Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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On the Agenda: Coffee, Books and NYC

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Two foggy mornings in a row.

I love a foggy morning. It’s such a sweetly mysterious way to start the day. If my memory serves, those kind of mornings seem to happen more often as we move into Autumn.

Hurrah! I had my first cup of coffee this morning with half and half. No more black coffee because of the antibiotics. See? My needs are few. But it didn’t taste quite the same to me as the coffee does when Don makes it, so when he got up I asked him about it. Turns out he adds an extra scoop. Ah! Bless him, he made another cup for me and I am happily sipping it while working away on the laptop.

purple thistle

These thistles are growing wild alongside the house. Lucky me!

I’ve decided to treat myself to a trip into NYC tomorrow. I have to buy some material for my work on Hamlet, and what better place to go but my favorite bookstore in the world – The Strand. And, to top it all off, I’m going to Barnes & Noble on the Upper West Side, where Louise Penny will be signing her newest book, The Long Way Home.

I’m so excited! I decided that after being housebound for so long, I deserved a treat and Don agrees wholeheartedly. So I’ll take off in the morning, go to The Strand and spend lots of time there and maybe stop by Anthropologie and then I’ll have a meal somewhere before I head to B &N (early) so that I can be in line for the 7:00 pm event.

All about NYC and books tomorrow. And finding a new pair of readers, since mine broke the other day. I’m wearing an older pair at the moment.

New post up on Just Let Me Finish This Page today. Stop by.

Happy Monday.

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Weekend Thoughts

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The weekend so far has been nicely slow, an unhurried pace of a weekend that suits me fine.

I talked Don into making his Vegan Blueberry Pancakes yesterday morning. Need I say more?

We went to the grocery store and to our little library where a copy of The Heist by Daniel Silva was waiting for me. I had been in a long queue for this book so I was surprised and happy that it was now available. Since I had barely started The Marco Effect by Jussi Adler-Olson (which is on my Kindle) I made a U-turn and started The Heist. I also checked out two other books which I will probably talk about on Just Let Me Finish This Page. Two books written by writers about their love of reading – I love books about books, if you know what I mean.

I watered all the potted plants and The Chicken Wire Fence Garden. I read. I did a NY Times crossword puzzle (a tough one, I modestly say.) I scrubbed the bathtub. We watched Marty on TCM.

Today? More of the same. Reading, writing, a little cleaning.

Work will soon begin on Hamlet, the show I’m coaching next, but I think I’ll wait until next week.

Currently blooming all over the property:

yellow beauty

Beautiful Goldenrod. It’s right alongside some Purple Loosestrife and the combination of the yellow and purple is gorgeous. (I’m not worried about the Purple Loosestrife, it isn’t invasive here. It just blooms in the wetter parts of the property and it’s beautiful.)

I was watering plants on the porch and I saw this beauty on the Butterfly Bush.

giantswallowtail 1

Yes, it’s blurry, sorry, as the butterfly was moving its wings very quickly. The butterfly was very large in size, so I did some research. It’s the Giant Swallowtail. I had to crop this photo down from one I took from a distance. Right after I took this, I cautiously walked around the porch to the bush and got this view:

giantswallowtail 2

Stunningly beautiful. Nature is stupendously wondrous and amazing.

I don’t understand why anyone would ever capture a butterfly. They should be magical and elusive and free. I should try to take a photo and be frustrated because the butterfly moves and flits and then disappears. That’s the way it should be. Those moments, those seconds in time, where the butterfly appears and then soars into the air and over the trees, those moments make me smile.

Today is my last day on the antibiotics. Tomorrow? I can have coffee with half and half first thing in the morning. Cannot wait. And we can start hiking again this week – no more worries about the sun.

Happy Sunday.

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A Scrappy Little Garden

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At this point in the summer, it becomes increasingly obvious that things are changing. There’s a shift: more leaves on the ground, coneflowers looking past their prime, the yellowing of leaves after days and days of the hot August sun with no rain.

The sedum, always a spot of color in Autumn, is clearly gearing up for its show.

And then there’s my scappy little Chicken Wire Fence Garden. In this gardening zone, the morning glories don’t really begin to take off until mid-August. The zinnias start to bloom at the end of July and continue to bloom through August and September.

The Chicken Wire Fence Garden is cobbled together, planted in the soil in front of the rusty fence. It reminds me, more than anything around here, of a flower garden that might be found on a farm. It’s spare, almost utilitarian, but beautiful in its way.

Wed - chickenwirefencegarden

A landscape designer wouldn’t be impressed by this, that’s for sure.

I like it’s scrappiness. I like the bare bones quality of it.

It’s such fun. It makes the end of summer much more bearable. The morning glories will bloom until the first frost. The zinnias are always a surprise, each one different.

Like this one that just started blooming – a welcome splash of yellow!

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But gosh, the morning glory vines are slow to grow this year.

We need rain. I water them every day, but we really need a good, long soaking.

Here is the latest bloom, which just opened this morning.

Wed - morning glory and vine

Another view:

Wed - morning glory number three

Sigh. I love my scrappy little garden.

There’s a new post up on Just Let Me Finish This Page – a book review of M. C. Beaton’s latest Agatha Raisin mystery, The Blood of an Englishman. Stop by!

And the winner of a copy of After I’m Gone by Laura Lippman is Lee. Congratulations, Lee. I’ve sent you an email.

Happy Wednesday.

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Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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