Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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You are here: Home / Archives for porch

I Needed That

May 25, 2018 at 9:10 am by Claudia

The view from where I sit as I write this post.

What did I ever do without WiFi?

The bullfrog (or bullfrogs) is awfully chatty this morning. It’s almost non-stop. It’s a gorgeous sunny day and rain is expected tomorrow, so I’m going to enjoy the weather while I can. I do have to run errands; buy groceries, go to the bank, mail the bills…buy another stone dove…

I mowed the entire front lawn yesterday. Of course, I took a nice break halfway through, drinking water and rocking on the glider.

Then I got back to it. It’s a heck of a lot of work.

But it looks awfully pretty this morning.

I watched Cinema Paradiso  last night on Netflix. It may be my favorite movie; at the very least, it’s tied with To Kill a Mockingbird. If you’ve never seen it, you should remedy that. Glorious, moving, funny, heartbreaking and ultimately, life-affirming. I couldn’t get it out of my mind – that happens every time I see it – and since Don is the person who introduced me to it, I had to call him and talk through my highly emotional state at the end of the movie.

I cannot say enough about how much I love it and how much I needed to see it, given these times. I’ll choose “Life-Affirming” for $200, Alex.

A couple of photos of the secret garden (for lack of a better term) behind the kitchen, now with four vintage English pots.

I guess Monday is a holiday? Now that I’m not working very much, I’m no longer up on these things. It’s just another day, although there will be a steady stream of RVs and trailers headed for the campground down the road. People come from all over the place to camp right where I live.

Lucky me!

Happy Friday.

 

Filed Under: flowers, garden, movies, porch 38 Comments

The Porch & Neccos

May 24, 2018 at 9:21 am by Claudia

Call me crazy, but I decided to put actual Necco candies in the vintage Necco jar.

A while back when I was at Tractor Supply, I noticed a bunch of them at the checkout. I scooped them up and here they are.

Don wants me to get more.

I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I used to pass by their manufacturing facility in Cambridge, MA when I lived there. You could smell the Neccos. Mmmm. Such a great memory.

Taken this morning. It’s a gorgeous sunny day here. I can hear the sound of a lawnmower in the background, birds chirping and the occasional basso counterpoint from the bullfrog.

I have more mowing to do today. I mowed the back forty yesterday, as well as the corral.

The dove seems to be settling in nicely. I saw another one at Milne Antiques and Design the other day. It had lost its paint. But, doves come in pairs, don’t they? They mate for life. Maybe I need to get the other dove.

Just pondering.

The porch is my happy place.

I stepped out there this morning to take some pictures and I immediately felt lighter and happier. I’m so grateful for it. The cottage may be small, but the porch gives us an extra outdoor room, which more than makes up for it. I’m a porch person.

Happy Thursday.

Filed Under: flowers, porch, vintage 50 Comments

Pots and the Porch

May 19, 2018 at 10:17 am by Claudia

Getting a bit of a late start on this post as I just finished watching the Royal Wedding. I cried, of course. It was simply lovely and the perfect way to start a rainy Saturday. (I used to sing at weddings when I was a young thing and I always cried. Didn’t have to know the bride or the groom. Nope. I cried anyway.)

I had an idea for the vintage English pots I purchased the other day. Since I’ve given up on doing anything, for the time being, with the bed I wanted to create in the area behind the kitchen, my thoughts turned to the pots as a way to add some prettiness. So I trotted off to our local nursery and, after much deliberation, chose some pretty plants.

I filled them with coleus, lobularia, and silver leaf licorice plant. All three will trail and look even better with time, though I think they’re looking pretty good now. I love the deep red of the coleus.

Another shot:

They sit on cinder blocks that I found on the property long ago and lugged, one-by-one, to this area last summer. (Don lectured me afterwards about my back. But he was in California, so what was I going to do?)

Not the best time of day to take this picture, but you get the idea. It’s a sort of secret area behind the kitchen. I added those stepping stones to the left a few years back. They lead up to the back forty. Honestly, I’m thinking of getting two more pots. So there would be one further down toward the stepping stones and one more to the right.

I’m happy to say that I finished most everything yesterday, so except for ongoing weeding and maintenance (plus occasional additions because I want to fill my garden beds) I’m done with all the big spring cleanup.

Here are some pictures of the porch, taken yesterday.

The dove is here for the moment. I like to look at her/him when I’m sitting on the glider.

Rick came over for a while yesterday to talk about the garden and get ideas for their place. (I highly recommended purple coneflowers.) Anyway, we had a lovely chat, while sitting on the glider. It was a beautiful, sunny day.

Today is rainy. But that’s okay as I have to clean my neglected house. And I have no food, so there’s that.

By the way, some changes are happening on blogs and websites because of a new European Union policy on privacy and data collection, the GDPR. If a site is read by anyone in the European Union, a privacy statement about cookies and the way data is collected has to be written. Frankly, it’s daunting. I have no idea what to write or what I should write. But I’m researching it. The first thing you may notice in this newest version of WordPress is in the comment section. Those of you who comment frequently are used to your name and email address being ‘remembered’ after leaving your first comment. Today, if you want to be remembered instead of filling in the required info each and every time you comment, you have to check a box at the bottom of the form. Then it should be taken care of for the future. If you don’t want that, then don’t check the box.

Happy Saturday.

 

Filed Under: flowers, garden, porch 54 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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Scout & Riley. Riley left us in 2012. Scout left us in February 2016. Dearest babies. Dearest friends.

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