Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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Saturday morning.

The concert turned out to be a big hit, with a good-sized crowd. Don’s friend, John Putnam, has a band and they drove up from NYC and were a huge hit. The other performer was a musician Don discovered who lives in West Virginia. Also a huge hit. John Putnam, by the way, works a lot professionally. He was in the Escape to Margaritaville  orchestra and that’s how Don knows him.

While that was going on, I got a loud warning on my phone about a severe thunderstorm that was headed our way, with warnings specifically for the people attending our county fair. (Just a couple of miles from us.) I looked outside and all I could see was the sky lighting up – continuously – with lightning. At times, I saw an entire streak of lightning in the sky – wish I’d had my camera with me! There was thunder also, but mostly lightning. It looked like a special effect for a movie. But as far as I know, we had no rain. Very strange!

Okay. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. It is becoming increasingly hard to think of something to talk about every day of the week. The fact is, there are times when nothing much is happening. We’re older, we’re not working at the moment, and our days are fairly quiet. When you’ve been blogging for 15½ years, finding new things to talk about is a challenge. Don’t worry, I’m not ending the blog yet. I’m just trying to find a solution so that I don’t feel like I have to pull a rabbit out of a hat every day.

I’m thinking of blogging 3 or 4 days a week. I don’t get much ad income anymore – that has decreased for most bloggers. I get enough to help with the odd bill or two, and to pay for the costs of maintaining this blog. Just barely. I’m not sure how decreasing the days I blog will affect that ad income. I guess I’ll find out!

I was thinking of setting specific days for my posts so that you don’t have to wonder if I’ve posted on a certain day. Maybe Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Or Sunday, if that seems better for you.

What do you think?

I love blogging, but it takes a lot of effort on a daily basis. I need to come up with a solution that gives me some breathing space. I’ve held the job of blogger longer than any other job I’ve had, and I’m one of the few original bloggers still doing blogging. And I’m one of a few that blog on a daily basis.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

Friday Thoughts

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A young deer has been trying to chomp on the plants in the big garden bed. I happened to look up this morning and saw him eating something. I shooed him away – boy, was he cute – and just now, he was right by the shed and the hostas planted there…I shooed him away again. Both times, he ran up the trail into the woods.

He’s young. He doesn’t understand my Rules For Eating yet.

I mowed the lilac side of the front lawn yesterday and I have to admit it, it was hard, probably because I’ve mowed a lot this week and my arms are tired from pushing that front wheel drive-less lawnmower. I finished, but I’m taking a break for a bit. The back forty needs to be mowed, but sometime next week will be fine. The lawnmower has now moved to the top of the repair list.

Don has been coordinating and hosting a series of concerts this summer. They are held outdoors in a park in a town north of us. Don recruited all of the performers and he emcees each concert – once a month for four months. Anyway, there is another one tonight. It has rained or threatened to rain every Friday there has been a concert and true to form, it’s doing the same for tonight’s concert. So he’s spent a lot of time this week ensuring the performers are coming, pressuring the powers-that-be to find an indoor location and making that decision, not at the last minute, but a few days beforehand so that the public knows the venue is changing. I think they’ve been doing this for 14 or 15 years. Don played in the very first concert long ago. He has noticed that the number of people attending has decreased considerably since Covid. It’s very depressing. The same thing has happened with theater – subscription bases have decreased. Theater – especially regional theater – is struggling. I’ll write more about that later, but several well-known theaters are in serious financial trouble. Back to the concert series: it almost seems as if lockdown kept us home and once lockdown ended, people didn’t return to their previous activities and support of the arts. I’d say it was about money – and it is, of course – but this series is free.

The Arts are in trouble – not-for-profit theater is really in trouble. It seems as if I hear/read something about that on a daily basis.

I’m proud of all the work Don has done to make these concerts happen. I don’t know if he’ll do it next year, but I’m betting that after some time away from it, he will.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

 

 

Green Things

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Before I forget, two things I’ve been forgetting to mention:

Don chopped off almost 4 inches of my hair the other day. (He had my permission, of course.) It looks so much better.

And my monstera plant, which had been in a darkish corner for quite a while until I switched out the table with Don’s studio on it with the monstera so that it could be in front of the window, has given me two new leaves and they are notched! When a monstera doesn’t get enough light, the leaves tend to just be regular old leaves with no notches.

See? The leaf in the lower right hand corner is one that developed when it wasn’t getting enough light. The big leaf is new and beautifully notched. I don’t know what the official term for that is, I just say ‘notched.’ Monsteras are also called ‘Swiss Cheese Plants’ because of those cut-out areas of the leaf.

Anyway, I can’t tell you how excited I am to see it come back strong. Two new leaves have just appeared but they haven’t unfurled yet, so whatever happens will be a surprise. I’m sure there will be a notch or two.

I got this Monstera at a shop where it had been ignored and was dying. It needed to be repotted and given some TLC. It’s beautiful now.

I weed whacked yesterday and helped mow part of the front lawn, but Don did most of the mowing because my muscles were sore from carrying around the whacker.

I had to trim the weeds that come up between the rocks in the rock garden, as well as around the path to the upper level of the yard. The stepping stones had become hidden and covered with slippery moss because of all the rain we’ve had, so I cleared the moss as well.

Also trimmed around the path to The Dude and cleaned off the stepping stones there.

I always say that we are on the ‘edge of wild’ and this picture is a perfect illustration of that.

I read four chapters of War and Peace  yesterday. I was playing catchup but now I’m ahead. A big battle – the Battle of Borodino – is happening and I’m totally into it. I will say once more that Tolstoy is second only to Shakespeare in my estimation. My heavens, he was a brilliant writer.

I’m also reading The Thursday Night Murder Club  by Richard Osman, which is making me laugh out loud. I’m completely charmed by the cast of characters and the dry wit of Osman – who/whom (I’m never sure and don’t bother explaining it to me because I’ll never retain it) I’ve seen a few times on the Graham Norton show from England. I can see why everyone loves this series.

Don is making an apple pie today. Huzzah!

The lilac side of the front lawn will be mowed today – by me. Don’s knees are bothering him a bit and that side of the lawn is fairly easy to deal with. We have rain and storms coming tomorrow, so I want to get that done today.

Stay safe.

Happy Thursday.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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