Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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Day Sixty

May 12, 2020 at 9:58 am by Claudia

Monty looks bewildered by the jungle currently surrounding him.

Just spent about 30 minutes trying to figure out why I couldn’t load this photo. The message I kept getting apparently involves an issue with permissions. Don’t bother trying to understand it, I don’t either. Anyway, as I tried and tried to use an application that would let me check that, I had just about decided to give up. I closed the application, then decided I would try once more to upload the photo and it worked. Sometimes, it’s just better to wait and see if the issue corrects itself.

It’s sunny here today, but the temps will only be in the fifties. By Thursday, we’ll be in the seventies, which is where we should be at this time of year. This spring has now become the strangest spring I’ve ever witnessed. Two more days of this low-thirties-at-night nonsense.

I finished Love in a Cold Climate  this morning. I loved it. It takes me a while to get into Mitford’s novels, but once I’m in, I’m hooked. Now for the next volume in the trilogy – Don’t Tell Alfred. Then I think I’ll move on to Robertson Davies.

Some outside chores are on the docket for the day, but first, I’ll move all the plants back out on the porch. They’ll come in again tonight and tomorrow night, then…back to normal.

That’s really all I have to share today. (I slept better last night, by the way.) Work on the puzzle is slow but the challenge is right up my alley, so onward!

Happy Tuesday.

Filed Under: books, flowers, gardening, jigsaw puzzles, social distancing 21 Comments

Day Fifteen

March 28, 2020 at 10:00 am by Claudia

Current reads. I find it isn’t necessarily easy to make a choice these days. My last book, Eight Perfect Murders, was disappointing. So, do I go with more fiction? Or nonfiction? Or pretty pictures? Yesterday, I reread Biblio-Style, that gorgeous book about the way people live with books. I needed to experience it once again. Last night, I started in on Pride and Prejudice, a true comfort read. And this morning, I dug into Derek Jarman’s Garden.

Do you find that you’re juggling more than one book at a time? I rarely do that, but I have definitely been reading a few books at once during this period of isolation.

I’m just grateful that I have them. Books are always a precious gift, but never more precious as they are now.

We watched more episodes of Cheers  last night. It’s fun to chart the course of the characters in that very first season. We can see the writers beginning to figure out who is who and just how the characters will function within the framework of the ongoing story. It’s amazing how excellent it was from the very beginning.

I was up earlier than Don this morning – a rarity – and after making coffee, I went online to our grocery chain’s site to see if maybe there might be a delivery slot open at the end of next week. To my surprise (and I was barely awake) there was an opening available next Wednesday on April 1st. I grabbed it and then started to add a few things to our already long list. I only had an hour in which to do it before I would lose the slot. Don came downstairs and, poor guy, I immediately pestered him for any ideas he might have. Anyway, it’s done. I cannot tell you how relieved we are that we don’t have to go inside a store. They deliver the bags of groceries and leave them outside near the door. Don is very happy. It turns out he was very wary of entering any store and it had been weighing on him.

We’re in for a very rainy weekend. It hasn’t started yet, but it will. I think I’ll go out to the edge of the property and clip some forsythia. We don’t have any fresh flowers at the moment and it would be nice to see the bright yellow flowers in our kitchen.

Rain is on the docket for the next week or so, so heaven knows when I will be able to get outside to start garden cleanup. In the meantime, I’ll be watching episodes of Gardener’s World  on Britbox – I didn’t watch all of last season, so it’s time to catch up.

I learned a new word: Sitzfleisch; literally ‘sitting meat’ but in reality, sitting on your tush. Heaven knows, I am doing that more than ever. (Found in an article in The New Yorker.)

Lonesome Dove is hanging out on the telephone wire in front of our house as I write this. I love him.

Happy Saturday.

 

Filed Under: books, garden, gardening, reading, social distancing 62 Comments

Saviors: Reading and Gardening

July 11, 2019 at 9:25 am by Claudia

This is a kind of sedum that I planted in the memorial garden. (I can’t remember the name.) I’m always surprised when it blooms. Bonus points: it spreads.

I mowed a lot yesterday and then I spent even more time outdoors pruning things in the big garden bed, trying to get at those white flies. I was happy because I love being outdoors and working on the property, but I’m paying the price today as my allergies are especially troublesome. Every time I check the weather I see this: “The pollen count today is high.”

I know. In fact, I knew that without checking the weather app.

So for today, I’m going to stay inside except for watering the porch plants and shooting water at the white flies. This afternoon we’re supposed to get thunderstorms, so hopefully, they will take over the role of ‘water cannon.’

I’m reading my next Kate Atkinson, When Will There Be Good News?  Dang, I like her writing style! An absolute pleasure to read. There are two more in the series to read, as well –  whoops! – make that three, as a new Jackson Brodie mystery has just been published.

Next month: the new Louise Penny, A Better Man, comes out on August 27th.  Huzzah! On the same day, the newest in the “The Girl Who…” series, The Girl Who Lived Twice, will be published. Originally written by the late Steig Larsson, they are now being written by David Lagercrantz, and I have to say – he’s doing a bang-up job of it.

Deborah Crombie’s newest, A Bitter Feast, is being published on October 8th. And Michael Connelly’s newest Harry Bosch, The Night Fire, is being published on October 22nd.

All of the above authors are favorites of mine.

I like the idea of all sorts of books written by authors I love lined up, ready and waiting for me. It’s like a secret stash of good things to come.

And reading saves me in these times. Truly. I don’t know what I’d do without it.

Gardening, too.

Happy Thursday.

Filed Under: books, flowers, garden, gardening, Louise Penny 23 Comments

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Welcome!

Welcome!

I live in a little cottage in the country with my husband. It's a sweet place, sheltered by old trees and surrounded by gardens. The inside is full of the things we love. I love to write, I love my camera, I love creating, I love gardening. My decorating style is eclectic; full of vintage and a bit of whimsy.

I've worked in the theater for more years than I can count. I'm currently a voice, speech, dialect and text coach freelancing on Broadway, off Broadway, and in regional theater.

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