Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Life in our little cottage in the country

A Rose is a Rose is a Rose

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What a lovely greeting this morning!

This little rose bush usually has just two flower buds, but boy, do they develop into magnificent blossoms! The color is extraordinary. By the way, this bush was a gift from a reader of this blog. It’s in the memorial garden.

It looks like we had a light shower overnight. You can see the water drops on the leaves.

My little Buddy appeared off and on yesterday, eating grass, sitting on a rock, running back under the tree when something frightened him. At one point, I saw him come through the gate and make his way through the secret garden and up the hill on his way to the family’s burrow. I thought: oh, he’s gone for the day. About 30 minutes later, he was back. Unless he was another of the kids. But I’m pretty sure it was Buddy, who likes to hang out here during the day.

Just want him to remain safe. Thankfully, I haven’t seen him go in the direction of the street. He seems to be happy up here.

Over the past three days I did three video tours of the girls. I don’t know why, but I had the idea one day and there you go. I posted them. I thought they might be a dud, but people seemed to really like hearing my voice and learning more about the girls. I simply highlighted a few of the girls each day and shared their stories. Anyway, if you’re at all interested, they’re on my IG Blythe feed which is, after going to instagram: (at symbol)sophieandherpals.

I did a lot of weed whacking yesterday and Don mowed the trails up in the woods. I leave a certain amount of weeds near the funky patio, etc., for the groundhogs and rabbits. Just saw our rabbit – maybe the mama of the baby bunnies? – this morning.

Today, I’m going to start working on reorganizing my office/studio. There’s so much STUFF there: dollhouses, dollhouse supplies, my easel, oil paints, mail, scripts, a mini printer, and on and on. Plus, we just took the kitchen a/c unit out of the closet in our office so I have some space available again. It’s time to be ruthless and sort through everything.

Stay safe.

Happy Tuesday.

 

Beautiful Monday

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Good morning.

It’s a beautiful morning here at the cottage. The yarrow has blossomed. The back forty was mowed a few days ago. We’re due to mow the front lawn, but we’ll wait a bit before we start in on that. It’s very green out there, helped by our recent days of rain. I’m well aware that we had a drought last summer in July and August, so I’m enjoying this while I can.

My little buddy, one of the baby groundhogs, visited in the afternoon yesterday. He/She is fascinating – usually comes to visit by himself, hangs out, eats, lazes on a rock or two, disappears whenever we suddenly appear, then comes back to the rock. I haven’t named any of the babies, but this one – he is Buddy. I have no idea where the others are, or where they dine. Every once in a while I walk up to the back forty near the area where their burrow is, but I don’t see anything. Buddy definitely goes back to that burrow at night. I haven’t seen mom in a while. I guess the kids are the equivalent of teenagers now and just like when we were kids, they go off by themselves for hours at a time. Mom knows they’ll come back “when the streetlights go on.”

The robins are still busy feeding their babies – this nest is in the big bush in the main garden bed. The burning bush, if you remember it. It’s the perfect place for a nest because the bush is dense and the nest is quite hidden. Heck, I can’t even see it when I’m nearby. I imagine those babies will be fledging soon; in fact, with my track record, they probably fledged this morning. I want to prune that bush, but I’ve been keeping away from it while the nest is active.

Today, I’m going to tackle the weeds in the rock garden part of the secret garden. They are out of control. Soon, they’ll cover The Dude and we can’t have that!

I’m working on a puzzle – another Renoir painting – which is very dark and very, very difficult. If I can fit 5 pieces in a session, I’m happy. It’s very slow going, especially since I’m busy outside much of the time. But it’s there and I often stop whatever I’m doing in the kitchen to see if inspiration hits me.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.

 

 

Shelf Tour

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Another shelf tour today.

Since I was feeling lazy, I simply got up from my chair and took a picture of one of the shelves in the china cabinet.


Back row from left to right:

My great-grandmother’s syrup pitcher. It has a pewter lid. It’s simply gorgeous and was always one of my favorite things in my grandmother’s china cabinet. Thanks to Grandma, it’s been well taken care of. I’ll try to pull it out one day and highlight it on a post.

Next to that, a vase in one of my all-time favorite Roseville patterns, Ixia. It comes in yellow as well, but I really love the green. It’s 8 inches tall.

Next: a blue vase in the Freesia pattern. This was one of the first pieces I purchased when prices became much more affordable. You might recall that I did an oil painting of this one.

Next: my heart went pitter-patter when I discovered the Water Lily pattern, especially in this color combination. I distinctly remember a bidding war on this one. It’s gorgeous.

Front row, left to right:

A double bud vase in the Clematis pattern. Stunning.

The little dog is from Germany and it is one of a only a couple of things I have that belonged to my dad’s mother, who died before I was born. I wish I’d had the chance to meet her. I have my cousin Eileen to thank for this.

Next, slightly to the rear, a green flower frog in the Clematis pattern. It was a gift from reader Barbara. I really love it, especially the shape.

In front of that, a window box in the Magnolia pattern. Love, love, love this, especially the color combination.

Next, a miniature Eiffel Tower found at Vignettes in San Diego,

And, drum roll please, the big kahuna and I’ll definitely take a better picture soon, a Columbine vase. It’s 10 inches tall and seems a lot taller than that. It’s photographing darker than it is. I purchased it two years ago on a whim. It’s in perfect condition and the price was very, very low. I remember pulling it out of the box and how shocked I was by the size. I let out a sigh of relief when I discovered it would fit in the cabinet. Ten years ago, this would have been several hundred dollars.

And next to that you can see two of my Susie Cooper demitasse cups. I found them in a local antique shop and couldn’t resist as I’m a big fan of her designs.

It’s Sunday, Father’s Day. These parental holidays are hard for me now so I end up blocking them out of my mind.  We saw a couple of baby bunnies this morning, running right in front of the kitchen door. Don immediately wanted to keep one for a pet. Ummmm….no. We also saw a stunningly beautiful, almost golden-coated, deer standing between our cars.

I didn’t see my little baby groundhog, who stops by for a couple of hours every afternoon. It was raining off and on yesterday so maybe that’s why. The rain didn’t stop the big groundhog who lives under the shed, however. I found him inside one of beds, chewing on a tall weed. I opened the door and said “No!” and he ran off.

Not for the first time, we mentioned our Henry, who was the Gentleman of All Groundhogs. He always dined on grass, which is plentiful. He never went in the gardens. He was polite. He would lie on the shed ramp in the sun. He respected us and we definitely respected him.

Henry, these young whippersnappers could use your guidance.

We miss you.

Stay safe.

Happy Sunday.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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