Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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You are here: Home / Archives for flowers

A Monarch & Mr. Robot

August 18, 2016 at 9:36 am by Claudia

Patience is a virtue that I don’t always have. But I do  seem to have it when trying to capture flora and fauna on my camera. I’ve noticed that butterflies tend to come to the butterfly bush in the late afternoon/early evening. Around 6 pm I ventured out to the porch and peeked around the corner at the butterfly bush. Aha! A monarch! (And a hummingbird moth, I might add.)

I ran into the house grabbed my camera and then proceeded to contort myself into a position that entailed leaning out over the porch railing and then torquing my body to the right with camera in hand. For a long time.

Here’s what I got:

8-18 monarch1a

8-18 monarch2

8-18 monarch3a

8-18 monarch4

And, in flight:

8-18 monarch5

There’s more, but I picked the ones I thought were the most interesting. I like to think this one emerged from our very own milkweed plants.

This butterfly bush has been a joy. I planted it a few years back and now it grows very tall each year, with blooms emerging in August. I love its graceful lines. It draws small, beautiful moths, all sorts of butterflies, hummingbird moths – and hummingbirds. If you don’t have one, consider planting one next year. The bloom time isn’t all that long, but boy, is it worth it!

The morning glories and moonflowers are lush with green leaves and are climbing all over the place. Still waiting on some flower buds….

We mowed yesterday and it was exhausting. Since the grass was so long and wet because of the humidity, the mower kept clogging and we’d have to repeatedly stop and scoop up all the cut grass from underneath the mower.

Just under two weeks until the newest Louise Penny is published on August 30th. I will be at the bookstore that day, that I can promise.

Don was on Mr. Robot last night and we kept flipping back and forth between the Olympics and Mr. Robot to try to catch his scene. We were successful! He was wonderful in a scene with his daughter; heartbreaking, sad, bewildered, angry – very real, which, on film, is much more difficult than you might imagine. I’m very proud of him. We haven’t actually watched any episodes in the second season as of yet. We will. So we didn’t try to understand what the heck was going on with the rest of the show; we just caught his scene.

By the way, we didn’t find out that his episode was airing last night until mid-afternoon. I edited this post to include that information and mentioned it on FB and IG. Sorry if you missed it!

Happy Thursday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

 

Filed Under: butterfly, Don, flowers, garden, life, monarch butterfly 34 Comments

Butterflies, Found Treasures & Zinnias

August 17, 2016 at 10:05 am by Claudia

I think…fingers crossed…that the hot and extremely humid weather we’ve been having for over a week and a half has broken. I’ll know more when I venture outside. For the first time in what seems to be a long time, the windows are open.

Yesterday, I glimpsed a butterfly near the butterfly bush. It seemed to be darker than the Eastern Swallowtails that hang around here. Could it be a Monarch, so rarely seen nowadays? I grabbed a camera, ran outside, verified that a gorgeous Monarch was perched on my bush and snapped a picture. Want to see it?

8-17 blurrymonarchbutterfly

It was so humid that my lens steamed up. By the time I realized it and wiped the lens, the Monarch was gone.

And then I surprised a hummingbird – twice – who was dining on the phlox. Again. The steamy lens.

That’s how frigging humid it was here yesterday. At one point, the clouds were covering the sun and I thought it was less humid than it actually was, so I decided to mow the corral. Thirty minutes later, dripping wet, I acknowledged that I had misjudged the atmospheric conditions.

Second shower of the day.

Today, however, I think we’ll be able to tackle the front lawn. Every blade of grass around here is at least 6 inches long. It’s making me crazy.

8-17 naturalwonders

I have this transferware plate that lives on the sideboard. It holds ‘found treasures.’ A fossil and seashells found in Florida and California, an agate, a crystal, a broken sand dollar, a pod, blue glass, broken china found on our property, birds eggs, a decorative nozzle also found on the property. The newest addition is the green teacup handle. Somehow these things just emerge from the ground after years of being buried. I found this in the Memorial Garden.

That’s a wild turkey feather on the left, along with another recently found feather.

As I said on Instagram a while back, these remind me of the treasures that Boo Radley painstakingly hides in the tree – gifts for Jem and Scout. Oh, that book, it melts my heart.

8-17 zinniatobe

A zinnia getting ready to open. The leaves on this one were being attacked by a darned Japanese Beetle. I thought they were gone for the season, so I was rather outraged when I found a beetle eating the leaves on one of my long awaited zinnias. Get out of here, Japanese Beetles! You have overstayed your welcome.

Don’t forget to check out my post on Replens and leave a comment for a chance to win a $100 Visa Gift Card. Just click here! #ad

Heads up! Just got a message that Don’s episode of Mr. Robot airs tonight at 10 pm on USA!

Happy Wednesday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

Filed Under: butterfly, flowers, nature 24 Comments

First and Last

August 15, 2016 at 9:52 am by Claudia

The first zinnia:

8-15 firstzinnia

They’ve been a long time coming. Next year, I am amending the soil in the chicken wire fence garden. It clearly needs some nutrients.

The last of the daylilies:

8-15 last of the daylilies

I had two surprise blooms this week. That nicely extended the day lily season, but I’m pretty sure this is it.

It’s a soggy, humid mess out there. The hollyhock looks like it was struck down by some disease, it hasn’t been, but it is definitely done. The rain has been hard on all the flowers in the garden. There are weeds everywhere. It was cloudy yesterday morning, and it seemed  cooler outside, so I grabbed the weed chomper and worked on the area surrounding the Funky Patio. At the end of five minutes or so, which also included some quick stabs at weeding, I was dripping.

Maybe this is nature’s way to slowly bring me around to the fact that September is a couple of weeks away. The garden looks bedraggled. I only have some much energy/desire to tackle it at this point in the summer. The humidity is stifling.

I’m not kidding. I think Mother Nature has a way of bringing us around to the realization that it’s almost over until next year. She breaks the news gently, but the facts stare us in the face and we have to admit defeat.

Though I’m still waiting on my morning glories and moonflowers and the rest of my zinnias.

Yesterday, I tackled the Helmer drawer unit from IKEA.

Can I just say that it was a pain in the tush? In the interest of total honesty, it was a pain in the tush because I had the drawer glides installed incorrectly and I didn’t realize it until I had cursed for over an hour as I tried to get the damn thing together. I finally realized my mistake and took the whole thing apart.

8-15 cabinetikea

It’s fine now. It’s very inexpensive and, therefore, the quality is fairly flimsy, but it will do until I can afford something else. Or even want something else. By the way, the screws that attach the casters to the base won’t go into the base correctly. They, my friends, were also a pain in the tush.

Little Z’s dollhouse should be a breeze compared to this.

We’re going to try to mow a bit this morning before it gets real hot. The grass is so long – everywhere – and there is still rain in the forecast for this week, so we have to grab any non-rainy time we can get.

Don’s getting a new iPhone today and he’s very excited. He’s been using an older model, much smaller than the one I have, and he needs something bigger and faster. He’s a big guy and he’s got big hands. Since he was eligible for an upgrade, his shiny new phone will be delivered to our door today.

Happy Monday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

 

Filed Under: flowers, garden, Ikea, studio 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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