It’s staring to take shape. Minus plants, of course, but that will begin to change after my visit to the nursery today. I don’t expect to get everything, but I should be able to fill some pots by the end of the day.
I’m excited!
We finished the fifth season of The Bureau last night. It’s simply one of the best series I’ve ever seen. I’m so sad that it’s over, therefore, I’m suffering a bit of withdrawal today. For all of you who don’t like subtitles, my humble advice: it just takes practice. You have to get into the rhythm of it. Frankly, we aren’t even aware of them after about two minutes. Of course, to each his/her own, but I will say that some of the best things I have ever seen, including La Strada, Cinema Paradiso, Amélie, A French Village, and The Bureau, are subtitled and what a loss it would be never to have seen and experienced them. Don makes the point that he likes foreign movies and series because he doesn’t know the actors, so he is able to completely lose himself in the story without the back story of the actors themselves entering his consciousness. Anyway, for what it’s worth, I highly recommend it and I thank Darko for his initial recommendation.
I worked outside for a bit yesterday but, like clockwork, it became windy almost the moment I stepped outside. I think Mother Nature likes to taunt me. So I didn’t last long. I also started the new John Derian puzzle, but was too tired to stay with it very long.
I’m reading The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel. Lord, she’s a good writer! I’m about ¾ of the way through it and I had to force myself to put it down this morning. I highly recommend both this novel and her first best seller, Station Eleven, which stays with me to this day. I don’t have a copy (I read a library copy) and I’ve often meant to buy one for my shelves because it’s that good. Note to self: BUY IT.
Okay. Time to get a move on. Don will get a little time to himself this morning as I go off to explore the nursery. We’re rarely apart these days, but if there are errands to be run, it’s usually Don that runs them so I’m the one that gets to experience the solitude. We are crazy about each other, but a little breather is a good thing!
Stay safe.
Happy Tuesday.
Ah…your signature cushions…yay! That is such a comforting shot…can’t wait for the plants.
I’ll be outside too, today. I have to finish cleaning the debris away from the hostas and putting down fresh mulch before they get too big. Rain is moving in tonight, for the next couple of days. Next week, I’ll be able to visit the nursery, and hopefully plant the annuals for my containers.
We did put out the hummingbird feeders and one for the orioles as well. According to the maps….they are both here in he state. No sightings yet…fingers crossed.
Hope you have a good time at the nursery….stay safe! ;)
I’m wondering if I should mulch this year? I used to do it every year but I read that you shouldn’t do that. So I’m confused. I do love he look of a freshly mulched garden bed!
Stay safe, Donna!
Explain please. You read you are not to mulch? Or not to mulch every year? I try to mulch every other year. I’m confused…need more coffee! ;)
I can’t remember the details! I’ll have to research it again. Every other year sounds like a good plan, Donna, which means I should mulch this year!
xo
Thanks! ;)
xoxo
Your porch looks so cozy and welcoming!
I haven’t seen The Bureau and, thanks to your raves about it, A French Village is on my watch list. I highly recommend the French cop series Spiral, in French with easily-readable subtitles. It’s about murder detectives in Paris and can get very dark and very graphic, just a warning. The acting and writing are impeccable and the characters so well-developed, so flawed, so likeable (though that’s not quite the right word, but you do come to understand and care about them) that it completely drew me in. It shows you a side of Paris you’d never see otherwise and I’ve learned a lot about the French legal system, which is very different from ours. The first five seasons are on Amazon Prime, all 8 seasons are on MHZ.
We tried Spiral and didn’t like it. We wanted to like it very much, but it just didn’t click.
Thanks, Di.
Stay safe!
Just a quick note to say how much I appreciate your blog. It is like checking in with an old friend. It is comforting. Thanks, from your friend you’ve never met. Chris
Thank you for your kind words, Chris.
Stay safe!
That porch is calling out for visitors! I hear you can sit outside without masks if you are fully vaccinated.
Good luck shopping for plants!
We live in the country, so if we’re out on our property or our porch, we’re able to be maskless. Only put one on when I have to speak with someone delivering something.
Stay safe, Ellen!
Hi Claudia, your porch looks fabulous. I do miss having a front porch. When Chuck and I were first married we lived in a house built in the 1920’s that had a large porch. I lived out there in the summer.
I hope you were able to get the plants you wanted. It will be awhile yet here before nurseries have much. We are in lockdown but thankfully garden centre’s are considered essential so they remain open.
Enjoy your day!❤️
A porch means everything to me. I grew up with a porch and then it was many, many years before I had one again. The porch is what sold me on the house~
Stay safe, Robin!
