Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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Flowers and Painting Flowers

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One more rose for you. This one bloomed this morning. Thank goodness I happened to go outside early this morning and happened to see it, allowing me to snap a picture of its perfection. In a few hours it will look very different. These babies are beautiful, but fleeting.

The hydrangeas are getting bigger and fatter and the spirea that I had to cut back is blooming. I also had to prune some of the hydrangeas. Some heavy snow or ice clearly had its way with them. But they’re coming back rather nicely.

I did some weed whacking yesterday, but only a little; my charged battery had been unused for so long because of the crappy weather conditions that it had lost its charge. How frustrating! But now, it’s fully charged and I’ll finish that chore this morning. Don went on a tear and mowed the entire property. He took breaks, of course, but when I cautioned him about it, his response was that he felt good and was in the mood to mow. Since I’ve given that same response to him many times in the past, I understand.

It’s beautiful today and much cooler.

I started an oil of another piece of Roseville. The subject matter is challenging and I’m enjoying the process. For me, Roseville is the perfect choice for a painting because it’s so lush. Big, blowsy flowers, texture everywhere, and wonderful colors. The vases themselves are works of art.

We’re looking forward to a few days of creative hanging out here at the cottage. Don is writing and recording some music, I’ll be tending the gardens and painting. I still have some more work to do on the latest painting, then I’ll share it with you. I want to do a few more mini paintings, as well.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

 

Fallen Blossoms

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The catalpas have just bloomed and there are already tons of blossoms on the ground. Between the wind and the pounding rain and thunderstorms, they haven’t had a chance.

Let me just get this out and I’ll shut up: I am so sick of this weather. It’s been unbearably hot and humid for several days. I thought it was supposed to break last night, but no, we have yet another day of this before it moves on out. More thunderstorms predicted for today, heat indexes in the nineties.

I do not do well in this weather, which is why I could never live in the south.

Okay. Enough of that.

Don’s appointment went well yesterday. We ran a few errands on the way home; the natural foods store in town and one of the two art shops in the same town, which is just north of us. I’m sure we’re blessed with two such shops because it’s a college town. I hadn’t been inside the shop since last year and when I was there before, I was picking up Tombow markers. This time, however, I was buying oil paint so I explored an entire section that wasn’t on my radar during past visits. (It’s also the same shop where we had our vintage French lithograph framed.) Lots and lots of oil paints from many different manufacturers. I picked up a few tubes, along with a small sketchbook, and then had a lovely conversation with the woman behind the counter which was all about…you guessed it…oil paint and slow-drying acrylics, which she really loves.

I bought some paint at Michaels a few weeks ago, but I’d much rather do business with the small independent art supply shops in town. And I’m going to do that from now on.

Had a dreadful night with very little sleep, so I’m – as I say often – ‘on the edge of cranky.’ But we’re going over to Rick and Doug’s for the first time since the pandemic started to have some french toast and some maskless conversation, so I must stay un-cranky.

This will be the first time we have been in another person’s house without a mask – or in another person’s house at all – since last March.

Two weeks from tomorrow, someone has a big birthday. He happens to live with me. Let’s say it’s one of those decade markers that can be unsettling. I’m still trying to figure out what he wants to do that day. He keeps waffling, which I totally understand. I tend to want to stay home on my birthday.

Will we actually go somewhere and eat outside? I’m not sure he’s ready for that yet.

Oh, and I stopped the car in the middle of what is normally a very busy road to let a mama duck and her two babies cross to the other side. Thankfully, the guy behind me stopped and there was no oncoming traffic. They were adorable.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday,

Morning Symphony

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It took me a while before I realized that these bushes, which bloom at exactly the same time as the wild roses, are not wild roses. It’s easy to look at the mass of white blossoms all over the property and assume they’re all the same thing.

These lovelies are dogwood – silky dogwood – and they grow along the edge of the property right above the Secret Garden. And in the Secret Garden. And also at the back entrance of the property as you walk into the woods from my neighbor’s meadow. They’re what I call ‘frothy.’

I haven’t written about them before and it’s high time I did.

We sat in the Secret Garden this morning, marveling at the natural beauty there. It just is. The only plants that have been brought in are the pots that I plant every year. Everything else is nature’s design. We listened to what I call our morning symphony. Birds singing, the bullfrog croaking, the occasional hum of a bee. Goodness, it’s beautiful there.

But it’s still very hot here. This will be our third day with temperatures in the nineties. There’s a heat advisory today. So we appreciate that time in the garden because all too soon we’ll have to shut everything up and run the a/c. Tomorrow will be a bit better, though it will also bring rain and thunderstorms as this front breaks up

Because of the heat, there’s been constant activity in the birdbath. I’m going to top it off after I finish this post.

Oh, and we had warning chirps again yesterday from the robins. I tried to see if there were any fledglings on the ground, but nothing stood out. Later, Don went outside and heard the same chirping and saw a brown bird fly from the ground in front of the shed onto the low branch of a tree. So mom and dad are still watching out for the babies.

I’m going to paint this morning. I’m not sure what, but I’ll play it by ear. Don’s going to do some recording. He’s writing a new song.

Oh, the catalpas are in bloom. Heaven.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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