Mockingbird Hill Cottage — Page 1489 — Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Work Resumes on the Dollhouse

July 19, 2012 at 10:40 am by Claudia

Most of the time, the outside of my dollhouse faces us as we sit in the living room. Since I’m in this room a great deal lately, watching over my Riley, I sauntered on over to it this morning and turned it so that the inside of the house was facing me.

Yikes.

I haven’t done any work on it for a long while. Some of the rooms are on their way to being finished, others are completely untouched and serve as a catchall for all my wood and trim scraps. I grabbed some paint and a paint brush and redid a side table that was very dark in its former incarnation.

There it is next to the chair. My friend, Heidi, gave me some furniture that was in a dollhouse she got at auction. Most of it is unusable, but a few pieces are just right – like the table.

The den is pretty much finished. I just have to add some crown molding and, of course, some decorations for the walls. (You can tell I was styling these photos – the same basket of flowers that was in the living room is now on top of the cabinet.)

The bedroom needs a bed. I’m envisioning something painted in a shabby white.

The kitchen has the Aga range and a table and chairs. It needs cupboards, a sink and a refrigerator.

The bathroom and the studio are completely unfinished.

Time to get cracking.

By the way, my darn camera has some dust under the top edge of the lens and I have to crop every photo around it. It’s not so much of an issue outdoors, but when I take photos inside the house, oh my goodness, is it annoying.

I want a new camera. I’ve said that before on this blog many times, but I thought I might take this opportunity to gently remind the universe.

Yesterday, I decided to mow the front part of the property and neglected to check the weather. 97 degrees with high humidity. Many hours later, with many breaks sandwiched in, it was finished. What was I thinking?

A little business: the winner of a copy of Night Watch never contacted me, so I drew another number and this time, the winner is Rosedel. Rosedel is a fairly frequent commenter on this blog, but I don’t have her email address. Rosedel, send me an email (look under Contact under my header) with your shipping address and I’ll forward it on to the folks at TLC Book Tours.

Don’t forget to check out my Connecticut Tourism post here. You have an opportunity to win $1000 to put toward your very own trip to Connecticut!

Our “Reality” Show

July 17, 2012 at 8:57 am by Claudia

Good morning, friends. Another hot one is in store for us today. It’s early morning here at the cottage, still somewhat cool, so the windows are open and fresh air is finding its way inside. When it gets hot enough, we’ll switch the AC back on. But until then…aaaah….it’s so nice to have the windows open! I get more than a little stir crazy when the AC is constantly on. It makes me feel trapped, somehow, as if I’m in a sterile environment from which there is no escape.

Somewhat dramatic, I know, but true, nonetheless.

May I complain just a bit about the state of television? Last night, Don and I watched Sunday’s episode of The Newsroom for the second time (it’s that good) and when it was over, we looked for something else that might be watch-worthy.

We have lots of cable channels available to us. What did we find? A sea of “reality” shows: swamp people, tow truck drivers, ‘real’ housewives, handfishers (what the heck?), gator catchers, hair stylists, the list goes on and on. And as each one appeared on the screen, we said out loud, “Who cares???”

None of these are truly ‘reality.’ They’re staged. Tell me how ‘real’ you would be with cameras following you everywhere? And more importantly, why would you want to have cameras following you everywhere? Why on earth would you want your private life on display for everyone to see? And again: Who cares?

Don and I sometimes goof around and lampoon the reality show style:

Me facing camera: Sometimes I like to eat while working on my laptop.

Shot of me eating a sandwich with laptop in the shot.

Me facing camera: “But when Don makes dinner, we eat it on trays in the den.”

Shot of Don cooking.

Don’s voice: Get ready honey, dinner’s ready.

Unattractive shot of me lifting Riley and carrying him down the stairs into the den.

My voice: I just have to go to the bathroom before we eat.

Shot of me disappearing into the bathroom. Door closes.

Shot of Scout scavenging for crumbs in the kitchen.

Shot of Don in kitchen with trays.

Sound of toilet flushing. Sound of water running.

Shot of me emerging from bathroom.

