Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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You are here: Home / Archives for life

Day One Hundred Fifty-Five

August 15, 2020 at 9:25 am by Claudia

I’m running late because I slept in. Goodness, that throws me off! I woke up in the middle of the night and was awake for at least an hour or so, all the time wondering if I’d get back to sleep. I guess I did – when I came downstairs, Don said he was getting ready to come upstairs and check on me!

Anyway, I have a deadline for posting if I want the post to go out via email. I have yet to make our second cup of coffee because I’ve just finished the first and Don is now in his morning meeting, well after our normal coffee-sharing time.

But hey, I got a good night’s sleep.

Yesterday, both of us were having a hard time with the continued isolation. We’re restless. It’s been five months, nearly half a year – and a year at this stage of our lives is precious. We’re doing well, we are grateful that we have each other during this crisis, we are usually pretty positive. But the state of our country, the selfish Covidiots who continue to add weeks and months to our self-isolation because they need to go to a restaurant or bar or to the beach, Orange Man, who won’t do anything about the coronavirus but will put all his energy into stealing the election – it’s too friggin’ much.

We’re restless. We want to flee to some other sane country.

Hopefully, we’ll have a better attitude today. I know I’m saying nothing new. We’ve all experienced this in the past five months. It’s to be expected. We took a short drive yesterday and that helped.

Back to being positive!

I finished the new Michael Connelly and I’m back to Hamnet.  I’m going to give myself a nice chunk of time today to really immerse myself in the story. I also have the newest Country Living  and Country Home  set aside to read.

It’s a beautiful day.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

Filed Under: life 62 Comments

Day One Hundred Fifty-Four

August 14, 2020 at 9:42 am by Claudia

Since it’s going to be hot and steamy today (what else is new?) I thought I’d stay here on the porch after our cup of coffee and blog from the glider while it’s still pleasant outside. The wi-fi is just fine out here. I used to do this more often when Don was out of town, but I tend to forget that it’s a possibility. (Traffic noise is a pain in the tush, but if I can block it out on any particular day, I’m okay.)

Yesterday, Don took down much of the chicken wire fence that enclosed our corral. There has to be a way for trucks to get up to the area where half of the maple has fallen as well as the two dead ash trees that have to come down. And he needed a project. But he told me he felt a wave of sadness because we were taking down the enclosure for our dogs that had been there for nearly 15 years. It needed to be taken down because it was rusty, had pulled apart in places, and it just plain looked crappy. But, my thoughts have been full of our dogs since yesterday. We kept the ‘chute’ that enclosed the area just outside our kitchen door. That’s where Scoutie would run down the hill and leap into the kitchen. Plus, that section of fence and another section beyond that are part of my memorial gardens and I currently have morning glory vines growing there. The trucks are going to have to go in on the far side of that fence. I’m not taking down my garden just when it’s taking off.

This whole thing is a pain. Our plans for next year (if we’re finally earning some money) are to enclose a future vegetable garden with deer fencing and construct some raised beds. It will be in the sunniest and flattest part of the former corral.

My package from Italy arrived yesterday. Miniature happiness.

Oh my goodness. This was made by a woman named Carlotta who lives in Bologna, Italy. I discovered her Etsy shop when the annual Kensington Dollhouse Festival (in London) did a virtual show this year. They had to cancel their annual show due to COVID. They highlighted many of their usual exhibitors and had links to their webpages or Etsy shops. I clicked on Cinen, Carlotta’s shop, and fell in love with her work.

This is the kind of piece that would usually be used by a miniaturist in a miniature shop of some kind, but I think of it as a large vintage piece of furniture, formerly in a  shop, that the ‘owner’ has repurposed in her living room. This takes up most of the wall in the living room section of Dove Cottage, which will (hopefully) consist of an eclectic mix of vintage styles, patterns, tchotchkes, etc. I can’t wait to fill it with books and pottery and art. Those twelve drawers open. What fun it will be  to fill them!

