Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Life in our little cottage in the country

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A Weekend At Home

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Home. The gardens are overgrown, weeds are everywhere. Though some plants are blooming in a rather spectacular fashion, others are fading. I’m seeing that mid-August decline that means autumn is around the corner. I planted lots of zinnias in the spring and this is the only one that has bloomed, though the others are not far behind.

I yanked a few weeds yesterday evening, but I have lots more to pull. When I asked Don during our drive home if he had weed wacked, he said no, even though I had told him all about the batteries being fully charged and ready to go before I left. Oy.

When Don pulled into the parking lot at the apartment in Hartford, I ran down to meet him and Miss Scout was in the back seat looking out the window. When I walked up to the window, she was so excited to see me that she was trembling. We had a little adventure; she rode in the elevator, pounced with joy as she explored the apartment and the three of us took a walk in the park.

Oh, how I missed her.

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Isn’t she a beauty?

Today’s agenda involves lots of the aforementioned weed wacking, weeding the garden beds, and some mowing. Yay! And, like a kid home from college for the weekend, I have to do my laundry.

This is where my girl is stationed at the moment. In the ‘tunnel.’

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Happy Sunday.

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I Really Don’t Know Clouds At All

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I was going to insert a little poetry here, as I have the last two Saturdays, but I cannot look at a cloud without hearing the words of Joni Mitchell and then the voice of Joni Mitchell. Or Judy Collins.

I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now,
from up and down, and still somehow,
it’s cloud’s illusions I recall
I really don’t know clouds at all.

And so it goes. The melody, the lyrics, endlessly looping through my brain.

Do you have an ongoing bit of music playing in your head all the time? I do. I hear snatches of melodies, a bit of this, a bit of that, all the time.  If not music, it’s dialogue of some sort. It used to be when I had to transcribe lots of text into a dialect using phonetics, I would have a running transcription session endlessly playing in my brain. I would dream transcription. Same with typing on a keyboard. But it’s mostly music that is always there in the background and I’m often unaware of it until I focus for an instant and realize the same tune has been repeating itself over and over like the soundtrack to a movie. Or the soundtrack to my life.

I can’t be the only one this happens to, can I? I bet not.

In other news, I was looking at my hastily pinned up row of strips,

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and thought how like artwork they are. I pinned them (with sewing pins) to that wall just to see how they might look bordered by white fabric. But I’ve left them there because their bright colors make me happy and enliven a bland corner of the room.

Sort of a neat idea for a graphic splash in your home, don’t you think? Pin some strips of fabric to a wall and presto – you’ve got instant art.

I’m rather liking them here in this temporary living space. Such a wonderful punch of color.

Glory be, I get to go home for two days this afternoon! I have a morning rehearsal for Macbeth, then Don will arrive around 2 pm and we will make our way to the cottage. I have to be back on Monday night for a Tuesday morning rehearsal. That’s okay. I just need 48 hours or so with my little family.

I told Don to bring Scout along on the ride here because I simply cannot wait to see her. My plan is that Don and Scout will arrive, she can briefly come up to the apartment (she stayed here for 3 days in January and she loves the elevator) and we will take her for a walk in the park, which she really loves. Then we’ll pile in the car and head for Mockingbird Hill Cottage, where I will reacquaint myself with the now, I’m quite sure, overgrown garden, immediately decide that I need to weed-wack and, upon entering the cottage, see every surface that needs cleaning.

Happy Saturday.

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On Missing My Garden And My Girl And A Little Bit on Blogging

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Despite the efforts of my adored deer friends, who like to chomp on these plants because they’re right on the edge of the garden, my sweet flowers were in full bloom when I left for Hartford.

Perfect for a cottage garden.

I’ve been away for 4 days and can’t help but wonder what the heck is happening in the garden. I left a watering schedule for Don, which he was gung-ho about on Monday. However, as of today, we’ve already reached the point when I have to remind him about the patio flowers, the flowers that are coming up from seed on the edge of the dog corral and the birdbath. Last night, I realized he hadn’t mentioned any watering in the recap of his day. So, after my bath, I grabbed the phone and ‘gently’ reminded him.

Flowers and birds: I’ve got your back.

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On more than one occasion, I saw a Hummingbird Moth approach the many phlox blooms to sample their delights, as well as beautiful butterflies and bees. The scent from those flowers is heavenly.

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Let’s take a guess as to how many weeds will await me when I get home for a visit. The answer: lots and lots.

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Over the past several years, I’ve often had to leave home for a stretch of time in order to coach a show. But interestingly, I’ve never left home at this time of year. It’s usually in the spring, as the garden is re-emerging from the ground. This leaving in July is new to me. What will I miss?

Yesterday, as I left rehearsal, there was a car idling in front of the building. A man was behind the wheel and was clearly waiting for someone. In the back seat was a happy, panting white and tan Aussie Shepherd who reminded me so much of Scoutie. Same smile on her face. Same love of being in the car. Same sense of adventure.

Talk about a pang straight to the heart.

Missing my girl on this Thursday morning.

A Thought or Two on Blogging

My friend Dawn successfully moved her blog to WordPress yesterday. I kept checking my phone all day long as she updated me via email on the transition, which was flawless. She’s pretty excited, as she should be – her blog looks beautiful. When the transition is made from Blogger to WordPress, it often takes up to 48 hours for everyone to see it. That’s because servers all over the world update at different speeds. But I was able to see her new blog right away – both on the theater’s computer and on my laptop. Stop by and pay her a visit. Like me, she designed her site all by herself and did the move herself. It’s empowering. It also saves a lot of money!

As to WordPress or Blogger and what works and what doesn’t work, Brenda had a lot of trouble on WordPress and she eventually chose to start over on Blogger. I know how stressful it was for her. WP ended up not being the right fit for her. I haven’t had any trouble. I love this platform which gives me all sorts of design possibilities, where I can and do own my content and that includes all the photos I have posted in the year I’ve been here. My photos from all my posts on Blogger are stored in Picasa. If I canceled that account or deleted my original blog, they would disappear from posts in my archives here on WordPress. Because Blogger owns them. By that I mean that the photos are linked to the original blog on Blogger and live in Picasa. There they will remain. I’m not comfortable with that. I also enjoy the process of writing a post in WordPress far more than I did in Blogger. But that’s my experience. Each of us has our own comfort level and has to find a home in this blogging world that feels right. I hope that the move back to Blogger will feel right for Brenda. Here’s the link to her new site.

In the end, everyone’s adventure on Blogger, Typepad, Tumblr or WordPress is distinctly their own. I had a lot of trouble on Blogger where my blog was hacked on four different occasions. And, save for the first time when someone was sympathetic to my plea for help in the Forum but could not ultimately help me, not one of my ensuing pleas was answered. Not one. I felt scared and abandoned. So I hightailed it out of there. For me, it was worth it to pay for a host and for additional security. Since I’m paying for all of that, I can access help and support at any time.

All this is to say that your adventure in blogging is your own. If you’re happy on Blogger or Typepad – wonderful!  If you’re considering a move to WordPress, go for it. I’ve never regretted it for one minute. I feel just as connected to all of you as I did on Blogger. After all, the blog, which is written from my heart, remains the same. The content remains the same. And that’s what ultimately matters.

There’s room for everyone on whatever platform you choose. Heck, I’d even venture to say that we need all those platforms because there are millions of bloggers out there and more and more are being added every day. There’s a platform out there to suit each and every need. And isn’t that terrific?

Happy Thursday.

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