Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Life in our little cottage in the country

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Day Seventy-Eight

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We had a very warm and humid day yesterday with severe thunderstorm warnings. We did get a big old thunderstorm later in the day with sheets of rain blowing every which way. I took this shot after it was over.

You’ll note that the catalpa is finally leafing out. It’s always the last to display its magnificence – maybe it likes having the stage all to itself?

I worked on the puzzle yesterday and got a lot done. I had been reading Twitter and getting more and more angry at the events I referenced yesterday, so I finally pulled myself away and walked directly to the puzzle.

I calmed down immediately.

Know when to pull away. We have been held hostage by a madman for four years. It’s impossible not to let him get under your skin, impossible not to worry about COVID-19, but it is entirely possible to make a deliberate choice to read a book, to listen to music, to do a jigsaw puzzle, to garden, to take a walk, to sing a song, to watch old episodes of Cheers that make you laugh out loud, to cook, to create, to call a friend.

The view as I made our second cup of coffee this morning.

I just finished A Room of One’s Own  and am now reading Maigret and the Old People, by Georges Simenon. Simenon’s Maigret mysteries are so well written. They’re also relatively short, about 150 pages or so. He wrote scads of them and Penguin has been reissuing them with new translations. They were originally written in French.

We’re going to mow the front yard today. You know I love to mow and I actually woke up and got excited knowing this is a mowing day. We’ll tag team. But even if I had to do it all by myself, and that has been the case many times, I’d still be excited.

It’s a gloriously beautiful day out there; blue skies and fluffy white clouds, birds singing, wind chimes moving slightly in the breeze. Good news by the way – my zinnias have sprouted and so have some of the morning glories and moonflowers.

I’m having an “I am blessed” day. Hope you are, too.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

 

Day Fifty-Seven

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The way things will be until tomorrow. It’s unbelievably cold out there with high winds. The wind chill is down in the twenties. In May. Tonight there is a freeze warning, though I don’t know why there wasn’t one last night, as our temp went down to at least 32, more likely 31. The water in the bird bath is frozen. The only thing this day has got going for it at the moment is that it’s quite sunny out there. That helps a bit. Who knows what will happen tonight? We brought everything in and then I covered a few potted plants, like the geraniums in the barrels and the hollyhock in the zinc barrel right outside the kitchen door.

First I tried covering the geraniums with a sheet but it got so wet in the rain that I worried it would freeze and impact the plants. So I ran out there and covered the plants with two of the  gardening totes that I use around here. I covered the hollyhock with a metal planter. I’m not even sure if I should take them off during the day because it’s so windy. I’ll wait and see.

Even the doves came inside!

One thing: there was no snow on the ground when I woke up at 6. That’s good news. But I’ve seen photos from friends north of me and there was definitely snow on their plants.

The worst of it will be today and tonight, but nighttime temps are going down to the mid to low thirties every night until Thursday. Insane.

I’m already a week behind sowing seeds and I sure won’t be able to sow anything until the ground warms up a bit. The catalpa shows no sign of leaves yet. It’s always the last tree to leaf out. I checked out our catalpas up in the woods, as well as our neighbor’s catalpa and they’re all behind. Will the peonies bloom late for the first time since we moved here 15 years ago? The lilacs are late, too. Let me remind you that a week ago, it reached 80 degrees.

I’ve never seen a spring like this one.

Ah well, enough of that for now. We’ve done all we can do. I feel the most for those who have already planted vegetables and truly have tender plants in the ground that are in danger. No one wants to lose seedlings. And farmers can’t afford to lose a crop. It’s much more dire for them, so I’m praying there is no damage and that steps can be taken to cover the plants.

All in all, a continuation of what has been a surreal year.

Gosh, what else? Not much, as this has been consuming us for the past 24 hours. I’m still reading Love in a Cold Climate  and I’m starting in on the letters of the Mitford sisters. After that, I might reread some Robertson Davies, one of my favorite writers ever. He was a Canadian writer and I got hooked on his writing in the late seventies. I can’t remember how I discovered him, but I read everything he wrote as well as two new novels that were published during that time. I long ago lost track of my copies, darn it, but I did buy a used copy of The Cornish Trilogy  and The Lyre of Orpheus  a few years ago when I realized I missed his presence on my shelves. I think I found them at The Strand in NYC. I’m going to replenish my Robertson Davies library. If you are not familiar with him, you should google his name. He looks positively Dickensian and he was brilliant. It feels as if the Universe is telling me to reread him. I find I’ve been thinking a lot about him, looking over to my right at the books on the shelf, and just a week ago, I read a post from a fellow bookstagrammer about him. All signs point to Robertson Davies.

But first, the Mitfords.

I started the puzzle. It’s hard, but not nearly as hard as the one I scrapped. And it’s beautiful.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

Day Forty-Seven

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I didn’t work on this until late in the afternoon yesterday, but I made a lot of progress. I guess it’s like solving a crossword puzzle, the more you do them, the sharper your skills become. I’m certainly putting this one together more quickly than the Nancy Drew. Maybe too quickly…

I do have another puzzle arriving in the mail tomorrow, but I’m worried that, since the second puzzle I ordered hasn’t even shipped yet and won’t ship until next week, I might be twiddling my thumbs for several days. I might have to order another one in the meantime – one that will ship quickly.

We worked outside yesterday. Don cleaned up an area near the shed, I worked on edging one of the garden beds, trimming brambles, cleaning up other beds, and weeding the peony beds. I was tuckered out afterward. My stamina needs improving and just like working a jigsaw puzzle, the more I do it, the stronger I’ll become. Ideally, I’d work out there several days in a row and that would help enormously, but unfortunately, we’re due for 3 or 4 more days of rain.

Enough already.

I finished A Gentleman in Moscow  this morning. Even better the second time around. I’m sad; I love the story and the characters and Amor Towles’ writing. What to read next is the question for the day. I have no idea! I keep staring at my TBR pile but nothing is calling out to me. I’ll give it time and eventually, something will.

I saw a pileated woodpecker this morning, a male cardinal, two deer, and some fat robins.

No Henry yet. No bunnies, either, though Don has seen one.

And that’s it from the cottage today.

Stay safe. Stay home.

Happy Wednesday.

 

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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