Mockingbird Hill Cottage

This is what I call a “potpourri post.” Do you like that alliteration? Me, too. I have little snippets to share with you, none of them weighty enough to merit their own post. So, I’m tossing them all together. Here we go:

We live in the country but on a very busy – annoyingly busy – road. That’s a whole other post. We are unable to walk the dogs on our road because there is no shoulder and it is too dangerous. So we load them in the car and drive a few hundred feet to a quiet little lane. I walk by this sign frequently but it took my husband to point out the…umm…rather frightening implications here.

Yes, the road is a dead end. It ends at the edge of a local river. But…those are bullet holes, my friends. Need I say more?

After a hot, dry summer, we were graced with lots of rain and I noticed the grass in the back forty was alarmingly overgrown. So I spent the afternoon recently plowing through it with our lawnmower. You can see the edge of the woods that is on our property. A few years back, husband made a couple of paths that cut through the trees. We would often walk through the woods and be transported to a quiet, magical world. I still do sometimes. But we have found out the hard way that ticks live there. Husband has battled Lyme disease, and last spring when I was searching for rocks and clearing out the paths, I had a few encounters with them. So, we tend to avoid the woods…and the paths get overgrown. However, I’m sure I’ll bundle up, plaster myself with bug spray and try to clear them out once again next year.

Why is this here? I just like the photo. My impatiens are still blooming in various pots on the porch, I love the sign that lives on the bench and you can see pieces of the old army cot we found at a yard sale – remember? – and have yet to put together. If I had to hazard a guess I would say that it will not be put together this year. One more thing to pack away in the shed this winter.

I took this photo because the dappled light was so lovely. I was positioned in the dog corral. Don made that sort of temporary patio last year and we added the birdbath and flower barrels. The parking area is just to the left of the barrels. Love, love the sugar maple and the willow. And the porch, of course.

I found this doily roll in an antique shop last year.

The embroidery was so beautiful that I couldn’t resist, although I had no idea what I was going to do with it. The other day, I hit upon an idea.

A perfectly lovely cover for the sewing machine – the roll acts as a weight and the cover stays in place. And the colors fit right in the studio.

That’s the news from around my world on a Thursday morning.