Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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A Summery First Day of Fall

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• Two more morning glories have opened over the past couple of days. They’re coming slowly, but that’s fine with me. At least they’re blooming, something I wasn’t sure would happen given the munching deer.

And the tiny sunflowers are still blooming:

I love the color, but I’d like something bigger next year. They don’t last all that long, either.

The gardens contain a few late blooming coneflowers and some day lilies and roses, as well as sedum autumn joy, which puts on a show this time of year, but most everything else is done for the season. And today is the first day of fall – a day, by the way, when it’s going to reach 88 degrees. Yesterday was just as warm. That’s a bit too warm for my taste and I’ve had to water everything in the chicken wire fence and memorial gardens, as well as all the porch plants. But then again, I’m not going to complain too much as it will be cold out there all too quickly.

• Thanks for all the comments on the IGMA show. It’s worked its magic on me; I’m starting to look forward to getting back to work on the dump dollhouse. (I never know what to call it – someday, when I’ve done more, I’ll call it the English cottage.)

But some of my favorite miniaturists on Etsy haven’t had anything in their shops for a long time. And one – the guy who made the kits for the Adirondack chairs that I used in Don’s studio – isn’t even there anymore. How I wish I had acted on my urge to buy two more kits when I still could. His chairs were the best I’ve ever seen.

So I find myself wondering: will they come back? Are they just tired, or overwhelmed by other responsibilities? I have no way of knowing. Many of them have the same message on their shop page that Meredith and I have on ours: Taking a short break. In our case, it’s most likely a permanent one since I haven’t crocheted anything in at least 4 years, which is what alarms me when I think of these absent miniaturists. There’s a lot of great stuff on Etsy, but there’s also a lot of crap. Ah well.

• I want to share something that Margaret, a longtime reader of this blog, sent me.

A British edition of Claudia. It’s quite lovely and, bonus, it was published by The Book Club, which was based on Charing Cross Road.

I love it.

I have one other edition of Claudia  and a copy of the play that Rose Franken also authored, as well as a program from the Broadway production that is framed and hanging in my office.

There they are, on the shelf in the den.

Thank you so much, Margaret! I am thrilled with this lovely edition.

Monday: grocery shopping day. Don had a very good day yesterday at the Farmers Market – but it was really hot! Anyway, that’s our big chore for the day, a trip to our local supermarket.

Happy Monday.

 

Potpourri on Friday

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• Oh my heavens, it was cold on our morning walk! I think it must have been in the forties, though I didn’t stop to check my weather app. Anyway, I felt it. Such a cold morning given that the temperature is going to hit the eighties tomorrow and Sunday. But that’s autumn for you.

• This David phlox is still blooming in the big garden bed. I managed to click the shutter just as the white spider emerged. Great camouflage, wouldn’t you say?

• Don is playing his guitar as I write this. We had our second cup of coffee after the walk. Part of our little morning ritual involves an app Don has called Word of the Day. We look at the word, think about it, and then I will say what I think it means, and Don will say what he thinks it means. We’re usually right, but sometimes we are completely wrong, or one of us will say we have no idea what it means. I have come to realize that there are a few words I routinely read that I assume I know the meaning of, but in reality, I don’t.

Then we read a bit from Samuel Pepys diary. Pepys, in case you’re unfamiliar with him, lived in London in the 17th Century. He kept a diary over the course of 10 years. It tells us a great deal about daily life in the city, as well as the Great Fire of London, which Pepys witnessed. He was an administrator for the navy and, eventually, a member of Parliament. He kept the diary from 1660 to 1669. We have the volume for 1660, so we have started reading it aloud to each other. We just started doing that this week.

Yes, we’re nerds.

• Huzzah! My monstera is growing another shoot! That makes seven in the last two months. So proud of my once-abandoned baby.

• I head for the miniature show tomorrow. I briefly debated whether to go or not, but it’s always inspiring and I can use some inspiration. I shall be back into the dollhouses come winter, so any and all inspiration is welcome.

But it will be a long day because it takes over 2 hours to get there. Don and I were talking about it this morning and I said it’s the only miniature show I go to and that there’s a big one in Philadelphia in November, but I never seem to get there. He said he’d go with me! I didn’t even ask him! Bless his heart, it would be much easier with him along for the ride.

How did I get so lucky? I thank God for that man on a daily basis.

I’ll post tomorrow if I have time, but if I don’t, it’s because I have to get on the road early in the morning.

Happy Friday.

On Books and Acting and Aging Flowers

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The changing texture of flowers that are going to seed fascinates me. I could spend hours photographing them. There’s something noble and majestic about them.

It’s Saturday. Don is out mowing the lawn and I will join him after I write this post. It’s supposed to rain later in the day, so we’re trying to tackle the longest parts of the lawn today and we’ll get to the rest next week, when it promises to be rainless.

I finished The Book of Bones  yesterday. And then I moved on to a short novella by Alan Bennett titled, The Uncommon Reader, which I got from the library. Bennett is brilliant and this little gem centers on the Queen of England, with Bennett imagining what would happen if the Queen suddenly discovered the world of books and reading. How would that impact her schedule? How would her equerries and aides handle her newfound passion? What about the Duke of Edinburgh? It’s positively charming and delightful and only 117 pages long, so I read it in its entirely this morning. Bennett wrote it about 10 years ago and I recommend it highly.

Now what? I’m not sure. I’ve got a couple of ideas in mind.

We’re watching a three-part series that originally aired here on PBS, called The Worricker Trilogy. We’re big fans of the actor Bill Nighy and we discovered it while searching on Amazon Prime for anything that featured him. The trilogy is excellent. We’ll watch the third installment tonight. Nighy is such a wonderful actor, honest, real and spare in his performance. I admire this kind of acting more and more, as does Don. It isn’t about “Look at me and all my histrionics, aren’t I talented?” but rather about the role itself and being true to the text. That takes a supremely confident actor who is not caught up in his ego. Nighy is that kind of actor. So is Helena Bonham Carter, who is a costar in the second installment. Too many actors want to show you all they can do and that, my friends, is either ego run amok or simple insecurity. To just live in the role, to simply inhabit it – especially on film – is the best kind of acting.

Ah well. I must go and help my husband mow. Duty calls!

Happy Saturday.

 

 

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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