Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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Cast Albums, Opening Nights & Blue Jays

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While I’m blogging this morning, I’m listening to “My Petersburg” from Anastasia. Over and over. Sung by Derek Klena, it is my favorite song in a scoreful of favorites. I remember when it was added in the middle of the rehearsal process in Hartford. It’s simply great – as is Derek, the young male lead who is one of the nicest people on the planet. And handsome, to boot!

Anyway, it makes me happy. And since I woke to more rain and a forecast that does not bode well for the next week and a half, I’m resorting to music and crossword puzzles and flowers in vases and homemade biscuits and maybe a trip to the nursery to look for plants for the Guy Wolff pots.

Opening night for Escape to Margaritaville  was a big deal, a joyous and happy celebration. Jimmy Buffett came onstage at the end and everyone sang Margaritaville. There was a huge party afterward and lots of VIPS and producers and Parrotheads. Don had a great time and now everyone will settle into the run of the show. As always, it’s hard to know what to do with all the spare time you have once the daily rehearsals have ended. I well remember from my days as an actress. Now, as a coach, I’m usually leaving town the day after opening.

I sent Don flowers. He sends them to me and I thought “Hey, I should send some to him, too! This is a big deal!” If I had asked him if he wanted flowers, he would have said “Oh no, don’t bother.” But he was delighted by them and I’m glad I did it. We won’t mention my panic when I couldn’t find out whether they had been delivered. The company I used is supposed to email when the flowers have been “hand delivered” but they didn’t. I called them twice and they couldn’t get hold of the florist. It was now one half hour until curtain and I couldn’t contact Don and didn’t want to try to contact him as I knew he would be preparing for the start of the show. Finally, I messaged him (after the show had started) and said that I’d sent something to him and if he had received it, could he message me? At 3 am my time (I was sleeping) he sent a photo of the flowers. Sigh of relief. They were brought to him in his dressing room about 10 minutes before curtain.

The email? It came a day later. Not helpful.

This guy was way, way across the yard and as I snapped several pictures of him, I wondered if he was another kind of jay. I was confused by his gray feathers. But then I googled ‘blue jays and gray feathers’ and discovered that blue jays look completely blue in the sun but in the shade they look gray because their melanin is more in evidence.

I love learning things like that.

Just as I was finishing this, the free weekend streaming of the Original Broadway Cast Album of Anastasia  ended. Sigh. Now I have to wait for my CD to arrive in the mail in about two weeks.

Happy Tuesday.

Seen Around the Cottage

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Seen around the cottage:

Pretty flowers in the Memorial Garden.

Henry made a rare appearance.

And the he got scared and retreated.

Ants and peony buds go together.

Flowers are blooming on the porch.

Two young bunnies were dining this morning.

Love the ears.

Fleabane in bloom.

Flowers on the volunteer Clustered Black Snakeroot – which has herbal/medicinal properties.

It’s a low-key weekend. That’s good and bad. I have a three day expanse of time with very little happening. Good. And Don isn’t here. Not so good.

His show opens tonight. Jimmy Buffett has been there all weekend and he rehearsed Margaritaville  with the cast and made a surprise appearance at Friday night’s curtain call. The audience went wild. He’ll be there tonight as well. His band is also there with him.

If you remember, Don auditioned for him and Jimmy was also there at the start of rehearsals. Don tells me that seeing the show for the first time was very emotional for Buffett. It’s the first time he’s heard Margaritaville  sung live by someone else, as well as the rest of the score. Tonight promises to be very exciting for everyone involved.

Happy Opening, Don!

And Happy Sunday.

Friday

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Seen on a poppy bud the other day – a tiny visitor.

Rain and rain and rain yesterday and this morning, but it is going to stop within the hour, I believe. I felt housebound yesterday. I’d planned on taking a drive (that’s twice this week that my plans have been foiled!) but it was raining so hard that it wouldn’t have been the relaxing trip I had imagined. So I stayed home.

I did listen to the Original Broadway Cast Recording of Anastasia, however! It doesn’t come out until June 9th, but Entertainment Weekly is streaming the entire album all weekend long. Here is the link, if you want to give it a listen.

It’s glorious. I dropped everything, donned my ear buds and was once again transported by the music.

Don’s show opens on Sunday and rumor has it that Jimmy Buffett will be around this weekend. What fun!

Fleabane at the back of the house.

This plant has self-seeded in the big garden bed. It’s not virginia creeper – we have a lot of that around here – but my research tells me if might be foamflower.  But I really have no idea what it is. Any ideas? It has tiny flowers. (Now I’m thinking it might be Clustered Black Snakeroot, which grows in damp places and it’s been a very damp spring.)

I’m always intrigued when something new shows up in the garden, other than all the wild mint and dandelions.

And look what’s growing in the bed in front of the house. Milkweed. There are two of them. It grows in the back forty, but I love that it’s shooting up in the garden beds. We like milkweed and we definitely like Monarch butterflies. So, it’s all good.

Today I am getting out. I have a little drive planned. I’m trying to keep myself busy and entertained while Don is away because this time apart is damned hard. That’s the only way to describe it. So I either read, or work outside, or do something adventurous to break up the day.

Happy Friday.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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