Mockingbird Hill Cottage

While perusing some of my favorite blogs recently, I saw a post from my friend Lori, the owner of Vignettes. The theme was the cloche, but I spotted something in the background that made my pulse quicken.

It’s mounted on wood. The words Contra, Great, Small, One Line, Two Line, Three Line, Four Line are above the keys. And there are little hooks on each key.

This was obviously a teaching tool and I did a little research. I found Miss Burrowes listed in The Woman’s Who’s Who of America for 1914-1915. Katherine lived in my hometown of Detroit, Michigan and was a music teacher. She eventually opened her own music school. She “invented appliances pertaining to the Burrowes course of music study, a method for teaching music to beginners by means of songs, stories, games, blackboard work, chart work, competitive drills and mechanical devices, as well as pianoforte music; some of the appliances are Miss Keyboard’s School, a device for teaching notation and sight reading (patented 1904)…”  The entry goes on to list other inventions and music compositions. At the end it says: “Recreations: Reading, Concerts, Theater. Favors Women’s Suffrage.”

Don’t you just love it? I imagine students had to identify the note and then do something like hang a “C” on middle C. Or play certain tagged notes on a keyboard.

Obviously, we like words and graphics around here. I found the old Hymn board several years ago.

I really, really love this. Don likes it, too. At some point I might hang something from one of the hooks but not yet. And it will have to be just right.

Looks like the birds are singing the notes on the scale at the bottom of the sign.

Isn’t it fabulous??? (You can tell I’m excited, can’t you?) I love finding something that I’ve never seen anywhere else, that is unique and perfect for our cottage.

These photos were taken at different times on a sunny day. It always amazes me how light can change something’s appearance. Or somebody’s.

Oh, and I’m fighting a losing battle at the moment. I wrote a recommendation for a former Boston University student of mine who was applying to graduate school in Speech Pathology. Happily, she was accepted by the school she most wanted to attend. As a thank you, she sent me a box of these:

These are the most delicious chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever had.

Drat.

I can’t be rude, can I? I must eat them. It’s the right thing to do.