Mockingbird Hill Cottage

I walked around the property yesterday, taking photos of plants and trees that would be in peril after the frost. The limelight hydrangea, at its most intense pink color, will turn brown.

The catalpa will drop all its leaves.

The late rose buds are in peril.

Maybe the wildflowers? We’ll see.

Don and I brought in all the porch plants. They’re scattered throughout the living room and den. I had an idea for the morning glories: place our stepladder in its upside down V shape over the morning glories, place a tarp over that and pin it with clothespins to the fence and some other supports in the garden. We also placed a cover over the zinnias as I noticed there are some new buds there.

It’s only 34 degrees at the moment. We slept in today and it was 32 when we woke up. I’m going to wait until the temperature hits 40 before I take the tarp off the morning glories. Fingers crossed! All you can do is try your best, right?

It’s a beautiful morning with abundant sunshine. There is still frost on my windshield. I can see the catalpa leaves falling. Catalpas drop a few leaves in early fall, but for the most part, leaves stay on the tree until the first freeze.

We’ve been watching a lot of baseball playoff games, as well as Alias, so we’ve been juggling high stakes tension-filled programs every night. As a consequence, we have been up a bit later than usual. That’s why this morning’s extra hour of sleep was such a delightful and unexpected surprise. We needed it.

Glad to hear the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to someone who has actually spent a lifetime working for peace in Venezuela. Congratulations to Maria Corina Machado!

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

Every year. Every October, we have one day where the temps go down below freezing. Then, everything goes back to normal. It drives me crazy, especially because my morning glories are just developing tiny flower buds and the freeze will kill them.

Tomorrow is that day. I have an idea as to how to protect them.

Why oh why does this happen?

It’s been in the low 80s, but it’s raining today and the general temperature will drop 20 degrees, hence the freeze tomorrow. As I said, I’ve got an idea for the protection of the morning glories, but I have no idea if it will work. This has been some year – deer have chomped on virtually everything, including bushes and plants they’ve never touched before. We’ve had huge extremes in the temperatures. We are still in a drought.

So we’ll haul all the porch plants inside. Don and I will rig up a cover for the morning glories. And everything else will die.

It’s depressing. November? Yes. I can take that. But early October? No.

Okay. Enough complaining.

We were up on the roof again yesterday, clearing out gutters in anticipation of today’s rain. Well, Don was up on the roof. I was assisting from the ground. I also continued picking up all the black walnuts that have fallen on the property. There’s a black walnut tree right next to the kitchen and it’s grown very quickly. We keep hearing the thump of walnuts falling on the roof. I think I’ve filled 8 huge baskets with black walnuts from the various trees on the property. I actually want that tree by the kitchen taken down next year. It’s too close to the house and the branches are extending over the roof. Anyway, we did a lot of outdoor chores yesterday and we were tuckered out at the end of the day.

Roombox update. I added some photos to the wall. They are actually photo stickers of my friend Gwen’s Blythes. She sent them to me a couple of months ago. I’ve decided they are cousins to my girls. I painted the walls on either side of the box in a cream color. There is also a window on the right side of the wallpapered wall, but I covered it up. And now, I rather like the different patterns and colors. It suits a playful house.

The Lori Loft was available at Target many years ago – I got it when I was away working in Hartford, so it’s at least 13 or 14 years ago. It was $40. I thought it would be fun to experiment with a modern dollhouse design.

But the loft wasn’t practical and the stairs took up a lot of space, so I never really found a way to make it work. It came with plastic furniture.

I never planned on using that furniture. I donated it to Goodwill. So when I started collecting Blythes, I realized that it was the perfect height for a roombox, but to make it work I had to remove the stairs and the loft. And I did. It remained that way until recently. (At times, it stood in a corner of our bedroom and I stashed my handbags inside it…) It’s only very recently that I decided to make it work for the girls.

I really like it now. Oh, and I painted the door the same cream color so that it blends in with the wall. The door is far too small for the girls.

Okay.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

 

We stood on the back edge of our property on Saturday evening and gazed at this beauty. This is our neighbor’s property. I took a video of the entire expanse. It’s on my main IG account if you want to see it. Here’s the link.

Saturday was a mental health day for me – I didn’t look at the news at all. Unfortunately, I did look at the news yesterday and all my calm disappeared. So today? You guessed it. No news. Saturday, I mowed the back forty. Or was that Friday? It’s all a blur.

I took this picture of Holly on Saturday. She’s wearing her hydrangea hat while standing under the limelight hydrangea. I usually take porch pictures of the girls in the morning because the light is the best then. This, however, was in the afternoon and the shadows were incredible! Holly-Hydrangea.

The other day, I moved the Beacon Hill from the long work table to the smaller sewing table. Surprisingly, it fit. I was tired of it completely blocking the light from the windows. I always felt like I was in a dark cubby hole when I was sitting at the desk. With that space freed up, I decided to try wallpapering that roombox I use for the girls (formerly the Lori Loft from Target.) I found some wallpaper in my stash that I thought would work. And then I painted the remaining walls. This being one of my ‘spontaneous’ projects, I foolishly didn’t use primer first so I had to apply several coats of paint. But I told myself this wasn’t a big dollhouse renovation that I wanted to look perfect. It’s a box I use for some photos. That’s it. So I’m okay with it.

Anyway, here it is what I have so far.

I covered a window in that back wall so I could have more surface space for the wallpaper.

Harper and Gilly seem confused. “Why are we here?”

Of course, none of the 1:6 furniture that I purchased matches this wallpaper. I currently have a navy blue sofa and a red chair. So, I’m toying with using some foam core or poster board to ‘construct’ another back wall that I can fit over this one when I want to use the furniture. I will source different – maybe vintage – wallpaper.

As I have said before, the dolls and various little projects are keeping me on the right side of sane. I’m not sure what I’d do without them.

We watched Rear Window  last night – one of my favorite movies ever. I’m sure I’ve seen it at least 30 times, but last night I saw details I’d never seen before. It’s a perfect movie. And any movie with Thelma Ritter in the cast can only be wonderful.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.