Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

  • About MHC
    • Disclosure
  • Dollhouses/Minis
    • Hummingbird Cottage
    • The Studio (Formerly TSP)
    • Dove Cottage
    • The Lake House
    • The Folk Art Dollhouse
    • The Modern Dollhouse
    • The Beacon Hill Dollhouse
    • Dollhouse Source List, Information and Tutorials
  • On the Road
  • Collecting
    • Roseville Pottery
    • McCoy Pottery
    • Egg Cups
    • Bakelite
  • Press
  • Privacy Policy

Flowers, Old Movies, Coffee & Books

July 27, 2014 at 8:22 am by Claudia

You know I love my deer. They share this property with us and I do everything I can to protect them. But just like beloved children, sometimes their behavior makes me a bit unhappy.

Like when they chomp on my plants.

Part of that is my fault. I was away in Chautauqua and totally forgot about spraying the flowers with a natural deer repellent that I use. By the time I got home and realized that, it was too late. So, they dined on some day lilies and ate 99% of the leaves from the hostas that are planted in front of the shed.

But my hostas are sturdy little things and they had something up their sleeve.

take that

Take that, deer! They aren’t going to let a little de-leafing get them down. Not when they can deliver flowers like these.

We’ve been watching some old black and white films (my favorite.) Friday night was Random Harvest, starring Greer Garson and Ronald Colman – a great love story that takes place right after WWI. Colman’s character has amnesia, Greer helps him and the story goes on from there. Simply beautiful and, at times, heartbreaking. Then Don watched another movie, one of our favorites, Waterloo Bridge. (I’d seen it recently and it was late, so I went to bed.) But just as we did the first time we saw it, Don and I ended up talking about it for an hour the next day. It stars Robert Taylor and Vivien Leigh. Another love story with a WWI backdrop and a heartbreaking one, where you find yourself saying “If only she had said something,” or “If only she hadn’t let her pride get in the way.” It haunted me for days after I saw it for the first time. It’s a beautiful movie – I recommend it highly.

Then last night: the great 1927 classic, Metropolis. Simply stunning. A visual triumph with a powerful story. If you haven’t seen it, you should.

There’s nothing like a great old movie. We’ve hit the jackpot lately.

pink zinnia

I also just finished Cop Town by Karin Slaughter, which I’m going to review on Just Let Me Finish This Page tomorrow. Now I’m reading Deadly Assets by Wendy Tyson. I’ve reviewed some of Tyson’s books on this blog, so I’m looking forward to this one. It will be also be reviewed on the book blog

Today is rainy, which is just fine. The gardens need a little rain. Scoutie is in the tunnel, I’m sipping my Peet’s French Roast (no little K-Cups for me, thank you very much, I brew a pot of coffee.)

By the way, what is with the K-Cup craze? I know a lot of people use them, but they seem expensive to me and rather like a fad. Suddenly everyone is using K-Cups and buying a special coffee maker just so they can use them. If you limit yourself to one cup of coffee a day….maybe. Or if you and your mate have different tastes in coffee? But if I were going to go with one cup of coffee, I’d go with a filter cone. Much better result. We have one here and my roommate in Chautauqua had a collapsible filter cone made out of silicone that she used for traveling and she won me over. She spooned some of my coffee in the filter, boiled some water, poured it into the filter and oh my goodness! Was that coffee great! Much cheaper than K-Cups, obviously, and much, much better. I’m going to buy one for Don and one for me. We both have out-of-town gigs coming up.

Don’s late father, Lee, loved his K-Cups. He proudly showed them off to me when I visited him in San Diego. I think he liked having a variety of flavors on hand and would treat himself to a different one every day. That’s when I can understand the K-Cup thing. That’s when it makes sense. Anyway, just my opinion – I’m very serious about my coffee, as you know. If you love K-Cups, tell me why – I’d love to know.

There. I’ve gone off on a tangent. Don would tell you that kind of thing is rather routine around here.

The phlox have started blooming.

phlox

Oh, that scent is heavenly!

Happy Sunday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

Filed Under: books, coffee, Don, flowers, garden, life 66 Comments

A Little Surprise

July 26, 2014 at 8:56 am by Claudia

This is the little uphill path that opens into the dog corral:

saturday - path to corral

There’s Dame Scout, of course, walking around her domain.

saturday - a bit closer

But if you look in the foreground, you’ll see one of my favorite things – this lone coneflower. It first appeared last year. I was delighted to see that it had reseeded right along the edge of the chicken wire fence.

Just one flower.

