Mockingbird Hill Cottage

I’ve got nothing.

I had to resort to taking yet another photo of the McCoy/music cabinet that is directly across the den from where I’m sitting.

I haven’t been feeling tip-top, so I’ve been resting. I also texted for Biden for four hours yesterday. And then I ate dinner with my husband and watched The Great British Baking Show  and Rachel Maddow, whereupon I was enraged. And so it goes. Every day.

Among so many atrocities, so many despicable acts committed by this administration, the one that haunts me the most is the separation of families at the border. Children yanked away from their parents. Children in cages. And now we learn that 545 children are still separated from their families because those families can’t be found, most of the parents having been deported to Central America.

This is a stain on the soul of this nation, one that will never, ever go away. Stephen Miller, Rod Rosenstein, Jared Kushner, Donald Trump, HHS – everyone who sat in that room and voted for this policy and then enforced it cruelly  – each of them should be tried for Crimes Against Humanity at the Hague.

I’m a nonviolent person, always pushing for peaceful resolution, for protecting the lives of humans and animals. However, in this case, I find a firing squad sounds about right.

They have lost any sense of morality, any humanity. They’ve sold their souls.

I weep for those children. I weep for all the good people trying to find families in Central America in the middle of a pandemic. I weep for the parents and siblings who wonder if they’ll ever see their children again. I weep for our country.

All it took was four years to turn this country into something unrecognizable. Actually, it only took a year. In a pilot program in 2017, they started separating families at the border in El Paso. Then the “zero tolerance” policy was enacted in 2018.

I’m going to say it, loud and clear. I hate this man. I hate this administration.

I know I’m supposed to love and not hate. I know I’m supposed to have compassion for my fellow man. It took a long time – four full years – for me to use that word. But that’s how I feel and I’m going to own it. My previous word of choice, “despise,”  isn’t strong enough. Neither is “abhor” or “detest” or “revile,” though I feel all of those emotions.

No lectures, please, on this. I am a good person. I try to live a spiritual life. But some things are beyond the pale. I used to say I hated the actions taken, but not the person. Now I don’t even say that. Hopefully, at some time in the future, I can separate the actions from the person.

But not now.

They are beyond redemption.

In the meantime, I want each and every one of them, and that includes every member of the GOP who enabled and supported this monster, to spend the rest of their sorry lives in infamy, shunned by society, and prosecuted for their crimes.

Thanks for reading this, for your patience. All I can think about is those children.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

I’m fighting some sort of sinus thing that, for all intents and purposes, is just like a cold. It started yesterday and it continues today. Both Don and I woke up congested yesterday and we’re sneezing a lot. Anyway…tired and a wee bit cranky.

Our visit to Don’s eye doctor was a saga. He was in there much longer than usual, I was waiting in the car. The parking lot is very small and I have never been there when there weren’t cars jockeying for a parking space. So, you just can’t park and relax. You have to pull off to the side and wait for any sign of someone returning to their car. I found myself donning my mask to step outside the car and help direct someone trying to back out in the midst of the mess. Eventually, I scored a space.

And I used a bathroom other than my own for the first time since all this started back in March. Don asked the nurses if it was okay. I was nervous doing it, but the doctor’s office cleans every surface as soon as someone uses it, whether it’s a chair or the bathroom. In the waiting room, several chairs are roped off so there’s social distancing, there’s some sort of mist constantly going to disinfect the air, there is hand sanitizer everywhere – so I guess if I had to use someone else’s facilities, this was the place to go. As soon as I got back in the car, I was cleaning my hands with sanitizer. Anyway, it took a long time and we disinfected ourselves when we got home; we threw our clothes in the washer and took showers.

The doctor said that Don’s eye is doing better – he’ll always have to have the shots, but there is improvement. By the way, these shots cost over $2000 a pop. What would we do without Medicare and supplemental insurance? What would people who have macular degeneration do without the ACA? They’d go blind. Damn everyone who would try to take away the ACA from millions of Americans. (I’m not mincing words anymore, so you may see a few more swear words than usual.)

Change of subject: One positive thing – I received a miniature in the mail that I had ordered from Victoria Fasken, who lives in England. She hand paints miniatures, all of them pewter.

When I opened it and unwrapped each individual piece, I couldn’t believe how small it was!

Please excuse the wax that you can see on some portions of the cruet. The egg cups are so small that I knew I had to attach them right away or I would lose one. I’ll clean it up later today.

Do you believe this? It’s sitting on the miniature table I made the other day. An egg cup cruet. Believe me, this is so tiny that you really can’t see the flowers clearly unless you take a photo!

I was stunned. Don was stunned. I even measured the cups to make sure they weren’t 1:24 (a smaller scale) instead of 1:12. But, after doing some calculating in my head, I realized they are  1:12. I don’t know how she does it, but my goodness, these are beautiful.

I took a photo of them in the palm of my hand so you can see how small they are:

I couldn’t resist egg cups, of course, and they’re the perfect thing for Dove Cottage aka the English Cottage.

I think it’s time to buy a good magnifying glass, don’t you?

Stay safe.

Happy Tuesday.

Thanks for the great comments yesterday. It’s abundantly clear that we’re all dealing with this right now and that sharing those feelings helps. I so appreciate you all.

Forgot to tell you yesterday that on top of everything else, I could hear gunfire throughout the morning. That means hunting season has started. You know how I feel about hunting.

The bad news? The frost killed off my morning glories and zinnias and the coleus in the secret garden. There’s probably more but I didn’t investigate everything. Also, the deer (probably our young buck) has been eating every hosta and geranium. The cheek!

The good news? Some of my roses are blooming again and the catalpa tree(s) only lost some of their leaves. I mean, they lost a lot  of leaves, but there are still plenty of them on the tree. We do have a heck of a lot of raking to do, but that will have to wait. I have to take Don to the eye doctor today for another shot in his eye.

Oh, another bit of good news: Don’s nesting instincts are kicking in as it gets colder and he’s creating some fabulous meals. I am a lucky girl.

Since I’m currently stalled on the English cottage dollhouse – I’m ordering window inserts and I have to paint and attach the door and buy some baseboard material – I put together one of my House of Miniatures kits yesterday for something to do. This one was very simple and took about 10 minutes.

I had considered using it in the English cottage, but given the space constraints, it won’t work. After realizing that, I figured I’d just keep it in its unfinished state to use sometime in the future. But then I thought of Hummingbird Cottage. To be honest, I’ve never liked the rectangular table I used in that kitchen. It took up far too much space. Didn’t like the color and definitely regretted the Pepto Bismol color of the chairs. So I tried the new table in the space and it is so much better!

The old table:

The new table:

All those straight lines needed a curve or two. Plus, it’s more cozy and intimate.

I’m inspired to finish the table (I’m not sure if it will be a stain or paint) and repaint the chairs. Or buy other chairs.

Even Hummingbird Cottage needs an update every once in a while.

Caroline, when consulted, saw the wisdom in this choice and approved.

I mentioned in the comments yesterday a piece written by James Carville, a longtime Democratic strategist. It’s in The Bulwark, an online site run by Republicans who are against Trump. I read it twice. The first time just for me, the second out loud to Don. It made me cry. It’s very inspiring and very heartening. I think you will feel the same. It’s entitled, A Crusade for Something Noble. Here’s the link.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.