Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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You are here: Home / Archives for flowers

On Saturday

May 5, 2018 at 8:10 am by Claudia

Insanely hot and humid yesterday, with storms popping up all over the northeast last night. Interestingly, we didn’t get any rain, but we sure as heck got a lot of wind. Scary wind. I had to run out to the porch with my flashlight a couple of times to batten down the hatches.

What a bizarre 3 days! I told Don I would just like some spring, please. For more than three days at a time.

Today, it is much, much cooler and sunny. I’ll take it.

I bought a long handled lopper the other day, and yesterday found me lopping away at brambles that were climbing up other plants or blocking my way or just plain annoying me. Today, I have to face the music and transport all the cut branches to the woods.

Flowering quince. Note the teeny tiny bug on the leaf.

I love the splash of orange/red.

They’re just about to pop. The heat moved everything along at hyper-speed. The trees have actual green leaves now! What a change in just a few days. It’s almost like Mother Nature was making up for all the spring days that were more like winter days.

This was part of the reason I was hacking at brambles. I had to break through them in order to take a picture of this – my favorite crabapple. I have a question: there are about three or four of these little trees that I would call crabapples. But they’re not all the same. This is the only one that has the pink buds and the flowers are slightly different. Is there more than one kind of crabapple?

Mowing the back forty is on the docket for today, plus cleanup of the aforementioned bramble branches. And some more topsoil. It’s going to rain tomorrow.

Happy Saturday.

 

Filed Under: flowers, garden 32 Comments

Not in the Best Mood

May 4, 2018 at 9:35 am by Claudia

It’s been so frigging hot here (and humid). Since I don’t have the air conditioners in yet, the inside of the house has been very uncomfortable. Three days of this summer weather until it storms later today and goes back to normal. I didn’t sleep all that well and my allergies are going haywire.

And, I saw a lot of bird feathers near the shed, which means one of the cats got a bird and I’m very upset. Especially so, since I’m not hearing my doves and doves are often the victims of cats. I have no way of proving it was one of the doves, but I hear my lonesome dove all the time and I’m not hearing him. I really love him.

So I called Don this morning and cried. I know many of you are cat lovers, but I don’t support letting them roam, especially when there are no fences involved out here in the country. If you’re feeding them and they’re not feral, they should be in your house. They are devastating the songbird population.

I’m angry.

Moving on.

I bought hanging plants for the front of the house the other day. I thought these were the same ones I usually buy, but it turns out they’re not! They’re lobelia. What was I thinking? Answer: I wasn’t. But I like lobelia and sometimes a change is good, so we’ll see how these guys thrive here. They’re awfully pretty.

Leaves are popping out all over the place, even on the maple, which is usually one of the last (except for the catalpa) to leaf out. Three days of 90 degree weather will do that.

So I’ll wait out the heat – unless I cave and try to haul the A/C units in the house by myself. That’s what happened last year.

Happy Friday.

 

Filed Under: flowers, trees 61 Comments

A Mini Heat Wave

May 3, 2018 at 9:40 am by Claudia

It reached 90 degrees yesterday! Way too hot, of course, and that temperature, coupled with winds all afternoon long, has kicked off my spring allergies. I ran some garden related errands and then, because I bought way too many pansies, salvaged as many as I could and planted them in a window box. Without the window.

Robins are taking baths in the birdbath. One of the groundhogs was dining on the grass in the corral. Birds are constantly singing. And all of that makes me smile.

Hello!

This is a crabapple that has popped up right next to and under the catalpa, which doesn’t bode well for its continued existence. I didn’t cut it down last summer as I had planned to and now?

Look at all that bloom! It’s putting on such a pretty show and it would be mean of me to do anything but let it bloom. A reprieve for the little-tree-that-could.

I slept in a bit today and am finally feeling caught up. But that means I have to finish this post and take a shower as I’m going over to Rick and Doug’s for a little french toast.

89 today with storms on the horizon for this evening.

Tonight’s audience at the theater will consist of parrotheads. The entire audience. They bought out the house.

Should be rather wonderfully insane!

Happy Thursday.

Filed Under: flowers, trees 32 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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