Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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Travel Day

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Oh boy. What a day we have ahead of us!

I still have to finish packing this morning and take care of what seems like a hundred things around here. There are at least 10 different lists sitting on the kitchen island.

travel day morning glory 1

That’s a bee diving down head-first into the morning glory.

I hope that the walk to the park from the hotel isn’t too far for Scout. That’s what I worried about last night. She limps because of the arthritis in her front leg. She’s a trooper, of course, but it would be so much easier if the apartment was available. So much easier. A quick walk across the street and we’re in the park. It’s more than a few blocks from the hotel.

travel day morning glory 3

This morning glory vine looks like a question mark.

Question of the day: Will Scout adapt to her new surroundings? Will she be able to handle the long walks? Or will I have to take her to Don’s place in New Haven?

This will be a short post, my friends. Too much to do before we head out around noon.

travel day morning glory 2

We won’t even mention how I’ve looked over the weather forecast for the next ten days and the lack of rain makes me concerned for my garden. Or how impossibly beautiful it looks right now as I prepare to leave and how sad that makes me.

It ain’t easy, this living and working away from home.

In fact, it gets harder, not easier.

Sorry for what seems like an excessive amount of in-post ads today. I’m looking into it.

Happy Thursday.

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Saturday: Alarms and Musings

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The peaceful calm of an early Saturday morning after a night of not-quite-enough sleep has been shattered twice by the sound of a smoke alarm.

The first time, the piercing sound came and went very suddenly. Don woke up and came to the head of the stairs and we both acknowledged that we had no idea where it was coming from.

The second time, Don discovered it was coming from our bedroom and he dismantled the alarm. When he took it apart, a dead fly fell out as well as some other stuff. We’ve had the bug flying into the alarm problem before and maybe this is a repeat of that problem.

So far, so good. It’s clearly one of our alarms, rather than the ones we have that are wired into our security system, because we didn’t receive a call from the security company. Sometimes they are a bit too overzealous about immediately calling the local fire department without checking in with us first.

Oy.

SAT m glories & Scout

Early morning. Ten morning glory blooms. Wowza! And Scout, of course.

Don’s leaving tomorrow and I got a call from Hartford Stage yesterday asking me if I could come in sometime this weekend to listen to the dialect work in their current show, which is in tech rehearsals. So I’m going to take Don to New Haven, help him unload, and then drive to Hartford for the afternoon. Then back to New Haven, where Miss Scout will be spending some quality time with her dad.

It adds a bit of hectic activity to the weekend, but doing it all in the same day without having to worry about Scout seemed like the best approach.

SAT m glories_

Totally unrelated thought: Why do I hear people referring to California as Cali nowadays? It irritates the h*** out of me. I lived in California for eight years and never once heard anyone refer to that state as Cali. Don lived there for the vast majority of his life and has never heard any of his friends or acquaintances or business associates say the word ‘Cali.’ We suspect it’s something that has emerged in the dialogues and lingo of the younger generation.

Note to them: Please stop.

And in keeping with my random thoughts: If you’re currently reading The Long Way Home by Louise Penny, please do not spill any of the plot beans, as it were. I am backed up and holding with books to be read and reviewed, so I am not going to get to it for a while. When I read it, I want to have the time to savor it. Which means I probably won’t be reviewing it, either. (We all know it would be a Huzzah! kind of review, anyway.)

Oh, and same thing for Personal by Lee Child.

No spoilers, okay?

Happy Saturday.

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Worth the Wait

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FRIDAY morning glory old new bud

I can’t get enough of the beauty of morning glories. Every day, I am treated to a new feast for the eyes.

They really are the most wonderful last-days-of-summer treat. The day lilies are gone. The coneflowers are drying up. A few roses are blooming, as well as the rudbeckia. The morning glories have taken over center stage, thrilling us with their magical, ephemeral beauty.

FRIDAY morning glory pollen

I never get tired of them. It always seems to take forever for them to grow and produce buds, but they are well worth the wait.

And my hyacinth bean vine, also slow-growing this year, has produced some flowers.

FRIDAY hyacinth bean vine

I existed for so many years without a garden. I lived in dorms and apartments and all sorts of rentals that either didn’t have the space for a garden or where planting anything was a no-no. It wasn’t until we rented our Craftsman bungalow in San Diego that I made my first stab at a garden. It was in the backyard – a little plot right by the back door. (The same door that I walked out one day, only to trip and fall and break my left ankle, which resulted in my wearing a cast on that ankle for my wedding. Oh, yes.)

Then we moved out east and lived in a rental cottage. After a year or so, I asked the owners if I could put in a little strip of a garden alongside the house and they said yes. It was quite lovely. I wonder if it’s still there? I also planted a lot of pachysandra under the big pine tree right outside the front door. I hooked a hose up to the bathroom sink and snaked it outside through the window in order to water the plants. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

When we bought this house and moved in – nine years ago on August 30th – I knew I would finally be able to plant and nuture my own gardens.

I was in my fifties.

It took a long time, but it was worth it. And I treasure every minute of it.

I’ve written about my favorite bookstore, the Strand, on Just Let Me Finish This Page. Stop by to see just why I love it so.

Happy Friday.

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