Mockingbird Hill Cottage
As I started my trek upstairs this morning to write this post, I realized I had no new photos to share with you. So I grabbed my camera and went outside.
Oh, the morning light was beautiful! Its rays were shooting down through the shadows of the early morning, softening every tree, flower, and blade of grass.
A lovely way to start the day, topped off by a phone call from Little Z. Oh, I love that boy.
Happy Sunday.
Saturday morning. Light rain falling.
There was a flurry of mowing yesterday because we thought it was going to rain all day today, which now looks not to be the case. Don was out and about yesterday morning, so I started in on the largest swath of the front lawn while he was away. And, you guessed it, I mowed a bit longer than I should have. That, coupled with waking up at 5 am, made Claudia a tired girl. Don came home and finished everything off, thank goodness. We still have to do the back, but that can wait.
I love seeing the lawn just after mowing; a lovely gorgeous expanse of green – nicely green thanks to the three days of rain we had last week. Since we live in the country there are a mix of grasses and weeds that make up our ‘lawn.’ This is not the land of manicured lawns, though most everyone mows and keeps everything neat. I grew up in suburbia and I well remember the fertilizing, edging, and manicuring that went on all over my neighborhood.
I like this better. And I don’t use chemicals anyway, so the lawn is what it is. I need to get a Fit Bit so I can figure out just how many steps I take when I mow.
These daylilies have been fabulous this year. Constant blooms – and a lot of them. I think we’re drawing to an end, though. I’ll miss these beauties.
I’m missing my bunnies and Henry. I did see Henry very briefly about a week ago and one of the larger rabbits. But baby bunny? Nope. They disappeared during the heat wave and haven’t come back. I spent a fair chunk of time observing them and I miss them. I still look for them several times a day, but so far…nothing. I’m wondering if this happens every year and I simply forget about their patterns by the time the next year rolls around.
With Scout gone, I guess I counted on their presence a bit more than usual.
It’s sort of a blue day today. Mom’s birthday was last week. Dad’s estate has just been settled, which is a good thing; however, it is an ending of sorts that brings sadness. And I miss Scout.
Happy Saturday.
I am reminded every day of my love for shades of purple in the garden. It’s not something I plan. I don’t decide to go for a color scheme as some garden designers do. I just plant what I love. There’s purple phlox, purple coneflowers (lots and lots of them), purple hydrangea, purple catmint, and purple blooms on the crown vetch. There’s also a purple butterfly bush:
Purple Liatris:
And, much to my delight, there are purple flowers of the wildflower variety, that pop up here and there on the property.
I’m not sure what this is called, but it’s on the property every year.
This is what it looks like when it opens. So pretty!
Then there’s the Purple Loosestrife that pops up down by the culvert – it likes water. Yes, I know it can be invasive but in my nearly 11 years here, it’s never become a problem.
I became fascinated by this bee. (I have a penchant for snapping pictures of bees.)
I stopped trying to count the variety of bees on this property, including the honey bees in the catalpa. There are a lot. And that is a good thing! We need them.
I putzed around the house yesterday, watered the plants that needed watering, ran a couple of errands, and worked on the new dollhouse project.
I put this together – the box for the fireplaces (one on each floor) plus the chimney. Lots of careful punching out of the pieces, trying to figure out the directions, sanding each piece, glueing and clamping. But it turned out well. Sigh of relief.
That was my dad’s screwdriver. I keep it up here in the studio with my tools.
Today? Mowing. Rain is due tomorrow, so we need to tackle the lawn today. And more work on this fiddly dollhouse project. I’m starting to enjoy it, though. The trick with this one will be making design decisions as I go, not my preferred way to work, but since this is half scale, it would be impossible to get my hands inside each room to wallpaper, for example. So I ordered some half scale wallpaper yesterday, after a futile attempt to find what I want in the scrapbook paper aisle. The prints were way too large in scale. I’ll need to paint as I go, as well. Yikes.
Don’t forget to stop by my post, Let’s Not Let Dryness Get in the Way. If you leave a comment, you’ll be in the running to win a $100 Visa Gift Card! #ad
Happy Friday.
