Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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All Creatures Great and Small

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Just a glimpse of all the activity going on around here. For each photo that succeeds in capturing a flitting bumble bee, for example, there are about 30 where he’s a blur. Our woodpecker friend, a red bellied woodpecker to be exact, has been ensconced on the property for a while. We hear the rat-a-tat-tat of his pecking in the catalpa tree. I’ve identified his calls; he’s very talky. Yesterday I walked out the door and there he was on the shed, moving from here to there, assessing whether the shed was peck-worthy. In the end, he decided it wasn’t. But I was able to slowly sneak up on him and grab some photos. I don’t have a telephoto lens, but this kind of situation is exactly the reason I want one some day.

Don posted a photo of him on Facebook and asked for name suggestions. I think Guthrie (as in Woody Guthrie) won out. So Guthrie it is. He’s a beauty.

The shed needs painting. I don’t see it happening for a long while. I don’t like to paint walls.

Hey, it has a weathered look. I sort of like that.

It’s raining heavily and has been since last night. Knowing that rain was on the way, I ran out to the peonies yesterday afternoon with my pruning shears. I wanted to grab the fully opened flowers because I knew that the heavy rain would decimate them. Into the Ball jar they went.

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Hello, beauties.

A fellow musician friend of Don’s is coming over today – he’s driving in from Connecticut. They’re going to practice together for a gig they have on June 21st. This guy is amazing; he plays the mandolin, dobro, steel guitar, you name it. Don met him recently and they seem to really get each other’s musical sensibilities. It’s a match made in heaven.

I can’t wait to hear them play. Perfect for a rainy afternoon.

(I was going to go to the Country Living Fair but I decided not to, for several reasons. It’s rainy and messy out there. I’m not real excited about the whole thing; I wrote on FB that I was feeling rather ‘meh’ about the whole thing. We’re on a strict budget here; I can’t really justify the cost of the ticket and the gasoline to get there, and I can’t really buy anything. So why go? If it’s a success, it will be back again. Right? But my friend Heidi has a booth there and I’m so, so happy for her!)

Happy Friday.

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A Bit of Everything

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Wild roses are everywhere on this property. Normally, they are a pain in the tush because they grow with abandon and have thorns. Normally, I curse them. But for a week or two in the spring, they bloom and everywhere I look there are billowy tufts of tiny white flowers. And for that week or two, I bless them.

Delicate. Beautiful.

Yesterday was simply gorgeous with temperatures in the seventies and a gentle breeze. I was a bit down, still am, so I comforted myself with time on the porch and the funky patio. I listened to the sound of the birds – I so wish I could identify all the different chirps and calls – and watched them flit and fly all over the property. I heard a woodpecker up in the catalpa. In fact, I hear him now. But every time I tiptoed to the tree, that little bugger took off. He knew I wanted a photo of him.

I heard the cicadas, but only for about 30 seconds here and there. Cicadas have to compete with the noise of traffic on our busy country road. I am still finding some newly emerged cicadas here and there on the property.

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A view of the house from the back forty.

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Part of the back forty.

I sat on the porch glider and looked at my gardening journal. I don’t keep it up like I did when I first established this garden seven years ago, but reading it helps me to realize how far the gardens have come. I am reminded about the plants that thrived here and the plants that mysteriously failed or simply disappeared. More on that in another post. I read my current Deborah Crombie mystery. And this girl kept me company:

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She spends an awful lot of time sniffing here and there. Her nose reminds me that other critters pass through this porch: cats, chipmunks, squirrels, bunnies, mice.

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That face. I absolutely adore that face.

By now I think you know that I am more than a bit uncomfortable with the whole idea of tooting my own horn. Fortunately, I don’t suffer from that little malady when it comes to my husband. I briefly mentioned yesterday that his new album is available for download on his website. Don has a website that covers both his acting career and his music. I have a website for my professional work. (And you thought you knew everything about me!) Anyway. His new album, Out Beyond the Breakers, was recorded in our friend Rob’s incredible studio while Don was working in San Diego earlier this year. It consists of 14 new songs. If you’re interested, you can download them individually or as an album.

Some of my favorites?

  • Don’t Tell Me Heart
  • I’ve Got a Love (makes me cry)
  • Adios New York
  • Say It Twice
  • Guess I Still Get Crazy
  • She Saves Me

No pressure. Since many of you have told me how much you like his music, I thought I’d share this with you. If you’re interested, click on the link and then click on Music/Shop on his homepage. While you’re there you can see some photos of him in various acting roles and read a bit more about him. He’s an interesting guy, that husband of mine.

This is shaping up to be a long post! Since they are here for such a short time, more peony photos:

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Love to you all on this Wednesday.

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The Porch and Peonies

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A view from the porch. Some much anticipated porch sitting has been happening around these parts. Oh, how I love this wrap-around porch with its bluestone floor.

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I know that impatiens are iffy this year. They’ve been struck by a fungus, which explains why the impatiens in our barrels suddenly up and died last summer. I couldn’t figure it out at the time – it almost seemed as if some animal had lopped off all the flowers. I didn’t learn about the fungus until I had already purchased a flat. So I compromised by not planting them in the barrels, just in pots on the porch. If they succumb, I’ll just replant using something else. The fungus only affects impatiens, so nothing else is in danger.

A couple of years ago, Don bought a cot from a yard sale. At the time, I had plans to use it on the porch, but I never got around to it. Yesterday, I pulled it out of the shed.

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I threw an old sheet and some pillows on it. Ideally, I’d like to get some indoor-outdoor fabric and make a foam pad for it. In the meantime, this little arrangement cost me nothing. I can’t get all fancy here; this porch is open to the elements.

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Don came home later in the day and offered to test it out. I see some snoozing ahead.

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This bench faces the entrance to the porch. I found the greenhouse sign about 5 years ago in an antique shop.

We have a picnic table, two benches without backs and two with backs. The set was purchased from a neighbor just down the road for $25. I can’t imagine the porch without them.

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Last year, late in the summer, I looked into a pot on the porch and I saw this frog. It was hidden away, surrounded by lots of plant leaves. I excitedly called Don out to the porch to show him. “Oh that,” said he, “that’s just a wooden frog I stuck in the plant when you were away. I forgot all about it.”

Wooden? I had been absolutely sure it was real. Though now that it’s been freed from the plant I can’t believe I ever thought that. Oh boy.

Wait, who do I see?

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None other than Miss Scout, watching my every move.

It’s the first week of June. Like clockwork, late spring or not, my little babies have appeared:

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Love, love, love, love peonies. The scent is heavenly.

I have two bushes. This bush is in full sun. The other has blooms like the one below.

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Interestingly, this bush is at the base of a shag hickory tree. That tree was very young when we moved in, but in the past 8 years it has really grown. This is the first year that I’ve only seen a few buds on that particular bush and I’m pretty sure it’s due to the increasing shade provided by the hickory. Peonies like the sun.

I’m hesitant to transplant it. But I would really miss seeing this particular peony. Isn’t it pretty? What to do?

While I ponder that, I will wish you a happy Tuesday.

Oh, by the way, Don’s new album, Out Beyond the Breakers, is available for download on his website. If you’re interested, click on this link, then click on Music/Shop.

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Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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