Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Life in our little cottage in the country

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An Ongoing Crush

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The other day, while waiting for the repairman to arrive, I snapped this photo of Don. He was supposed to be looking at the camera, but in that split second, he looked down. It’s turned out to be one of my favorite photos of him.

Heavens, I still have a crush on him.

That landscape is now covered in snow. And we’re due for another storm on Friday and I’m hoping the forecast is wrong because I just read 8 – 12 inches.

I see. We’re getting the entire winter in one week. I could insert some curse words here, but I try to refrain from that on this blog. In person? Another story.

Today, I have to do some laundry. I will be keeping an eagle eye on that first load, that’s for sure. I’m still waiting for the newest Deborah Crombie, but it turns out our local library branch was closed yesterday because of the snow. This is the longest time any book I’ve ordered has been ‘in transit’ between library branches. But we’re in the middle of winter and we live in the Hudson Valley and Mother Nature has her own ideas.

Lord, this puzzle is slow going! And the hardest part is yet to come; the areas of deep blue and the patterned edges. Oh, and all the leaves – it’s virtually impossible to differentiate between them. I’m just about finished with all the flowers. After abandoning this puzzle once before, I’m determined to finish it.

And that’s about it. Happy March. It is definitely coming in ‘like a lion’ in my neck of the woods.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday (which I keep thinking is Sunday)

Winter Woes

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Yesterday was an insanely windy day. It was relentless all day long with gusts of up to 50 mph. We’ve had that before, but the combination of wind and cold gave us well below zero wind chills. The wind drove me crazy, as well as Don. About 8 pm, I remembered that we hadn’t gone outside to start our cars, which we should have done sometime in the afternoon. So we bundled up, ran outside, and started our cars. Well. Don’s started. My battery was dead. That has never happened before in this type of weather. I tried again about 10 minutes later, but I didn’t want to crank it too much. Crap. Now, we either have to call our insurance company or buy some jumper cables. We used to have them, but darned if we can find them.

It’s below zero now, and 3 hours after Don got up, the house still isn’t fully warmed up. It will reach 20 degrees today, which is warmer than yesterday. Tomorrow, we’ll be back in the forties.

Sigh.

Just letting you know that Spoiler Alert  is now streaming on Peacock. I hope you can see it soon. It’s so close to my heart and the unexpected opportunity to act in the movie was one of the most important things to ever happen to me. And the movie itself is beautiful and powerful with brilliant performances by Jim and Ben.

A glimpse of me in the movie. Ben is in the bed, I’m speaking to Jim. And that’s Bill Irwin reflected in the mirror.

Another quick sketch from yesterday – once again, done from my chair in the den.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

Tuesday Thoughts

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Very, very cold here today! It’s currently 13 degrees. Yikes. I think we have a few days of this frigid weather and then it will warm up a little. Right now, the snow is on the ground and a lot of branches are still coated with snow because it was so cold last night. The sun is shining and it’s beautiful out there.

One more photo from our snow day:

Harper – not at all sure about this ‘snow’ thing.

I’ve since added some tights so her legs don’t get cold.

We have to run a few errands today, and we also want to take a little drive because it’s so pretty around here. The snow isn’t dirty yet – it’s all crisp and white and clean.

I’m close to finishing the new Anthony Horowitz. His books are so conversational that they tend to read quickly. It’s a lot of fun. Then I’ll return it to the library where, I hope, the newest Herron will be waiting for me.

We have been thoroughly enchanted by vintage What’s My Line  episodes on YouTube. We watch at least two of them every night. It’s such a glimpse into another era, one in which we both grew up. The panel is smart, funny, charming and, above all, civil. There are none of the gimmicks that someone doing this show today would inevitably add. None of the “I’m funny and I’m going to throw in jokes whenever I can” crap that derails everything these days. No “me, me, me!” We are always amazed by the civility and kindness that permeates the program. I grew up watching it in the 60s when I was old enough to begin to appreciate it. We’re getting reacquainted with Arlene Francis, Bennett Cerf, Dorothy Kilgallen, and John Daly – all of them brilliant and charming, accomplished, with full and active working lives beyond appearing on the show. It’s fascinating and extremely entertaining. We inevitably google someone’s name during the course of each show to learn more about them. So many of the guests and panel members now gone; in fact, most of them. I miss them. I miss that era of respect and civility. It’s such a contrast to what we see today.

More and more I find myself yearning for what was – and I know that “what was” wasn’t perfect. There were conflicts and inequities and McCarthyism and racial inequality – we see very few African Americans in the early episodes. So I’m not fantasizing that everything was ideal. It wasn’t. But the civility, wit, respect with which people were treated. That was real.

Just some thoughts in my mind this morning.

Stay safe.

Happy Tuesday.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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