Don’s voice (somewhat impatient): Are you ready?

Shot of me plopping down in my chair.

My voice: Yes.

Shot of Don carrying tray into den with Scout constantly getting in his way.

Don’s voice: Move, Scout!

My voice: Scout, come here!

Shot of Scout entering the ‘tunnel’ under my legs.

Shot of Don handing me a tray.

My voice: Looks good, honey!

Shot of Don sitting down with his tray. Grabs television remote. He turns the evening news on.

Don facing camera: “We love to settle in to our cozy den and watch the evening news together.”

End of scene.

Or we ‘stage’ a fight, heightened and exaggerated, of course, for the camera. Something that Jeff Daniels’ character on The Newsroom calls ‘human cockfighting.’

Upon viewing either of these scenes, you would say, “Who cares?” And you would be right.

In our channel search, we couldn’t find anything new that was scripted and compelling. (This was on Monday night.) Lots of Law and Order reruns. Lots of reality crap.

I remember when Hill Street Blues first premiered. It was so well-written, so well-acted, so compelling and surprising and smart that I couldn’t wait for the next episode. I felt the same way about ER and NYPD Blue and a host of other quality shows. There are still excellent series being aired today, some on the networks, many on cable, but they are almost buried in a sea of voyeuristic, cheaply-made, so-called reality shows.

It’s the dumbing down of television.

Sad but true. Thank goodness for the few quality shows that are still out there. They give me hope that, someday, things might turn around.

Fingers crossed.

Rain, Riley and Appalachian Spring

July 16, 2012 at 8:07 am by Claudia

We had two big rains yesterday. The first was a big old thunderstorm that tested the strength of our gutters with torrents of water falling everywhere, claps of thunder, streaks of lightning, Scout barking. I love a summer thunderstorm. And boy, we needed it. A few hours later, more rain came, this time without all the fireworks but heavy and steady.

We still need a lot more, but this was a great start. I ventured outside early this morning to check out the garden. The hydrangea blossoms are heavy with water. My David phlox leaves are suddenly buoyant after drooping for the last two weeks. The birdbath is almost overflowing.

This time of year – the July garden – is tricky. At least in my garden. There’s not a whole lot blooming. The coneflowers are everywhere, the hydrangea is constant, my rose bush is sort of blooming (though I saw some dreaded spots on the leaves this morning,) and the hostas have flowers. But there are big chunks of the garden that are green without anything flowering. I have yet to master the art of planting a garden that always has something blooming. I tend to plant what I want to plant and I don’t necessarily think about the overall design of the space. Things just happen here, for better or worse.

Yesterday, Riley happily barked along with Scout during one of her extended ‘songs.’ Two different times. When he does that, he looks and sounds like the Riley of old. There’s life in him yet. I whispered in his ear the other night; telling him that we love him and if he needs to go, we will be okay. But he’s still here. So it’s not time.

The radio is quietly playing as I write this – Aaron Copland, Appalachian Spring, one of my favorites. I discovered this piece of music when I was in college and fell in love with it. So I bought the album and then I bought everything by Copland. I miss albums, don’t you? None of this small CD stuff – with albums you could hold the record album cover in your hands, easily read all the liner notes and actually see and admire the artwork on the cover. I had so many albums. Tons of them. But I digress, back to Appalachian Spring. During my senior year of college I lived in a house with 5 other women, all of us drama majors. I often had rehearsals at night. I would come home from classes every day and take a nap before I had to go to rehearsal. My ritual was to pull the shades down in my room, turn on the stereo, take my copy of Appalachian Spring out of its sleeve, put it on the turntable and let that beautiful music lull me to sleep. That’s such a vivid sense memory for me. Whenever I hear it, I am instantly back in my darkened attic bedroom, young and relatively carefree, surrounded by Copland’s glorious music. Music, more than anything, can immediately take me back to a certain place and time. Does it do that for you? What memories does it evoke for you?

Happy Monday.

Work Resumes on the Dollhouse

Our “Reality” Show

Rain, Riley and Appalachian Spring

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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