Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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A Delivery

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We ran errands yesterday: recycling; stopping by our local farm stand to get some fresh veggies, including the best sweet corn I have ever had or will ever have and I’m from the Midwest where corn is king; running into the supermarket in the rain.

When we got home, I checked the mailbox and there was nothing in there. We sighed and chalked it up to a slow mail day. Not until I happened to open the front door around 5 pm did I see a stack of boxes and mail. Whoops! Lori must have brought it all up to the porch, stashing everything on the far side of the steps leading to the front door to keep it out of the rain.

Anyway, most everything was for Don. One box contained new business cards he designed which are really cool – you can see them on his IG account. But the biggie was a box that came all the way from South Korea. Inside it was another vintage camera that Jean André had recommended. It’s a press camera called the Mamiya Universal Press and it’s much lighter than the Crown Graphic. They stopped production of the Mamiyas in 1969. After a couple of conversations with Jean André, who said his is the workhorse of his street-polaroid-portrait-photography, Don found one on eBay.

It took forever to unwrap it – the seller had done a great job of packing.

Don amazes me. He has grasped so much about the workings of the Crown Graphic and he immediately applied that knowledge to the Mamiya, so he had the whole thing figured out pretty quickly.

Yours truly was put to work as test model in the sweltering humidity.

You can see that it’s much smaller. The Crown Graphic is the star, of course. It never fails to stop people in their tracks and countless conversations with strangers ensue. But the Mamiya is great for the times that the Crown Graphic becomes a bit too heavy or you just want to change it up a bit.

Yes, those are leaves on the roof of the porch.

I’m not ready.

Don’s new endeavor is the perfect thing for him. He’s passionate about photography. Loves vintage. Loves people. And it’s flexible and can work around and with any future acting jobs.

He’s in the living room right now, researching something about the Crown Graphic.

Meanwhile, between shots I wandered around the property with my  camera.

Hello, zinnia.

Variations of purple.

Tried to capture this little bug on camera, but he was too fast for me!

What has turned out to be my favorite flower/plant combination this year.

We watched The Man with the Golden Arm  last night on TCM. It’s another of those movies that I’ve always known about but had never seen. Wow. Frank Sinatra is simply stunning in the role of a guy fighting heroin addiction. Kim Novak and Eleanor Parker are also excellent. It was directed by Otto Preminger. We were riveted.

I know that Frank Sinatra was a good actor, but we usually think of him – understandably – as a great singer. But he made a lot of films, among them, From Here to Eternity (he won the Oscar and he breaks your heart), The Manchurian Candidate  (one of my all-time favorites and all too similar to the puppet residing in the White House) and this one. Countless musicals, as well, but the movies I’ve listed really show his acting chops. The scenes with him going through heroin withdrawal are harrowing.

So here we are, trying to find things in the day that take us away from the toxicity in Washington and the country, doing whatever we can to keep some semblance of sanity, trying to find moments of peace amidst increasing despair. So we take pictures, read, clean, water flowers, watch movies, watch bunnies and birds and laugh whenever we can.

Happy Thursday.

 

 

 

The Shop

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The humidity broke in the early evening yesterday.

Hallelujah!

I know there will be more ahead, but I’m grateful for two days without rain and a chance to get out in the garden and weed, mow, and weed whack. It’s sunny this morning and we finally have the windows open and the air conditioner off.

Today I’m sharing some photos of Milne Antiques and Design. It’s such a beautiful shop, situated in a historic building near the waterfront in Kingston.

The front of the shop where many of the pots and garden decorations live. Obviously, I’ve spent a lot of time here!

Hello! I’d like this table and chairs, please.

The other side of the front of the shop. I hadn’t even noticed my little blue chair at this point. I was literally taking in the bigger picture!

That’s Don talking to Jasmine as he examines some vintage suitcases.

Rebekah loves vintage signs and graphics. Another reason I’m drawn to this shop.

A view toward the back of the shop.

And toward the front of the shop.

Love this wardrobe.

The zinc barrels. Want one.

The chair. I love this chair. It’s so charming, so Adirondack camp-ish. And the colors, of course. It’s a bit fragile and I have no room for another chair, but…

I could have taken many more photos and will when I next visit the shop. But visiting the shop is dangerous for me! As you know, I’ve purchased quite a few treasures in the past few months!

So yesterday, as I was working on the dollhouse, trying to melt the glue that is everywhere – the assembler, whoever he/she was, used hot glue and never cleaned up any of the excess – I got a message from Rick. He and Doug were driving back from the city and he’s just received a text from another one of Rebekah’s great staff saying they had the perfect garden table and chairs for them. (Rick and Doug had asked them to keep an eye out, as they have a new patio outside where they want a round table and chairs). He wanted my opinion. It’s a lovely dark green table with 4 very comfortable chairs and as soon as I saw it, I said “Yes, get it!” And so they did.

Another satisfied customer.

One other note: Last night, after dinner, I was cleaning Stella’s cooktop. (I’ve never been so rigorous about cleaning up grease and spills on a stove in my life!) I lifted the griddle and cleaned underneath. I polished the chrome. And then I turned on a burner and observed the blue flame against the chrome and was immediately taken back to the day the propane was hooked up for the first time and, after years and years of not having a gas stove, we saw that beautiful blue flame. It was such a strong sense memory.

We’ll be celebrating her first anniversary with us on August 29th.

I commemorate everything.

Happy Sunday.

Saturday

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We have reached our sixth day in a row of high humidity, storms and torrential rains. Every time I think I might be able to weed or mow or weed whack, I am faced with a wall of humidity or a sudden storm. Everything is waterlogged. More rain today, then a break for two days, then more rain.

We’re not used to it being this humid all summer long. We usually get a day or two here and there and August always tends to be humid, but from the get-go this summer we’ve been dealing with a lot of high temps and humidity. I can see the effects of it on my potted impatiens on the porch – the leaves on some of the plants are discolored and look mildewy.

The only plant that really likes it is the big fern that sits on the former kitchen island on the porch. He’s digging it, for sure.

We have had a few sunny breaks, like the one we had the other day when we were out and about. And I’m very grateful for them.

Speaking of that trip:

This is the little chair that I bought. It’s quite heavy. As Don said to me when he saw it, “The color!” He knows this is a favorite color of mine. Actually, it’s one of his favorite colors, as well.

It almost looks Mexican with its chunky, boxy design, but no, it has a fleur-de-lis.

Perhaps a plant of some sort should adorn the chair?

It will definitely come indoors for the winter.

It’s been a frustrating week for Don in terms of photography, simply because conditions have not photo or camera friendly. We finally got outside yesterday for a little session, which was eventually halted because of inclement weather. But he did really well, figuring out F-stops, apertures, and all of that stuff that I should have a command of but don’t. I’m real proud of his progress.

This was shot on the porch:

(I’d been pulling weeds and you can see the dirt under my fingernails!)

This is tricky work. It’s a very heavy camera with a polaroid back. Everything is manual. Nothing can be easily deleted as with a digital camera or phone. The viewfinder isn’t aligned with the lens, giving a parallax view, so framing a shot is also very tricky. Much adjusting has to be done. Eventually, all of it will have to be done rather quickly, but now is the time for figuring out what works and what doesn’t. He did a real good job on this one.

The zinnias (grown from seed) are really taking off this year and are the healthiest bunch I’ve had in a long time. Cheery zinnias are one of Don’s favorite flowers. Mine, too.

I’ll share photos from Milne Antiques tomorrow and some photos of the vintage suitcases. It’s a little too dark in the house right now to get a good photo of them.

Happy Saturday.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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