Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Our reward on Wednesday evening for shoveling snow. Isn’t that glorious?

Shoveling wasn’t as bad as we had anticipated. The snow was not heavy and wet, thank goodness. We ended up shoveling and didn’t need the snow blower. It took us about an hour and a half to clear the driveway and the parking area, as well as shovel paths to the shed and the porch. My back was complaining, but I felt just fine on Thursday. No lingering side effects. We were quite proud of ourselves.

It is frightfully cold (6° as I write this) and will stay that way for a while, so no melting. Because it got so cold last night, the porch plants that were still hanging in there have finally surrendered. I brought the pansies indoors last night in case I could save them. It didn’t work.

The pansies get an award this season – they are the first flowers I potted in early April and they hung in there until this morning. They are real troupers. I just love pansies.

Today is the day we get our Christmas tree. But we’ll have to wait for a few hours – it’s too darned cold right now. I like to get the tree during the week because the nursery gets too crowded on the weekend.

Oh, and we had to deal with a couple of unknown purchases made on Don’s card. The bank was incredibly helpful and the card has been cancelled. He’ll get a new one next week. The “purchases” have been credited back to our account.

My hands are still cold as I type this! It’s taking a long time for the house to warm up.

Remember that series of photos I took last Christmas with the girls wearing a crown?

I added another. Audrey had to have her very own Queen for the Day photo.  Miyoshi will be up next.

Okay, my friends. I’m off to make our second cup of coffee.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

We got about 5 inches of snow, but the pretty fluffy snow we were envisioning was not to be. It was a heavy wet snow with gray skies. It was not particularly pretty until later in the afternoon when the flakes got bigger. We have a lot to clean up out there today and we’re not looking forward to it. We would love for someone to plow our driveway but since it is covered in Item 4 (a kind of gravel) and the plow has to go uphill, the gravel is plowed right up along with the snow. We’ve had it happen a few times in the past. That’s an expensive loss. This is the one time of the year that I envy our neighbors across the street who have flat properties and driveways.

So, it’s the snow blower today, along with the shovel. It will be quite cold for the next several days, so it’s not going to melt.

Winter is hitting us with a big old wallop!

Anyway, this will be short because we’ve got things to do!

Hope you’re all warm and cozy and that Mother Nature has been kind to you. Hopefully, the sun will come out today and it will look pretty out there.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

We have snow coming tomorrow. We knew it was in the forecast, but delayed running pre-snow errands until today. We have to check the shed to see if we have an leftover salt from last year (I think we do), we have to get out the snow shovels. Don has to start up the snowblower to make sure it runs. We have to run to the bank, to the hardware store, to the grocery store. Yikes!

We’re always excited at the thought of our first snowfall. We’ve had a few snow showers in the past couple of days, but not the 5 to 8 inches expected tomorrow. And it’s going to fall during the day, so we can watch it falling.

Don had a gig on Saturday that ended up being much longer than expected and it involved a lot of driving so he was very tired at the end of the day, which is why we stayed home yesterday. He needed to rest.

Rest in Peace to the brilliant playwright and human being, Tom Stoppard. To me, he was our greatest living playwright. I met him when I was working at the Old Globe and he was generous, kind, and so intelligent. He and Jack O’Brien, who was the Artistic Director at the Globe, forged a friendship and partnership with Jack eventually directing several of his plays on Broadway. I was honored and humbled to meet him.

Gilly in front of the little Christmas tree.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.