Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Another day yesterday with lots of work done around the property. It was sunny and gorgeous. We mowed the lilac side of the lawn, dug out the remnants of an elm in the big garden bed – it had been bugging me for years and I also get a skin reaction every time I brush against the leaves, so it had to go. We raked up pods from the catalpa tree, and worked on the Secret Garden. The old cinder blocks (found on our property – there are a lot  of them) that I use as a little wall separating the the grassy area from the rest of the garden disintegrate over time. They’re very old. Three or four of them needed to be dug out and replaced. We found 4 blocks that were part of a bench that we made long ago and never use, so we brought them down to the garden one by one. The heavy antique pots that I use in that garden sit on the blocks, so they need to be steady and secure. Much better now!

I also grabbed my special poison ivy pruners and snipped the vines that are trying to make their way up my maple trees. Bye bye poison ivy.

Very satisfying!

The lilacs have yet to fully bloom and there are fewer of them this year. I’m not sure why, as I pruned them at the right time last year. Maybe it was the winter or our crazy up-and-down weather. The peonies are growing by leaps and bounds.

We’ll have rain today and tomorrow, so we’ll be resting up.

Zoe enjoying the glider.

I finished A Change of Circumstance  by Susan Hill and loved it. She’s a wonderful writer – the prose flows so easily. It’s a compelling mystery about drugs and drug runners invading small towns, which didn’t entirely resolve itself at the end. I liked that. Trying to eradicate drugs and the people that profit from them is an ongoing battle so to tie that part of the plot up neatly would be false.

And now I’ll start A Line to Kill  by Anthony Horowitz, number 3 of 4 books checked out of the library.

Happy Birthday to my brother, David, and to his son, Eric. I miss you, Dave.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.