Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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Potting on the Porch

April 26, 2025 at 9:18 am by Claudia

Mother Nature has determined that I need a day of rest. It’s been raining since last night and we’ll have thunderstorms today. To be honest, I’ve known this was coming and boy, oh, boy is it welcome! We really need the rain and I really need to rest.

I’ve been working on clearing out the garden beds on a daily basis as well as driving back and forth to the nursery to see what is available. Yesterday, I cleared the garden beds on the far side of the house. Later in the day, I took a run to the nursery and another plant on my list was available. I’m still waiting for the final 3 and then I’ll be done.

Just the beginnings, as these pots will look very different once the plants take off.

This is lobelia. I have it in the pot in the first picture and in another pot on my little blue chair, which I’ll show another day.

Nothing has been officially arranged yet, but it’s the usual; big pots of impatiens on the benches, as well as my geranium which I overwinter every year. It’s on the bench near the porch entrance. I have two hanging pots of impatiens and two hanging pots of scaevola – those beautiful purple flowers that are super dependable. The impatiens will last until the first hard freeze, as will the scaevolas, lobelia, and calibrachoa. I can’t afford to change out the contents of my hanging pots from spring to summer. What is there is there, and it has to last for the next 6 months. Oh, and the pansies, in pots just outside the porch entrance – they last the longest of all of the flowers.

I’ll take more photos after a little time goes by. Hopefully, I can get everything potted by sometime next week. I also sowed the seeds for morning glories and zinnias.

It’s tiring, but necessary. Don is so adorable. He knows how much I look forward to spring and gardening and every time I come back from the nursery, he greets me with “Did you find anything??”

Today, some rest for my back, some household chores, and an episode of Gardener’s World. Don has a gig at a winery this afternoon.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

 

Filed Under: flowers, porch, spring 12 Comments

View From The Glider

May 20, 2024 at 7:53 am by Claudia

We’ve been working outside on these rain-free days. Don mowed the lilac side of the lawn yesterday and I pulled lots of weeds. I need to weed whack but I have to do it sparingly as my hand continues to heal. Anyway, we took about a half hour to sit on the glider and gaze on our property and remind ourselves how lucky we are to live here . It is so beautiful this time of year – so much green!

The view from the glider.

I decided to use only one of the Adirondack chairs this summer. We rarely use both of them at the same time and getting around them on our way to the glider is difficult. So, the other one is in the shed until we need it. I’m surprised how much all the impatiens have grown since I potted them with one hand a couple of weeks ago. They’ve really taken off.

Those are roses poking through the porch railing on the left. That glider was something Don picked up on the street way back when we were living in San Diego. I think he paid $25 for it. We’ve used it on the porch there, on the lawn in our rental house in Westchester, and on the porch here. It’s rusty and the paint has flaked off and I love its weathered look.

The secret garden needs to be mowed but it’s been very wet around here. The wild phlox is blooming all over the property. That’s an old street sign from our days in San Diego. It doesn’t really belong in the secret garden, so I’ll move it soon.

Today, some more chores outside.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.

 

Filed Under: flowers, garden, porch 23 Comments

The Porch and the Laptop

May 14, 2023 at 8:51 am by Claudia

Early morning shot of the porch. Nothing new here in terms of plants; I love my design plan and tend to stick with it every year. Impatiens are inexpensive and I love the calibrachoa in the vintage plant stand and the planter. They’re dependable. I know they’ll last all season long. I can’t afford to replace the contents of hanging pots or any pots as the season changes into summer, so I stick with my ‘dependables.’

Well. Yesterday was stressful for yours truly. I started the set up of my new laptop. Unfortunately, I couldn’t add the data from my backup because my rather old device doesn’t have the right connections to fit the newest Apple technology. That was frustrating. I’ve written to the maker to ask what kind of adapter I should use because I don’t want to drive all the way to the Apple Store (an hour from our house) if I don’t have to. So. I set it up without the addition of my ‘stuff.’ But it took me all day long. I had to find a way to reload my photo editing software. I had to find and sign into sites that I use a lot. I couldn’t remember the name of the font I use for the watermarks on these photos. There were just so many things to search for and find and set up – like the photo editing software. But I can use it now, as I am doing for this post. And a couple of hours later, the name of the font came to me and I found out how to add it to the software. But, EVERYTHING involved research.

Two things I am dealing with: First, the thought that keeps creeping into my brain – maybe I should just start fresh and not add the information from the backup. I remember when Don’s phone was stolen in Paris and he hadn’t backed it up. When he got the new phone, it was a blank state. And he liked that. Same thing when we were cleaning out the shed; I just dumped things. It felt freeing. I’ll see how I feel about this as the week goes on. As far as photos go, the ones I love the most are here on the blog, so I could pull them off the page and add them to photos on this laptop.

Second: I was depressed at the end of the day because anything like this – a stressful process – is much harder for me these days. Not to figure out, I can do that. It’s the stress of it that stays with me, exhausts me, and it takes me a long time to recover from it. One of the signs that I’m getting older. I simply don’t handle stress as well as I did. Don and I had a long talk about it last night. I feel older these days. It takes me longer to recover from those outdoor tasks, as well. He feels the same way.

I just sighed as I wrote this.

Anyway, back to the laptop. It’s much lighter than my circa 2015 laptop. And there is a bar at the top of the keyboard that lights up and has information or tools for whatever current task you’re doing. Right now, as I write this, it’s giving me word choices like an iPad or iPhone does. That is great! Just yesterday, when I was writing the post on my iPad, I was thinking how handy it was to have that option and it was too bad it wasn’t available on Apple computers. Well, it is. There are fewer ports on the sides of the laptop and they are all the same kind of opening. So I thank Wendy for the hint about buying a dongle, a device that has other ports which you can plug into the computer. They’re very inexpensive and I was able to get one from Amazon within a day. So I was able to transfer these photos from my big girl cameras, because there is no more slot for SD cards. 📸  See? Not that I’ll do it a lot, but there’s the camera icon that popped up on my toolbar.

Thankfully, I’m able to write more in a post with the laptop now available. It’s just plain difficult to write a long post when I’m pecking at the iPad on screen keyboard.

This morning I watched a bunny, a chipmunk, and the daddy robin conducting their business right outside my door. Oh, and a catbird taking a bath in the birdbath. Yesterday, some finches took a bath.

Mere sent me photos and video from the graduation. My nephew looked so happy, as did my sister.

Stay safe.

Happy Sunday.

Filed Under: animals, birds, bunnies, porch 32 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.

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