Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Life in our little cottage in the country

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In Bloom

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We sat on the glider last night and marveled at the beauty surrounding us. Especially lovely, and deliciously fragrant, are the blossoms on the catalpa. This is that brief period in which all the catalpas – and there are a lot of them in my area of the Hudson Valley – are covered in beautiful, white blossoms. Don says the fragrance reminds him of night blooming jasmine. He’s absolutely right. I miss that scent, part of our everyday lives when we were living in San Diego, but we get to have much the same scent wafting through the air for a week or so.

Yes, that’s one of two wood/debris piles we have on the property.

The spirea, which I had to cut back a bit earlier this spring, is in bloom. It grows right next to the annabelle hydrangea and both plants suffered damage during the last two winters.

Speaking of the hydrangea, an update –

Some of the shoots coming out of the ground are going to blossom! I’m so happy to see it coming back. I still have some cutting back of the dead wood to do, but I was careful to keep some support for the new growth. Once I see how it all turns out, I’ll cut back some more.

Yesterday, I spilled an entire cup of coffee all over the table next to this chair, and all over the floor and several nearby objects. Sigh. The cleanup took forever, but all is well. I also mowed the corral and the back forty. It looks very pretty out there at the moment.

So glad that bunnies are back! We see one or two nearly every day now. One area that Don cleared in our woods has now grown back, affording more cover for our little friends. Hurrah!

I woke up way, way too early this morning, so I’m going to stop now. I’ve expended all my energy.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

A Rose

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I almost missed this beauty. It was peeking out from the yarrow in the memorial garden. I don’t get many roses from these bushes – maybe one or two – but when they do emerge, what loveliness! They are almost always accompanied by these little bugs.

Well, all I can think about right now was last night’s January 6th Committee hearing. I hope you watched it. If you didn’t, watch it online. There is nothing more important than what is happening in the hearings: the systematic laying out of facts about January 6th, all of them leading to the ringleader, Trump. This is the first in a series of hearings where the committee will unveil what they have discovered.

The video of the attack on the Capitol, taken by a documentary filmmaker, was absolutely horrifying. The evidence that Trump knew he had lost, had been told that he lost by advisors, but kept inciting his cultists no matter the evidence was chilling. Equally chilling are his words about hanging Mike Pence.

These are facts. Those who blindly follow Trump’s lies and conspiracy theories won’t let themselves be swayed. That would be admitting they’d been taken in by a conman, a carnival barker. They’re lost.

But for the rest of us who value truth and the Constitution and our democracy, this evidence is chilling. And it’s just the start.

Bravo to GOP Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, both of whom are risking their careers in the pursuit of truth.

It was riveting. We’ll be watching the next hearing on Monday at 10 am.

The word “patriot” has been bastardized by those who are anything but patriots. But I’ll invoke it to say that I believe it’s our patriotic duty to watch these hearings – to bear witness. Just as I watched the Watergate hearings (Watergate seems like child’s play now) I will watch these hearings. Yes, it can be upsetting. You should  be upset.

And please, if you’re going to say “It won’t make a difference” please don’t. It’s defeatism, which isn’t helpful. The fact is we don’t know what will happen. But it’s clear to me that the Committee is skillfully and painstakingly laying out a case against Trump and all who enabled him.

It’s all Don and I can talk about this morning.

It’s a gorgeous day and I can hear a bird singing right outside my window. I’m reading The Punishment She Deserves  by Elizabeth George, trying to finish it by tomorrow because I have another book waiting for me at the library.

The puzzle I’m working on is the hardest I’ve ever encountered, so it’s very slow going.

I will post Don’s recipe for sugar-free apple pie over the weekend.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

 

A Little Tour of the Porch

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I took a few pictures of the porch area yesterday, since some of you had mentioned wanting a little tour.

In no particular order, here we go!

Our weathered former kitchen island. I know some of you preferred it in its previous pristine white, but I really love the way the way the elements have had their way with it. I love chippy.

The Boston fern is barely hanging in there since it had an unfortunate encounter with an unexpected hard frost while I was away in Brooklyn. I’m hoping it will recover after a nice long summer outside.

Just to the right of the entrance. The purple coneflowers have spread even more this year. We’re going to have masses of them. That’s the entrance to our basement and beyond that, the picket fence we recently added.

We figured out that we’ve had this glider for over 25 years. Don found it by the curb when we were living in San Diego. He paid $25 for it, so that works out to $1/yr. A bargain. We love it so much!

The vintage and rusty wrought iron planter I will never regret buying. I love it.

I had to wait until the impatiens had grown a bit.

It’s not really that different from other years, although I usually buy 3 of the purple hanging plants. But they’re expensive, so I just purchased one this year. The other hanging plants are full of impatiens. I usually buy one flat and from that I plant all the pots and the hanging pots as well.

We were chatting about the porch the other day, remembering that the moment I saw it, I wanted the house. Don’s selling point was the high ceiling in the kitchen. Mine was the porch. I grew up with a porch, which seemed big to me at the time, but was much smaller than the one we have now. Our neighborhood was full of porches and I have fond memories of playing, reading, chatting, and conversing with our neighbors – all from that porch.

We also had a porch on the house we rented in San Diego – which is why Don bought the glider. It was lovely as well, though I was so busy in those days that I didn’t get to use it as much as I would have liked.

And now we have this beauty. An extra room from April until November.

We’re grateful.

Stay safe.

Happy Thursday.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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