Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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Busy, Busy

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I’m reduced to taking a photo of my feet propped up on the coffee table while the morning sunlight is peeking through the windows. On my iPhone because I’m too lazy to get up and retrieve my big-girl camera.

Here’s the problem in Hartford. I’ve been coming here once, sometimes twice, a year to coach for six years. I’ve explored lots of nooks and crannies in this town and it’s lovely. But I’ve been there and done that, so to speak. The days I usually reserve for ‘roaming’ are my days off and this time around, my days off are being spent back at the cottage because Don will be going away soon and Stella is coming and the yard needs to be weeded, etc. Rehearsal days, this week especially, are long and by the time rehearsal is over, I have to hightail it back to the apartment to make dinner.

And watch Rachel.

Hopefully, once we head onstage, I’ll have some free time during the day and I’ll take some walks and snap some pictures. I do love that. I haven’t been to the library yet (my favorite place) or the Capitol building or the Connecticut River. And I have to remind myself that I haven’t been here for a long stretch in anything other than winter weather for a while. I have to take advantage of blue skies and lovely August weather!

Don’s trying to track the stove but there was no update yesterday. That often happens to me when I try to track mail or a UPS package. He does need to know, however, since so many things hinge on when that stove is delivered, not the least is organizing his friends who are going to help load it onto the dolly and into the cottage. He’ll call the shipping company this morning.

In the meantime, since the Salvation Army is picking up our current stove today, he will be stove-less for several days. For Don, it’s an excuse to eat out, so he’s perfectly fine with that. Rick and Doug are currently in town for a few days and they had dinner with Don last night. The three of them had a great time and laughed themselves silly. That makes me happy.

Exciting times ahead. Don got an email from the Company Manager about housing in New Orleans, which reminds me that Don starts rehearsals in NYC on September 11th and then moves on to New Orleans (where they’ll tech the show and perform for a week) on October 8th. And then, he’s off and running until early December.

Yes, I will be in New Orleans at some point and my sister might join us there.

I will also be in Chicago. I have family and friends there and my birthday falls during the run as well as Thanksgiving, so I’ll have to figure out the best time to be there. I do have to handle things back at the house, so I’m not going to Houston. And Rick and Doug are moving here at the end of October and I’d like to be around when they first start to settle in.

Lots on the docket. But we’re grateful.

Happy Thursday.

 

 

Back On The Job

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And in the blink of an eye, I’m back in Hartford.

Well, not exactly the blink of an eye…when I realized that I had to make a few stops on my way back to Hartford, I decided to leave a bit earlier. I’d even considered driving back this morning, and I could have done that, but I knew I had to stop at Whole Foods and buy groceries and I have a 12:00 rehearsal call and, with the traffic on I-84, I knew I’d be pushing my luck.

So, I arrived here around 4:30. Too soon, considering I’d been happily ensconced at the cottage. But, duty calls. And I’ll be back there on Sunday night.

Sigh.

I think coming back to Hartford resonates more this time around since Don will be headed off to NYC before my time here ends and we’ve spent a fair amount of time apart this year. With the tour and next year’s extended time in NYC, we’ll be apart a great deal of the time. We’re grateful for our blessings but they don’t override the hardship of being separated.

Sigh again.

Anyway. That’s the way it is now and will be for a while. We’re working – both of us – and that’s always exciting and rewarding.

We were sitting on the porch yesterday, having coffee, and we started to talk about the fact that both the eclipse and our stove were starting their journey across the country at the same time. So, we grabbed our phones and started googling ‘goddess of the sun’ and ‘goddess of the moon’ and the word for ‘eclipse’ in other languages. Don reeled off more than a few but I interjected that if the name is so difficult for us to pronounce that we can’t remember it, it’s a no-go.

Finally, after about 10 minutes of this stuff, Don came up with Stella. We looked at each other and said “Yes, that’s it!” So, Stella, it is.

I bought these shoes in LaJolla and I haven’t worn them yet! The fabric looks rather like satin, so I’m not about to wear them when I’m slogging around our property. I tossed them in the car when I was packing up to return to Hartford. Today? Rain. But I’m going to wear them soon.

They make me happy.

Happy Tuesday.

Forty-Eight Hours

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I’m home for 48 hours. I got home in time for one of Don’s great dinners (how I’ve missed his cooking!) and The Manchurian Candidate on TCM. I’ve seen it many times, but I’ve watched it twice since Trump took office and its chilling premise is not far off from our current political climate. What seemed only faintly possible at the time it was released is happening in its own way now. Frank Sinatra had to hold the release of the film at the time as the assassination of President Kennedy by Lee Harvey Oswald, who had Russian connections, was so devastating that the subject matter of the film would have been too much.

It’s always been chilling. It’s even more so now.

Don found some treasures in our ongoing archaeological dig in the corral:

Another portion of a plate with gold edging and blue flowers, another piece of the plate, and a white marble. Pretty soon I’ll be hiding these in a tree just like Boo Radley did in To Kill a Mockingbird.

The hollyhock that I planted this year has new growth near the base of the plant with flower buds. By the way, everything needs to be weeded here. There’s been a lot of rain in the last week and I can tell! Some of it was so heavy that it beat down some of the phlox and coneflowers. And a nest fell out of a tree.

Morning glories – this morning.

And zinnias.

Lots to do here today. Work on the sticky floor, laundry, weeding and weed whacking.

Finished the Michael Connelly on rehearsal break yesterday – it’s excellent! I started Karin Slaughter’s newest but it’s a bit slow going at the present. I’ve learned to trust her writing, though, because she knows what she’s doing.

Happy Sunday.

 

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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