Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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Will You Still Need Me, Will You Still Feed Me…

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11-21-messyme

I love this photo because it shows a less-than-perfectly groomed little girl. I don’t know what I was up to here, but I was clearly having a good time!

What can I say? It’s my birthday today.

A well-know Beatles song refers to the age I’m celebrating this November 21st. Gracious! How can that be?

As I write this, snow is blowing across the horizon outside my window. It’s very cold and windy. Don has plans for a celebration but I’m told they won’t commence until around 4:30. We’re going somewhere for an early dinner, then back home for some gift-giving.

I’m intrigued.

In the meantime, I’m writing this post and another one on Just Let Me Finish This Page (a book review for an excellent debut mystery – click here.)

I’ll think about my parents and my brother and my dogs and my sister and her family, as well as all my relatives. I’ll thank my lucky stars for my incredible husband, for a career that has been immensely satisfying, for work that is challenging, for friends who enrich my life, for this blog, and you.

Happy Monday.

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Say Goodbye

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I don’t know what to say.

I am stunned. I am sickened. I am in disbelief.

The country I thought I knew is no more. Make no mistake, there will be no coming back from this. Climate change, the rights of women, the rights of immigrants, freedom of the press, common decency, the Affordable Care Act, our good standing in the world and a whole lot more. Say goodbye to all of that.

Imagine being a recent immigrant to this country. Imagine being a Muslim-American, or any immigrant who is now terrified that he/she will be deported. Imagine being someone who has health insurance for the first time in years. Imagine being a disabled person who has watched his President-elect make fun of the disabled. Imagine being a woman who may lose the Right to Choose. Imagine being a woman who now sees that ‘grabbing p***y’ is no big deal when it comes to choosing a President. Imagine being any citizen who sees that a KKK-endorsed candidate has won the Presidency. Imagine being transgender, or gay. What world have they woken up to this morning?

Those who voted for this monster will have to answer some tough questions in the future, the most important of which is, “What did you do to stop him?”

Everything I was raised to believe is the right and moral and loving way to both live my life and treat my fellow man has been repudiated with this election. Thank God my father isn’t alive to see this. Or my mother.

Friends, you are welcome to share your thoughts here today. Maybe it will be cathartic for you.

I wish I could be more articulate but I’m in mourning, you see. In mourning for a country that is no more. For a country I could believe in. I’ll still fight, I will go on. But right now? I feel like a stranger in a strange land.

To all of my readers who live in Canada and Mexico and Europe and Australia and France and in other parts of the Globe: I’m so sorry. I don’t understand this.  I don’t understand a country that elects someone who espouses hate and exclusion and bigotry and sexism and racism and xenophobia and fear. I don’t know that country. I don’t want to know that country. I know that this election impacts the world.

All I know is that millions and millions of us are not like that. We denounce everything he stands for. We are reeling on this Wednesday morning.

Eventually, we will move forward and work for those who need us.

Comments are now closed. There’s a lot of negative energy out there and I certainly welcome differences in opinion, but I’d like them to be civil. And they are veering away from civil.  This is my little address on the web and you are visiting my home. Wouldn’t tolerate it here at the cottage. Won’t tolerate it here on the blog. Emotions are high. Let’s breathe. xo

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Light, Baseball, Stress, and Did I Just Hear Christmas Music?

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11-2-earlymorninglivingroom

Early morning light here at the cottage.

Well, not tremendously early, as I slept in this morning. That, my friends, is a rare thing.

Lately, I seem to be fascinated with light – the way it shifts and changes as the day goes on.

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One thing you have to say about our cottage: it’s lived in. I rarely stage a photo, though I might move a pile of laundry or do some much needed straightening up, but as a rule, we are an ‘as is’ household. What you see is what you get!

The World Series has moved on to a seventh game. Oh boy. That will be a nail biter. We’re cheering for the Cubs, but both teams have played so well and are so evenly matched, who knows what will happen? As a girl who has lived on both coasts, but is still a Midwesterner at heart, I’m thrilled that both teams are from the heart of the Midwest.

As Don said this morning, with the constant stress of the election (don’t get me started on the latest developments) do we need more  stress? I guess we do, because we will be watching the game tonight. I don’t know about you, but I am counting the days until November 8th. Time seems to move so quickly nowadays – Don and I constantly remark on how quickly a week goes by – yet the days leading up to Election Day seem to crawl. Time moving quickly, while simultaneously moving slowly. How can that be?

11-2-michaelspaints

I went to Michael’s yesterday to get some craft paint.

They were playing Christmas music.

As you well know if you’ve read this blog for any length of time, I have a rule: No Christmas until the second week of December. Of course, when I say that I’m referring to decorating my cottage. I do know the retail world needs to start the Christmas extravaganza earlier than that. But November 1st? Cripes, Thanksgiving isn’t until the 24th!

And it was the Jackson 5 singing Santa Claus is Coming to Town.

That is why I stay out of big chain stores as much as possible. For my holiday sanity.

It’s going to be 72° here today. Just the other night, the temperature dropped to 29°. My head is spinning! I think it may be a good day to clean the windows – one of my least favorite jobs in the world, second only to cleaning the bathroom. I never seem to be able to do it without streaks. I’ve tried using newspaper and all the other suggestions I see out there. Still streaks.

But, even with streaks, the windows will be clean. Hopefully.

New post up on Just Let Me Finish This Page – Five Short Takes on Five Novels Recently Read.

Happy Wednesday.

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Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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