Mockingbird Hill Cottage
My grandmother used to call the pictures she took with her Brownie camera ‘snaps.’ I find myself using that word lately. Snaps. Here are some snaps on this Sunday of life around the Cottage.
No, it’s not Fathers Day – Don still has the card (from Riley and Scout) in a place of honor on the coffee table. But it is Don’s birthday! Happy Birthday, sweetheart! Let’s have a wonderful day celebrating all that is you.
Happy Sunday.
Linking to Elaine’s Sunny Simple Sundays.
Good morning! I’m still on a bit of a high from seeing and spending time with my friend Jim on Thursday night. It’s sunny today and after a bit of rain last night, the oppressive heat and humidity have left, thank you very much. I’m not too happy when it’s so darn hot that I can’t do anything outside. The grass needs mowing, the weeds need whacking, the garden needs weeding.
In one of those little garden miracles that happen every day, a tall weed that I passed every day and ignored and which was nestled up against the chicken wire fence in the dog corral, turned out to be:
A purple coneflower! It’s just by sheer luck that I hadn’t yanked it. Thank you to who or whatever caused this flower to seed in this particular spot. Maybe a bird? Speaking of birds, there was a female cardinal in the birdbath yesterday, but I couldn’t snag my camera in time. So I simply enjoyed watching her.
The tiger lilies are blooming down by the road. I see them everywhere around here and they are one of my favorite summer sights.
Scout is getting better. Slowly. Her eyes have stopped darting back and forth. The problem has been getting her to eat. She obviously feels nauseous still and turns her nose up at most everything I offer her but peanut butter. But by the afternoon yesterday, I was worried enough to call the doctor who prescribed some medicine to jumpstart her appetite and a round of antibiotics as well. We also went back and bought some cans of A/D which I’ve used before when I’ve had a sick doggie.
We were so happy when she scarfed the A/D down. It’s hard to see my agile little girl stumble and feel fearful about jumping up on the sofa. But her balance is still off and will be for a while. Between Scout and Riley, my hands are full.
Don’s birthday is tomorrow. And on Monday he leaves for Connecticut where he will be part of a musical theater workshop that goes on over a 10 day period. (We have, between the two of us, worked in Connecticut 3 times this year.) Then he comes back for a couple of weeks and leaves again for the Berkshires, where he will be in another production. And in the fall, he’s booked a play down in Florida. His acting work is really taking off again and we are so grateful.
And finally, Sandra, a reader of MHC, bought one of my Crochet Flower Garlands and sent me this photo:
It looks great, Sandra! Don’t you love that shot of aqua? I love it. Thank you for sharing this with me.
(I am having the worst time with Blogger’s editor today. Wonky spacing, weird things in the html.)
Have a great Saturday.
Oh my goodness. It is such an amazing experience to see my friend, this lovely, talented person, perform on Broadway. I have to keep telling myself it’s just Jim – the guy from Texas who auditioned in front of my friend Rick and me for a place in the graduate acting program. The guy we accepted into the program, knowing he was the real deal. In a program such as ours, you spend hours and hours with the students, in class, onstage, in rehearsal rooms, at parties. By the time they graduate, you know them very, very well. That’s the nature of a professional actor training program. (And why I have so many former students as Facebook friends!) Jim’s class was the last class that I taught at the University of San Diego/Old Globe Theatre MFA program. That class traveled to London together in the winter of their last semester and I was the faculty advisor who got to go along. Everyone had different plane reservations on different airlines. Jim and I ended up traveling together on Virgin Atlantic and laughed ourselves silly. I am crazy about him.
Anyway, the enormity of his talent shines through in this production of Harvey. What a wonderful performance – honest, funny, sweet and true! Not one false note. While I was watching him, I had the realization that this was my friend Jim, but I could be watching him on any stage – the Old Globe, the MFA theater on campus – it just happened to be on Broadway. The entire cast was excellent and lovingly brought this wonderful old play to life again.
As seems to be the norm in my life, I had an adventure on the way to the performance. My bus, which normally would take about an hour and a half to get to Manhattan, took almost 3 and a half hours. Curtain was at 7 pm and at 6:30 the bus still hadn’t gone through the Lincoln Tunnel (which runs under the Hudson River to Manhattan.) I was in a panic. I had no idea what was holding us up but I was sure I was going to miss the curtain. I had Don call the box office and tell them to hold my ticket, I emailed Jim to tell him what was going on, and I sat there on the bus watching the minutes tick by. We finally got into the bus terminal at 6:50. The theater is 12 blocks away from the terminal. In the midst of 95 degree heat and rush hour in the Theater District, with not one available taxi in sight, I speed walked those 12 blocks, reached the theater and sat in my seat by 7:04 – just as the lights went down.
Whew!
It was worth it. I’m so proud of Jim. We had a wonderful time together after the show, chatting in his dressing room. I adore him.
Here’s where I realized just how popular he is: as we were getting ready to leave the theater, I saw a long barricade, stretching down the block. On one side of the barricade, 4 or 5 people deep, were fans waiting to see Jim. The line stretched down a long city block. They had been waiting in that heat for almost an hour; we had been talking away in his dressing room for quite a while. We said our goodbyes right before he hit the stage door and then I watched as cheers erupted when Jim followed me out the door. He has to sign autographs after every performance. And there were a lot of people there. His entire life has changed. But he hasn’t, thank goodness. He is still the same thoughtful, funny, serious, kind man I knew 12 years ago and know now. I’m proud to call him my friend.
Teaching can be enormously gratifying. Seeing my former students excel at what they do for a living, what I helped train them to do, is a blessing that fills my heart with joy.
Happy Friday.
