Hartford.

I can’t go there. Away from home again? Leaving the day after my husband returns from being away from home?

And frankly, Hartford is nice but there’s not a lot to blog about and this will be my third go-round there. I’ll have to resort to pictures of my navel.

Rest assured, I kid. Sort of.

hensandchicks

I plopped this Hens and Chicks in the ground last year. It consisted of one hen and one chick. When I checked it out after a long winter, I was pretty sure it would wither away. Things were not looking good. But look! It has revived and there are a lot of chicks growing alongside their mama. Succulents are fascinating to me.

Today is a driving day. We leave early to transport Don back to Williamstown. This is when I wish I could blink my eyes and magically transport myself to another place. Or, in this case, transport Don to another town in another state – all without my having to drive in this awful weather. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just plop ourselves down in another place? No gasoline, no tolls, no long, long drive. We’d arrive refreshed and restored and everyone would be happy.

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East or west, home is best.

Happy Tuesday.

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Filed Under: butterfly, cottage, Don, garden, life 26 Comments

The Gardens: Then and Now

June 10, 2013 at 9:29 am by Claudia

When we moved to the cottage, it was in the late summer of 2005. I was overwhelmed with the move and getting situated in our new home, so I held off on any planting until I could take my time and get to know the property. The one thing we did do was plant four tiny boxwoods in front of the porch, an area that was sadly barren looking. Here’s a glimpse of the boxwoods as they looked the following spring (2006):

frontofhouse2006

Teeny-tiny. I can spot the beginnings of my clematis right below the second post from the left and the newly planted Lady Elsie May rose bush on the far left. The tiny rose bush that you can see on the far right didn’t survive.

frontofhouse2013

Here’s what it looks like in this summer of 2013. I  added the rose bushes, hydrangeas and spirea on the far left and all the plants that are around the corner in the side-of-the-house garden beds. The boxwoods have done terrifically well; I shaped them with my pruners just the other day. On the far right is the hydrangea that I planted last summer. I’m hoping it grows enough to balance the larger bushes on the left.

When the spring of 2006 arrived, I was raring to go. I couldn’t wait to start prepping the large garden bed. Always on a budget, I added just enough plants to make it affordable and manageable. Here’s a photo of me watering the garden – it gives you a nice idea of the beginnings of the large garden bed.

garden2006

Here it is today, in the spring of 2013; not a lot in bloom yet, but you can see how everything has grown. (I notice that I hadn’t yet planted anything in front of the shed.)

garden2013

I like a densely planted, free-form sort of garden – a lush look with plants spilling over each other. After 7 summers, we’ve reached ‘lush.’

In those first days of getting to know my garden, I started this journal:

gardenjournal

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I wrote quite a bit in those days – logging in details as to the first and second years of the garden.

gardenjournal3

I was just discovering the cycles of the trees and the plants. When did the Catalpa bloom? What about the peonies?

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Take note of the entry highlighted by the arrow. Salvia – dug up by Riley. The salvia was in a raised bed by the kitchen door and that boy loved to dig there. I miss him.

The cranesbill geranium and astilbe lasted a few summers, the creeping veronica lasted a bit longer. All of those plants eventually died. Who knows why?

Perennial gardening takes patience. Except for the pots of annuals and the little area in front of the dog corral that is grown from seed, every plant in the gardens is a perennial. For six of the last seven years, I have added a few more plants (remember I’m on a minuscule budget) each spring. Eventually, I put in two more beds on the side of the house. Slowly, over time, I discovered what worked well and what didn’t. We’ve reached an agreement of sorts, my gardens and I. We know each other. I agree not to use pesticides or anything that will harm the environment. The garden thanks me by growing naturally, allowing the proliferation of healthy bugs (and some not so benign) as well as providing a home for butterflies, hummingbirds and bees. If, like a couple of days ago, I see that the deer have been chomping on a few plants, I use Vicki’s all natural deer repellent recipe and spray all the plants.

Does that mean that there are holes in some of the leaves from caterpillars and bugs? Yes. It sometimes makes getting a good photo a bit more difficult but, in the end, I don’t care. Not only do I have a garden that I love, a place of peace and beauty, but I’m not polluting the soil or the ground water.

And here’s the kicker: after 7 years of planting, I’ve reached the point where I don’t have to spend any more money on new plants. The perennials come back every year like old friends, and I can trust that they will be a bit lusher, a bit fuller. I simply buy some annuals for the porch and the funky patio and that’s it.

Until I start a new garden bed.

Hmmmm.

frontofhouse2013.1

Oh, cottage and gardens, I love thee.

Cicada update: Just about a half mile up our road, where the woods are more plentiful and are next to the road, the sound of the cicadas is deafening. Don came back from an errand yesterday and told me about them, so we got in the car so I could give them a listen. Amazing. These 17 year cicadas, millions of them, are making the most incredible noise; the cicada buzz along with a high pitched drone. It sounds like something out of a science fiction movie! I even saw them flying around.

Wow.

I recorded them with my iPhone but I couldn’t figure out how to transfer that to the blog without a lot of hassle. Then I realized that all anyone has to do is search for Cicada/audio and you’ll have a good idea of what I’m talking about.

Happy Monday.

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Filed Under: cottage, flowers, garden, gardening 31 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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