Your porch is so inviting! I can imagine many lovely hours on that glider! And have a grand time at the nursery. I hope to go next week. I don’t do a lot at home because we go away from June to September with only short visits back but I will be getting some plants going to take with me when we go north. I don’t know if Rick will stay up as much as last year. It was essential with Covid but now that things are looser he may go back and forth a bit more. I don’t know when he’ll start on his cycling trip. If they open the border, it’s to Canada; if not somewhere out East from Michigan. A lot will depend on his mom’s status in Texas and visits there, too. So, we get our separate time, too. (But then we do anyway — living in two houses does that!)
I don’t mind subtitles but I have to be in the right frame of mind to watch them. If my eyes are tired (and watching time is usually the evening) I have a much harder time. I also rarely am able to just watch without doing something else — a puzzle, needle felting, sorting photos. The eyes don’t take it and I feel unproductive. So, I’ve got to be in that space. That said, when I feel like reading a series, I know what to come to. I also have Seaside Hotel (which I THINK is Danish) on the list.
Seaside Hotel is indeed Danish, and I’ve loved every minute of every season.
I envy you your time at the lake. As a Michigan girl with a family cottage on a lake, time spend at the lake is in my DNA. I love my life, but if I could live on a lake? Heaven.
Stay safe, Jeanie!
Claudia — your porch is inviting !! I know how you feel about getting a little ‘space apart’ — we have had two v e r y long winters of togetherness — near our limit — multiply that times 50 years which makes even a little space apart so cherished, LOL!! My Mr is an outside guy — happy outside puttering, mowing, planting, trimming weeds, so I get some alone time in spring/summer. My sister (a widow) says to enjoy all our time together even if sometimes it irritates b/c who knows the future. hope you can choose some colorful plants to enjoy for the porch. stay safe and healthy.
We love being together and we really have no problems with it. But, yes, we all need some private space for pockets of the day!
Stay safe, Linda.
Your porch looks so inviting and wonderful to sit out on a summer evening. I’ve planted rhubarb and peonies this week and my son’s girlfriend who lives in a flat without a balcony has asked if I could grow her some pumpkins so I’m going to attempt those as well.
I’m with you on subtitles, I rarely notice that they’re in place. We have a lot of European drama on British TV especially French and Scandinavian but I don’t think I have come across The Bureau.
Happy Tuesday
Hope you get a chance to watch The Bureau, Dee Dee!
Stay safe!
Hi Claudia,
I like how you have all these separate spaces, inside and outside your house. Each is so special . Music, pottery collections, egg cups, doll houses and of course Books! Plus peaceful outside spaces. I can tell you and Don appreciate and enjoy them all.
We do. We are very grateful that we have this little haven after years of being nomads of a sort.
Stay safe, Linda.
Your porch is so inviting. I want to sit there. Right. now.
Very, very interesting what Don said and how you worded it, Claudia: ‘Don makes the point that he likes foreign movies and series because he doesn’t know the actors, so he is able to completely lose himself in the story without the back story of the actors themselves entering his consciousness.’ I’ve thought SO many times, wished so many times that I didn’t know anything about the actors’ personal lives or convictions, although we have to be careful what we read and of what we hear about them, i.e. what’s legit and what’s not. (Too much tabloid press.)
And that’s not to de-personalize them, but it too often colors the performance for me. (The whole, “Just shut up and sing!” thing sometimes applies.) I have immense respect for most actors, memorable scenes they gave me which I always recall; how movies have reflected things in my own life and transformed me throughout my life, helping me learn and grow into new ideas, making me ‘think’; how certain movies are my comfort food and I watch them again and again; but I can think of several actors as I write this (I won’t list them), to where I can only enjoy their early films now, like before they got ‘weird’ in the public eye or did something of which I don’t approve or understand.
I hope this doesn’t sound judgmental or patronizing or self-righteous; it just IS with me. I mean, I know actors have lives and they’re allowed to live them; they are allowed to have an ‘identity’ beyond their acting careers; they are not their characters.
There will always be fans out there who want to know every detail about their favorite actor. Some actors who are so excellent, so skilled at their craft don’t, curiously, do successful interviews in print or on TV. They’re ‘forced’ to promote a film when maybe it’s not their strong suit to just speak off the cuff. They say the wrong thing, or it ‘comes out’ wrong; is misinterpreted (they’re human!) or misquoted.
But, yes, the back story can bleed across the fine line.
There’s so much press coverage of actors in this country, so much gossip, etc., that it’s impossible not to have all of that in your head when you’re watching a movie. Don’s right. I hadn’t thought of it before he mentioned it, but watching something “unencumbered” is a gift!
Stay safe, Vicki.
Love seeing the porch come to life after the winter. I will see if my library has The Glass Hotel. I read her other book and it was amazing. I find myself falling asleep when I read these days, allergies I think.
My allergies are off the charts. I woke up sneezing this morning!
Stay safe, Linda.
hope you had a good day so far, found lots of lovely plants to bring home and spent plenty of time on the porch (it looks great … inviting, comfy)!
kathy in iowa
I got a lot of plants and I’m going to start potting them this morning!
Stay safe, Kathy.