nature

Nature, Miniatures, and Spoiler Alert

December 9, 2022 at 9:14 am by Claudia

Yesterday was a full-on amazing nature day.

Spectacular sunrise with a pink sky as far as we could see. A spectacular sunset. Two murmurations of starlings on our property that were truly magnificent and glorious. At one point, I looked out the back window in the kitchen and there was a huge hawk standing on the ground eating something. I’ve never seen a hawk land on our property and stay there for at least ten minutes. Don said he was eating big, fat worms. It was amazing to watch – all of this was happening as we were talking to someone on the phone!

Wow.

Turning to miniatures, I’ve been trying to find a vintage-looking stove other than an Aga for quite a while. Almost impossible to find. Then a friend reminded me of the Hallmark Keepsake ornament from 2004, which you can still find on eBay. It’s very Christmasy and loaded with things I don’t want (and have already started to remove) but it reminds me of our stove. It’s 1:12 scale, or pretty close to that. It arrived in yesterday’s mail. It’s plastic, of course.

This ornament was designed to be plugged into a Christmas light strand and there was a fragrance pack tucked into the rear of the stove – sort of an apple spice scent. You plugged it in and you could smell cookies baking. I think there was a light in the oven, as well. It will need some work, as I’ve already removed the salt and pepper shakers, cookie sheets, and mugs, so I’ll have to repaint the top of the stove. I know of at least one other miniaturist who has worked with this ornament, so I’m going to check out her stove, which I believe she has since sold. I also have to cut off the electrical cord.

But I think this will look great in the Beacon Hill, don’t you?

Spoiler Alert opens nationwide today! Go see it – it’s a wonderful movie with beautiful performances by everyone. Jim and Ben will make you laugh and break your heart at the same time. Sally and Bill are brilliant, as one would expect. And you can see me!

I’m so proud of this and my little contribution. My work with Ben paid off as he aced the dialect, and I managed not to embarrass myself in my scene. Who would have thought I’d be acting again, on screen, after 30 years?

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

The Woods and the Property Line

September 19, 2019 at 11:04 am by Claudia

This is the view from the edge of our woods – the back of our property. It backs up to that same field that we see when we’re taking our walk.

We walked through our woods yesterday. This little walk was initially taken because we wanted to make sure the raccoons that got in our trash the other day hadn’t scattered it up in the woods. When I discovered the upended trash can the day before yesterday, I immediately looked toward the woods and saw an opened trash bag about halfway up the path, retrieved it, rebagged it, and reflected that this particular visit had been much less messy than the one in the spring. I can only presume the raccoons were spooked by something and ran off. Still, we thought we should check out the rest of the woods.

So, as we made sure there was nothing up there that we needed to bag, we ended up finding our way through a clearing to the edge of the property. Then we had to walk through waist high goldenrod and wildflowers to reach the field. It was gorgeous. Wildflowers everywhere, bees buzzing, butterflies and moths, just plain lovely.

We could see areas of ground where deer have been sleeping. It’s nice to know that they’re safe here. No hunting allowed on any of our neighborhood properties.

We found another path back to our property, this time walking through another neighbor’s wooded property, which borders our property to the south.

We don’t go back there often enough. It’s really beautiful this time of year.

This is one of the very, very old posts that mark the property line at the edge of the woods. You can see some ancient barbed wire hanging from this one. There are four of them back there, but I’ve not seen them on anywhere else on the property. I assume they date from 1891 (when the house was built.)

All in all, a lovely day. I finished The Woman in the Window and started in again on I am Pilgrim, by Terry Hayes, a book I had just started a couple of years ago when I was pulled away for something else, most likely a book I had to review. I never got back to it. It’s an excellent mystery/spy thriller. I saw an ad the other day for Hayes’ newest book, which is to be published soon, and I realized I’d better get a move on and finish the one I had on my shelf before the new book comes out.

Errands to run today. I’ve been putting them off but it’s time. Then more reading, I hope.

Happy Thursday.

Force of Nature

March 3, 2018 at 10:35 am by Claudia

As I said on Instagram, it’s interesting when the title of the book you are reading mirrors what’s going on outside.

The nor’easter was relentless and scary and insane. But our little pocket of the Hudson Valley was somehow spared the snow and, at least in this neighborhood, downed trees and power outages. For that I am truly grateful.

That being said, I was up here sitting at my desk when I realized that I could hear the sump pump, and it wasn’t going off. This has happened in the past, so I pulled on some jeans, donned my muck boots and a slicker and made my way outside. Our basement is the kind that you enter from the outside and it’s old (house was built in 1891) and full of cobwebs and not my favorite place to be, which is ironic since I ended up spending much of the day there yesterday.

Upon examination, it looked like the float had become loose. For those of you who might not know: a sump pump has a float, like a toilet tank has a float, and it rises according to the level of the water that is draining into the pit around the sump pump. When it reaches a certain height, the float rises, the sump pump kicks on, and it flushes the water out through a pipe and up to the ground outside.

I tried putting it back in place and it would work for a while, but then, back upstairs, I would realize I hadn’t heard it, and I’d have to go back outside and downstairs. Keep in mind that we had gale force winds all day long yesterday. I won’t make this story any longer than it needs to be, just fast forward through about 6 or 7 trips downstairs, at least three changes of clothes and a second shower, to the point where I realized I was going to have to come up with something to keep the float in place or the basement would flood. The rod that goes through the float and threads through a hole on the sump pump needed something to secure it in place and keep it from ‘floating’ away. I finally came up with the idea of using a cork coaster. I brought the float upstairs, poked the end of the rod through the coaster, and then trimmed the cork. Back downstairs, kneeling on the very wet floor (another change of clothes), I threaded the rod through the opening, gently pushed the cork down – it didn’t tear, thank goodness – and waited.

It worked.

But I spent the rest of the day listening for the sump pump to go on and off, in case I had to try something else. But it kept on working.

I guess I MacGyvered it, right?

Someone is going to come and fix it on Wednesday. I was darned if I was going to pay for an emergency call if I didn’t have to.

Tuckered out after all of this, I treated myself to a hot chocolate and watched It Happened One Night, one of my favorite movies. Then I took a hot bath and went to bed. All the while, the winds kept blowing and, as you know, that is very nervous-making for me.

I finally fell asleep, only to wake up at 4:30 in the morning to the relentless chirp of a smoke detector.

I am not kidding.

After a couple of hours of searching for the guilty party to no avail, then trying to go back to sleep only to have it happen again, I finally figured out which one it was. Triumph!

And I ended up going to back to sleep for an hour or two.

Can you see why I’m just plain tuckered out?

I know so many of you had it much worse and I’m thinking of you. This was a deadly storm and thousands upon thousands of people do not have power. Many, many trees have fallen. It’s terrible. And those of you on the West Coast are facing storms as well.

Today, I’m going to try to get out for a while. I feel extremely housebound, while appreciating that I have a roof over my head and am snug and warm.

Speaking of movies, did I ever show you the mug that Don had made for me for Christmas?

It’s from one of my favorite movies. I watch it often. And I mean, often.

Here’s the other side, the storefront of The Shop Around the Corner:

He’s a sweetie, that guy.

Okay. Have to get a move on. There’s debris to pick up in the yard.

Link to performance on the Today show. If you stay there, the second number will pop up, too.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

Nature, Miniatures, and Spoiler Alert

The Woods and the Property Line

Force of Nature

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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