Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Life in our little cottage in the country

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Cottage Garden

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Gosh, I love a cottage garden! I planted a few purple coneflowers in some of the beds 16 years ago. I added a few to the big garden bed a few years back. I now have hundreds of them. This particular group also self-seeded outside of the garden bed – you can no longer see the stones that make up the border. I will never pull a coneflower. No way. Let them multiply with abandon.

Right now, the coneflowers are opening up, the hostas are blooming, the phlox is beginning to bloom, the black-eyed susans are just about to open – it’s my favorite time of the summer.

I’m still suffering from allergies, but this morning isn’t nearly as bad as yesterday. Other than checking on the garden beds, I’ll refrain from doing any work outside. But it sure is lovely out there today.

Maybe a few photos…

I’ve started on a new puzzle with gorgeous artwork – all about trees. It’s challenging, but it was just what I needed yesterday. Peaceful piecing.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

Flowers, Puzzles, And Some Thoughts

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These day lilies just started opening. There would have been ten times more of them but the deer ate the buds before I could spray them. Still, I’m grateful that at least some of them survived.

After all the dire severe thunderstorm warnings and radar pictures that looked increasingly ominous throughout the day, we didn’t get a single drop of rain. And we really need some! This morning was foggy and beautiful and a bunny has been chomping on clover just outside the kitchen door.

The finished Alice’s Wonderland puzzle. I really loved this one. It was a little less complicated than normal because of the way it is designed. Everyone is there; the Queen of Hearts, the Cheshire Cat, Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, the March Hare, the Mad Hatter. It’s beautifully illustrated.

The puzzles I’ve been working on this year are published by Lawrence King. You can find them on Amazon by searching for his name. I’m a big fan.

Don and I have had several conversations lately about how exhausted we feel. He was speaking to some friends who also feel exhausted. Now, I have terrible allergies and that doesn’t help, but it’s more than that. We both nap in the afternoon lately – something I never did until now. And we’re not sick. We even did a self-test for Covid. Negative.

We think this has to do with everything we’ve been through, and are still going through, over the past 6 years. Trump, a pandemic, mass shootings, the assault on our democracy, a whole chunk of our population believing in conspiracy theories, the war in Ukraine, the loss of Roe v. Wade, a corrupt Supreme Court which has been bought and paid for – I could go on and on. Every day brings some new atrocity or assault. It’s never ending. More strains of Covid to worry about. Our lives have changed dramatically and we fight to keep some semblance of normalcy. But that requires – at least for us – deliberately shutting out the world.  And we cannot do that all of the time. Nor should we.

I think we are suffering from a collective depression and exhaustion. I usually have a ‘can do’ kind of attitude, but some days it’s hard to summon up that energy.

There’s no answer but to do what we are already doing; find time to escape, meditate, spend time in the outdoors, work on things that bring us joy.

Just some thoughts this morning.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

 

Flowers and Renewal

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The miracle hydrangeas, back from the dead!

I spent hours cutting back most of the dead wood, spurred on by the appearance of tiny little shoots coming out of the ground. I think that I’ve checked on them just about every day since then. And look! They’re tall and the flowers are far bigger than they were in the past. One bloom is over 10 inches across.

I’m so thrilled by this. Thanks to those of you who told me not to give up. I was ready to write it off. Boy, do I need this, to see renewal and regrowth out of seemingly nothing. It’s also so much healthier.

As we were leaving for the grocery store yesterday, I saw this great spangled frittilary on one of the coneflowers. (My favorite butterfly name.)

Just about to fully open.

It’s spectacularly beautiful out there. After an incredibly rainy spring, we’re in our first stretch of several days with no rain. We may get some storms tomorrow. I’ve noticed that both of our rivers are low. It happens every summer.

I started the new puzzle and worked on it quite a bit yesterday as I stayed true to our “Day of Rest” Sunday. The only thing I did outdoors was to get in the car to go to the grocery store with Don, and water all of my plants. The rest of the time was spent quietly.

I even slept in a bit this morning.

FYI, the starting time of the  January 6th Committee hearing tomorrow has been changed to 1 pm EST.

Can’t wait!

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.

 

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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