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You are here: Home / Archives for flowers

Flowers, Old Movies, Coffee & Books

July 27, 2014 at 8:22 am by Claudia

You know I love my deer. They share this property with us and I do everything I can to protect them. But just like beloved children, sometimes their behavior makes me a bit unhappy.

Like when they chomp on my plants.

Part of that is my fault. I was away in Chautauqua and totally forgot about spraying the flowers with a natural deer repellent that I use. By the time I got home and realized that, it was too late. So, they dined on some day lilies and ate 99% of the leaves from the hostas that are planted in front of the shed.

But my hostas are sturdy little things and they had something up their sleeve.

take that

Take that, deer! They aren’t going to let a little de-leafing get them down. Not when they can deliver flowers like these.

We’ve been watching some old black and white films (my favorite.) Friday night was Random Harvest, starring Greer Garson and Ronald Colman – a great love story that takes place right after WWI. Colman’s character has amnesia, Greer helps him and the story goes on from there. Simply beautiful and, at times, heartbreaking. Then Don watched another movie, one of our favorites, Waterloo Bridge. (I’d seen it recently and it was late, so I went to bed.) But just as we did the first time we saw it, Don and I ended up talking about it for an hour the next day. It stars Robert Taylor and Vivien Leigh. Another love story with a WWI backdrop and a heartbreaking one, where you find yourself saying “If only she had said something,” or “If only she hadn’t let her pride get in the way.” It haunted me for days after I saw it for the first time. It’s a beautiful movie – I recommend it highly.

Then last night: the great 1927 classic, Metropolis. Simply stunning. A visual triumph with a powerful story. If you haven’t seen it, you should.

There’s nothing like a great old movie. We’ve hit the jackpot lately.

pink zinnia

I also just finished Cop Town by Karin Slaughter, which I’m going to review on Just Let Me Finish This Page tomorrow. Now I’m reading Deadly Assets by Wendy Tyson. I’ve reviewed some of Tyson’s books on this blog, so I’m looking forward to this one. It will be also be reviewed on the book blog

Today is rainy, which is just fine. The gardens need a little rain. Scoutie is in the tunnel, I’m sipping my Peet’s French Roast (no little K-Cups for me, thank you very much, I brew a pot of coffee.)

By the way, what is with the K-Cup craze? I know a lot of people use them, but they seem expensive to me and rather like a fad. Suddenly everyone is using K-Cups and buying a special coffee maker just so they can use them. If you limit yourself to one cup of coffee a day….maybe. Or if you and your mate have different tastes in coffee? But if I were going to go with one cup of coffee, I’d go with a filter cone. Much better result. We have one here and my roommate in Chautauqua had a collapsible filter cone made out of silicone that she used for traveling and she won me over. She spooned some of my coffee in the filter, boiled some water, poured it into the filter and oh my goodness! Was that coffee great! Much cheaper than K-Cups, obviously, and much, much better. I’m going to buy one for Don and one for me. We both have out-of-town gigs coming up.

Don’s late father, Lee, loved his K-Cups. He proudly showed them off to me when I visited him in San Diego. I think he liked having a variety of flavors on hand and would treat himself to a different one every day. That’s when I can understand the K-Cup thing. That’s when it makes sense. Anyway, just my opinion – I’m very serious about my coffee, as you know. If you love K-Cups, tell me why – I’d love to know.

There. I’ve gone off on a tangent. Don would tell you that kind of thing is rather routine around here.

The phlox have started blooming.

phlox

Oh, that scent is heavenly!

Happy Sunday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

Filed Under: books, coffee, Don, flowers, garden, life 66 Comments

A Little Surprise

July 26, 2014 at 8:56 am by Claudia

This is the little uphill path that opens into the dog corral:

saturday - path to corral

There’s Dame Scout, of course, walking around her domain.

saturday - a bit closer

But if you look in the foreground, you’ll see one of my favorite things – this lone coneflower. It first appeared last year. I was delighted to see that it had reseeded right along the edge of the chicken wire fence.

Just one flower.

And it came back this year, bringing a big old smile to my face.

saturday - little coneflower

Isn’t it the sweetest little surprise?

As far as the Chicken Wire Fence Garden, it’s slowly coming along. Some of the zinnias are starting to bloom. Some of them are still small, having been planted later in the season. The morning glories are starting to climb and attach themselves to the chicken wire. I sometimes think it should be further along at this point, but then I remember that it didn’t really take off until mid-August last year.

saturday - chicken wire fence garden

saturday - zinnia 2

This zinnia just opened. Gorgeous.

But the most gorgeous of all is this girl:

saturday - my girl

Happy Saturday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

Filed Under: flowers, garden, Scout 36 Comments

Life at the Cottage: Birds, Bees, Critters & Flowers

July 24, 2014 at 8:06 am by Claudia

The neighborhood pool was open for business yesterday. It was so dang hot and humid! I managed to catch this particular fellow in the midst of a refreshing dip.

wednesday neighborhood pool 2

wednesday neighborhood pool 5

He was in and out of the water several times. I was a wee bit envious.

rudbeckia

The rudbeckia have opened.

liatris2

The liatris are filling out. I love these flowers which are tall and spiky and exotic looking.

liatris

Amazing.

I’ll try to get some shots of the garden in the next few days – we’re approaching that time when the tall David’s Phlox will be in bloom, along with all the coneflowers and the rudbeckia. It looks awfully pretty. It’s what I call the July Peak.

I just caught a glimpse of one of our bunnies through the den window. I wonder if it’s one of this summer’s babies? The other day I saw our groundhog chomping on some grass. Groundhogs are shy, timid, gentle creatures, and vegetarians to boot. They run and hide under the shed when they’re scared, which is quite often!

Oh, and I saw a hummingbird yesterday! I walked out onto the porch and there, staring at me, was a hummingbird  who was hovering over the coneflowers. Turns out the coneflowers weren’t what she was looking for, but she hovered and darted and looked absolutely beautiful.

Did I have my camera? No.

dramatic coneflower

This might be one of my favorite photos ever. I was using the macro setting, trying to capture that tiny little bee who is on the edge of the cone. I love the highlights and shadows and the texture of the cone.

Sometimes you get lucky.

Happy Thursday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

Filed Under: bees, birds, flowers, garden 34 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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Scout & Riley. Riley left us in 2012. Scout left us in February 2016. Dearest babies. Dearest friends.

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