Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Pansies

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Signs of new life: hostas emerging from the ground, coneflowers emerging, and pansies in urns. These urns were very cheap, I got them from the Christmas Tree Shops. They’re made out of a composite material, unlike my vintage urns that live in the Secret Garden. I’ve had them for many years and the elements have done a number on them. You can’t tell, but the top of the urns are no longer attached to the base. I have to balance them on top of the base and it’s a bit precarious. If it gets worse, I’ll just set the planter part of the urn on the ground.

I have two of them in gray as well, but since they live on the porch, they’re doing fine.

It’s going to be cooler for the next couple of days with temps going down into the 30s at night. But it’s sunny and beautiful, and I have to clear the leaves out of a couple more garden beds today. Don wants to try planting a few vegetables this year. With his surgery on Friday, I feel some pressure to clean out the beds and get them prepped so he can put the seeds in the ground.

I took it easy yesterday, which was easy to do as it rained off and on all morning long. Today, my back is much better.

I’m currently doing a lot of pruning – wild roses, pricker bushes, etc. They get out of control very quickly, so I have to stay on it.

I love, love, love this time of year. My mood lifts, I love being outside in the gardens, I love mowing – I feel lighter and more buoyant.

Very grateful that Spring has sprung.

Thinking of my beloved mom on this 9th anniversary of her passing. Love you always, Mom.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.

 

Sunday

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Yet another crabapple discovered yesterday during mowing. A lovely little unexpected gift.

I moved things around in the shed yesterday, somehow managing to push the snowblower into a little corner so I could move the lawn mower over to the center of the back wall. I also swept the floor and moved the Adirondack chairs onto the porch.

Then we mowed the massive part of the front lawn (the lilac side is still okay.) Oh my heavens. Because we live on a little hill, the lawn slopes downward and the grass at the bottom of the lawn grows very long. Same thing with the Secret Garden. I think it must have been 8 or 9 inches long in some sections. Since the first mow is always the hardest, we worked very hard and I’m feeling it in my back. But today is a day of rest and I’ll feel better in a day or two.

The lawn looks so green. Gorgeous. Just in time, I might add, because I had no idea it was going to rain and storm last night and today. We had quite the thunderstorm last night, seemed to go on forever.

Rest in Peace to Barry Humphries, aka Dame Edna Everage. His brilliant creation – Dame Edna – was absolutely the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. No one made me laugh harder than Dame Edna/Humphries. Yesterday afternoon, after mowing, I spent time watching tons of old interviews on YouTube, laughing so hard I was crying. Then Don did the same. (Best prescription for back pain, by the way.)

Thank you for years of laughter and joy, Mr. Humphries. We will miss you and Dame Edna very, very much. There will never be another like her.

Hey, anyone with a (gmail) address: My responses to your comments are being sent back to me because they’ve added some bizarre security measure I can’t understand. And I’m not about succumb to yet another google requirement. So, check back because you know I answer comments.

Stay safe.

Happy Sunday.

Lilac Buds and What are you Reading?

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We’re getting close! There are lots of flowers on the lilac bush this year. That seems to vary from year to year, depending on what happened weather-wise during the winter. I look forward to them opening and inhaling that glorious scent.

I snuck in a little bit more work outside, but not much. Trimmed some old hydrangea blossoms, trimmed a bit of one of the ‘pricker bushes’ – darn, I always prick myself. “Pricker bush” is what we called them when I was a kid and it’s stuck after all these years. We have two of them. I also trimmed a few of the wild roses. And I cleaned the bathroom.

It was a bit too warm yesterday, but as of Monday, the temps will be back in the sixties. We may mow the lawn today. I also have to get Don to do a few things today that he won’t be able to do after his surgery. Wish me luck! He’s been noodling away on his ukulele, since he can play that by strumming with one of his fingers – that will serve him well during the post-surgery healing process.

Mabel insisted on trying on the new hat. I also chose to post this so you can see the GREEN in the background! Huzzah!

I’m reading Colson Whitehead’s mystery, Harlem Shuffle. That man writes beautifully (I guess we already knew that as he’s won two Pulitzer Prizes.) Don has read two of his books and loved them. He bought Harlem Shuffle  and then never got around to it, so I grabbed it. I’m really enjoying it.

And War and Peace – ongoing. I think we’re about a third of the way through it. Tolstoy was a genius. Don and I are continually astounded by the beauty of his writing; his knowledge of human frailties, the descriptions that are almost cinematic – brilliant. It is a true pleasure indulging in this slow read. I don’t think I would have done it otherwise.

So here’s a question I haven’t asked for quite a while: What are you reading?

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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