Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

What Are You Reading?

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It rained all night and it’s raining this morning. We tend to go to bed and wake up early, so it’s still dark as we rise and stumble through turning the lights on and making the coffee. In the spring and summer, I love the fact that there is bird song and light when we first wake up. In the autumn and winter, I love rising in the darkness as there’s something beautifully cozy about it. As I start writing this post, the dark is just beginning to fade away.

It all comes down to nesting, I think. Hibernating. Shutting the world out.

That’s something we talked about this morning – being careful about what we let in on a daily basis. Protecting our little world here as we move forward. We’re going to make a concentrated effort to avoid the things we can’t control, to shut out the noise of endless ‘news.’ It’s taking a toll on both of us and we must protect the quality of our life. It’s entirely up to us.

I’ve written about this before. But sometimes it gets away from us and we’re overwhelmed once again.

I do think I had some sort of reaction to the vaccines – most likely the RSV vaccine which is new. It went on for a few days and that, combined with sinus trouble from the sudden change in the weather, made for a lethargic and slightly achy me.  I slept a lot. Hopefully, all of that is over now. We’ll get our Covid vaccination in October.

I’m reading Yellowface  by R. F. Kuang. She wrote Babel, which was one of my favorite reads this year. She is a gifted and inventive writer. I have more books on my hold list in the library system and I’m hoping a couple of those arrive at my library branch in the next few days. I also pulled out a newer biography of George Gershwin that I purchased last year – Summertime. I’ve read several bios about that brilliant man who is one of my favorite composers – but an in depth conversation with Don last year about my love for his music led to the discovery of this relatively new book, published in 2019. I sometimes like to read both fiction and nonfiction at the same time.

I suppose I’m missing reading two books at once, as I did all year long until I finished War and Peace.

So, our question for this Monday: What are you reading?

UPDATE: My nephew (Mere’s middle son) passed his bar exam!!!!!!!!!

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.

 

 

The Beginning of the Change of Seasons

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The view as we drove home from getting vaccinated. Just around that curve and down the road a bit is the nursery where I get all my plants.

We did have mild reactions, by the way. Nothing terrible, just feeling a bit achy, and not-quite-right. But, we got both vaccines at the same time, something we normally don’t do. I was a bit off all day long, Anyway, I’m feeling better today, as is Don. That’s good, as he has a gig this afternoon.

I may mow. We’ll see.

It’s turned much cooler – yesterday felt positively fall-like. I’m happy about that as the summer was far from ideal and I’m ready to move on.

I still see one or two of the groundhogs, but not very often. The babies are no longer babies and have found their own homes. I’m relieved not to have to monitor the garden constantly, but I do miss their playful presence. I ran across the photos I took of them when they first emerged with their mom and I got sad. Ah, well. I rarely see any of the rabbits either.

The groundhogs will start to hibernate next month. Although I’m ready for fall, there’s always a bit of melancholy attached to the seasonal change into fall and then winter. Don and I were sitting on the glider during a break from mowing and I looked out at all the trees and the green leaves and reminded him that we had waited all winter and into the early spring to finally see some green out there. And soon that will be gone.

But for now, my brown-eyed susans are still in bloom, lots of wildflowers are blooming, but the coneflowers are fading. The giant zinnias are still hanging in there and so are the Rose of Sharon bushes, both of which have plenty of buds yet to open. (I never know which plant names to capitalize!)

Even this fading zinnia is beautiful, almost sculptural. Time to take a walk around the property and take some pictures.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

Vaccines, Finishing War & Peace, and the Girls

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First of all, we got both our RSV and flu vaccinations yesterday. I was checking the availability of appointments at our local pharmacy and there were slots available in the afternoon. We were just planning on getting the RSV, but the pharmacist encouraged us to get the flu shot at the same time.

So we did. He was a nice guy but not the gentlest in terms of inserting the needle. Ah well. I felt a little funky in the afternoon and wondered if it was a reaction, but thinking back on it, I just think it was my sinuses/allergies. If it was a reaction, it was incredibly short and no big deal. Today, I feel fine – except for the fact that Don woke me up with a big snore at 4:15 am and that was it for sleeping. By the way, the snoring issue is much better as Don found something to insert in the nose to keep the nostrils open. This morning’s snore was a rarity.

Anyway – Covid next month and then we’re good to go.

Done; with one caveat – I didn’t finish the Epilogue. It was about ten chapters long, very dry, and was basically Tolstoy’s musings on historians, the path of history, etc., etc. By the time I was halfway through, I finally realized that I had indeed read the entire novel, plus many pages of the epilogue which were making my eyes glaze over, so I was allowed to stop.

It was a gift, this readalong. I don’t think I would have attempted it otherwise. I’ve read several novels that were over a thousand pages, so it’s not the length, necessarily. It was Tolstoy’s WAR AND PEACE and everything it symbolized that would have held me back and maybe the thought that it would be boring, as well. Of course, it was anything but that. An incredible, beautifully written book by a master.

I spent the afternoon on Wednesday redressing all of the girls. I was dealing with a little anxiety. I’ve found that grabbing one of the girls when I’m stressed helps to ground me, if that makes sense. I fell in love with them all over again. I thought it was high time to remove their summer ensembles and get them ready for fall and the start of school.

Here is group one. I’ll share more pictures tomorrow.

Holly, Zoe, and Katie.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

 

 

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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