Mockingbird Hill Cottage
Well, it’s the end of the line for our Christmas Critter Felt Along. In order to give you enough time to make them for the holidays, we’re posting the last two critters today.
They are the Woodland Rabbit:
and the Wetland Duck:
To Download the Woodland Rabbit Click Here
To Download the Wetland Duck Click Here
If you want to see finished versions of these two critters, visit Dawn at Creative Cain Cabin.
We hope you’ve enjoyed making these! Thanks so much.
• I did a lot more raking yesterday; piles and piles of leaves. Then I mowed the dog corral and the front lawn for the last time this year. Since this weekend is going to turn very cold, with a frost warning, I figured now was the time.
Soon, I will be out on the porch, gathering up my potted plants to bring them inside once again. Where the heck am I going to put them? I can’t ignore them, they’ve been hanging in there for a year and half, planted last summer, overwintered, back outside for this spring and summer – performing beautifully. They need to be rewarded for their stellar performance.
The leaves are off all of the trees, save for a few on the catalpa. Leaf clean-up, at least as much as I’m willing to do, is over. I ignore the leaves in the back forty.
As far as garden clean-up goes, I really do nothing. Shocking, I know. There’s a lot of advice, all of it good, about putting the garden to bed for the winter. Maybe I’m a wee bit lazy about it, but there’s a method to my madness. The leaves that have fallen stay on the garden beds. They work as mulch, protecting the plants, and eventually decomposing to add nutrients to the soil. The perennials stay as they are. I don’t cut them back. Why? A couple of reasons: they function as architecture for the winter garden, their shapes beautiful in the bleaker winter landscape. And they provide food and shelter for birds and wildlife. So they stay as is. In the early spring, as I clean up the garden beds, I trim any dead leaves and stems. But not until spring.
I don’t do anything to my roses, either. Last winter was hard on them, and this winter promises more of the same. I may trim a dead cane or two – I had to do that in the spring – but, for the most part, they really seem to do just fine. They come back strong every spring.
This is just what works for me. I live in a northern climate, where it gets very cold and there is usually a lot of snow. The cottage gets a lot of wind, as well. The perennials in my garden beds come back beautifully every spring. And they look gorgeous in the snowy landscape.
• Scout and I had a little adventure the other day walking on the library grounds. As soon as she hit the long, winding driveway, she started to gallop. That girl! Of course, she was exhausted all day yesterday, but I aim to make sure she has a two or three adventures every week. She needs the exercise and the stimulation. I had a lot of fun with her that day. We even walked from the library to the post office, where she went inside with me to mail some bills!
She also watched the World Series with me last night:
Honest. She kept poking her head right up to the laptop screen, eyes wide, watching the action. She’s cheering for the Royals. So am I. Game seven tonight! Oh boy.
• I don’t know about you but I was a big, big fan of The Association when I was young. I saw them in concert. I played their albums over and over again. Now, these many years later, through my husband, I am a friend of Terry Kirkman, an original member of the band. (I can’t tell you how thrilled about that I am!) Terry wrote some of their hits, including Cherish, which has to be one of the most beautiful pop songs ever written.
Yesterday Terry posted a link on Facebook to a Pat Metheny version of Cherish. Since I am also a big Metheny fan, I immediately clicked over to it. Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness again. This has to be one of the most beautiful versions of Cherish I have ever heard. So beautiful that I couldn’t stop playing it yesterday. Over and over again. Then I bought it on iTunes.
Enjoy.
New post up on Just Let Me Finish This Page – Displaying Books: What are Your Solutions?
Happy Wednesday.
Hello bed! Though the mattress I slept on in Hartford was fine, this baby is heaven. I’ve been sleeping longer since I got home. Today I slept in until almost 8:00, and I’m usually awake by 6:30 or 7:00, at the latest. My back always has to adjust to a change in mattress and that will take a few days, but to say I love this mattress is an understatement. Not to mention this sunny bedroom – there was no real light in the bedroom in Hartford, just that cut-out in the wall.
I love you, big old California King bed.
Remember my plea for the Emmie blinds from IKEA? My order from the seller on eBay was waiting for me when I picked up my mail yesterday. My sister bought the other blind from IKEA in Tampa. She’s sending it to me this week. So two of the windows have the Emmie blinds and one doesn’t, which gives me the opportunity to show you the difference the new blinds make.
On the left, the old tie-up blinds. On the right, Emmie.
I’ve come to hate these. The ties are always sloppy. Even after cutting them down in length, they’re still too long. When I tried to roll the blind up to approximate the idea of the Emmie it worked for about two minutes. Then the sheer weight of the fabric dragged the whole thing down.
I cannot wait to get rid of this one. Meredith, please pop that blind in the mail….please?
So much cleaner looking! I’m going to tweak the rod holders so they hang perfectly. But, I have to say I love these. After hanging them yesterday, I decided I wanted to get one more for the bathroom, but unfortunately, this particular width is sold out. Darn it.
And continuing with my IKEA theme, when I ran into the IKEA in New Haven, I grabbed an Ektorp slipcover for my blogging chair. Imagine my surprise when I took it out of the box yesterday and it was not off-white but khaki. My power walk through the store had me grabbing one of the boxes that showed the $29 price, which is the price for the off-white covers. I didn’t know it was also the price for another color.
There it is. You can see the off-white I thought I was getting on that pillow. But I sort of like it. It will definitely do for a while. The khaki color is picked up in that red pillow, so it seems to work. And it echoes one of the colors in the rug.
If you look closely in the lower left hand corner, you’ll see a bit of Scout lying in her tunnel.
There you go. That’s the house update for today. I did lots of raking yesterday – several tarps filled with leaves were toted up to the woods. More to do, but I had to make time to take Scoutie on a walk.
Happy Tuesday.
