Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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Day Three Hundred Seventy-Six

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I finished this early in the afternoon. Don heard me complain about the dark pieces many times…but, as always, suddenly you insert two or three pieces and everything else goes quickly into place. This is called Three Amigos. I find it delightful. These three older guys who play guitar (Spanish guitar? Mexican? Folk songs? Flamenco? Classical?) get together at night and play music together. There’s a bottle of wine on the table, cups and saucers, a bottle of something spicy, sheet music, and several statues of women. Someone’s hat is on the table, there are two guitars in addition to the ones being played, the hanging lamp bathes the players in light, and you can see nighttime NYC out the window.

Simply wonderful.

I have another one arriving today with a completely different color scheme.

Today is going to be quite rainy. Don has to recycle and has agreed to stop at the post office to buy stamps and check the PO Box, which we haven’t checked at all in more than two months. I know I have at least two envelopes waiting for me. Tomorrow will be a ridiculously warm day for this time of year, it’s supposed to be 75 degrees! CANNOT WAIT.

I’m really enjoying the beautiful writing of John Banville. My heavens, he can write! An example:

The black-branched trees seemed to press forward with desperate eagerness, as though they might at any moment break through the barbed-wire fence that was its border and make their determined way, hobbling along with their roots dragging, across the open expanse before them, to crowd about the house and thrash their limbs furiously against its defenseless walls. – John Banville, Snow.

One sentence. There are a couple of mystery writers that I consider poetic in their prose style; James Lee Burke and John Connolly. John Banville has joined that group, though from what I can tell, he’s a novelist first and foremost, this mystery is the start of a new series. Every sentence is a treat and I find myself rereading them just to give myself a chance to stop and marvel at the beauty of his images.

I believe I’ve found another favorite writer!

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

Day Three Hundred Seventy-Four

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Current puzzle. I know I said it was dark and moody and it is. The left hand side is where the lamplight casts its glow in this apartment. The other half is very dark, which is why I’ve worked on the more colorful sections first. They’re just easier to complete.

Gosh, I love a good jigsaw puzzle!

Sunny and warm (relatively) again today. We were going to take a drive but Don has a commitment at 3:30 and, quite frankly, we’re feeling lazy. We’re excited that we can finally say that our second shot is next week. On Monday, Don gets his shot from his eye specialist and on Wednesday, we both get our second dose of the vaccine. By the way, someone (sorry, I can’t remember who it was) mentioned that we should make sure that getting another shot around the same time as our vaccine shot is okay. Don called his eye doctor who quickly said this kind of shot has no impact on the vaccine and the vaccine has no impact on it. So, we’re fine.

We had a great FaceTime chat with Little Z and my sister yesterday. Z is into zombies at the moment, so we learned a great deal about them. Z illustrated the sounds that come from baby zombies and adult zombies and we also learned they like to chase chickens. I mentioned to him that my neighbor has chickens and we imagined what it would be like to try to chase the zombies away from the chickens. He also got to ride an elevator in the parking garage next to his doctor – as you know, Z is obsessed with elevators and COVID has kept him from exploring different elevators every weekend. He’s missed that.

I just finished The Sentence is Death  by Anthony Horowitz – he’s so darned clever! Now I have to choose my next book. I certainly have a lot of them to choose from in my TBR pile. I’m leaning toward a mystery by John Banville – a new-to-me writer. His mysteries take place in Ireland. I think I first heard about this book, Snow, through The Mysterious Bookshop’s newsletter.

Oh, I can’t wait until the day I can visit the city again, if only to visit The Mysterious Bookshop and Tiny Doll House – two shops that are on opposite ends of Manhattan – one in Tribeca, the other on the Upper East Side.

I’m off to do a little work on the puzzle.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.

Day Three Hundred Seventy

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A rainy day today with about an inch of rain expected. Then the warmup begins.

What exciting news do I have for you? Let’s see, we’re picking up groceries later this afternoon. That’s exciting. I have another puzzle arriving today. That actually is exciting, because, instead of doing anything with the dollhouse (I didn’t have the patience for measuring yesterday) I finished the puzzle instead.

The trees were the most challenging – as well as the road. But as you know, when you’re heading toward the finish of a jigsaw puzzle, pieces start going into place pretty quickly. The next puzzle isn’t as bright – in fact, it’s pretty dark and moody – but it shows a trio of musicians rehearsing inside a NYC apartment and I love music and musicians.

Hopefully, I’ll get upstairs and do some work on the dollhouse today.

I’ll admit it. I’m restless for Spring and I’m tired of the heat being on and the brown monotone of the surrounding countryside. I’m ready for our second shot, but it won’t be until the 31st. I’d like to start working outside, even if only to wash our siding and take down old wasp nests from the ceiling of the porch and clean the porch railings. Not exciting, but satisfying nonetheless, and it’s all stuff I can work on before it’s time to do anything with the gardens. As the temps will be in the 50s and 60s next week, I’ll be doing just that.

Stay safe.

Happy Thursday.

 

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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