Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Life in our little cottage in the country

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The Secret Garden, Books, and Pippa

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Yesterday morning in the Secret Garden. Wildflowers are springing up everywhere. There’s lots of fleabane and some wild phlox. It’s very, very wet there as we’ve had so much rain!

Wild phlox popping up in the rock garden.

Aside from mowing and planting the vintage pots, I haven’t done much else in this space. I’m debating whether to pull some of the weird grass that pops up in the path that leads to The Dude. Do I get in there and get rid of it, or do I just leave it there? No one can answer that question but me. And I’m feeling lazy at the moment.

It was incredibly hot and humid yesterday and, after some great time on the porch in the early morning, we stayed in. Both of us said that the combination of heavy humidity and pollen was making us feel tired and foggy-brained. I know that I felt completely out of it on both Saturday and Sunday. Later in the day, while talking to my sister on the phone, a big storm rolled in – though thankfully, not as big as the storms last weekend – and today it is much cooler around here. Hurrah!

I was reading one of my other books by Elizabeth George while in bed last night and I suddenly realized that I’d read it before, even though it was in my To Be Read pile. So I grabbed the other one that was also in that pile and started in….already read that one, too! Whoops! I think there’s only one Elizabeth George that I haven’t read and I’m going to order it from the library.

So this morning finds me looking around trying to decide what I’m in the mood to read next. In the meantime, I’m reading a short and delightful book from Slightly Foxed/Foxed Quarterly  – A Boy at the Hogarth Press  by Richard Kennedy. Kennedy worked for Leonard and Virginia Woolf for a while when he was young. It’s a lovely memoir of his time there, complete with his pen and ink drawings. Kennedy went on to be a well-regarded illustrator.

I grabbed a few moments outside yesterday and took Pippa with me:

Here she is in the memorial garden.

And in the secret garden:

The girls are enjoying the opportunity to explore the property.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.

Garden Chores and Books

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Another day yesterday with lots of work done around the property. It was sunny and gorgeous. We mowed the lilac side of the lawn, dug out the remnants of an elm in the big garden bed – it had been bugging me for years and I also get a skin reaction every time I brush against the leaves, so it had to go. We raked up pods from the catalpa tree, and worked on the Secret Garden. The old cinder blocks (found on our property – there are a lot  of them) that I use as a little wall separating the the grassy area from the rest of the garden disintegrate over time. They’re very old. Three or four of them needed to be dug out and replaced. We found 4 blocks that were part of a bench that we made long ago and never use, so we brought them down to the garden one by one. The heavy antique pots that I use in that garden sit on the blocks, so they need to be steady and secure. Much better now!

I also grabbed my special poison ivy pruners and snipped the vines that are trying to make their way up my maple trees. Bye bye poison ivy.

Very satisfying!

The lilacs have yet to fully bloom and there are fewer of them this year. I’m not sure why, as I pruned them at the right time last year. Maybe it was the winter or our crazy up-and-down weather. The peonies are growing by leaps and bounds.

We’ll have rain today and tomorrow, so we’ll be resting up.

Zoe enjoying the glider.

I finished A Change of Circumstance  by Susan Hill and loved it. She’s a wonderful writer – the prose flows so easily. It’s a compelling mystery about drugs and drug runners invading small towns, which didn’t entirely resolve itself at the end. I liked that. Trying to eradicate drugs and the people that profit from them is an ongoing battle so to tie that part of the plot up neatly would be false.

And now I’ll start A Line to Kill  by Anthony Horowitz, number 3 of 4 books checked out of the library.

Happy Birthday to my brother, David, and to his son, Eric. I miss you, Dave.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

Crazy Weather & Books

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Strange how taking the picture from this angle – in the hall upstairs – makes everything look slightly distorted. Certainly in terms of size – the needlepoint looks very tiny and it isn’t – but also in alignment. Eventually, I want to add some things to this wall.

It’s sunny out there, but colder. We have two nights coming up where the temperatures will fall below freezing. Enough, already! For heaven’s sake it’s almost May 1st! I feel very behind on everything. I haven’t purchased any plants yet because I have nowhere to store them while I wait for the weather to settle down. I had planned to go outside today and do some work, but it’s turned windy. With so much pollen out there, that’s a no go. It seems as if it’s always  windy around here. Much more than it used to be.

I’ll just have to dip into my reserves of patience. But it isn’t easy for yours truly.

I reserved some books from the library – two of them came in late in the day yesterday.

I’ve already started The Dark Hours. It came out last fall when I was working in the city, and I never got around to buying it. I love Michael Connelly; I’ve read every book that he’s written. I’ve also read all of Anthony Horowitz’ mysteries, save for his newest, which you see here. I have two more books on order; Elizabeth George’s newest, as well as Susan Hill’s newest. I suspect they will arrive at my local library today.

I’m trying to save money and get what I can from the library, especially as I have lots of books sitting in my TBR pile already, not to mention, limited space! All four books are by favorite authors, so I’m really looking forward jumping in.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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