Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Life in our little cottage in the country

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Too Much Activity!

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I’m getting around to posting a bit late today. Usually, it’s a couple of cups of coffee, reading, chatting with Don, and then I write the post. This morning, Don had to leave early for the city and I wanted to weed whack and repot a plant before it got unbearably hot out there. So I was weed whacking at 8:30 (wanted to make sure all the neighbors were up before that noise started). And then I spread a tarp and managed to wrangle my parents’ sansevieria out the door and onto the tarp. It’s needed repotting for a while. The plants spread by rhizomes that come out at a right angle to the plant and two of them had broken through the plastic pot. Every time I watered it, it leaked. It was also getting very top heavy.

I had planned on waiting until Don could help me, but I decided to go for it today while I was on a roll. It wasn’t easy! I trimmed a lot of shoots that had broken off over the years and just didn’t look good. I guess I hesitated because it was my parents’ plant and I didn’t feel right messing with it. But I must say it looks better now and once it orients itself to the windows, some of the forward tilt that I see should take care of itself. It’s still top heavy, but less so.

Of course, after I brought it inside, the amount of fresh potting soil that I had added outside didn’t seem sufficient, so I lugged the garbage pail that holds my potting soil into the kitchen. You guessed it: I managed to spill quite a bit of the soil onto the floor and every other surface within range. Out came the vacuum to clean up the mess.

So it’s already been a rather eventful morning. I feel like I should be taking a nap right about now.

Photos from yesterday:

This bumblebee was really enjoying the lavender!

I finished The Diary of a Bookseller  this morning. It’s delightful. I learned a great deal about the secondhand book business. I’m looking forward to the author’s next book, which I think comes out in August or September. Next up: The Salt Path, which I bought several months ago.

Happy Friday.

Egg Cups, Photography & Plants

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The theme here is Getting Ready to Dine.

The pig on the left is sitting at a table, utensils at the ready – he’s just waiting for his egg. (Made for Tiffany.) The chick on the right – given to me by Linda, a blogging friend – is adorable and those tail feathers function as a salter. Pull out the tail and salt your egg.

It’s fun doing this yearly egg cup roundup. Now that I have the cubby, I open the doors, look at all the egg cups, and then I try to put together some sort of theme. The challenge is to remember to include the egg cups that I have displayed in other areas of the house.

Looking at them makes me happy.

I cleaned the bathroom yesterday, vacuumed the house, that sort of thing. Then I sat down and worked on the dollhouse for a bit. I’m using wood putty to fill in some openings. While I was there, I listened to a music app on my bluetooth speaker. Yesterday, my mood was “All Antonio Carlos Jobim.”

Do you remember when I had to put the Boston fern outside and the wind knocked it to the ground? A few days later, in yet another insane wind, it happened again. I ended up putting a heavy rock in the base, but those two falls damaged the fern. Lots of broken fronds. A couple of days ago, I was sweeping the porch and stopped to examine it more closely. It didn’t look good. So I brought it back inside. It’s now up in the office. I think putting it out in weather that was just too cold was a shock to the plant. The falls didn’t help. So I’m nurturing it up there until the weather is warm enough to safely put it outside again.  And it had been looking so beautiful right before I put it outside! All that work to keep it healthy only to have so many fronds broken during those godawful winds.

But it’s already improving.

You wouldn’t know it to look outside at the moment (it rained all night long) but it’s supposed to reach 74 degrees here today! It that holds true, Don may be able to get out and start taking polaroid portraits again. He’s really missed doing that. Our friend Jean Andre Antoine – another Crown Graphic Press Camera photographer – was profiled in the New York Times on Thursday. I follow JAA on Instagram, so I saw his link to the story early on Thursday. It’s a terrific profile of a lovely man. He’s one of many former students of Louis Mendes – although you’re never a former student of Louis. The mentoring is ongoing. In fact, Louis wants to come up here for a day in the next month or two and take some portraits with Don.

We have portraits by Jean Andre and they’re beautiful.

More dollhouse work on the docket today.

Happy Saturday.

Sunday, Sweet Sunday & Goodbye to Anastasia

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“Sunday, sweet Sunday, with nothing to do…” That’s a lyric from Flower Drum Song, and it fits this particular Sunday. Nothing to do, except putter around, which is my favorite thing to do. It’s a rainy, drizzly day, so nothing is going to be accomplished outdoors. But I can play around with the stone on my dollhouse, and read, and listen to music.

I saw this guy outside the kitchen window yesterday and scrambled for my camera:

According to my bird books, he’s a Yellow Bellied Sapsucker.

Gorgeous. He didn’t do a lot of pecking, but he did do some preening.

Thank you, little guy, for stopping for a spell on this maple right outside the house.

The fern had to go outside yesterday. I had been noticing large ants on the kitchen table and finally figured out that they were attracted to the Boston fern after doing some quick internet research that said there’s something in the plant that can attract ants. So. Out it went. I will have to bring in inside at night for the next three nights because it’s going down below freezing, but it will go back outside during the day.

The yellow footed compote and the vase of tulips have now moved to the kitchen table.

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Just want to say a word about Anastasia, which is closing today. I have been involved with this show since its beginnings at Hartford Stage three years ago. I fell in love with the glorious music by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty and the direction and staging of Darko Tresnjak. Peggy Hickey’s choreography was the icing on the cake, as well as the costumes by Linda Cho, set design of Alexander Dodge, and projections of Aaron Rhyne. Getting to work with Bonnie Panson, one of the best Production Stage Managers I have ever had the privilege to know, has been nothing but wonderful.

Most important to me was, and is, the cast of superb actors, singers, and dancers that have made this show come to life. Everyone has been a joy to work with. Everyone.

But Christy Altomare, as Anastasia, has my heart. Besides being unbelievably talented, an actress/singer who has direct access to her heart and emotions, whose voice soars during Journey to the Past  and brings down the house every performance, she is one of the kindest, most gracious people I have come to know. I adore her. I can’t imagine not hearing her sing that song on the stage of the Broadhurst ever again. Christy is humble. She has time for everyone and patiently stands outside the stage door every night signing programs and posing for pictures. She is the real deal. Working with her and getting to know her (we’ve had many long talks) has been one of the great joys of my life.

I know this is a tough day for everyone involved with the show. Saying goodbye to this magical production will be hard, especially for Christy and John Bolton, the two leads who have been in the show since the beginning, as well as at least 5 or 6 ensemble members who have also been a part of the cast since Hartford.

We always refer to the three words that Christy sings in Journey to the Past:

Home. Love. Family.

That’s how I feel about the cast of Anastasia. You’ve had a great two-year run. Bless you always.

Happy Sunday.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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