nature — Page 25

Auld Lang Syne

December 31, 2009 at 1:05 am by Claudia

I captured this gorgeous sunset a year ago. I was just about to leave my husband and dogs and journey to San Diego for 6 months. How bittersweet the holidays were then as each day took me closer to January 2 and my flight to San Diego.

It has been a most interesting and different year for me – living in San Diego for half the year and back home for the other half. My time in San Diego turned out much better than I thought: I loved teaching and working at the theater, I met lots of new friends – many of them bloggers. I got to share the vintage shops I discovered with you, and show you the beauty of the San Diego I know. Don came to visit twice and we were able to visit all our old haunts and spend time with his family and our friends. But I was so homesick for Mockingbird Hill Cottage. In July I returned home and was reunited with my dogs and Don.

Blogging and sharing my time in San Diego with all of you was such a blessing. You were there for me and gave me encouragement and support. Thank you for that. And thank you for being there for me every day. I love reading your blogs. You inspire me.

I am excited about the New Year. I hope you are, too. I have lots of projects in mind for MHC. And, although I tend not to make resolutions for the New Year, my goal is to always stretch myself, be a better person and a help to others.

I’m coming up on my 400th post and in February I will celebrate my 2nd blogging anniversary. My goodness! I don’t know what I did before I started blogging!

So…thank you one and all for your friendship and support. I wish you all a Happy New Year and a wonderful 2010!

My Misadventures

December 22, 2009 at 5:41 pm by Claudia

Presents bought? Check. I dragged myself out again today and bought the last present on my list (which is rather a short one compared to most everyone’s, I bet.) I have to wrap everything, including the presents sent to us from my Mom and Dad. Mom leaves the wrapping to me. I am so grateful to be done – now I can stay home, stay warm and, hopefully, get rid of this bug.

Last night, after another endless bout of coughing, I decided it would be smart to come downstairs so as not to keep Don awake. It was about 4:00 AM. I gingerly tiptoed down the stairs in the darkness – feeling my way all the way down. As I came down the last two stairs into the den, I rammed my left shin right into the coffee table (which used to be the dollhouse table and was not in the middle of the room.) I bit my lip to keep from loudly cursing…but boy, did that hurt! After turning the light on, I saw I was also bleeding from my right toe. I have to laugh at the whole thing in the light of day – because it really is rather comical. After all the drama, I finally did go back to sleep on the sofa in the den. Don came downstairs later and said he’d been coughing all night. We are quite a pair.

I took this photo the other evening. I was in my flannel pajamas, having just let the dogs in from outside. The sky was so beautiful I had to grab my camera. Sunsets are so wondrous, especially since their beauty is so fleeting. One blink of the eye and the colors change. Another blink and it is gone. Enjoy your evening, dear friends; drink some hot chocolate, watch a sunset and listen to some Christmas music. I think we’ll watch a Christmas movie tonight…maybe The Shop Around the Corner. Tomorrow: Its a Wonderful Life. Christmas Eve: A Christmas Carol, with Alastair Sim.

Dog Days (& Feasts)

August 17, 2009 at 11:23 am by Claudia

Greetings from MHC. It is hot, humid and we are certainly in the dog days of summer here. I stall as long as I can each day before I finally give up and turn on the air conditioner. Me + humidity = crabby, irritated and congested.

Speaking of dog days, Don and I were in Woodstock yesterday. You might remember I was going to hear him perform? (He was wonderful, by the way.) Our trip kept us out a bit past Mr. Riley’s dinner hour. Maybe an hour. Not hours. When we walked up to the side door, I spied this on the floor in front of the refrigerator. (This has been restaged. I was so dumbfounded at the time that I didn’t think of taking a photo.)

There were many torn pieces of paper and bookcover strewn everywhere. I ask you to imagine these extras. Riley had eaten my bird identification book.

When he was a newly rescued dog, he would get into things due to separation anxiety. Once he tore open Don’s backpack and ate a bunch of gum. He chewed up one of my McCoy identification books. We learned to put everything away that he might get into before we left the house. He hasn’t done anything like that in a long time. Until yesterday. He has always had a liking for books. When you or I like them, we read them. When Riley likes them, he eats them. I will occasionally catch him putting his teeth around the edge of a book as if to imagine what it might taste like. I always issue a sharp “NO!” and move the book out of the way. It seems that I somehow missed the foreshadowing of yesterday’s feast. Now we are back to putting everything up and out of the way when we leave. He knew he was a bad boy. At least he got some roughage in his diet.

I am in the midst of some new designs on the blog. Check out my new button on the sidebar. Mine doesn’t have code so if you want to add it to your blog, just take the jpeg. My banner will be changing, too. I thought it was time for an update. This is all being done by my friend Mandy of a la parisienne. She designed my sidebar labels, remember? I hope you enjoy it when it is all installed.

Oh, I was kept awake for hours last night with an itchy ankle from that darn yellowjacket. I thought I would go mad. Stay away from me bees, you hear?

Have a wonderful day!

Auld Lang Syne

My Misadventures

Dog Days (& Feasts)

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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