Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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Autumn Wildflowers

September 4, 2024 at 8:24 am by Claudia

Another ‘invasive’ wildflower that has been around here for years and has never become invasive – purple loosestrife. I really love it. It usually lives down by the road where the culvert is. It likes damp areas.

The knapweed that I pulled the other day is right next to the big garden bed. From there it could easily take over the bed and, obviously, I don’t want that. Theres’s a lot of it on the edges of the property and down near the road – more than I’ve ever seen – but those are the standard wildflower areas on this property so it can stay for the time being. It’s very pretty. Every year, the cast of characters in that area changes. Sometimes there’s a lot of goldenrod – not so much this year. Queen Anne’s Lace, loosestrife, New England asters (haven’t seen them this year) – sometimes more, sometimes less. And there’s a new cast member, this stuff that I can’t identify. It has tiny white flowers, mostly on long stalks, but it also becomes a vine (it’s the stuff I pulled off the bridal veil spirea the other day. It’s hard to keep track of it all. This year, because of my hand injury, that area became more than a bit overgrown. Don was doing the mowing. I would have mowed more deeply into it and will next year.

I will say that early autumn (even though it’s still technically summer) is the best time for wildflowers. It’s awfully pretty down there.

The garden beds are still looking relatively good but the coneflowers are getting a bit bedraggled, as well as some of the brown-eyed susans. There’s still lots of color, but it’s now September and the temps went down to the mid-forties last night so changes are on the horizon.

The season of flowers in bloom goes by so quickly.

We walked on the library grounds yesterday and were so engrossed in talking about the respective books we are reading that  we reached our goal very quickly and easily.

I’m missing my parents a lot lately. I miss talking to them. Yes, I tell them I love and miss them, but I never really get a response. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have long chats with loved ones who have passed on even though they are somewhere else? I’d love to talk to my brother, who has been gone since 1991.

My cousin Gordy (named after my dad) now lives in Florida except in the summer, when he travels to his cottage on an island in Lake Superior. He sent me the most gorgeous photo of the Milky Way, taken from his front lawn. I think I’d like to escape to an island. We have a standing invitation to visit him there, as well as to visit my cousin Eileen who lives on Lake Michigan. Money is too tight to travel right now, but I’d love to make that journey in the next few years.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

Filed Under: wildflowers 14 Comments

Pretty, But Invasive

September 2, 2024 at 8:10 am by Claudia

A pretty picture of a wildflower that has popped up on my property and on the edges of the big garden bed. As I researched it this morning so I could give it a name, I discovered that it’s a version of Knapweed, which is invasive and can keep other plants from growing.

Uh oh. I guess I know what I’m doing today.

But, it’s lovely, isn’t it?  Why do lovely wildflowers have to be invasive?

Sigh.

It’s Labor Day and a strong cold front came through yesterday, which means we woke up to cooler temperatures. Finally! I did some mowing yesterday but it was very humid, so I ended up only mowing a third of the front lawn. More mowing today. And I guess I’ll be yanking this weed, as well.

By the way, I had a nice chat with our neighbor yesterday, catching up on all the news. I had been pulling yet another invasive plant that was vining itself around my bridal veil spirea. In the course of this chat I discovered that their lawnmower isn’t broken. (I didn’t bring it up.) No, she’s just been “too busy” to mow, even though they have a rider mower. I’m talking grass that is more than a foot high. Interesting…

As to Labor Day: My dad and brother were members of unions. My husband is a member of three unions. (I wish there was a union for what I do, but there isn’t.) We support all laborers and honor them on this day.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.

 

 

Filed Under: wildflowers 14 Comments

Reading, Movies & Pancakes

August 31, 2024 at 8:49 am by Claudia

Another shot with my long range lens. Everything looks slightly, but only slightly, out of focus and rather magical.

I had to crop the upper left hand corner because my neighbors have some ugly old truck parked there. Looks like the kind of truck an electrician would use. Plus, the grass is really long which leads me to believe their rider mower is temporarily out of commission. Truck, unmowed grass – all we need is an abandoned sofa to complete the picture. Normally, they mow regularly, so I just have to let it go until they can mow again.

But it does mess up my photos…don’t they know I’m a blogger?????

There’s not a whole lot to share since yesterday’s post. We’ve been taking it easy. Don’s reading a book by Jim Harrison, I’m reading Wicked Prey  by John Sandford. Two more books arrived at the library yesterday. Yikes. I think I went a little overboard with the ‘hold’ button. So I read a big chunk of the Sandford this morning and will try to read more later on today.

We were going to watch more of Babylon Berlin last night but we noticed that TCM was running Top Hat  and Swing Time with Fred and Ginger. You know I’m a huge fan of Fred Astaire and have been since I was about 12. I have pretty much every book ever written about him and I have all of their movies on DVD. However, our DVD player is broken and it’s always fun to discover that the movies are being run live on TCM. So we dropped our plans and happily spent 4 hours in Art Deco/Astaire/Rogers heaven along with brilliant supporting cast members Edward Everett Horton, Helen Broderick (I love her, she can land a comeback like no one else) Eric Blore, and Victor Moore.

We’re still talking about it this morning.

Don is making pancakes and fried eggs while I write this, so I’ll have to sign off soon.

I hope you’re having a good weekend. Labor Day is Monday so it’s a long weekend around here, full of weekenders and campers. We’ll stay close to home.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

 

Filed Under: life 18 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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