Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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Pet Portraits & Mask Info

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I’m late posting these beauties to the blog as they came during the period in which I didn’t have a computer and I wanted to give them their own post. My longtime blogging friend, Grace, is a wonderful artist. She painted a beautiful picture of Scout a while back, which I have hanging over my desk.

Grace recently did portraits of all our dogs. She posted them on Instagram and soon, they were winging their way from Canada to my post office box. I was stunned when I opened the package – stunned not only by their beauty, but by their generous size. They are extraordinarily beautiful.

They made me cry.

Winston, our first baby, with his favorite ball.

Scout, pouncing, with a twinkle in her eye.

Sweet Riley. I believe he was looking up at me from the porch.

Aren’t they beautiful? I don’t know how Grace does it. There is such detail. I can ‘feel’ Riley’s coat, remember exactly how it felt under my fingers. The same with Winston and Scout.

Oh, how I miss them all.

Thank you, dear Grace, for these priceless remembrances of our babies. You’ve given us such joy. For more on Grace and her beautiful pet portraits, visit her on Instagram at this link.

One more thing for today. Don is overdue for his next visit to the eye doctor, partly because his original appointment was canceled as the doctor had a family emergency. He’s been trying to reschedule but there was no answer at the office. Well, that’s because there was someone in the office – patient or staff, I don’t know – who tested positive for COVID. The office is closed until the middle of this week. He received an update on their protocol from them today: Only medical grade masks because cloth masks do not work on this variant.

I thought I should pass this information on to all of you. We use cloth masks, sometimes double masking. But I just ordered some N95 masks because we’re not going to mess around with this virus.

And what is happening in Afghanistan is breaking my heart.

Stay safe.

Happy Sunday.

Day Two Hundred Seventy

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Boy, I had a bout of sadness this morning. I’d been thinking about Scoutie and Winston and Riley. Don and I were remembering how much Scoutie loved to be in on the opening of gifts and that Winston used sit in front of our San Diego fireplace staring at his stocking because he could smell the rubber/vinyl of the toys that were hidden inside. He’d sit there for an hour – staring.

Then I thought about my parents and brother and how much I missed them.

Sometimes it comes over you in a wave.

Last week, I was chatting with my favorite dealer Sydney, of Fox Run Antiques. (Source of the egg cup cubby, the vintage dollhouse in the kitchen, many butter pats and countless other things including putz sheep.) I asked her if she had any putz sheep this year and she said she did but she wasn’t going to display them because they’re fragile and people steal them. They are indeed fragile. But stealing? So sad.

She sent me some photos of them and I picked out two, which she dropped off at a local antique barn where she has a booth. I paid for them over the phone and on Friday morning, Don waited in the car while I ran into the shop, picked up the bag, said hello to the owner, and immediately ran out again. I haven’t been in an antique shop since March and oh, how I wanted to wander and look and pick up things – especially at Christmas time!

But I didn’t stay. Because that would be foolish. Sigh. Someday.

You know I love to rescue things and both of these sheep have some damage. They needed a home.

A petite putz sheep, with a little stain on the fleece, and the ubiquitous broken ears – that happens a lot with putz sheep. They can break quite easily. My friend Helga, who lives in Germany, actually repairs and replaces parts on her putz sheep. She has a large collection of them, including putz goats and black sheep!)

The other is now the tallest sheep in my collection.

He has a wonky back leg, his fleece is stained, his ears are broken, and the beautiful eye you see has worn away on the other side of his face.

Some of my sheep are in fairly pristine condition. Others are damaged and worn.

All are welcome.

I’ll try to take a panoramic photo of all of them on the mantel above my desk.

We have to do a bit of work outside today. I’m hanging our outdoor lights, we’re storing more things in the shed, and I have to empty a few more pots that now hold dead plants.

Stay safe.

Happy Tuesday.

Saturday Art Work

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I have been chatting with Don as we had our second cup of coffee this morning and I’m running late! The good news: I slept a bit longer this morning. It’s amazing how much difference an extra hour makes. I have never been one of those people (lucky them!) that can function well on too little sleep. Nope; even when I was a kid. I can get by for a day or two, but five? No and no and no.

Oh, and I got frustrated with trying to reapply my nail polish yesterday, most likely because I was so darn tired, so I took it all off. I’ll get back to it one day.

Living room art, part 1.

Our vintage lithograph of the RMS Aquitania. The Aquitania was part of the Cunard line, built in Scotland and launched in 1913 on a trip from Liverpool to NYC. It was an luxury ocean liner but was conscripted for use during both World Wars. In fact, it was due to be retired in 1940, but then WWII broke out and it was enlisted once again. It was officially retired in 1950. It was part of  Cunard’s 3 ship fleet; the Mauretania, the Lusitania, and the Aquitania. The Aquitania was the last of the four-funnelled ocean liners. You can clearly see the funnels in the lithograph.

We found this in a local shop and Don fell in love with it. I fell, too, but he was the one who talked me into buying it. I’m so glad we did. The brass plate at the bottom says “Cunard Line.” It was made by Cunard for travel agencies advertising the glamour of transatlantic travel. Since the Aquitania was only used for the war effort after 1940, we can safely say this is, at the very least, from the 30s.

Finding this piece finally solved my problem of what to hang over the piano. I tried several solutions but this one took. The frame matches the color of the piano, it’s substantial, we love the colors and it makes us happy. It doesn’t hurt that the blues are also in the McCoy and the red is in also in the lamp shade.

Next to that is my Hymns board, found not long after we moved here in a now-defunct antique shop in Beacon. I had always wanted one and I especially loved that this one was an off-white. I don’t display anything on it, preferring it to be clean folk art, which speaks for itself. It’s very old.

To the left, the gallery of our beloved dogs. The artwork, including the sketch, is by Shanna. The photograph is mine, transferred to canvas. I have another beautiful painting of Scout by another blog reader that I have yet to frame. That’s on my to do list.

There’s more in the living room but there was just too much glare this morning. I’ll get to it soon.

Happy Saturday.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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