Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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Checking In on a Wednesday

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The clematis is about to bloom like crazy. Over the years, it has moved from its place in front of the boxwoods and is now weaving its way in and out of the boxwoods. This shot is from my perch on the porch, looking down.

Looking toward the front lawn:

You can see all the buds coming up from within the boxwoods. More buds than I can ever remember seeing!

I yanked lots of poison ivy yesterday. The clematis is  lush this year, as is the poison ivy – also more than I can remember seeing. It’s impossible to get to all of it, of course, but I managed to eliminate quite a bit. Then I pruned the brambles, and the picker bushes, and carted lots of buckets of cut branches to the pile by the shed. Lots of chores were attended to inside the house, as well.

(Don’t worry, I’m careful with poison ivy: I have special gloves and special pruners and they are kept in a box marked “Poison Ivy.”)

The wallpaper package still shows as “not received” by the Washington DC post office. I think this particular facility has its problems. It seems to take them a couple of days to actually scan the label. I’m used to a quicker turnaround in my neck of the woods. Anyway, it’s frustrating. Lord knows there’s plenty of work that needs to be done around here, including mowing the lawn again, but I try to space that out because of my allergies. In the meantime, I’d like to be working on the dollhouse.

Grocery shopping is on the docket for this morning. We’re out of everything.

Exciting, right?

I’ve changed my browser and search engine. Google is now 100% AI and I want nothing to do with that. It you’re not aware of the danger of the huge data centers associated with AI, you should research that. And AI is essentially theft of others’ work, not to mention the amount of people who have lost and will lose their jobs because of it. They’re really trying to shove it down our throats. Nope. I stand firm.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

Prettying Up the Porch

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I am tuckered out today. I did a lot of work outside this past week and much of it involved bending over repeatedly. Back aches, along with a major allergy flareup, have resulted in my surrender today. I need to take a break. Fortunately, it’s going to rain all day today, so I will not be tempted to “just do do a little something.”

I went to the nursery and, hurrah! – the impatiens had come in. I put together a flat, found some more lobelia in a paler purple, and the geraniums I grow in the barrels by the funky patio. And more potting soil. I still have to buy a certain kind of hanging plant that I use every year, and some coleus for a pot in the secret garden. I’ve decided that I’m only going to use one or two pots out there this year. That will save some money.

Came back home and started in on my porch project. I had to retreive the pots I use from the shed and then I proceeded to happily pot flowers for the next 3 hours. I swear, I was so happy! Nothing makes me happier than working in the garden and adding flowers to the porch. Don came out on the porch after I was done and thanked me for prettying up our favorite place. We sit out there a lot, Don plays his guitar there, I sometimes go out there with a cup of coffee very early in the morning and listen to the birds sing. We love that porch.

Nothing surprising here, it’s my usual setup. Hey, it works, so why mess with it? I want dependable at this point in my life.

The impatiens will begin to fill in pretty quickly. Before you know it, they will be quite lush.

So that’s pretty much done, save for one more hanging plant.

Hurrah!

Then to make it an even better day, I walked down to get the mail and decided to check out our culvert – the section that always has water. As I neared, I saw something jump in. It was a frog! A large frog. Has Phileas come back, or is this Phileas Jr.? I immediately went inside to tell Don and he was so happy. Unfortunately, when he ventured down to the culvert later in the day, the frog was MIA. But I reminded Don that that often happened last year. I hope Don can see him soon.

Okay. Time to rest.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

Pink

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I love that limelight hydrangeas turn pink. It’s the kind of thing you’d expect to happen in the spring – pinkish pastel flowers – but no, limelights turn everything upside down and give us this delicate pink in the fall. What an unexpected treat.

This week has been quite beautiful, with temperatures in the 70s, cool mornings, and abundant sunlight. We’re still in a drought and the rivers are very low. This is a repeat of what happened last year. I’m not so stressed about it this time because I know at some point we’ll start getting a ton of rain. Just not now.

I’m reading Katabasis, by R.F. Kuang. It’s quite magical, in fact, it’s about doctoral students at Oxford University studying to be magicians. It’s much more than that, though. Two of them travel to Hell to bring back their recently deceased mentor. The first Kuang I read was Babel. I really loved it. I then tried The Poppy Wars Trilogy (maybe her first books?) and I got about halfway through them and lost interest. Then I read Yellowface, which was wonderful. And now, Katabasis. Rebecca is a truly wonderful author. I love the way her mind works. Fantasy fiction is not a genre I am drawn to, as a rule, but Babel was so impressive that I vowed to read more of her work. And she is impressive. If you ever read her bio, you’ll see what I mean. I can’t conceive of accomplishing all she has at such a young age. I’m reading at least 100 pages a day so I can finish it and get to the next book in my queue. Katabasis  is due on the 25th, and The Hallmarked Man  is due on the 30th. A note about the latter book. It’s written by Robert Galbraith who is really JK Rowling. I’ve read all the books in this mystery series, and hesitated about this one because of Rowling’s hateful anti-trans stance. I’ve been disgusted by her actions. So, I vowed not to buy the book and I haven’t. No more money in her coffers. I got in a queue for it in our library system. It clocks in at 897 pages, so I’ll have to do the same kind of scheduling I did for Katabasis. Luckily, I have a fair amount of free time at the moment.

I also have the newest in Mick Herron’s Slough House series, Clown Town, which I preordered a few months back and promptly forgot about. It arrived here last week. And Louise Penny’s newest is on the horizon. It’s a good time for losing myself in books, and heaven knows, I need that. We all do.

Tonight is opening night for the play. Break a leg, my friends! (I’m also happy because that means I will get the second half of my fee and a check for travel reimbursement sometime next week.)

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

 

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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