Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Life in our little cottage in the country

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Daffs

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A cooler Saturday, which is welcome. Some rain coming on Sunday. Don mowed the large section of the front lawn yesterday. I did some weed pulling and clean up work.

At the end of the day, we were both very tired. I didn’t do all that much, so I am putting it down to pollen and allergies. Because EVERYTHING is bursting forth at the moment. Even the catalpa leaves have emerged – a very tiny version of them, but they’re there.

In the big garden bed. I couldn’t see any buds for the longest time. Finally, one bud emerged. And then, seemingly overnight, flowers everywhere. There’s another patch of these in the woods behind the shed. They’re so lovely.

I’m reading The English Spy  by Daniel Silva. And when I’m finished, I think I will be caught up with this series. I’m not absolutely sure, though. I thought I might have already read The English Spy, but I now realize that wasn’t the case. I also picked up Amor Towles’ newest book, Table for Two, a collection of short stories. I’m not a big short story fan, but I love his writing so much that I’m eager to dive in.

Don was supposed to play a gig today, but the venue accidentally double-booked it, so – no gig. Instead, he will mow the corral and the lilac side of the front lawn. Lucky Don!

Okay. Have to go.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

 

Egg Cups, the Beginning

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Another rainy day. That’s all I’ll say about that.

I saw one of the Carolina wrens this morning. Or rather, I heard him first and turned to look out the den window. There he was, perched on the top branches of the hydrangea, singing away. I haven’t seen any robins yet. When they first appear, they’re usually in a group. Maybe traveling north? We seem to be a favorite stop on the way, Anyway, I’ll alert you when they make their presence known.

I probably should have taken more than one photo for the beginning of the egg cup tour, but my plans to take them yesterday were scuttled as I was deep into solving a jigsaw puzzle. I haven’t done one in a long time. This one’s theme is Japanese wood blocks. It’s beautiful.

You’ll see it soon. I hope to finish it today.

The first group of egg cups, chosen randomly.

On the left, one of my favorites. I found it on eBay when I first started collecting. I love the designs where a chick or a duck is either holding up the egg cup or, as in this case, hiding on the other side of the cup. They’re so playful and charming. There’s a pale pink marking around the top of the egg cup. A chicken/rooster is pecking at food and a chick is on the other side of the cup.

Center: I’d say this one is in my top five (I’m not counting Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. They’re in their own category.)

Again, found early in my collecting journey when beautiful cups like these were easier to find. It’s very difficult to find them these days. The bunny as artist. He’s wearing an artist’s smock with a bow, a pair of pants, and is holding a palette. He subject is the egg itself; he’s transforming it into a smiling face.

Right: A darling egg cup that was a gift from my friend, Linda (who you know from this blog.) The sticker says “Our Own Import.” You can’t see the tail, but it’s a salter. There are holes in the tail and you pull it out to salt your egg. Ingenious!

Oh, there are a lot more to go! I suppose it’s time to pull out the fabric eggs, as well.

In other news, I’m plunging ahead with Wolf Hall  (only about 150 pages to go) and have already ordered Bring Up the Bodies  (the next book in the trilogy) from the library. In a rare instance, it’s actually on the shelves at my local library branch. Two of my favorite authors, John Connolly and James Lee Burke, have new books coming out in May and June and I’m on the hold list for those as well.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

 

 

These Boots Are Made for Walking

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Well. I should have known it. Harper saw the boots and knew immediately just how they should be worn. That girl!

Monday morning. Cloudy. We had a lovely sunny day yesterday and we atoned for only one walk earlier in the week. It was very cold, but we did it. Winter is tricky. The weather determines our walking days. So we haven’t been able to do it as much as we like, but when we do get one in, we feel so much better. I think we’ll go today, as well.

It was a low-key weekend. I finished The Year of the Locust last night – I didn’t read it for a day or two because I wanted to delay finishing it. But last night in bed, I finished. Truly a wonderful book. I couldn’t put it down, all 787 pages of it. Terry Hayes sure knows how to write a tight, engrossing, and whirlwind of a plot. Now, of course, I’m spoiled and nothing will look as good. I’ll get back to Wolf Hall  and catch up. Wolf Hall  is wonderful but I think I would like it more if I read it like I read The Year of the Locust, rather than a chunk a week. It’s so well written, but I lose the thread. Not the book’s fault at all. When it was War and Peace, I was reading a bit each day, so I was clued into the evolving plot. Not so much this way, as the assigned pages are not daily, but weekly. So I have to get back into it. I may just keep on reading and finish the book. Then when Bring Up the Bodies, the next book in the trilogy, is ready to start – sometime in April, I think – I’ll read that.

These are quality problems.

Movies on the weekend: We watched Laura  again. Don didn’t like it. He’s not a fan of Dana Andrews to begin with and he said that he didn’t really care about anyone. I get it. It’s stylish but there’s not a lot of substance. Then we finally watched Wuthering Heights, and I didn’t like it. It was beautifully filmed, as was Laura, but I had no patience with Cathy. Or Heathcliff, for that matter. It’s a gothic romance/ghost story and, though I read only that kind of thing when I was a young teen, this one didn’t do it for me. A young Geraldine Fitzgerald was the best thing in the movie. She was so real, so present.

I much prefer Jane Eyre, where the longing is repressed and the characters are not wallowing in it, which makes for a much more interesting story.

My humble opinion, of course.

Oh, the sun is trying to peek out from the clouds!

Do you have spring fever yet? I confess, I do.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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