Don — Page 168

Back At The Ranch

June 15, 2014 at 8:48 am by Claudia

I had no idea what day of the week it was when I woke up this morning. Monday? Saturday?

I finally hit on Sunday.

Where am I?

I feel like I’m in Brigadoon. Out of the fog, a magical and utterly charming little town springs up on the shores of a lake. Since it’s very foggy this morning, I am going to go with that fantasy. Chautauqua is by far the prettiest place I’ve ever coached. No contest.

Today is my day off, so I will be walking around Chautauqua taking iPhone pictures. I am now regretting my decision not to bring my big girl camera. I keep looking for it. It feels like I’m missing an appendage. But at the last minute, with a full suitcase and a large canvas bag filled with laptop, paperwork, chargers, and back up hard drive, I just couldn’t face the task of trying to fit it in.

Live and learn.

Sunday Cottage daisies

I picked some daisies from the edge of the road and put them in a plastic glass which is now a vase. No, I’m not a member of the Chautauqua Golf Club.

How about some more pictures of what’s blooming back at the ranch? I miss my garden. But I don’t miss all the weeds that have taken up residence after all the rain we’ve had this week.

Sunday Cottage rose

Sunday Cottage Lantana

Sunday Cottage Catalpa

The catalpas are about to bloom. I won’t be there for that. Sob.

Sunday Cottage sprirea

The spirea was just starting to bloom when I left.

Sunday Cottage peony

I told Don to go cut some peonies and put them in a vase. I’m sure the rains have beaten them down to the ground and I hate to think of them lying there. If I was home, I’d have taken care of that.

Sunday Cottage rose2

Sigh. So gloriously beautiful.

It’s Father’s Day. Happy day to my dad and to the father of this one:

Sunday Cottage Scoutie

I miss that little scamp. Fortunately, the stage manager has a dog named Stella. If you can’t find me at rehearsal, I’m probably petting Stella and scratching her tummy.

A quick story: there is a scene in the play where the Younger family is packing their things, preparing for a move. The young actress who is playing Ruth Younger has a lot of stage business to do during that scene. While she’s talking, she’s constantly packing things from the living room. During the staging of the scene, she grabbed the 1950s-era phone from the table, ready to shove it in a box. The director said, “Whoa! You can’t pack that.” She looked surprised. So we proceeded to explain to her that there was a time when you didn’t own your phone, when you actually rented it from the phone company.

That was an entirely foreign concept to her.

Boy, do I feel old!

(You can follow along on my Instagram feed if you want to see the most recent photos of my adventure here in Chautauqua.

Happy Sunday.

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The Funky Patio in Spring – A Tour

June 4, 2014 at 9:01 am by Claudia

A few years back, Don decided we should do something with what was the parking area. Well, it still is the parking area, but Don thought transforming a small section of it might be fun and it would give us another seating area. Off we went to Lowe’s where we bought some pavers, then on to a local nursery, where we bought some whiskey barrels. And thus, the Funky Patio was born.

Don has good ideas.

The pavers are a little uneven. I constantly have to weed whack so the patio isn’t taken over by dandelions and grass. But it’s worth it.

funky-patio

We used to pull the car right up to the house. Now, there’s a lovely outdoor patio between the house and the car. Much better. As always here at Mockingbird Hill Cottage, this was done for very little money; just the cost of the pavers and the whiskey barrels. We already had the chairs, the bench and the birdbath.

The chairs are one of my favorite things around here. We bought them from a local antique dealer, gosh, probably about 7 years ago. They are so comfortable! They even rock a bit. We used to have them up in the back forty, but eventually we moved them down to the patio. (I’d love to have two adirondack chairs up in the back forty. Someday.)

The birdbath has been around for quite a while, but when Hurricane Irene sent a huge limb from our Sugar Maple crashing to the ground, the top of the birdbath was broken in two. Those pieces are now in the big garden bed, functioning as garden decor. (Ironically, last year another huge limb from that tree fell – this time right on the big garden bed – and one of those pieces broke in two – again.)

I realized that I couldn’t go without a birdbath. I love watching the birds frolic as they take a dip too much! I managed to find a birdbath where the pieces were sold separately and now the birdbath is once again intact.

robin-in-birdbath

I mean, really, would you want to miss out on this?

