Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Life in our little cottage in the country

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I Feel Like a Broken Record

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What can I say? Endless rain. Lots of thunderstorms. Yours truly on the verge of a primal scream. More rain today.

I did manage to do some weeding in the garden yesterday morning, because, as you can imagine with all this rain, weeds have quickly become out of control. And I did my best to prune the big bush that sits in the big garden bed. And then, because I knew rain was on the way and the grass was already too long, I mowed the large part of the front lawn. I knew I was doing too much, but it had to be done. Don was in the city yesterday. He’s mowing the rest of the lawn(s) tomorrow, when, if it can be believed, it will be sunny.

Our thunderstorms have been big ones, going on for a long time, with rain pummeling the gardens and plants. I’ll share a picture of the bridal veil spirea taken the day before the storms started.

Now, it’s drooping on the ground and the flowers are brown. To be fair, it was about time for the flowers to fade, but what an undignified end to their beauty!

Ah well.

Let’s see, what’s on the agenda for today? I’m getting my hair cut. It’s way too long, yet again. When your hair is long and straight, it’s easy to let it go and then one day you realize it won’t do anything and it looks limp. That’s where I am. I cannot wait to have 3 inches taken off!

I may go to the Country Living Fair tomorrow. Still debating. I couldn’t go last year because my sister was in town (NYC) to see Don in Margaritaville. I usually go on Friday and I go early because it gets crowded very quickly. I’m there for two hours max. There’s a lot of variety, but I tend to concentrate on vintage and antiques.

Is everyone still experiencing excessive rain and, in some cases, flooding? Gosh, I hope June brings better weather. We’ve broken all kinds of records here.

Happy Thursday.

 

 

 

Discoveries: Trees & Books

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Lots and lots of rain yesterday – at times, torrential – culminating in severe thunderstorms during the evening. I know there were tornado warnings in some parts of New York and New Jersey, if we had one, I was unaware of it. And it looks like we’ve got more rain coming today and tomorrow and, again, on the weekend.

Ummm, Mother Nature? We’ve had more than enough rain this spring, thank you very much. I’m beginning to lose hope that the Secret Garden will ever be dry enough for us to sit there. Right now, that particular scenario looks impossible.

I’m hoping there’s a small window today where I can attempt to mow part of the front lawn. Doubtful, but you never know!

We have a beautiful tree up in the back forty. I’ve always loved its shape. One of our older, dead trees fell this year and this tree is now the star of the clearing. For years, I assumed it was some sort of ash. But the other day, I was up there to take some pictures and I saw blossoms everywhere! Have I never looked up at the tree at this particular time in the spring? Am I always looking downward as I mow the grass? Anyways, I was dumbfounded and realized it’s a chokecherry tree! And it’s gorgeous.

As I looked up chokecherries, the descriptions were always ‘modest in height’ ‘at the most 20 feet tall, rarely taller.’ Well, this guy is at least 30 feet tall. And he’s beautiful. Most of the trees up in the woods and the back forty are maples, oaks, catalpas, black walnuts, and elms. I love them all, but this chokecherry has more than a little of my heart. It has oval leaves that move gracefully in the breeze.

We’ve been here nearly 14 years and, once again, I have noticed something new which isn’t really new at all. Just to me.

Speaking of the back forty, we have some lovely wild honeysuckle there, actually we have it all over the property, but this pink honeysuckle is only found just under the chokecherry. It’s such a soft pink.

The lavender that’s in a pot on the Funky Patio.

I’m in the midst of a Beverley Nichols reading binge. I finished his first trilogy and have now started on his second. It centers on a house he bought after WWII called Merry Hall. In fact, this first book in the trilogy is called Merry Hall.

For someone who reads fiction predominately, I’ve been reading a lot of non-fiction lately. Although, Beverley Nichols’ gardening books are non-fiction mixed with fictional characters based on real people. He reminds me a bit of P.G.Wodehouse, my husband’s favorite. I find them very relaxing and amusing, often chuckling out loud over some turn of phrase. Right now, they are the perfect read! I’m so glad I grabbed the first three books (that I already owned) off my bookshelf and finally read them. I was hooked. That started me off on a quest to gather the next 5 books from used booksellers, as they’re out of print. I have 4 out of the 5 and the 5th will be arriving today or tomorrow.

Happy Wednesday.

 

Simply Beautiful

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Yesterday was, to put it simply, the most beautiful Memorial Day I can remember. The skies were brilliantly sunny, the temps were in the mid-seventies with no humidity, and the gentlest of breezes was accompanied by the faint sounds of the wind chimes.

It was so, so lovely.

We sat out on the porch much of the day, trying our best to be in the present moment, relaxing together, reading, Don occasionally playing his guitar. We felt tremendous gratitude for our house (a seemingly impossible goal for many, many years,) our gardens, our porch, our relationship and marriage, for the bird song which was unceasing all day long – for everything.

And we blessed those who were lost to the unspeakable tragedy of war.

We took a walk on the rail trail later in the day.

I suppose I need not say that we stop and stare at our new sofa countless times each day. Because we do. More gratitude.

Don had expected to spend the afternoon taking portraits, just as he did on Sunday. But at the last minute, he decided he needed to rest. We’ve been awfully busy this past week and, on top of that, Don has spent several hours in the sun over the course of a few days, camped out with his table display, hoping to get some customers. And he has. But the hours spent waiting are tedious and he was just plain exhausted yesterday. I’m glad he took the day off.

I hope you had a lovely day yesterday.

From the Memorial Garden, this teeny tiny little bee on a geranium. These flowers are about an inch wide, so you can imagine how tiny the bee was. I cropped the original photo.

It’s my favorite time of the year. Speaking of that, I’ve noticed the peony buds are getting larger, which means they’ll bloom – like clockwork, it never fails – during the first week of June.

Happy Tuesday.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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