Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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You are here: Home / Archives for spring

Early Blooms

April 28, 2017 at 8:50 am by Claudia

Early spring flowers on bushes and in trees are blooming here at the cottage. As I said on Instagram yesterday, it’s been a late spring, slow in coming, but oh-so-worth it!

As I walked down the driveway this morning when it was still relatively dark, I caught a whiff of the lilacs. Heaven. It’s going to be warm today so I’m pretty sure the rest of the flowers will emerge.

More crabapple beauty.

Hello, flowering quince!

I have some mowing on the docket for today. The back forty needs its first haircut. And, of course, more mowing will be needed for the rest of the lawn which grows by leaps and bounds in early spring – especially with all the rain we’ve been having.

Went to a zoning board meeting last night re: the development/glamping site that we are fighting. I have no idea how this will end, but we’re fighting the fight. I even have a spiffy new sign to put on my lawn!

Happy Friday.

Filed Under: flowers, spring 31 Comments

Random on Monday

April 3, 2017 at 9:43 am by Claudia

• I took a photo of my view this morning and realized I hadn’t turned the calendar to April. So I started over. My usual cluttery desk; eye drops, filofax, coffee cup, pens notes to myself all over the place.

• Yesterday was sunny and in the upper fifties. That may not seem very warm to some of you, understandably, but to me? Oh joy! I actually felt the warmth of the sun on my back. I didn’t do much, but I did start to clean up the porch. And I took the two white chairs (which had been stored on the porch) back to their home on the Funky Patio. Today promises to be at least partly sunny and a bit warmer than yesterday. I have some errands to run and I aim to stop and feed the horses for Don. He really misses them. I think I’ll send Don some pictures.

• The honey bees are back. They seemed a little wary of me – maybe they were surprised by a human! They weren’t there last week, so they’ve just reestablished their home in the catalpa. I spoke to them and told them they had nothing to fear from us. Hopefully, they’ll behave. All that being said, I am very happy when I see bees of any kind. We need them.

• The Manchurian Candidate was on TCM last night. It has always been a chilling and brilliant movie, but at this time in our country it’s more powerful than ever.

Quote from one of the characters: “I despise John Iselin and everything that Iselinism has come to stand for. I think if John Iselin were a paid Soviet agent, he could not do more to harm this country than he’s doing now.”

Hmmmm. “paid Soviet agent…” This has always been one of my favorite movies, but last night’s viewing was the first time I’d watched it since that man came to power and I was riveted.

• Egg cups that live in the den:

Egg cups and a little lamb.

They’re awfully charming.

Happy Monday.

Filed Under: bees, egg cups, movies, spring 28 Comments

Bird Song, Quilting & Egg Cups

April 2, 2017 at 9:19 am by Claudia

Slow and steady wins the race, though I am far from the finish line. Each of these squares measures 12 x 12, so hand quilting one of them takes some time. Since I find that after about an hour and a half or two hours max, I start making mistakes, that’s about all I do a day. Yesterday, I hand quilted while watching figure skating in the evening. But I often do it in the late afternoon while listening to Randi Rhodes’ daily show on YouTube. I was a big fan in the Air America days, though that radio station is long gone. I recently rediscovered her and 4 – 6 pm in the afternoon is now my listening/hand quilting time. She’s whip smart and tough as nails.

It’s still very cold at night around here and I wake up in the morning to frost on the car windows and ice in the birdbath. Spring is taking its sweet time. But as I look at the trees, I see the beginning of buds. And I hear lovely bird song in the morning, along with the beautiful cries of the mourning doves. It’s coming.

This morning I walked outside in my flannel PJs and a winter coat to retrieve the New York Times from its place on the driveway. Cold, but lovely. I decided to substitute for Don, who cries out “Good Morning!” to our trees and animal life every morning. He’s not here, so I took over. I think I’ll do that every morning until he returns. He’ll be happy to hear that. And I just might visit our horse friends this afternoon with some carrots. We’ll see.

When the heck is Easter? I never know from year to year. Okay. I looked it up. It’s April 16th. I’m not into doing a whole egg cup series this year. There are plenty of post in the archives about my egg cup collection. But I’ll throw in a photo or two or three in upcoming posts.

Like this one:

Happy Sunday.

Filed Under: Don, egg cups, quilting, spring 25 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.

Thanks for stopping by.

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The Dogs

The Dogs

Scout & Riley. Riley left us in 2012. Scout left us in February 2016. Dearest babies. Dearest friends.

Winston - Our first dog. We miss you, sweetheart.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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