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Mini Decorations

December 14, 2022 at 9:21 am by Claudia

Over the next couple of days, I’ll share the Christmas decorations in the dollhouses with you. Nothing much has changed, but it’s fun taking pictures every year.

First up: Hummingbird Cottage.

Christmas is celebrated in the den on the second floor. There just isn’t enough room for a tree in the living room. Caroline hasn’t finished yet – there’s still a box of Shiny Brites on the stool.

Downstairs in the living room, a couple of Christmas touches:

Two bottle brush trees on the hearth.

(Note the back of the heads of Lily and Wren in the front door window…I forgot they were there when I took the picture! An interesting look at scale – those little dolls seem so tiny next to the Blythes, but they’re huge in comparison to the dollhouse.)

A wreath hung on the newel post.

I’ve decorated Dove Cottage and Lake Cottage (the vintage house in the den) as well.

As in real life, I don’t do a lot of decorating. In the case of the dollhouses, I make the trees and add a few touches, but I don’t like to spend a lot of money on miniatures I can only use once a year.

I just finished The Twist of a Knife, the book by Anthony Horowitz. I enjoyed it. It’s an easy read and it reminds me of an Agatha Christie mystery. I’m hoping to get an email from the library saying a book I ordered has arrived. Fingers crossed.

We’re getting more snow tomorrow – maybe 3 inches? And then we’ll get some rain. Next week, we might get 5 – 8 inches. Yikes! Of course, that can change, but we just might have a white Christmas.

Happy Birthday to my dear cousin Eileen, who reads this blog. I love you, Eileen.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

Tuesday Thoughts

December 13, 2022 at 9:54 am by Claudia

Very, very cold here today! It’s currently 13 degrees. Yikes. I think we have a few days of this frigid weather and then it will warm up a little. Right now, the snow is on the ground and a lot of branches are still coated with snow because it was so cold last night. The sun is shining and it’s beautiful out there.

One more photo from our snow day:

Harper – not at all sure about this ‘snow’ thing.

I’ve since added some tights so her legs don’t get cold.

We have to run a few errands today, and we also want to take a little drive because it’s so pretty around here. The snow isn’t dirty yet – it’s all crisp and white and clean.

I’m close to finishing the new Anthony Horowitz. His books are so conversational that they tend to read quickly. It’s a lot of fun. Then I’ll return it to the library where, I hope, the newest Herron will be waiting for me.

We have been thoroughly enchanted by vintage What’s My Line episodes on YouTube. We watch at least two of them every night. It’s such a glimpse into another era, one in which we both grew up. The panel is smart, funny, charming and, above all, civil. There are none of the gimmicks that someone doing this show today would inevitably add. None of the “I’m funny and I’m going to throw in jokes whenever I can” crap that derails everything these days. No “me, me, me!” We are always amazed by the civility and kindness that permeates the program. I grew up watching it in the 60s when I was old enough to begin to appreciate it. We’re getting reacquainted with Arlene Francis, Bennett Cerf, Dorothy Kilgallen, and John Daly – all of them brilliant and charming, accomplished, with full and active working lives beyond appearing on the show. It’s fascinating and extremely entertaining. We inevitably google someone’s name during the course of each show to learn more about them. So many of the guests and panel members now gone; in fact, most of them. I miss them. I miss that era of respect and civility. It’s such a contrast to what we see today.

More and more I find myself yearning for what was – and I know that “what was” wasn’t perfect. There were conflicts and inequities and McCarthyism and racial inequality – we see very few African Americans in the early episodes. So I’m not fantasizing that everything was ideal. It wasn’t. But the civility, wit, respect with which people were treated. That was real.

Just some thoughts in my mind this morning.

Stay safe.

Happy Tuesday.

Winter Wonderland

December 12, 2022 at 9:09 am by Claudia

It’s a winter wonderland out there this morning. We had a wet snow, so it’s sticking to all the plants and branches and, though it will melt as the day progresses, it’s glorious at this moment.

During the snowfall yesterday. I’ve had that cottage sign for a while and I usually stick it in one of the garden beds, but Don put it here and I like it.

The two soldiers that Don bought last year are now on top of the overturned wheelbarrow. We keep that old wheelbarrow in place because there is an extraordinary ant colony there, complete with houses and tall buildings. We don’t want to see it destroyed, so the wheelbarrow stays. And now the soldiers are guarding it, too. (And I was able to divert Don from his desire to put them on the porch, which would have been a distraction from our simple and striking outdoor lights.)

This morning: