Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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You are here: Home / Archives for life

Gravel and Slow Cookers

December 4, 2018 at 9:34 am by Claudia

Our work with Item 4 yesterday took longer than we thought it would, but isn’t that always the way? Don rented a pickup truck, drove to the place that carries the gravel, had it dumped in the truck, drove home and then proceeded to shovel it out into a small wheelbarrow that we have (which is now ruined for garden work, of course). Then I dumped the gravel, while Don shoveled some more. My job was to spread it and carve out some sort of path from the driveway to the kitchen. We have some left over, which is being stored in said wheelbarrow under a tarp. If we need more to fill in here and there, we know we have some on hand.

Anyway. It took a long time. I was tuckered out. Don, who had to take the truck to a car wash and power wash it before he returned it, was even more tired. I’m glad we did it, though.

So no updates on the green mini tree.

This morning we spent an hour researching slow cookers – Don has been wanting to get one. Now, this is the thing about our kitchen: it may look spacious, but we have very little cupboard space. Hardly any. So, while Don was gung ho on a larger cooker, I, being the practical one (and often the downer because of that) kept insisting that we had to make sure we had a place to store it. And that meant we had to have the dimensions of the cooker. I balked at storing it on top of the refrigerator. I don’t like seeing too many small appliances out on the counters. In our case, we have to have the microwave and the stand mixer on the counter. But more? Nope. I drew a line in the sand. Since our kitchen and living room are essentially one big room, I’m very careful about it not looking too kitchen-y, something we could get away with if it was a separate room.

Would it fit in our dishwasher that we use for storage? No. And all the other cupboards were at capacity.

Finally, I thought of the china cabinet that we have in the kitchen. It will take some rearranging but we can do it – ONLY if we buy the 4 quart version and not the 6 quart. Besides, we don’t have kids, it’s just the two of us, so we don’t really need a big old 6 quart slow cooker.

Cleaning out the cabinet will involve getting rid of the juicer, another one of Don’s big passions that hasn’t been used for years. In fact, he forgot we still had it. I hope we’re more successful with the slow cooker. Don does most of the cooking and he wants to vary our menus a bit more and I’m all for that.

Riveting, right?

Maybe, maybe, after I’m done rearranging that cabinet, I’ll get to work on my mini Christmas tree.

Wish me luck!

Happy Tuesday.

 

Filed Under: cottage, Don, life 39 Comments

Deer and Dialects

November 28, 2018 at 10:22 am by Claudia

This morning, as I raised the blind in the kitchen, I saw a beautiful buck just a few feet from the window. I rarely, if ever, see bucks on our property and have never seen one this close! Unfortunately, I didn’t have my phone with me, so the perfect shot eluded me. However, he stayed in the yard for a long time, eating the brush, safely camouflaged from human predators. We must have stood there for 10 minutes watching him. Don took a video, which is on his IG account (@donsroadtrip).

Look closely. You can see him.

We think he’s an older buck. He was walking slowly and bit stiffly – sort of like us – but goodness, was he beautiful!

I said to him “Stay here on this side of the road. You’re safe here.” He is, as all of the surrounding property is privately owned by our neighbors.

A beautiful way to start our morning. Almost like a private viewing, just for us. He didn’t seem at all concerned that we were standing on the other side of the window. I’m not even sure he noticed us. Normally, when we see deer right outside the kitchen, they notice us, freeze for a moment, and move on. Not this guy. And we’re grateful for that.

It’s gray, windy and cold out there today. Not my favorite weather.

This is what it looked like around here in the late afternoon yesterday. I had walked down the driveway to get the mail (including the newest Louise Penny) and turned back toward the house. I didn’t try to lighten this photo because I wanted you to see it as taken. As I said on IG, I love our house, but I find this particular barren view depressing.

Sigh.

I think I’ll put up the porch Christmas lights today simply to have some cheery lights out there. We need that.

We watched Florence Foster Jenkins  last night. What a wonderful movie, with the incomparable Meryl Streep, who I am convinced can do anything, Hugh Grant, and Simon Helberg. As I was watching, knowing nothing about the actual filming whatsoever, I became convinced that it was filmed, at least in part, in England. I believed that more than a few of the actors who were playing American characters were British. There’s a ‘tell’ in the way they do an American accent – a sort of flatness, a bit of nasality, a change in inflection – that I can spot a mile away. (It is, after all, what I do for living.) There are some British actors who do American dialects flawlessly. But, I have to say, most of them don’t. It sort of drives me crazy.

Sure enough, much of it was filmed in England. And the actors I was suspicious of? British.

My theory – and it’s just a theory – is that to Brits, the American accent sounds flatter, more nasal, less melodious. After all, one of the things I love about British dialects as a rule is their use of much more melody and range than we tend to use. So the actors, and their coaches, tend to concentrate on the nasality they think they’re hearing and the comparatively flatter, less rounded vowel sounds that we use, and the sound becomes a wash of those qualities, which are part of, but by no means all of the qualities in the way we speak. We have our own melodies that we use when speaking. They’re just different than a British dialect.

I suppose Brits would say the same thing about Americans using British accents, though I do think, generally, we’re a bit better at it. When I was acting, I was often pulled aside by audience members who were British and were convinced that I was also British. Obviously, I wasn’t.

This is daily life around here when you have two actors living in a cottage, one of them a vocal coach. We constantly comment about actors emphasizing the wrong word in a line, or stressing pronouns when it’s not at all appropriate, or not articulating clearly, or, in this case, not quite sounding American. We can’t help it. On the other hand, we far more often praise actors’ work, knowing everything that goes into making a role come alive, and just how tough that is. Acting is hard work and exemplary acting? Amazing. Rare. Meryl Streep? One of the rarest.

I’ve also started The Comforts of Home, Susan Hill’s newest Simon Serailler mystery. It’s excellent.

I had a couple of comments from readers concerning On Tyranny, which I recommended yesterday. It’s on sale on Amazon for $6.39 in paperback and the Kindle version is $3.99. Go for it!

Happy Wednesday.

Filed Under: deer, life, movies 43 Comments

A Quick One

November 25, 2018 at 8:00 am by Claudia

She’s hanging out in the den for the time being.

Just a quick post (written on Saturday evening) because I have to leave to get the bus early Sunday morning and won’t have time to write any kind of post then. Sunday bus options are fewer so it looks like I’ll get in at least an hour before I need to be there, but better safe than sorry. If I leave it until later, and the bus is even 10 minutes late, I’ll not make rehearsal in time. And I panic at the thought of not being on time. I’m one of those ‘it’s better to be early” people.

So there you go.

All day today (Saturday) I’ve thought it was Sunday. All day long. What will I think Sunday is, I wonder?

I hope you’re all having a lovely holiday weekend.

Happy Sunday.

Filed Under: life 12 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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Scout & Riley. Riley left us in 2012. Scout left us in February 2016. Dearest babies. Dearest friends.

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