Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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Some Christmas Finds and a Few More Thoughts

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I had an errand or two to run yesterday and I also had to pick Rick up from the bus station, as Doug has been out of town and won’t return until today. On the way to the bus station, I stopped at a local antique shop. Actually, it’s a barn and there are multiple dealers there, including my friend Sydney of Fox Run Antiques. Same place where I found the egg cup cubby. Happily, I ran into Sydney and had a nice chat with her.

I hadn’t been there for a while and I’ve been on a search for some more vintage Christmas. I found two more putz houses:

The green house was made by the Dolly Toy Company, which I referenced the other day.

They were modestly priced at $4 and $5 each, which – for fairly well-preserved vintage – is a good deal.

Then I found another bluebird ornament!

You might remember that I have another bluebird ornament, slightly different in design. It has a “thumbprint” indentation. This one does not. Both of them have the same style of bluebird. It was only $3. I had a brief fantasy of slowly collecting bluebird ornaments and having a whole tree of them, with a bluebird tree-topper. Wouldn’t that be fun? But, since it’s taken me several years just to find two of them, that seems unlikely. If you ever see one, let me know!

With tax, $13 for all three. You can’t beat it.

We had some snow overnight, but it’s just a coating and I can see some of it melting already. Because it was rain transitioning to snow, it was a wet snow and it’s currently coating all the tree branches. Very pretty.

This is my favorite kind of snow because it’s pretty, there isn’t much of it, and the driveway doesn’t need to be shoveled because it stayed wet. If we had this kind of thing all winter long, I’d be fine.

We finished Season 3 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel  the night before last and now we’re watching it over again, which is what we did with the two previous seasons. Excellent. Brilliant. A heads up on upcoming series: Schitt’s Creek  returns to PopTV and the CBC in early January and Grace and Frankie  returns to Netflix in late January.

Thank you for your kind comments yesterday. I knew you would understand my sadness. Frankly, if you didn’t understand, you would most likely have left this blog long ago because I’ve never hidden the way I feel about these things. I try not to be judgmental – it’s a constant struggle because I’m only human – but those who think of animals as expendable and as beings we shouldn’t concern ourselves with are not going to be my pals. Likewise those who berate me and tell me I shouldn’t waste my worry on animals and, instead, worry about humans – as if caring about one automatically rules out caring about the other. That’s a false dichotomy.

Having ‘dominion’ over animals means caring about and for them. It doesn’t give us free rein to slaughter them or abuse them or hurt them. And I don’t believe we are ‘superior’ to them – far from it.

Happy Wednesday.

 

 

Tuesday Thoughts

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I had to share this photo with you, taken last week in the late afternoon when the sun floods the den. I hadn’t yet acquired my newest putz house, so it’s missing from the photo.

There’s been no sun lately! Yesterday it rained all day. Today it will rain all day. Tonight, the rain will turn to snow and we’ll get about an inch or so. Much of the snow already on the ground has disappeared in all the rain.

It’s been a tough couple of days around here. Sunday, as we were returning home, we saw four deer that had been hit by cars. Two of them were near our house – one of those two, just down the road, was a young deer, perhaps one of the four young deer that are frequently on our property. Then on Sunday night, we heard a noise outside but didn’t realize until the next morning that someone had hit an adult deer right in front of our house. That driver never stopped, never checked on the deer. Don had to move it off the road. He, of course, was trying to keep it from me because he knew how upset I would be but I happened to look out so I saw it happening.

You know how I feel about this. It makes me sick to my stomach. Hunting season ended on Sunday and all I heard that morning and every morning for two weeks was the sound of rifles being fired.

People driving too fast down our road. People seemingly not caring about the carnage they have created, not caring about the loss of life. I’m still reeling a bit from all of it. Don was quite shaken by it, as well.

I know that it is sometimes unavoidable, but 95% of the time it is. Staying within the speed limit gives one time to react.

I hope things calm down. I’ve never seen two deer hit in one day on this stretch of road.

Don has to head into the city today and I’ve got some work to do here. We continue to love the Christmas tree and the lights that gleam all day long. The tree seems to make our cottage even more of a haven, even more beautiful and welcoming. We’re grateful for the Christmas season. And thankful for our life here in our little cottage.

I pray for the safety of everyone – human and animal – during this holiday season.

Happy Tuesday.

 

Pesky Deer, Slippers, & Books

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Do YOU have your very own pair of slippers from the Golden Nugget?

I thought not.

I know you’re envious. That’s the kind of thing that happens in the very glamorous jet set life of a voice and text coach.

Actually, Don is  jealous. There was another pair in the closet. I should have brought them home for him. (I did check with the hotel before I packed them, just to make sure it was okay.)

I’m sick about my morning glories. The pesky deer have chewed up all the leaves on the plants that are in the chicken wire fence garden. All of them. They also ate my moonflower vines – which were small and slow growing, but they had finally started to move up to the trellis. I’ve been growing morning glories for years and this is the first time any animal has eaten them. With deer, it’s a seasonal thing. Every once in a while you get a deer that is extra brave and comes rather close to the house. We’ve got one of those guys this season. Conversely, they haven’t eaten one bit of the hostas, which are usually their favorite plants to dine on.

I do have one more morning glory plant that lives on the fence right next to the side/kitchen door. I’m hoping that it is a bit too close to the house for them. And we’re trying to be very vigilant in the early morning and at dusk. We keep getting up and going to the side door to keep watch. And that’s all we can do. It’s just so hard when you’ve been nurturing seeds planted in the first week of May – all this time – only to see them destroyed.

I bought this yesterday. Even though I have to get it on publishing day, I usually don’t read it right away. It will be a year until another one comes out, so I delay my gratification.

Works for me.

Besides, I have plenty of books around here to read. Too many.

Another gorgeous day around here. It’s been so lovely lately. Cool mornings, autumn light, but nicely warm days.

Happy Wednesday.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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