Forgot to add that the original piece was a bit too tall for my little cottage, especially considering I haven’t even put the floor in yet. I messaged Carlotta and asked if it would be possible to make it about a half inch shorter. Frankly I figured this would be a no-go, but she said yes. She had to reconfigure everything, including drawer size, and she did it all for the same price as the original. It arrived after 14 days in transit, beautifully packaged and intact.

I couldn’t make anything like this. With my modest means, I do try to support miniaturists when I can. Their skill continues to astound me and I like having their pieces in my little houses. I guess you could say that I collect artisan miniatures. And I am head-over-heels in love with this piece.

Today – and don’t be jealous – we take the old chicken wire to the dump. I know…what a fast-paced, celebrity-filled life we lead!

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

Filed Under: dollhouse, Don, life, miniatures 32 Comments

Day One Hundred Fifty-Three

August 13, 2020 at 9:40 am by Claudia

Some blogkeeping:

It looks to me like yesterday’s post didn’t go out in its email version. I have no idea why. It could just be a glitch in Feedburner. Or it could be that for some reason, I posted too late for it to go out that day (though I really didn’t, but it’s crazy Feedburner, so who knows?) There’s a chance you might get two posts in your email today. Or not. And now – today – I see that my subscriber count went from 450 to 50. Something’s up.

As I’ve said before, this is a Google service that isn’t being fully supported by Google anymore. It is in that I can change times for the posts, etc, but it isn’t in that it’s really hard to get any sort of answer from Google. Almost impossible. I’m not about to spend one more penny supporting this blog than I’m already spending, so I’m not going to go with another service, all of which are paid.

As always, the best thing to do, and the the thing I prefer you to do, is come directly to the blog. There’s no truer indicator of whether I’ve posted or not than that.

Second item. Sometimes, I get a notice from a webmaster saying my reply to your comment on the blog was rejected and can’t be delivered. Priscilla, I got one for you this morning. I got another one the other day for someone else. This is usually because your email provider has marked it as spam, most likely because they see a lot of mail coming from a certain IP address (my host, which is the host to gazillions of blogs and websites) so they block it as spam. Again, nothing I can do about that. So, if you don’t get a reply – and you know I reply 99% of the time – check back on the blog.

Okay. Enough of that.

We watched Biden and Harris speak yesterday. Compassion, intelligence, clarity, power – I felt hope and, at the same time, a sense of calm that I haven’t had in over 4 years. I don’t kid myself, I’ll get angry again very soon because the Orange Man and all his henchmen will pull out every trick in the book, will call Kamala names, will – as I saw this morning – start spewing ‘birther’ nonsense. I’ll have to keep repeating my mantra: Biden/Harris 2020. Over and over. I’ll remind myself that I’m voting FOR something – much more positive than voting against. (Though that is implied, for sure.)

I’m waiting for a package in the mail. It came from Italy. I’m tracking it. So far, the slowest part of the journey has been here, stateside. I normally have no problems with the USPS. They are stellar. But, now? With all the changes being made as OM (Orange Man) tries to suppress the vote via mail-in ballots? The USPS is moving very slowly. My heart goes out to those faithful employees who are being forced to slow everything down. It’s shameful. Speak out. Call your representatives. We need the Post Office, which was functioning very well indeed before OM and his bogus Postmaster General started messing with it.

End of soapbox.

Side note: Does OM not realize that his makeup stops short of his hairline and isn’t blended on the sides? It’s as if he’s auditioning for some Noh Drama or mime work. Come to think of it, it looks like what in actuality it is: a mask.  An apt symbol for his entire life. I must admit I’m endlessly fascinated by how badly it’s applied. We watched an episode of Frasier  last night in which Marty (Frasier’s dad) applies some spray-in hair dye and it proceeds to get all over everything; chairs, rugs – and it runs down his face. OM’s makeup reminds me of that.

Stay safe.

Happy Thursday.

 

 

Filed Under: life 67 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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