Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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You are here: Home / Archives for nature

A Limb Lost

September 13, 2013 at 7:53 am by Claudia

tree

On Wednesday night, during a severe thunderstorm, that huge limb that you see on the left hand side of our maple came down. It’s a massive tree. The limb just missed our car, took out some branches from the catalpa tree and, I’m sure, decimated parts of the garden.

I was watching the final dress rehearsal of Macbeth. It was intermission and I happened to look down at my phone to see that Don was calling. I knew something was wrong.

Yesterday, some friends came over with a chain saw and the clean-up began. Right now, we’re heartsick. If you remember, we lost a huge limb off this same tree two years ago during Hurricane Irene. Now, we’re wondering whether the tree is diseased, whether it is in further danger, and heaven forbid, whether it might have to be taken down. Don has contacted some arborists who are going to come by on Saturday to examine it.

Neither of us can imagine our house without this majestic Sugar Maple by it’s side. You know, when we first saw this house, we fell in love with the four big trees that were nearest to the house: a weeping willow, a shag hickory, a sugar maple and a catalpa. The shag hickory has mysteriously died. The weeping willow had to be taken down. Now, we’re wondering about the Sugar Maple. All of this in the eight short years we have lived here. We have many, many trees on the property, but they are mostly in the wooded portion of the back forty. These four trees; beautiful, old, majestic, were a great part of the siren call that reached out to me on the day we first viewed this house.

So send some positive energy to my tree, please. It’s a living thing and surely if all of us send healing energy its way, it can’t help but thrive.

In a way, I’m glad that I’m away during all of this. But I also wish I was there to help Don.

I’m starting to really hate huge storms.

Happy Friday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

 

Filed Under: Don, nature, trees 56 Comments

I Really Don’t Know Clouds At All

August 17, 2013 at 7:25 am by Claudia

hartfordsky

I was going to insert a little poetry here, as I have the last two Saturdays, but I cannot look at a cloud without hearing the words of Joni Mitchell and then the voice of Joni Mitchell. Or Judy Collins.

I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now,
from up and down, and still somehow,
it’s cloud’s illusions I recall
I really don’t know clouds at all.

And so it goes. The melody, the lyrics, endlessly looping through my brain.

Do you have an ongoing bit of music playing in your head all the time? I do. I hear snatches of melodies, a bit of this, a bit of that, all the time.  If not music, it’s dialogue of some sort. It used to be when I had to transcribe lots of text into a dialect using phonetics, I would have a running transcription session endlessly playing in my brain. I would dream transcription. Same with typing on a keyboard. But it’s mostly music that is always there in the background and I’m often unaware of it until I focus for an instant and realize the same tune has been repeating itself over and over like the soundtrack to a movie. Or the soundtrack to my life.

I can’t be the only one this happens to, can I? I bet not.

In other news, I was looking at my hastily pinned up row of strips,

stripsart

and thought how like artwork they are. I pinned them (with sewing pins) to that wall just to see how they might look bordered by white fabric. But I’ve left them there because their bright colors make me happy and enliven a bland corner of the room.

Sort of a neat idea for a graphic splash in your home, don’t you think? Pin some strips of fabric to a wall and presto – you’ve got instant art.

I’m rather liking them here in this temporary living space. Such a wonderful punch of color.

Glory be, I get to go home for two days this afternoon! I have a morning rehearsal for Macbeth, then Don will arrive around 2 pm and we will make our way to the cottage. I have to be back on Monday night for a Tuesday morning rehearsal. That’s okay. I just need 48 hours or so with my little family.

I told Don to bring Scout along on the ride here because I simply cannot wait to see her. My plan is that Don and Scout will arrive, she can briefly come up to the apartment (she stayed here for 3 days in January and she loves the elevator) and we will take her for a walk in the park, which she really loves. Then we’ll pile in the car and head for Mockingbird Hill Cottage, where I will reacquaint myself with the now, I’m quite sure, overgrown garden, immediately decide that I need to weed-wack and, upon entering the cottage, see every surface that needs cleaning.

Happy Saturday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

Filed Under: Don, fabric, life, nature, Scout 54 Comments

An Exotic Visitor

July 13, 2013 at 7:00 am by Claudia

How about this beauty?

red-spotted purple3

I watched her fly in a circle around me and I stayed very still, hoping she would land somewhere. She did.

red-spotted purple4

Come on…open your wings.

Red-Spotted Purple2

Red-Spotted Purple1

Oh my! What an exotic beauty.

Of course I looked her up. She’s a Red-Spotted Purple Butterfly (limenitus arthemis astyanax.) 

She’s a member of the Brush-Footed Butterfly family and she likes Lantana (we have that here) Common Milkweed (check) and Butterfly Bush (check, again.)

I’m so glad I got to see her!

I’m in Manhattan today, working as the text coach for a production of Much Ado About Nothing. But leave a comment, if you are so inclined. I miss you guys!

Happy Saturday.

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Filed Under: butterfly, nature 21 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.

Thanks for stopping by.

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The Dogs

The Dogs

Scout & Riley. Riley left us in 2012. Scout left us in February 2016. Dearest babies. Dearest friends.

Winston - Our first dog. We miss you, sweetheart.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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