Mockingbird Hill Cottage

On the Rocks

March 19, 2012 at 10:58 am by Claudia

I find beauty in rocks…up to a point.

After several days of raking, digging, dumping and then finding even more rocks, they have lost their appeal. Right now, the swath of dirt that is my front yard has lots of piles like this one. I’ve resorted to dumping them in the woods.

Rocks are heavy, I might add.

A view of the front yard. This expanse of dirt also curves around the house and up to the septic tank:

Occasionally, I see some hardy tufts of grass. (Maybe a miracle will occur overnight and this grass will multiply!)

But mostly, I see dirt. And rocks. And more where that came from.

This is what’s left of my dear Weeping Willow. This photo is deceiving because the trunk is really massive.

Oh, yes, let’s add wood chips to the mess in the front yard and on the driveway.

And tire treads.

I have no idea how I am going to level all this and get it seeded, but I will. And I’ve finally managed to persuade Don to pitch in. I feel more of a sense of urgency than he does since I will be leaving for Hartford three weeks from today.

The garden? I haven’t even begun to start cleaning it up.

The weather has been glorious. Yesterday it was in the 70’s here and beautiful. And I take heart when I see signs of spring.

New growth on a rose bush.

A tulip showing its new leaves.

But I still can’t get used to this empty space in front of the house.

There should be a big old weeping willow shading the porch, hiding us from the traffic on the road, branches moving gracefully in the breeze.

Ah well. More rock work is on the docket for today.

The winner of a copy of The Dispatcher is comment number 18 – Zooperson. I don’t have your email address so please send me an email with your shipping address and I will forward it on to TLC Book Reviews.

A new scarf is in the Etsy shop in that shade of springy green. And there will be another one listed tomorrow in a lovely shade of taupe.

Have a wonderful Monday.

My Blogiversary

February 20, 2012 at 11:39 am by Claudia

With all the drama surrounding the septic system, I didn’t realize until yesterday that my 4th anniversary of blogging had come and gone. I started this blog on February 17, 2008. Four years and 944 posts later, I love blogging more than ever. I wish I had chronicled the various looks of this blog. My first was, I’m sure, just the basic template and a photo of the house. Eventually it evolved to this:

It’s hard to see, but the background was in a pretty shade of brown.

At one point, I used this header:

Then I had Mandy design the font:

Then I used a favorite photo of peonies, with Mandy’s font design:

Eventually I had someone design a new header and background:

I had it for about a year and a half. But there was a problem with that designer. She stopped designing and didn’t tell her clients. She also stopped communicating with her clients. I saw the writing on the wall – I knew there was a very good chance she might pull her designs or let her Photobucket account lapse – and I redesigned the blog on my own. (By the way, her account lapsed several months later and many bloggers woke up one morning to missing design elements. Make sure you are in control of your blog. Keep those images in your own account. After all, you’ve paid for them. They should be yours. Or better yet, create your own design.)

And that brings us to today. Blogs evolve, don’t they? I had an idea of what this blog was to be, but it kept changing as I found my blogging voice. The professional design never really suited me; I see that now. It was an idea, a concept, that I wanted to fit into, much like a pretty dress that is perfect for someone else, just not for me. I’m finally comfortable with who I am, what Mockingbird Hill Cottage is. This blog design, much simpler, fits me perfectly. And I did it myself.

I’ve learned so much along the way. I am not overstating things when I say blogging has changed my life. It truly has. My loves; writing, photography, design, collecting, gardening, decorating, crafting and my husband and dogs, all come together at this little URL. I’m grateful. I’m blessed.

Thank you for being there. Some of you have been with me since the beginning. Some of you are newer readers. I’m thankful for each and every one of you. I’m looking forward to my fifth year of blogging. The adventure continues.
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By the way, I’m behind in visiting everyone and I know it. Life has been a little hectic here and I find that I am crocheting things for the shop in every spare moment. I will try to visit everyone this week. Fingers crossed.

Some of you have mentioned wanting a scarf but missing out when a new one is listed. I just listed this one yesterday (update: sold).

And I’m working on this one in silk and bamboo. Perfect for spring. It will be listed tomorrow.

Happy Monday.

Excavating

February 17, 2012 at 9:54 am by Claudia

Pretty, isn’t it? That guy – a very nice guy, by the way – is looking at our septic system. It’s been acting up lately – we’ve noticed some leakage, even though the tank has been recently emptied. Fast forward to more digging with the excavator, more pipes uncovered. All filled with tree roots. The leach field is shot. So we have to get a new one installed today and tomorrow.

For, oh, about $7000.00.

You can imagine what kind of day we had yesterday. I can think of all kinds of things I could do for $7000.00 – all of which would be a little more fun, a little more pretty, than a leach field.

These roots have apparently been doing this for years. We’re the lucky owners who have discovered it. And the roots are from the weeping willow, which means the willow is going to have to come down. It’s old and fragile and every time we have a big wind storm we worry it’s going to fall. Now that we know how troublesome the roots are – to the tune of 7K – we have no choice but to take it down.

And it breaks my heart. It’s my favorite tree on the property. It’s one of the reasons I fell in love with this house. I’ve already told Don that I will not be around on the day that happens. I simply couldn’t bear watching my sweet willow come down. I cry every time I think of it.

So that’s what’s happening at Mockingbird Hill Cottage.

I have to show you at least one pretty thing today. Meredith made this beautiful shawl/scarf in the softest gray. It has tiny sequins in it. Oh my goodness. It’s beautiful. And it’s going in the shop this weekend, along with another beautiful shawl. I’m crocheting like crazy and hope to be adding more Obsession Scarves this weekend as well.

Enjoy your Friday.

On the Rocks

My Blogiversary

Excavating

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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