Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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Thursday Thoughts

June 15, 2017 at 9:39 am by Claudia

In about three weeks, I’ll see my husband. I have yet to make the plane reservation but I’m planning on traveling sometime during the first few days of July. His show closes July 9th. Then, on the 10th, we’ll start out on our trip home.

And in the ‘we’re never home at the same time’ category, I found out that my next show at Hartford Stage starts rehearsals on August 11th. Sigh. I guess we’ll have about three weeks together here at the cottage. I’m, as always, grateful for the work, but not so entranced by another separation.

Taken about 6:30 this morning, as I was trying to get a good picture of the Catalpa blossoms:

The blossoms are everywhere. Since we’re due for rain on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I fear they won’t be with us much longer. The scent is wonderful. As I do my work outside, it hovers in the air. Beautiful.

Roses and roses and roses.

Each stage of the unfurling is beautiful. If I had the time, I’d park myself on a bench and take pictures throughout the day, capturing all the changes.

I mowed the front of the property yesterday. It was a beautiful day; low eighties with no humidity and sunny. Today, the corral and the back forty and I’ll be good to go for another week. Life seems to consist of checking the weather forecast and calculating when I will be able to mow.

Next week, I will be in Manhattan on Tuesday and Wednesday to do a little checking in on Anastasia  and to work with a couple of the actors. Working with the actors is always a pleasure and seeing the show again will be lovely.

Do you ever find yourself wanting to say “I warned you” or “I told you so” when talking about the current state of things in the Oval Office? I do. (I’m only human.) There were so many warnings from so many people about what would most likely happen if he was elected. And it’s all coming true with an extra dollop of corruption, collusion and greed.

Those of us who live in or near NYC were on to him years ago. His corruption was well known – there’s a reason New Yorkers didn’t vote for him. As you know, I wrote about him over the course of four or five posts and certain readers were angry about that and stopped reading the blog.

He’ll be a less than one-term President. Let’s hope that happens sooner rather than later. There is too much at stake.

The shootings that happened yesterday – in Virginia and San Francisco – were tragic. My thoughts are with everyone involved. Violence and guns are never the answer to any problem.

Peace.

Happy Thursday.

Filed Under: Don, flowers, garden 50 Comments

Flowers and a Chimney

June 14, 2017 at 9:28 am by Claudia

There she be! The newly bricked chimney is finished. The metal you see around the top is a cement mold and it will be removed in a week or so. I wanted the bricks to have a faded look and they do.

No more of the blue tarp that has been covering the bricks for at least three years. We had to come up with the money for this job and that took a while and when we were ready to have it done last year, they were already booked through the season. But they put us on their list for this year and we said goodbye to the tarp and it looks normal again up there.

The climbing hydrangea is in bloom. Someday, someday, I hope that it will be completely covered in blooms. I can’t get too close to the hydrangea because that’s where the nest is that Mama Robin is guarding so closely. I did peek in the other day and I saw two little heads peeking out of the nest. But I backed off quickly because I didn’t want to stress Mama.

These roses are making me very happy! Bloom after bloom is opening. My goodness, they’re gorgeous!

The peonies have bloomed (save one – I’ll have to check it today) and are winding down.

The catalpa tree is in full, glorious bloom but it’s so hard to get a good photo of it, partly because it’s a huge tree and partly because the white flowers, which are everywhere, look like little specks. I’ll work on that today. I can assure you, the scent is heavenly.

The remembrance rose is starting to open. My cup of roses runneth over.

Today? It will be warm but not nearly so hot and humid as yesterday, so it’s mowing time. It takes me two days to mow everything and Friday looks like it will be rainy. We never got the predicted thunderstorms yesterday, though there were rumbles of thunder.

I guess I’ll have to water again today!

I’m off to eat some breakfast and get ready to mow.

Happy Wednesday.

 

Filed Under: birds, cottage, flowers, garden, Peonies, roses 30 Comments

Bricks, Roses & A Dwarf

June 13, 2017 at 7:43 am by Claudia

This is what was happening yesterday. And will be happening again today. The chimney is finally being re-bricked. It’s much more involved than I thought.

The local company we use is family owned, two brothers who are as honest as the day is long. I really like them. A great deal of work was done yesterday and today, about 75 bricks have to be put into place and then they’re done. Good thing, because we might have a thunderstorm later in the day.

Needless to say it was noisy and my car was hemmed in by their two big trucks, so I was stuck in the house, but really, I have nothing to complain about. They had to work outside in 93° heat and humidity. I was inside with the a/c going. Grateful this is finally being done.

No more blue tarp covering the chimney!

I managed to snag some bricks from the old chimney and they’re now stacked next to the porch. I can use them for garden borders.

Speaking of the garden:

Lordy, these roses are beautiful. (Homage to James Comey.)

I had another lucky, lucky eBay experience recently. I received an alert in my email telling me there was a Disney Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs egg cup up for auction. I clicked on the link and, once again, there was the ‘Buy Now’ option at a great price. I couldn’t believe my luck!

Yesterday, all the way from Quebec, this guy arrived in my mailbox:

Hey there, Grumpy. Welcome.

And here is that mark:

This one brings my dwarf count to four. That means I yet to find Sneezy, Sleepy and Happy. And the elusive Snow White.

As it is, I had to put Grumpy on another shelf because there’s only room for three of them per shelf (the one hanging in the den.) I may have to rethink where they live. Maybe they deserve their very own shelf?

I love these guys and they’re hard to find, which makes them very collectible.

High temps again today with a break coming tomorrow.

Happy Tuesday.

Filed Under: collecting, cottage, egg cups, flowers, garden, roses 26 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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