Mockingbird Hill Cottage

The sunset Wednesday evening:

I’ve always loved that combination of a blue, blue sky and pink clouds.

We mowed the front lawn yesterday. Today, we take a day off from our mowing duties to recover. Tomorrow, the corral and back forty. The grass is still growing as if it’s spring, not fall. I’m not sure when it will slow up. But we do have a stretch ahead of us with no rain. Yes, no rain until next Friday. Whatever will we do?

A deer has eaten the tops off all the milkweed plants, which is problematic because that’s where the seed pods develop. In fact, I think he ate the pods. I can see only two plants that have retained their pods, so I’m hoping they’ll distribute enough seeds for more plants next year.

He’s also chomped on my coleus in the secret garden, which is so secret that he sneaks in there without me noticing. But at this point, I no longer care, just as I no longer do any weeding. Well, I do a little, but not much.

As to the garden, some little bits of information – despite my worry about the deer chomping on the David phlox and a bush or two, every plant recovered and new blooms formed. And the calibrachoa that lives in an urn on the porch and was eaten by a groundhog also came back and is in full bloom. My lesson from this is to refrain from getting too upset by these things. Though it’s frustrating, mother nature always tends to heal and restore.

The phlox is still in bloom, though waning a bit. The coneflowers are still purple and white, but they’re starting to look pretty tired. The brown-eyed susans are still going strong, even though they bloomed earlier than usual this year. My Annabelle hydrangea is looking downtrodden and the blooms are turning brown – the rain did a big number on that bush. The limelight hydrangea is beginning to turn pink. The spirea is in its second bloom. And my two Rose of Sharons have provided an endless supply of blooms. I think there are only a few buds yet to open but I’m so grateful for their big flowers and their height. They are in the memorial garden and boy, have they enriched that particular space! Tall zinnias are still opening in one of the beds – a late summer gift. My small hydrangea (endless summer) had absolutely NO blooms until about a week ago. And even then, only two. Go figure.

And the porch plants are still going strong. It’s not too long before I’ll be bringing them in at night because of a freakishly early frost warning. And then the dance will begin until I finally accept the arrival of cold weather and regretfully let them go.

I’m in the middle of a painting – still very much a work in progress.

The inspiration is a photo I took in one of our favorite places, the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris. There’s still a lot more to go, but it’s been fun. Every painting is a learning experience, especially for an amateur like me.

Last night, we watched one of my favorite movies ever – the 1939 version of Stagecoach, directed by John Ford, and starring a cast of incredible actors, including a young John Wayne (before he became a bit of a caricature – he’s so good in this) Claire Trevor, Thomas Mitchell, John Carradine and a host of great supporting actors. We often google the actors before we close up and go to bed and some research on Claire Trevor (who breaks my heart in this movie, she’s so good) showed a picture of her standing before an easel with a paintbrush in her hand. A portrait was on the easel. Sure enough, she was a painter and had studied art as a young woman. When she was older she had more time to paint. An old Architectural Digest profile showed her Manhattan apartment with portraits she had painted hanging on her walls, including one of Virginia Woolf and a young Pablo Picasso.

She was really, really talented! She also supported the arts, so much so that the University of California, Irvine named their school of the arts The Claire Trevor School of the Arts. It focuses on the performing and visual arts.

She lived to be 90 years old. I’ve always been a big fan but the discovery of her paintings is an added bonus.

I’m surging ahead with War and Peace, no longer simply reading a chapter a day. I’ll probably finish by the end of September. I’m also back to The Deptford Trilogy, reading the second book in the trilogy – The Manticore. I have six books on order from the library, some of which won’t even be published until later this month.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.