Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

  • About MHC
    • Disclosure
  • Dollhouses/Minis
    • Hummingbird Cottage
    • The Studio (Formerly TSP)
    • Dove Cottage
    • The Lake House
    • The Folk Art Dollhouse
    • The Modern Dollhouse
    • Dollhouse Source List, Information and Tutorials
  • On the Road
  • Collecting
    • Roseville Pottery
    • McCoy Pottery
    • Egg Cups
    • Bakelite
  • Press
  • Privacy Policy
You are here: Home / Archives for Dad

A Lovely Day, Indeed

July 5, 2016 at 9:44 am by Claudia

It was a perfectly lovely day yesterday, made even more lovely by your wonderful comments. Thank you, dear friends!

We ate lunch at our favorite restaurant, stopped off to visit a few shop owners that we know, had a lovely dinner (Don gave me – that sneak – a little miniature rose plant and a pine scented candle) and we watched The Music Man  on TCM. My father and I used to watch that movie together whenever we saw it listed in our TV Guide. He had a major crush on Shirley Jones. So, we toasted my dad as the movie started. I hope he was watching with us.

I didn’t give Don anything because, and I confessed this to Don, after Father’s Day and his birthday, I was fresh out of ideas! I couldn’t come up with one – not even an appropriate card. He didn’t care, thank goodness.

Caught on camera the other day – a lovely goldfinch.

7-5 goldfinch1

7-5 goldfinch2

7-5 goldfinch3

I love seeing that flash of bright yellow. We have a lot of finches that hang about the property and they are at the birdbath fairly frequently.

We stopped in at Postmark Books yesterday.

7-5 flowerarrangementpostmarkbooks

This is one of Maggie’s flower arrangements. It’s simply gorgeous – she’s so talented!

7-5 books

I took this picture because I want to remind myself to read some more John Irving. I read so many of his books years ago but I haven’t been keeping up and Jesse (the owner) told me Avenue of Mysteries  is really interesting. I also want to read Mycroft Holmes  by multi-talented Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

7-5 booksbag

Hurrah – Postmark Books now has a lovely bag with their logo on it.

I wasn’t going to buy anything – we are having to be really frugal at the moment – but I couldn’t resist this book (and Don was loving it as well):

7-5 elementsofstyle

My beloved Elements of Style  by Strunk & White – this version illustrated by Maira Kalman. The illustrations are whimsical and charming and they are based on sentences in the text.

7-5 elementsofstyleillustration

Lovely.

This reminds me that a re-read of Elements of Style  is in order. It is the wisest source of sound, basic advice for the writer and I think I’ve probably acquired a few bad habits that need to be corrected.

Our period of birthday and anniversary and Father’s Day celebrations has drawn to a close. It’s been lots of fun, but now we’re back to our daily routine. By the way, Meredith thanks you for all your Happy Birthday messages. She tried to write to everyone, but some of you are No Reply commenters so she couldn’t respond. She was very touched by all the good cheer sent her way.

We’ll close with Sunday evening’s sunset:

7-5 sunset

Happy Tuesday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

Filed Under: anniversary, birds, books, bookstores, Dad 34 Comments

Missing

June 19, 2016 at 10:08 am by Claudia

dadme

You’ve seen this photo before; it’s one of my favorites.

Missing my dad on this, my first Father’s Day without him. Thinking of my sister who is feeling the same sense of loss. And of all of you who miss your fathers.

And of my husband, who is missing being a father to Scout.

A bittersweet day and a day where every post in the blogging world and on Instagram and Facebook seems to be about fathers. So I’m going to lay low.

I’ve not been sleeping well this past week. I wake up in the middle of the night and then I stay awake for hours. It’s very frustrating.

All that being said, we have to have a least one pretty flower picture, don’t we?

6-19 yellowdaylily

The first daylily to open up in the side garden bed. A cheery yellow daylily.

Happy Sunday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

Filed Under: Dad, flowers, garden 24 Comments

In Remembrance: Working on the Memorial Garden

June 10, 2016 at 9:16 am by Claudia

Thank you so much for your happy-for-us comments yesterday! They brought a huge smile to our faces. Today, I will endeavor to get a refund from my healthcare provider of eight days. I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to. Fingers crossed!

Yesterday, we worked in the Memorial Garden. I added topsoil and then realized I hadn’t bought enough whereupon I ran to the store and bought some more, as well as some compost. Lots of shoveling and turning. Don came home early from a meeting because he said he wanted to be a part of the planting process. Good thing! I needed his help digging some holes.

This will be an ongoing project. We don’t have a lot of spare cash at the moment, but even more importantly, we want to take our time choosing plants. We want to find plants that we associate with the dogs, whether it is because of the name of the plant, or a quality of the plant. For example, we chose this little plant yesterday because of its name.

6-10 scentimentalballoonflower

Sentimental Balloon Flower.

‘Sentimental’ works, don’t you think?

Dear reader Martha, who sent me a rose bush two summers ago in memory of my mother, also sent me a gift certificate to White Flower Farm so that I could choose a rose in memory of my dad. I chose a new floribunda, ‘At Last.’ I chose it because it’s hardy and disease resistant and the flowers are a pretty salmon color. But now that I think of it, ‘At Last’ is a perfect name. Dad so wanted to be with my mother again, and I imagine that he was saying those very words when he was reunited with her.

The roses arrived on Wednesday and we planted them yesterday.

6-10 rosefordad

6-10 rosefordad2

It was extraordinarily windy yesterday, but I didn’t want to wait another day to get them in the ground. Insert much cursing from yours truly as the relentless wind knocked some small branches off trees and made it necessary to stake the roses until they had a chance to acclimate.

I felt like King Lear raging at the winds! Don started laughing at me as I shouted curses at the wind (quite creatively, if I say so myself!) All that voice training pays off, you know, I have a powerful voice!

I even rolled my little wheelbarrow up onto the garden bed to block some of the wind coming from the northwest. Yikes. We happen to live on a very windy stretch of road, for whatever reason, and so when it’s windy out there, it’s like we’re in a wind tunnel.

Exhausting! But I checked on the plants this morning and they all seem to be doing well.

Isn’t that a beautiful rose? Thank you, Martha. Much love and appreciation are being sent your way. The rose bush that is in memory of my mom is called “Remembrance.”

I like that. “Remembrance” and “At Last.”

I also planted some Forget-Me-Not seeds sent to me by Martha and by Sheila. I’m presently soaking some Moonflower and Morning Glory seeds to add to the garden as well. Martha also sent me some Rosemary seeds, which shall go in the ground today. Rosemary is for remembrance.

Happy Friday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

Filed Under: Dad, flowers, garden, mom 34 Comments

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • …
  • 30
  • Next Page »
  • Email
  • Instagram

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.

Thanks for stopping by.

Searching?

The Dogs

The Dogs

Scout & Riley. Riley left us in 2012. Scout left us in February 2016. Dearest babies. Dearest friends.

Winston - Our first dog. We miss you, sweetheart.

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

All Content © 2008 - 2025 Mockingbird Hill Cottage · Log in

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Reject
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT