Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Life in our little cottage in the country

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Day One Hundred Six

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Lots of bees dining on the milkweed blossoms yesterday!

I have to say a little something about the mechanics we encountered yesterday. If you don’t know, Don tried to start my car yesterday to make a run to the grocery store and it wouldn’t start. I went outside and tried it, too, and it was clear the battery was dead. Since I just got a new battery about 2 1/2 years ago, I knew something was up. We have insurance through Geico, so we called roadside assistance and they had someone here within 30 minutes. The guy, who wore a mask (Yay!) was the most positive, lovely, salt-of-the-earth kind of guy. He got out, brought his battery charger with him, Don got in the car and tried to start it and it started. The gentleman immediately told Don to roll down the window and he looked in the car and noticed that the dome light – the one you can read by – was on. That’s what drained the battery. Don had last used the car Wednesday morning to recycle and we’re pretty sure that while taking the bins out from their position on the passenger seat, one of them hit the on switch and that darned light remained on for two days – or until the battery died. We are so grateful for a guy who gave us advice about what to do next, all with a twinkle in his eye and a smile – even though he had a mask on, he had a smile on his face. I could tell.

His advice was to let it run for about 30 minutes and then take a drive to let the alternator continue to charge the battery. In the meantime, we called a tire center which is just about a mile away and they told us to swing by after the drive and they would check to see it the battery could hold a charge. (I bought my current battery from them and it is still under warranty.) They were incredibly helpful. We asked what their COVID protocol was. They wear masks. Good. So we stopped by, Don went in (masked) and talked to the guy at the counter (masked) a young guy (masked) came out and checked the battery. It was good, so we didn’t have to buy a new battery. Then he replaced the windshield wipers, because we figured we should take advantage of the opportunity.

And then we went home. Everyone was so helpful, so kind and they weren’t disregarding the rules about masks. Bravo. We felt safe.

All of this happened early in the morning and as I’m not a morning person, I never felt fully awake the rest of the day. But I’m grateful it all worked out.

Late in the afternoon, we also gathered some smaller rocks to fill in some of the bare spaces in the rock garden.

We’re due for rain today. We are thrilled as it is very, very dry here, approaching drought conditions. Much of it will be in the form of thunderstorms, but we’ll take it. More is due tomorrow, so we’re going to take advantage of being indoors and relax.

I’m currently reading Where the Crawdads Sing  by Delia Owens. I’m late to this one. I like it. I’m not crazy about it. But it’s early on, so I’ll share my final thoughts when I finish. I will say that Owens writes beautifully.

I’ve started another Van Gogh puzzle. It will be slow going, but that’s just fine.

By the way, I made a video of a walk in our woods and uploaded it to IGTV. This is my first video and it’s a bit long, but what the heck! I’m not sure how to make an IGTV section in my highlights; I’ll figure that out later, but you can see it via my latest post on Instagram.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

Day Ninety-Two

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Don decided to run to the store this morning to get some yogurt and a couple of other items. He came back with those items and…disinfectant wipes!

Oh, heavens! He always checks and it looked like the shelves were empty but he found some lemon-scented wipes way at the back of a bottom shelf. He had two containers loaded in his cart but he put one back so that others could buy some. And then he pointed them out to a young woman, who gratefully loaded one into her cart.

He’s a better person than I am.

That and Peet’s Organic  French Roast. Good job, Don!

It’s a gorgeous day today; sunny and cooler and no humidity. There may be some mowing today, we’ll see.

It’s coming along nicely. I am so addicted to these puzzles. Sometimes maddening, sometimes overwhelming, there are few things better than finding the right piece and snapping it in place. I could spend hours on it – and have. I forced myself to clean the bathroom yesterday, deciding that my reward would be puzzle time. Maybe that’s how I have to approach all those chores I dislike.

Finished the Maigret I was reading and I’m about to start the last of three that I recently purchased: Maigret in Vichy. Then I need to go to my TBR pile and choose a new book to read.

Other than that, there’s nothing new. We’re doing well. We are self-isolating. We aren’t going to change this new way of living for a long time. Not until there’s a vaccine.

Hey, I haven’t asked this for quite a while – What are you reading?

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

 

Day Eighty-Three

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I’m writing this earlier than usual as it’s going to be a hot one today and I have some work to do in the gardens.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for your supportive comments on yesterday’s post. After a long day, I sat here in my chair prepared to write replies as usual, and I confess, I teared up. Bless you for being here.

We did watch about a half hour of Rachel Maddow, but when we switched channels about a half hour into the show, I turned to Don and told him I can’t watch it at night anymore. I can catch up during the day with snippets of the previous night’s show, but I can’t take all this to bed with me. He agreed. And I ended up sleeping very well, as if a load had been taken off my shoulders. The horror show continues and I will stay informed, but I have to take control of my waking hours, deciding just when to expose myself to the news and when to stay away. This is nothing I haven’t said before; in fact, it’s what we’ve been doing, save for the last three days when we broke our normal ‘protocol.’ Lesson relearned. (My life story.)

Nearly done. I should finish today. This puzzle is so gorgeous, it’s been a treat to work on it every day. I’ve always loved Mucha’s work and this one is exquisite.

I ordered three more Inspector Maigret novels. Two arrived yesterday. One will arrive today. They are so well written! They take place in Paris, so what’s not to love? And they’re relatively short, making them the perfect thing for me to read right now. Since Georges Simenon wrote 75 of them, I should have lots of reading matter for the months to come.

I’m so glad we have Andrew Cuomo as our governor. He is being very cautious about reopening businesses. When I see the way other governors ceased lockdown too early (and the numbers are already spiking in those states) I am doubly glad we have Cuomo at the helm. Whenever he does open things up for our little area (not all that far from NYC) Don and I will continue to wear masks, to limit our shopping. Basically, we will continue to do what we have been doing. And of course, we are fortunate that we are at the stage in life where we can do that – that goes without saying.

Okay. Have to go make that second cup of coffee. Don will be returning from his morning walk!

Stay safe.

Happy Thursday.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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