Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Flowers, Books & Puzzles

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This is one of the giant zinnias that just opened. I’ve purchased these seeds in the past, but I’ve never seen them get this tall. I haven’t measured, but they’re over 4 feet tall, maybe even 5 feet. I thank them for providing some color and interest in the garden at this late date – I looked them over the other day and there are more buds getting ready to open. As we’re not going down to freezing this week, I expect I’ll get to see more flowers. It was so windy when I took this that I had to hold the stem in place.

Rain yesterday, rain today. Sigh. 2023 will be called The Year of Rain. Over, over, over, OVER it. But so far, it’s a gentle rain, not a big storm, so that’s a plus.

I’m going to gather some books together this morning and take them to the library. On Saturday afternoons you can drop off books to donate to the Annual Book Sale, so I’m going to start taking advantage of that. I have to be ruthless, of course, and they should be in good to excellent condition. Then I’ll pick up my copy of the newest Thursday Night Murder Club series – The Last Devil to Die – which arrived at the library yesterday. I’m more than halfway through The Running Grave, so I’m determined to finish it in the next couple of days because I have to get going on the other two short term loans I have here, as well. But The Running Grave  is such a pleasure to read! I want to linger but I can’t.

Well, maybe just a little,

This is the puzzle I’m working on. It’s from a favorite manufacturer; Lawrence King. I’ve done several of these puzzles. They’re always beautifully designed and full of clues, as well as places, characters, and people associated with the author. Excellent quality. I love the matte finish on the pieces, rather than something too glossy.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

 

Garden Surprise

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The other day, I was outside looking at the flower beds. Most everything has died at this point. The zinnias are still blooming, the hydrangeas are hanging in there, a there are a few roses that bloom profusely in the spring and then bloom again in the fall. That’s it.

Except:

The coneflowers faded away over a month ago, after gracing us with flowers for several months. But this little surprise just floored me! I’ve never seen one come into bloom this late in the season.

What a gift! Just what I needed as I contend with a bit of the blues as the seasons change and shift into dark mornings and darkish afternoons. I always feel a bit melancholy. Welcome, little beauty!

I’m going to be selling some of my McCoy pottery – not all of it – on Etsy in the near future. I love it but I have an overabundance for the size of this house. (I have an overabundance of a lot of things, let’s face it.) I’ve been making of list of possible pieces to sell and then I have to do some research as to dates, patterns, etc. Then photos, which will be time consuming. I remember this from the years when I was crocheting scarves and selling them on Etsy. Anyway, I’ll give you a heads up when that happens.

The other day, two residual checks arrived in the mail. I assumed both of them were Don’s, but on closer inspection, one of them was for me! Don, of course, was very excited for me. This time, my check was a little larger than the first one. Don’s was for less than mine. I was the actor/breadwinner for the day! Huzzah! We laughed and laughed. I have to say, it’s still a thrill to get a check from NBC Universal via SAG/Aftra.

My puzzle arrived and I put all the edge pieces together yesterday. It’s “The World of Virginia Woolf” and I love it. I’ll work on it a bit later today.

And I’m smack in the middle of The Running Grave. Fabulous! And scary in the best way.

Today, much to my surprise, it’s raining. So we won’t go for a drive, but we’ll hang out here in the cottage and Don is going to play his guitar while I read and work on the puzzle.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

Clouds

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We took a little drive yesterday. It was one of those spectacular cloud days. Big fluffy, sometimes dark clouds were everywhere. At times it was very sunny. Since we’re in the country with mountains off in the distance, nothing blocks the sky and the whole thing is just magnificent.

This area is not far from our house. This apple orchard – in an area full of apple orchards – is a well-known one hereabouts.

That’s our mountain range off in the distance. You can see the same mountains from our house.

We really do live in a beautiful place. We’re going to start taking short drives a couple of times a week. Winter will be here all too soon and the landscape gets rather bleak. We want to lap this up while we can.

The year of ‘repairs’ continues. Over the weekend it was rainy and cold and damp and I was really feeling it. We hadn’t turned on the heat yet, but Don suggested I get it going for a few minutes to take the chill off. The oil burner went on and immediately shut off. We tried again. Same thing. After three tries, the automatic ‘lock out’ was engaged. We had no idea about lock outs until we did some research. And of course, this happened on the weekend and it really wasn’t an emergency since it wasn’t wintry cold yet. We tried to find where the reset button was to no avail. So we left a message with our heating oil supplier – they installed the oil burner 11 years ago. In the meantime, we were able to find the reset button, but the same on/off problem happened again. The guys got here in the afternoon on Monday and found out it was a clogged supply line. Our oil tank is an older and sometimes sludge accumulates and clogs the line. They took care of that and now the heat is working again. We haven’t seen the bill yet, but I’m sure it will be somewhat hefty.

The refrigerator also acted up again, but it was a one-time thing and has gone back to normal. We’re determined to hang on to it as long as we can because it’s doing fine, otherwise, and appliances are so expensive nowadays.

I’m deep into The Running Grave  by Robert Galbraith. Excellent and completely engrossing. I’ve also had the itch to work a jigsaw puzzle and one should be arriving today. It’s that time of year.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

 

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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