Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Life in our little cottage in the country

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Shuffling: Indoors and Outdoors

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Available cubbies are getting limited. Book now.

Sometime this week, I have to grab my museum wax and use it to adhere each egg cup firmly in place. At some point soon, I’m going to have to pull the cabinet out to get to the cupboard under the stairs, which I open about twice a year. I store some outdoor cushions there as well as the small white Christmas trees that I use. Which reminds me: where am I going to put the plants that are currently on the bistro table when I need to move them out of the way for the Christmas tree? I don’t decorate until mid-December, but I’d better start thinking about that particular problem. Small house = no storage, no usable basement, no attic, no mud room. The result? Constant shuffling of items from one room to another.

Anyway, I have sliders which I’ll put under the cabinet. I think that I’ll stow the cushions in there next week and take all the Christmas stuff out and store it upstairs in the office until I’m ready to decorate. Then I’ll only have to move it once more to put everything back. And that will be it until I need to retrieve the cushions in the Spring.

Now that I’ve bored you to tears, thanks for all your comments yesterday. I see that we’re all coping with this same problem to one degree or another. I was fairly successful yesterday. I finished the book by Michael Connelly, read a short novel that I bought in London – finished that, and started on the newest by James Lee Burke –  Robicheaux. I’ve had it for a few months and am just now getting to it. What a poetic and lyrical writer Burke is, an amazing feat when he’s writing about murder and corruption in Louisiana! He’s one of the best.

Today we’re having brunch at Rick and Doug’s. A colleague from our days at the Old Globe is visiting.

We talked on the phone with Little Z last night, who lost his two front teeth in an hour’s time – one after another! The adult teeth are coming in right behind them. He’s so adorable, even more so with the gap in his smile.

That’s about it. The potted impatiens bit the dust last night – we had a hard freeze. I’m not sure of the status of the other porch plants, but I am going to have clean all of that up this week, do some more shuffling (into the shed, into storage) and get ready for winter. Yikes.

Happy Monday.

Trees, Wildflowers & Ferns in Unexpected Places

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It’s a beautiful morning. It’s so lovely to actually see the sun shining for more than ten minutes at a time! Golden light, leaves falling, the beauty of autumn.

The top of the big maple.

The house this morning:

These wildflowers are growing everywhere on the property.

Those specks are falling leaves.

This is one of those longed-for spectacular fall days. We deserve it, if I do say so myself.

I have errands to run today. 4 days until we leave! There’s so much to do in that time but I have to say this: I am so happy to be leaving this country for a couple of weeks. I’ve had it with the corruption running rampant in Washington and I desperately need a break from it all. And yes, if it was at all economically feasible and/or practical, I would jump at the chance to stay there for six months. I don’t know my country anymore and it’s always a good thing to experience another culture. Hopefully, it will help put things in perspective.

If I could curse on the blog as I do in real life, I would.

I was worried about the big Boston Fern on the porch. I expect the other potted plants to die, as they’re annuals, but the fern isn’t. I wanted to bring it in for the winter, but the only place I could see it working (it takes up a lot of space) was on the kitchen table. So, yesterday, while I was waiting for deliveries, etc., I brought it in and plopped it on the table. I had to raise the hanging lamp, as well. Fully expecting Don to hate it, I waited for him to come home.

He loved it. Actually, he was initially more enthusiastic than me! But now, we both love it.

Yes, it’s huge. No, I don’t know how it will do in the kitchen. But we’re going for it. We never eat at the kitchen table, it just becomes a repository for mail and sunglasses. We eat on trays in the den. And you know that we like eclectic and funky. We like putting our own stamp on our house.

As I said on Instagram: At the very least, it’s a statement.

Excuse early morning kitchen view.

Okay. Have to get a move on.

Happy Thursday.

Percolating

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Surprise rose in the midst of an increasingly fall-like landscape.

Three new babies on my monstera.  I was thrilled to see them as there had been no new growth during the summer. I know many of you think I have a green thumb and I guess I do, but I’ve had problems with certain houseplants this summer. My schefflera keeps dropping lower leaves – lots of them – but there is new growth as well. I can’t tell whether this is some sort of natural shedding or if something’s wrong. This particular plant has always been a bit touchy, but over the winter it did really well. I also have a few succulents that have bit the dust. So – I have my successes and my failures, just like everyone else.

Dollhouse renovation idea:

This is a small dollhouse. The rooms are not spacious and the kitchen is downright tiny. The stair placement is troublesome because it takes up so much room in the center of the house.

Not much can happen in this area. So now, we have an even smaller living room.

When I put the hutch in the kitchen, I realized how little space I would have there. One of the things I dislike about Hummingbird Cottage is the narrow, dark kitchen. Impossible to photograph, I did everything I could to lighten it up, but wasn’t very successful. In retrospect, I wish I had opened the wall up in some way.

So….

That’s what I’m going to do with the downstairs. I’m going to take the wall out, put a couple of columns in to support the floor above, take out the stairs and add something I found in a miniature catalogue – set of pull-down attic stairs. If this is a funky English stone cottage, why not? I thought about a spiral staircase, but they take up a lot of real estate.

Or, since it’s my dollhouse and dollhouses can be anything, maybe I’ll dispense with stairs altogether. I’d really like to open up this floor with a kitchen island where the wall is.

Those are my thoughts at the moment. I’ll let them percolate a bit while I’m off on my European adventure.

Your thoughts, my friends?

Happy Sunday.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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