I didn’t think so.

funky-patio-galvanized-tub

I replant this galvanized tub every year. This year it has a mixture of sweet potato vine, gomphrena and strawflower. I may stick something else in there. It needs some height – something taller.

funky-patio-geranium

The whiskey barrels are planted with geraniums. The barrels need more plants, but that will have to wait.

funky-patio-lantana

I’ve had this red piece for several years. I really wasn’t using it, so I punched some drainage holes in the bottom and now I’m using it as a planter. That’s lantana, a favorite of mine. Very Southern California, at least, to me. I used to see it everywhere in San Diego.

funky-patio-mom's-pot

More sweet potato vine, this time in a pot my mother gave me. She found it at a local art fair.

It’s a lot sunnier on the patio this year. Losing the latest limb from the Sugar Maple has had an impact on the garden and the patio. I’ll be watching everything closely this summer to see what plants are affected by the change in light. I miss that limb so much. It gave us some lovely shade as it gracefully arched over the big garden bed. The tree looks strange without it.

Ah, well.

Happy Wednesday.

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What Lies Beneath

May 18, 2014 at 8:09 am by Claudia

vistafromthemountaintop

Yesterday we took another 5 mile long trail walk. Only this time, the parking lot was full and we had to park elsewhere (read ‘far away’) and to access the trail we had to climb up the mountain via a set of stone steps that was endless and exhausting and scary for this girl who is afraid of heights.

Not doing that again.

I had to rest a few times on the way up and, to be perfectly honest with you, I wanted to sit down and cry. I cannot tell you how steep those steps were. They seemed to go forever and I was absolutely sure we were never going to get to the top. And I was afraid I would fall.

After that, the hike was a piece of cake.

Even though I will never use those steps again, I felt a real victory in simply meeting that challenge and making it up the mountain.

Hey, at least I can say I’ve done it.

canyouseethehawks?

Can you see the hawks? Whenever I see hawks in the sky, I think of the lyrics from Oklahoma: “…and watch a hawk makin’ lazy circles in the sky.”

Now onto the real meat of my story.

When we got back home, I went upstairs (Don was in his studio/office/the spare room) and popped in to ask Don a question. As I turned to leave the room, I noticed that the framed photo of Mom I have on the wall in my studio was empty.

The frame and the glass were there, but no photo.

Considering the recent loss of my mother, it was a bit unsettling.

As I bent over to search for the photo, which had fallen behind a basket I keep next to the cupboard in the studio, I saw two photos there. At first, before I could see it more clearly, I thought the second photo was of some strangers. And I wondered if Grandma (who gave me the framed photo of Mom) had kept another photo behind the one of Mom.

It turns out she did, but on closer examination, I saw it was a studio portrait, not of strangers, but of my grandmother and mother, taken when Mom was a little girl. I was dumbfounded. I’ve had this framed portrait of Mom for over 30 years. Grandma used to spend hours with us looking through every photo she had of the family. I thought I had seen everything.

But no, I hadn’t. I’d never seen this photo in my life.

I literally gasped when I saw it.

grandma&momrevealed

Here it is.

It’s a hand-tinted, absolutely gorgeous 8 x 10 of my grandmother and my mom.

The young version of Mom looks exactly like the older version of Mom that I knew, minus the tow head. Same expression. Same tilt of the head. Such an ‘old soul’ look on her face.

Grandma is young and stylish and serene.

I immediately took a picture of the photo and emailed it to Meredith, who had also never seen it and was shocked and amazed by this discovery. (I’m going to have a copy made for her.)

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that these photos fell out of the frame. I think it was a message. I was guided to see this new-to-me photo, to know that Mom is with Grandma, that she is okay. Meredith feels the same way.

Their relationship was somewhat rocky as Mom, an only child, asserted her independence from Grandma, who could be controlling, and they had their ups and downs. But they loved each other and this portrait of Mom sitting in her mother’s lap, relaxed and happy and content, tells me they are together again with none of the rancor or tension that was often a part of their relationship. Only with love.

What a gift this is!

Another little miracle. Another message from beyond.

Happy Sunday.

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Back At The Ranch

The Funky Patio in Spring – A Tour

What Lies Beneath

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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