And it came back this year, bringing a big old smile to my face.

saturday - little coneflower

Isn’t it the sweetest little surprise?

As far as the Chicken Wire Fence Garden, it’s slowly coming along. Some of the zinnias are starting to bloom. Some of them are still small, having been planted later in the season. The morning glories are starting to climb and attach themselves to the chicken wire. I sometimes think it should be further along at this point, but then I remember that it didn’t really take off until mid-August last year.

saturday - chicken wire fence garden

saturday - zinnia 2

This zinnia just opened. Gorgeous.

But the most gorgeous of all is this girl:

saturday - my girl

Happy Saturday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

Filed Under: flowers, garden, Scout 36 Comments

When A Movie is So Bad that it’s Good

July 25, 2014 at 7:50 am by Claudia

It’s actually coolish this morning.

I turned off the air conditioner. I may have to turn it back on again later, but it’s so nice to have quiet and birdsong, instead of the constant whir of the A/C.

I ran some errands yesterday. I know, big deal. But it was the first day I felt good enough to venture out for longer than a few minutes here and there. (More about the trip on Just Let Me Finish This Page.) The trip tired me out but I revived enough to do some weed whacking later on in the afternoon, while Don did a little mowing. Baby steps.

friday - lantana&birdbath

There was nothing worth watching on television last night, so we watched TCM On Demand. Don’s choice? A movie called Tentacles, made in the seventies and so dreadfully bad that it was good. You know what I mean. Sometimes there is a movie that is so bad that it makes for the perfect viewing experience. (As long as you’re not spending any money.) Clearly trying to build on the success of Jaws, the plot revolved around a giant octopus who was attacking and killing people in a coastal beach town. The producers were Italian and parts of the film were obviously dubbed. I don’t know how they got them, but the cast included Shelley Winters, John Huston, and Henry Fonda. Henry had sort of a cameo role, most of his scenes took place on a terrace and were, I’m sure, filmed in one day. He was part of a subplot that involved the work his company was doing on an underwater tunnel and the frequent use of high frequencies of sound that presumably created this monster octopus. Shelley played John Huston’s sister. Huston was a reporter and Shelley, a bit long in the tooth at this point in her career, as was Huston, was the mother of a little boy of about 10 or 12. What?? The whole thing was cheaply done, with bad special effects and closeups of a regular old octopus that were supposed to be terrifying. The plot got more absurd as the film went on, eventually involving some Shamu-type killer whales from a place not unlike Sea World that had been trained by the guy (played by Bo Hopkins) who was hunting the octopus (and who, by the way, had lost his wife, sister-in-law, brother-in-law, and friend to the killer octopus, simply because they went out on a boat and used their radio to contact the Coast Guard – those sound frequencies again.) Bless them, those killer whales took on the octopus and killed him in a long scene that was so cheesy and blurry that I was unsure what I was seeing.

All this with a cheap sounding musical score created on a synthesizer.

I can’t make these things up.

friday - spirea

It’s Friday. We have no plans for the weekend but Don does have a gig on Sunday. I have to catch up on my reading. I have books to read and review and I didn’t much feel like reading when I was sick.

Happy Friday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

Filed Under: movies, music 25 Comments

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 1249
  • 1250
  • 1251
  • 1252
  • 1253
  • …
  • 1853
  • Next Page »
  • Email
  • Instagram

Welcome!

Welcome!

I live in a little cottage in the country with my husband. It's a sweet place, sheltered by old trees and surrounded by gardens. The inside is full of the things we love. I love to write, I love my camera, I love creating, I love gardening. My decorating style is eclectic; full of vintage and a bit of whimsy.

I've worked in the theater for more years than I can count. I'm currently a voice, speech, dialect and text coach freelancing on Broadway, off Broadway, and in regional theater.

Thanks for stopping by.

Searching?

The Dogs

The Dogs

Scout & Riley. Riley left us in 2012. Scout left us in February 2016. Dearest babies. Dearest friends.

Winston - Our first dog. We miss you, sweetheart.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

Thanks for visiting! Feel free to browse, read and enjoy. All content is my own; including photos and text. Please do not use anything on this site without permission.

Disclosure/Privacy Policy can be found in the Navigation Bar under ‘About MHC.’

Also, I love receiving comments! I do, however, reserve the right to delete any comment that is in poor taste, offensive or is verging on spam. It’s my blog. If you’re a bot or a troll you’ll be blocked. Thanks!

Archives

All Content © 2008 - 2026 Mockingbird Hill Cottage · Log in