Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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You are here: Home / Archives for Don

Saturday Rambling

May 4, 2019 at 10:38 am by Claudia

Sick of the endless gray and rainy days, I headed off to our local nursery to buy some plants. Weather: You’re not going to stop me any longer! I need to pretty up my porch!

You can see just how gray the skies were, but the plants on display everywhere are lovely! This is my favorite nursery and it’s a straight shot down the road from us. Ten minutes at the most.

I bought coleus and vines for the vintage pots out in the Secret Garden, two hanging plants (not the usual three – trying to save a bit of money,) impatiens, some calibrachoa, and a hollyhock. I’ve no idea where I’m going to plant the hollyhock as we’ve dismantled the raised bed that was just outside our kitchen door. That area gets a lot of sun, so hollyhocks do well there. I have to find some sort of planter.

But it was cold and rainy, so I held off planting anything until today. It rained all last night here but the day itself will be rain free. Cloudy, but no rain.

We watched the end of the movie version of Our Town as we were eating dinner last night. It brought forth groans from both of us. Our Town (one of my favorite plays) was – more than most any play I can think of – written for the stage. Not film. The sets are suggested with a chair or a table. The Stage Manager breaks the Fourth Wall to tell us the story. None of that transmits well to the screen, so filling out the story with real sets just looks silly.

Both of us know this play well, as Don has been in it and I’ve coached it.

And…our mouths dropped open as we gasped in disbelief when we realized they had changed the ending of the play so that Emily lives, rather than dies. Are you kidding me? That’s the most important and heartbreaking scene in the play! Unbelievable!

I’m sure the producers decided the audience needed a happy ending. Oh, for heaven’s sake, give the audience some credit! Plus, Martha Scott and an almost unrecognizable William Holden are too old to play George and Emily. When we watch whatever is playing on TCM while we eat dinner, we get a glimpse of movies that we might not watch otherwise and sometimes we make sure to watch the entire movie after that. This one? No. Way.

This is the month in which our new sofa will be delivered. We’re excited. It probably won’t be here until the end of the month, but it’s coming. And every time I sit on the loveseat and feel it sinking a bit more (broken wood brace in the front) I cross my fingers, willing it to hang in there until the new loveseat arrives.

Don’s been working on his guitar playing, teaching himself via a well-known guitarist’s videos. I am fortunate to have Don playing in the background as I write this. Beautiful.

Four of the actors nominated for a Tony Award are actors I have worked with and coached. All of them are incredibly talented. I’m so happy for them. And for everyone else, including some designers I have worked alongside on various productions. And Terrence McNally, the writer of Anastasia  as well as many other plays, is getting a special Tony this year.

Okay. Have to get a move on!

Happy Saturday.

 

Filed Under: Don, flowers, garden, guitar, movies, theater 28 Comments

Egg Cups, Photography & Plants

April 13, 2019 at 9:39 am by Claudia

The theme here is Getting Ready to Dine.

The pig on the left is sitting at a table, utensils at the ready – he’s just waiting for his egg. (Made for Tiffany.) The chick on the right – given to me by Linda, a blogging friend – is adorable and those tail feathers function as a salter. Pull out the tail and salt your egg.

It’s fun doing this yearly egg cup roundup. Now that I have the cubby, I open the doors, look at all the egg cups, and then I try to put together some sort of theme. The challenge is to remember to include the egg cups that I have displayed in other areas of the house.

Looking at them makes me happy.

I cleaned the bathroom yesterday, vacuumed the house, that sort of thing. Then I sat down and worked on the dollhouse for a bit. I’m using wood putty to fill in some openings. While I was there, I listened to a music app on my bluetooth speaker. Yesterday, my mood was “All Antonio Carlos Jobim.”

Do you remember when I had to put the Boston fern outside and the wind knocked it to the ground? A few days later, in yet another insane wind, it happened again. I ended up putting a heavy rock in the base, but those two falls damaged the fern. Lots of broken fronds. A couple of days ago, I was sweeping the porch and stopped to examine it more closely. It didn’t look good. So I brought it back inside. It’s now up in the office. I think putting it out in weather that was just too cold was a shock to the plant. The falls didn’t help. So I’m nurturing it up there until the weather is warm enough to safely put it outside again.  And it had been looking so beautiful right before I put it outside! All that work to keep it healthy only to have so many fronds broken during those godawful winds.

But it’s already improving.

You wouldn’t know it to look outside at the moment (it rained all night long) but it’s supposed to reach 74 degrees here today! It that holds true, Don may be able to get out and start taking polaroid portraits again. He’s really missed doing that. Our friend Jean Andre Antoine – another Crown Graphic Press Camera photographer – was profiled in the New York Times on Thursday. I follow JAA on Instagram, so I saw his link to the story early on Thursday. It’s a terrific profile of a lovely man. He’s one of many former students of Louis Mendes – although you’re never a former student of Louis. The mentoring is ongoing. In fact, Louis wants to come up here for a day in the next month or two and take some portraits with Don.

We have portraits by Jean Andre and they’re beautiful.

More dollhouse work on the docket today.

Happy Saturday.

Filed Under: Don, Easter, egg cups, houseplants, photography 24 Comments

Spring

March 20, 2019 at 10:34 am by Claudia

Happy First Day of Spring! (Finally!)

“As is” in this photo. Don’s books, headphones, charger, various coasters – all on the coffee table. You might notice that Don’s vintage camera is now on the lower shelf of the blue table. I finally managed to persuade him to move it from its longtime home on the red-checked chair. That chair is one of my favorites (a $50 steal way back when we lived in San Diego) and I miss having the option to sit there. It was as if we had a constant guest sitting in that chair: “The Camera Who Came to Dinner.”

Speaking of the camera, Don will soon be able to get back outside taking his Polaroid Portraits. It’s been a long stretch of no picture taking and I know he misses it. He’s already signed up for the weekly Farmer’s Market (he’s been very successful there.) Don’s a social guy – much more so than me – and he loves meeting people and taking their pictures. Can’t wait to seem him work his magic once again.

Yesterday, I spotted some day lilies emerging from the ground in the garden bed right outside the living room. I’m sure there are a lot more around the various garden beds, but they’re covered in leaves and I won’t uncover them until we are past nighttime freezes. And we aren’t. Sometime next month.

We watched two documentaries this week: Won’t You Be My Neighbor?  about Fred Rogers, and the other, Free Solo, about a guy who climbed Ed Capitan in Yosemite without ropes – just with his two feet and his hands. Both were wonderful. Won’t You Be My Neighbor?  brought tears to our eyes. What an extraordinary man he was with such a kind, compassionate, and giving heart. And Free Solo  was a terrific portrait of a man driven to climb. There were moments when I had to cover my eyes, but boy, was it powerful. Both of the docs are on the On Demand channel on our cable – and they’re free. Free Solo  won the Academy Award for Best Documentary this year.

Today’s weather is going to be in the 50s and I’m going to open the windows and the front door, because Thursday and Friday are going to bring a lot of rain.

Enjoy this first day of Spring, my friends.

Happy Wednesday.

Filed Under: camera, Don, movies, spring 27 Comments

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Welcome!

Welcome!

I live in a little cottage in the country with my husband. It's a sweet place, sheltered by old trees and surrounded by gardens. The inside is full of the things we love. I love to write, I love my camera, I love creating, I love gardening. My decorating style is eclectic; full of vintage and a bit of whimsy.

I've worked in the theater for more years than I can count. I'm currently a voice, speech, dialect and text coach freelancing on Broadway, off Broadway, and in regional theater.

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