Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Life in our little cottage in the country

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Random on Monday

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• 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.

Bird Song, Quilting & Egg Cups

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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.

Is That The Sun?

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I see sunlight. It’s been pretty dismal here since I got home. Lots of gray skies and, yesterday, lots of rain. Believe me, the sun is welcome. I shot this through the kitchen window (you can see the reflection of my phone.) The snow on the back forty is always the last to melt because it’s a higher elevation.

I really miss my husband. Since I can’t really do anything outside yet, I occupy myself by doing a bit of hand quilting, cleaning and reading. It’s awfully quiet around here and Don’s absence is palpable. He had his first rehearsal yesterday; lots of people to meet, costume and set designs to see, and a read-through of the play. Jimmy Buffett was there.

Don found a Peet’s coffee shop – yes, they have them in California, we had a local Peet’s in San Diego – and he sent me a picture of it. I’m jealous!

The time change makes it difficult for us to talk more than briefly. He didn’t get home last night until I was just about ready to go to bed. It’s the new normal for a few months. But I’m really happy that he’s having this adventure, working on a new musical in a warm and sunny place. I tried to get him to take pictures of his apartment and hopefully he’ll do that when he has some time.

Today? Gathering tax info, mailing it off to our tax person in California, recycling, a trip to the bank.

Thanks for the great discussion yesterday about HGTV. Your comments were so interesting – it seems we are not  their demographic. Of course, they wouldn’t be where they are without us, as we were viewers in the early days of the network. But, in the end, it’s a business and they don’t really give a hoot about all of that. So, I’ve moved on.

Here’s to the sun!

A new book review is up on Just Let Me Finish This Page: Conviction  by Julia Dahl, one of my favorite authors. Click here to read it.

Happy Wednesday.

 

 

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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