Mockingbird Hill Cottage

We were pulling in our driveway after the memorial service and the late afternoon sun was lighting up our house. So I got out and took this photo.

Love when that happens.

We are taking it easy, trying to find some balance in what has become an out-of-whack life. Don has talked some more with Adrian and the feeling is if the surgery is successful, he’ll have much more freedom than he’s had for the past year or two. He’s been basically anchored to his home and the beach (they live in Ventura, CA) but even walks on the beach have often had to be curtailed because he was out of breath. We’re not sure yet when the surgery will be. In times like these, we wish we were still out in California, if only to be there with Adrian and his wife, Margaret, while all this is going on. We love it here, but we sometimes miss California in the winter – and now.

Have you seen the movie Belfast? Don and I watched it the other night and it’s simply wonderful. It’s written and directed by Kenneth Branagh and is about a family living in Belfast in the 60s. The cast is wonderful. The little boy at the center of the story is brilliant (and his last name is Hill, hmmm….my Irish ancestors came from Northern Ireland…perhaps a distant relative??) And Judi Dench and Ciaran Hinds are, as always, excellent. I recommend it highly. It’s incredibly heartwarming.

I’m trying to fill my days here with something creative. I’ve taken to doing a little pen and ink sketch a couple of times a week – I have a little Moleskin notebook that I’m using. My thought was to sketch things at various rehearsals, and I did a sketch during rehearsals for Noir (the project I just finished.) Obviously, that can always be an option, but since we’re not headed to Broadway with A Man of No Importance, there’ll be no more sketches like that for the foreseeable future. But I’ve done one of the sofa in the den and the table next to my chair. They’re impressions, really. Don says they remind him of New Yorker sketches.

By the way, Darko tells me that the two performances on Friday for theater owners went very well. Fingers crossed.

And I’m starting something I did once before long ago – way back in my San Diego days. I’m filling a notebook with Morning Pages, as talked about in The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. They are pages written first thing in the morning; stream-of-consciousness style. You write every thought that comes in your head, with no editing. Three pages, every morning. And they’re private. The goal is to clear your head for the day ahead. If you’re like me, your brain is teeming with thoughts every second and the moment I get up, my brain goes into overdrive. It’s also a form of meditation. I write them with one of my fountain pens, which makes the process even more pleasurable for me. You don’t need to reread them.

Hopefully, I’ll get back to painting soon, as well. But I’m not motivated enough yet.

Last week, on my Blythe IG account, we had a prompt for “A Doll a Day January”, which is being done by one of the Blythers. I’ve been doing it off and on all month long. This one was The Beatles. Here’s what I came up with.

Holly and Harper are examining our original 45 of I Want to Hold Your Hand/I Saw Her Standing There. They aren’t sure about these guys. We’ll have to school them in all things Beatles.

Posing these girls so they would stay erect while sitting, as well as getting the 45 to stay in place took quite a while and more than one curse word was heard.

Reminder for those of you who send me mail at our PO Box. We are not renewing it as the cost has increased way too much compared to how often we use it. So if you want to send me something, contact me. It expires tomorrow.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.