Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

A Favorite Thing #44

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afavoritething

Welcome to week number 44 of A Favorite Thing. I’m so glad you’re here.

Before we move on to highlights from last week, I want to let you know that I will be taking next week off. I have two long days of work in Manhattan on Saturday and Sunday, which will involve about a 12 to 13 hour day both days. I just won’t have the time to prepare the post and/or visit you. So we’ll take next week off and resume again on July 20th. Thanks!

Let’s look at some highlights from last week:

peonie2

Chy from Our Little House in the Big Woods, shared her peony buds with us. Chy lives in Canada and her peonies are late to bloom this year. She knows how much I love peonies! Thank you, Chy, for giving me another glimpse of these beauties.

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Daphne, of Ivy, Phyllis and Me, shared her beautiful orchids with us. Not only that, she also gave some great tips for growing them. I love orchids and I just might try my hand at growing them. Thanks, Daphne!

moms blackberry pie

And finally, Michelle of The Bashful Nest shared this incredibly tasty looking pie with us. It’s Blackberry Crumb Pie, made by a bakery in her town called Mom’s Apple Pie. Isn’t that the best name for a bakery? I am a certified pie lover – I’ll always go for a pie instead of cake. I would like a piece, Michelle. Pretty please?

This week I am highlighting one of my favorite things in the world. In fact, I have it every day. Like clockwork.

peets

I love coffee. I love this coffee – Peet’s French Roast. It’s the only coffee I drink. If I can’t get it already ground, I buy the whole beans and grind it right there in the grocery store. I buy a bag of it to take with me on the road. If I’m only going to be gone 2 or 3 days, I measure out the precise amount I will need and put it in a plastic container. 3 scoops. 6 cups. Which really equals about 3 mugs full. I only drink it in the morning, never after 12 noon. If I drink it later in the day, I have trouble sleeping. To me, it’s the best coffee in the world.

Now, it’s your turn.

You can link up anytime from this evening through Sunday. Make sure you enter the URL of your post. If you’re unsure how to do that, just click on your post title after you’ve published it and copy the information in your browser address window. Come back here, paste the URL into your link entry and there you go! If you have any problems, drop me an email and I’ll help you out. Please link back to this blog on your post. That way, those that read your post and are interested in reading more can do so.

One of my concerns about link parties is that the very reason for them has somewhat gone by the wayside. They’ve become so big and there are so many of them that many bloggers don’t take the time to visit any of the other participants. Link parties are a way to meet new bloggers and share with each other and the only way to do that is to visit each other. So, please, take some time to visit everyone over the next few days. No rush. Stop by, introduce yourself, and leave a comment. It’s the neighborly thing to do. It’s also nice if you leave a comment here, as well.

Enjoy!



Outdoors at the Cottage & the Power of a Good Book

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coneflower

The very first of my many purple coneflowers has bloomed. Coneflowers are in every garden bed around here and since they’ve gratifyingly reseeded themselves, they’re cropping up in some unexpected places, as well. I just love them. They are very cottage garden to me.

I’ve finished all the Deborah Crombie books except the very newest, which is in hardcover. I’m going through a little period of mourning. I find myself unable to commit to any of the other books that are sitting around here, ready and waiting to be read. This happens to me rarely, but it sure has happened with this series. I’ve grown to love the characters so much that I feel as if dear next-door neighbors have moved away. I want to hang out with these characters, to have tea with them in their home in London – I want to be their friend. I’ve been pressing my nose against their fictional windowpane and I want in!

Does that ever happen to you? Does a book or a series of books so enthrall you that you find yourself wanting to live in that world? It’s sort of a mixed blessing, but it certainly attests to the power of the well written word.

hostabloom

The hostas are sending up their flowers and will soon be blooming.

I went out in the early morning yesterday and mowed part of the lawn. It’s growing so fast because of all the rain we’ve had and I knew that with the 90 degree/90% humidity forecast for the day I had better get cracking early. Totally exhausting, this weather. I did get a nice chunk done and I’ll do some more today. But only in bits. Because this weather, which has hung on for days and days, is not the best or healthiest in which to do any chores. Don, my poor guy, is in a dorm with no air conditioning. The actors are miserable. It’s hard to sleep. Yesterday, he was scheduled for only a costume fitting, so he went to see a play in the afternoon and a movie in the evening, just to be in someplace air conditioned.

I would not be coping nearly as well as he is. I hate humidity.

lavender

The lavender planted in the raised bed by the kitchen door.

garden

The bee balm has spread this year and its splash of red really adds to the garden.

beebalm

See that wheelbarrow in the upper right hand corner of the photo? Several weeks ago, I lifted it and noticed a small ant hill under it. I lifted it yesterday and gasped out loud. There is a veritable city there. Look:

anttown1

Do you believe this? It’s fascinating. It reminds me of ancient pueblos or those Indian dwellings carved into stone in the Southwest. How do they do it?

Good thing I don’t have to use the wheelbarrow at the moment.

Happy Friday.

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Nineteen Years Ago

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Nineteen years ago today, I was in the midst of my first full summer in San Diego. I was working at the University of San Diego and the Old Globe Theater. In those days, the Globe employees and actors were like a big family. One of the actresses had a home in Ocean Beach and she always had a big party on the Fourth that everyone was invited to.

That morning, I stood in the kitchen in my wonderful apartment (a kitchen with all the original circa 1930 tile counters and backsplash and fabulous wooden cupboards) and I whipped up a batch of guacamole. My dear friend Rick picked me up and out we drove to the beach. The atmosphere was festive and fun and many of the actors I was currently working with were there. Lots of laughter and good food.

There was this guy there. He was an actor. I had seen him in a production the previous summer when I flew out to San Diego for my job interview. I remembered him and I remembered how good he was. He had just been made an Associate Artist a few weeks earlier and was cast in a show that I wasn’t coaching. Anyway, I knew who he was. He didn’t know who I was.

As the afternoon went on, I noticed that every time I came inside the house, he was watching me. Catching my eye. And smiling. This went on for a few hours. Hmmmm. I was intrigued. Finally, though I am pretty shy, I decided to bite the bullet and I walked up to him and introduced myself. We had a lovely chat. Rick was right there, as well. There’s a picture of the three of us on the sofa that was taken by another actor. He sent it to me many years ago. It captures that first meeting, that first talk.

I guess we were flirting. Slightly.

Later that evening as all of us sat on the beach watching fireworks, I looked in his direction and his eyes met mine and we smiled at each other. I was glad that Rick drove, because as we made our way home, I was able to sit back in my seat and think about this interesting guy I had just met. And think I did. I was just a wee bit smitten.

Four years later, to the day, that guy asked me to marry him.

So, yes, it’s the Fourth of July but what we celebrate around here is the anniversary of the day we met.

Happy Anniversary, sweetheart.

busriders

Happy Fourth of July.

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Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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