Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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You are here: Home / Archives for wildflowers

Goldenrod

September 11, 2021 at 10:12 am by Claudia

A lot of the goldenrod has already bloomed but this particular patch in the former corral has newly opened and it’s gorgeous. When the golden sun of autumn hits it, there’s nothing lovelier.

Our maple leaves are turning earlier than usual and quite a few are on the ground. I wonder if it has anything to do with all the rain we’ve had? I suspect it might.

Today is gorgeous. The mornings have been cooler, which I like. There’s something very cozy about a cool morning. We’re going to take a walk later today and then I have to work on our deductions since we always file an extension on our taxes and it’s time to get that info to our accountant. Not my favorite thing to do, but as the Brits say, “Needs must!”

Something arrived in the mail yesterday for Miss Sophie:

Boots! Handmade by Crafty Cora who has an Etsy shop. I can’t believe she can make these. The detail is amazing. Everything is so tiny that I hesitated to tie the laces; frankly, I’m not quite sure how to do it. For now, she’ll be one of those kids who never tie their laces.

We share something in common, Sophie and I. I have a little/mole beauty mark right above my mouth – just like she does – in exactly the same place. I found an old wide toothed comb to comb out her hair and that’s been added to the shoebox that contains her clothes. Eventually, I’d like to get something nicer than a shoebox, but thank goodness I didn’t recycle the box my new Birkenstocks came in!

At least she’s meeting my eyes now. I think she’s starting to feel more at home here.

She may get her own Instagram account. Not everyone is into the doll thing.

Thank goodness for Don’s tolerance of my somewhat whimsical passions. He gets it, at least as much as a grown man can get his wife suddenly playing with dolls at the age of 68. He oohs and aahs over things like the new boots, and my demonstration of how her eyes work, and gets a kick out of watching me dress her in new outfits. He has grown used to Sophie sitting on top of the music cabinet in the den, and never blinks an eye when it looks like she’s watching us as we eat our dinner. Bless his heart.

Interestingly, I don’t like dolls in dollhouses, partly because they never look as real and accurate as the furniture and decoration does. Plus, for me, life in any dollhouse is in my imagination and that’s where it stays.

I have my dolls that I’ve rescued and, now, I have this thing for Blythes. But I draw the line at dolls in the dollhouses. Go figure. It makes sense to me, but it doesn’t have to make sense to anyone else.

We’re not at all surprised it’s been twenty years since 9/11 since it happened a couple of months after we moved out to the Northeast and that was twenty years ago. We lived right by the Hudson River in Westchester County and, sadly, those planes flew right over us.

We’ll always remember.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

Filed Under: Blythe dolls, dolls, flowers, wildflowers 35 Comments

Wildflowers & Neil Simon

August 27, 2018 at 10:17 am by Claudia

Goldenrod is blooming everywhere. Check out the two little bugs on the left. I had no idea they were there when I took the picture. I love surprises like that.

Neil Simon. Truly a gigantic loss for American Theater, as well as film. We’ll not see his like again. He started out as a very young writer working on the famous Your Show of Shows  with Sid Caesar, along with fellow writers, Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner (who also performed in the skits) and his brother Danny Simon. He was also a famous script doctor, hence his nickname, Doc. When a show was trying out on the road and the script needed a fresh eye to make it work, he would be brought in to fix it. Everything I’m writing here is what I know off the top of my head. I have no idea how many shows he doctored, but there were a lot of them. Then there was his output as a playwright and screenwriter. No one knew how to write comedy like he did. No one. The comedy was character-based, so it worked. A joke just for the sake of a joke does not work. It has to come out of something real.

I did scenes from his plays in college, I did a staged reading of Prisoner of Second Avenue years later. Don has done The Odd Couple. And, several years ago, Don actually spoke with Simon on the phone. We hadn’t moved East yet and Don was staying at our friend’s place in Manhattan. This friend is a well-known director who was working on a project with Simon, but our friend was out of town. One day, the phone rang, and it was Neil Simon wanting to talk with our friend. So Don got to chat with him for a while.

Don and I speak often about how much we miss Larry King’s show on days like these. It functioned as a gathering place, a place we could all come together to mourn the loss of someone like John McCain or Neil Simon. We could tune in and hear stories about that person from those who knew and loved them. I really miss that. CNN disappoints me in all sorts of ways (I rarely watch it nowadays) but the failure of CNN/Jeff Zucker to keep that 9 pm slot for that kind of programming is perhaps my biggest disappointment. I can think of about 5 people right off the top of my head who would be great successors to Larry King.

I saw this tiny moth yesterday:

I see them a lot among the wildflowers. I tried to identify it but was unsuccessful. I’m pretty sure it’s a moth but maybe it’s a teeny tiny butterfly?

The markings are so beautiful.

I saw this wildflower blooming up in the back forty. I’ve never seen it before and as far as I can tell, only the one plant is blooming. Isn’t it sweet?

We’re making big plans for the month of October, when we will celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. More on that soon! (Yes, it’s a teaser.)

Happy Monday.

 

 

 

Filed Under: flowers, theater, wildflowers 40 Comments

On Wednesday

September 20, 2017 at 9:10 am by Claudia

First. I don’t know what to say – there are so many tragedies playing out right now. The earthquake in Mexico which is gut-wrenching in its devastation, another hurricane barreling down on the Caribbean with Puerto Rico in its sights, and name-calling and taunting on the floor of the United Nations that is taking us to the brink of nuclear war. And once again, they’re trying to take health care away from millions and millions of Americans, including the Medicaid that my nephew depends on.

My heart breaks for those who have lost loved ones and homes in Mexico – a country that has generously offered us aid again and again in the face of our tragedies. My heart breaks for everyone, everywhere. We are living with such uncertainty, such constant stress, and it is taking a toll.

I have no wisdom to share. I just wanted to take a moment, a quiet moment, in the midst of pretty pictures.

Prayers.

Moving on.

I mowed yesterday. I raked piles of leaves. And it’s really hot and humid around here for September. It’s going to be 86 degrees tomorrow! Anyway, I was drenched. But I did do something I haven’t had time to do lately. I walked around the property and took some pictures.

Yesterday’s morning glory.

This mushroom/fungi is about the size of two baseballs. It’s on the edge of the lawn near the woods. This shows you how wet it’s been here. I’m letting it stay because I want to see how big it gets!

In the butterfly bush, this beauty.

Around here, autumn brings the most beautiful wildflowers, like this New England Aster.

And these: queen anne’s lace, goldenrod, and more asters. These are surrounding our mailbox at the moment. Nature’s color palette is more beautiful than anything I could come up with.

Today, the repairman is coming to put a new timer in our washer/dryer. Tomorrow, I head into Manhattan for a quick bit of coaching. Saturday? I think I’m going to go to a Miniature Show.

Happy Wednesday.

Filed Under: flowers, life, wildflowers 32 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.

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