Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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You are here: Home / Archives for flowers

Presents, Songbirds, Flowers & Chairs

April 29, 2017 at 7:57 am by Claudia

A presents day yesterday, from others and from me to me/us!

Nancy, who is a longtime reader of this blog, sent me a package full of wonderful treasures. Three more Hardy Boys for Don, a Nancy Drew for me, and two beautiful pieces of miniature pottery. The moon-faced pitcher (Nancy told me to google it for interesting information) looks like it was made by Enesco and was also manufactured in other colors and lustreware finishes. The other piece is a Shawnee miniature.  I love everything.

Thank you so much, Nancy! What a generous gift!

I also received a package from Don. I didn’t take a photo of it because it’s a T-shirt, but it’s from the famous Blue Swallow Motel on Route 66 and it has a great logo. Perfect for this bird-loving girl.

The flowers Don sent me for opening night. The roses have opened and the pale pink peony is about to open. Aren’t they gorgeous?

From me to me: another Nancy Drew. This is one of the later editions illustrated by Russell H. Tandy. We’re getting there – only seven more to go but a few of those are extremely hard to find!

We get a pile of sales circulars in the mail every week and I usually throw them in the recycling pile without even looking at them. This week, for some reason, I looked through them and saw one from The Christmas Tree Shops. I decided to quickly take a look at it – thank goodness I did – and what did I see? Adirondack chairs made out of cedar for $49. What????? Not only that, but they fold up, so we can store them in the shed (if we ever clean it out.)

I drove across the river yesterday and came home with them.

If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you know I have always, always wanted a couple of Adirondack chairs! I’m so excited! I could paint them, but I think I’ll leave them natural, with the addition of a clear coat. Cedar ages well, and our porch furniture tends to be weathered wood.

They’ll go on the porch. I’m on the hunt for colorful cushions. I haven’t put them together yet. Maybe today, but I also have to mow so we’ll see what happens.

I mowed the back forty yesterday, as well as the corral. Today, the front yard, because it’s due to rain tomorrow.

It’s finally time to soak my morning glory seeds. I’ll be sowing them on Monday, along with zinnia and moonflower seeds. Huzzah! And, I have yet to buy impatiens for the porch or flowers for the planters, but I did move all the plants I overwintered this year back out to the porch.

Spring is here.

I made a cup of coffee this morning and went outside to sit on the funky patio. It was about 6:15 and the air was full of bird song. Glorious. I’m going to do it more often. At that point in the day, traffic is fairly quiet around here and the songbirds can take center stage. It’s a beautiful way to start the day.

Happy Saturday.

 

Filed Under: books, collecting, flowers, Nancy Drew, pottery 33 Comments

Early Blooms

April 28, 2017 at 8:50 am by Claudia

Early spring flowers on bushes and in trees are blooming here at the cottage. As I said on Instagram yesterday, it’s been a late spring, slow in coming, but oh-so-worth it!

As I walked down the driveway this morning when it was still relatively dark, I caught a whiff of the lilacs. Heaven. It’s going to be warm today so I’m pretty sure the rest of the flowers will emerge.

More crabapple beauty.

Hello, flowering quince!

I have some mowing on the docket for today. The back forty needs its first haircut. And, of course, more mowing will be needed for the rest of the lawn which grows by leaps and bounds in early spring – especially with all the rain we’ve been having.

Went to a zoning board meeting last night re: the development/glamping site that we are fighting. I have no idea how this will end, but we’re fighting the fight. I even have a spiffy new sign to put on my lawn!

Happy Friday.

Filed Under: flowers, spring 31 Comments

Working Outside

April 21, 2017 at 10:00 am by Claudia

Soon. They’re getting bigger and plumper.

I ended up hacking away at the brambles yesterday. There is no way I can take them all on, or even 1/16 of them. And, though they’re a pain, when they bloom they’re gorgeous – because they’re actually wild roses. But they have a tenacious quality that requires trimming them before they take over everything.

I started over by the now dead shag hickory where the crabapple I discovered two years ago is about to bloom. Thinking in practical blogger terms, I knew I couldn’t get close to it to take a picture unless I pruned a lot of the brambles. So I did.

Then I moseyed over to the other crabapple that I discovered a couple of days ago and decided to hack through that to clear a path to the tree. There was already the beginning of one, it just needed my pruners, as those pesky branches were trying to reach across the opening and block my access.

Two hours later, I was exhausted and there’s still a pile of cut branches that I need to move.

Another day. As today is rainy, so I have the perfect excuse to ignore them.

I tried to take a picture but it’s hard to see the tree among all the other trees.

It’s clear there was a rock boundary along the area where the path begins. You can’t see it here, but it’s there. So I’m going to try to keep pruning this area so it doesn’t get more out of control than it already is. I remember when we first moved in our neighbor told us that the previous owner tried to keep the brambles under control to no avail.

I hear you, former owner.

I took my second shower of the day after this adventure and treated myself to homemade “cloud biscuits” for dinner.

Any day now, the leaves on the maples will be providing beautiful shade. I can’t wait until there are green canopies everywhere.

Barnaby – side view. Equally adorable.

Several people have suggested making the bunny egg cozies and selling them on Etsy. Here’s why I’m not doing that: first, it’s a pattern that was created by another blogger, which she sells on Ravelry. Though I purchased it, of course, I don’t feel right about selling a creation that I am able to knit only because of her wonderful idea. The scarves that I sold were from a pattern that was all over the internet, sort of in the general domain, with no one credited specifically with the design. So I felt that was okay.

And, the last time I made a slew of scarves to sell on Etsy, I had a holiday deadline and I made so many of them that my right wrist suffered. It’s much better now, but I have to be careful how long I hand quilt or knit or crochet. Too much of any one of them is not good.

So…no selling on Etsy. But thank you for the compliment of wanting one! I really appreciate that.

If you ever get any bounce back emails saying your comment wasn’t accepted (I don’t know if you get them, but I do, both when I leave a comment on another blog or when I receive emails about your comments on this blog) ignore them. The comment always goes through. It has to do with AOL, in my case, not always ‘accepting’ those notifications. I called my host about it yesterday and they said if that happens, they just ping the comment again and it goes through. In fact, in every case where I receive an email saying something wasn’t ‘accepted,’ I get another email at the same time saying it was. I’ve noticed this phenomenon for some time when I leave comments on Blogger blogs. Same thing. It says my comment wasn’t accepted, even though I can see it right there on the blog post!

Hope that made sense.

Happy Friday.

 

Filed Under: cottage, flowers, trees 22 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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