Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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Still Life While Sipping

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still-life

Still Life On The Dining Room Table. I ran out to get a few things yesterday at the usual places: Target and Trader Joe’s. The alstromeria I bought when I first came to Harford finally bit the dust yesterday (it lasted three weeks!) I wanted to buy some more flowers and though the bright orange plastic pitcher I had been using for the flowers on the dining room table was an interesting choice, it had lost its allure. Looking for a cheap vase that I could reuse at home, I came across a large canning jar at Target – $1.99. Hello! You’re coming home with me.

I have another bouquet on the kitchen peninsula.

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This vase was purchased when I first arrived – $3.99. I can always use vases back home.

Oh, you’re wondering about that tin?

Would you like to see a close-up?

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As a well-known hot chocolate aficionado, you can imagine my delight when my eyes zeroed in on this tin when I was shopping at Trader Joe’s.

Sipping Chocolate. Well, I wondered, how is that different than hot cocoa?

I felt it my duty to read TJ’s description:

Not quite a hot cocoa. Hardly chocolate milk. Oh no. This is a chocolate experience meant to be sipped and savored…a European delight. One taste of our Trader Joe’s Sipping Chocolate and you may feel like you’ve been whisked away to a sidewalk bistro in Rome or Barcelona. This decadent chocolate elixir has been crafted in the European style using only the finest ingredients. Immerse your taste buds in this rich bittersweet chocolate. Simply add milk or water to enjoy this velvety smooth sipping chocolate at home.

You’re coming home with me.

Verdict: It’s really, really good. And it does have a wonderful bittersweet taste, which I really like. $3.99, if I remember correctly. I’m going to make some for Don when he comes to visit. Update: We’re delaying until next week. Don doesn’t have enough time off and we have realized it would be next to impossible to pull it off.

Sad.

After being pretty much exhausted all day long, Scoutie rallied and did her running thing in the park last night. Oh, that girl! She simply amazes me. It’s truly magical. I had to run to keep up with her during last night’s adventure. Imagine!

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This is the view out my window this morning. Not one, not two, but three cranes.

Try not to be jealous.

Thank you for all the wonderful anniversary wishes. We truly appreciate them, my friends.

New post up on Just Let Me Finish This Page about my professional work with actors, words, and Shakespeare.

Happy Monday.

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A Big Book & A Vase of Flowers

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When I was out and about yesterday, and thank goodness I know how to navigate around West Hartford where I can visit Target, Trader Joe’s and Barnes & Noble all on the same road, I made a quick run into B & N. I was looking for a copy of Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, a simply wonderful book about the writing process, and one that I own, but…you guessed it, it’s packed away in the shed. (I wonder how many books I have purchased that are duplicates of the ones that I can’t get to?) Given B & N’s increasing lack of books, it’s a miracle that I found a copy, but I did. And I have to say that this particular B & N, one I’ve been to many times before, has changed during the past year. Less books, more tchotchkes and games and stuffed animals. Like all B & Ns, I guess.

Anyway, I also ended up buying another book, which was on the remainder/sale table.

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Believing the Lie by Elizabeth George. I have a bit of history with this book. I have checked it out from my local library on three different occasions, only to return it, because, at a whopping 608 pages, it was impossible for me to read it in the allotted 3 weeks the library allowed me to have the book. Well, I suppose it wasn’t technically impossible, I’m a fairly quick reader. But the pressure I felt to get it read ended up being too much for me. So each time I checked it out, thinking “This time I’ll do it!” I ended up defeated before I ever really had a chance to start it.

It was on sale for $7.98. Aha! Now I have it, I own it, and I’ll get around to reading it someday when I don’t have other books to read/review. By the way, I love Elizabeth George’s Inspector Lynley mysteries and I’ve read most of them. So I really do want to read this one!

From Trader Joe’s:

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Because every hotel room and/or temporary apartment needs flowers. – preferably easy-care, long-lived ones like alstromeria.

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Yesterday was my day off. Theaters almost always have Mondays as the day off. But, for some reason, the theater where Don is currently working decided to make Thursday the day off during the rehearsal process. So, even though we are 40 minutes apart here and were excited to be able to spend time together, we can’t. What’s wrong with this picture?

Have to go. Today is the first day of rehearsal for the entire cast. A long day ahead and I have to get Dame Scout over to the park before I leave for the day.

She insists on it.

In case you missed it, I posted a lovely interview with Deborah Crombie on Just Let Me Finish This Page yesterday.

Happy Tuesday.

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Travel Day

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Oh boy. What a day we have ahead of us!

I still have to finish packing this morning and take care of what seems like a hundred things around here. There are at least 10 different lists sitting on the kitchen island.

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That’s a bee diving down head-first into the morning glory.

I hope that the walk to the park from the hotel isn’t too far for Scout. That’s what I worried about last night. She limps because of the arthritis in her front leg. She’s a trooper, of course, but it would be so much easier if the apartment was available. So much easier. A quick walk across the street and we’re in the park. It’s more than a few blocks from the hotel.

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This morning glory vine looks like a question mark.

Question of the day: Will Scout adapt to her new surroundings? Will she be able to handle the long walks? Or will I have to take her to Don’s place in New Haven?

This will be a short post, my friends. Too much to do before we head out around noon.

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We won’t even mention how I’ve looked over the weather forecast for the next ten days and the lack of rain makes me concerned for my garden. Or how impossibly beautiful it looks right now as I prepare to leave and how sad that makes me.

It ain’t easy, this living and working away from home.

In fact, it gets harder, not easier.

Sorry for what seems like an excessive amount of in-post ads today. I’m looking into it.

Happy Thursday.

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Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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