Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Our search for more of the doll/figurine produced exactly nothing. I keep reminding Don that early spring is a great time to find things. There’s not a lot of vegetation yet and bits and bobs come to the surface as the ground thaws.

We invited Rick and Doug over for an impromptu socially distanced get-together yesterday afternoon. Don knew just the spot; Maple Grove (a clearing he created) up in our woods. He carried our four vintage white chairs up there and then I helped him arrange them at a healthy social distance.

You can see them off in the distance.

To orient you – you can see the path on the left that ends in our neighbor’s meadow. The stump on the right was cut from our fallen maple.

We wore masks, we talked for two hours – it was heaven. I really miss those talks with our dear friends. And oh, how I wanted to hug them! I miss hugging, though Don and I hug a lot, thank goodness. But my natural instinct is to embrace my friends and family and that’s a no-no right now.

Rick and Doug. They brought their own beverages.

It was just what we needed, time with our friends up in the woods. The great thing about having it there is that the noise from the road is much less intrusive, though our neighbors were using their chainsaw to cut up all the trees that the utility company dumped on their lawn. Still, it wasn’t bad at all.

As Doug said, it would be a great place to read. There was a lovely breeze and it was quiet.

Why didn’t I think of that?

Anyway, after wondering what to do with that area, we now see that we need more of the vintage white chairs and we’re going to place them in Maple Grove. Next year. Or maybe this year if we come across some!

Seeing that splash of white in the woods is really neat.

I’m reading All the Devils are Gone  by Louise Penny. I’m deliberately reading slowly so I can savor it, knowing I’ll have to wait another year for her next book.

A photo from the day I met her at a book signing in NYC.

I was thinner then. Sigh.

I’d say my hair had less gray but truthfully, there’s still a fair amount of brown in my hair. It just looks different according to the light. Overhead lights and sunlight makes it look very gray – almost white. It’s ‘evolving.’

Louise’s longtime editor, Hope Dellon, was sitting right in front of me at that event and we became Twitter pals. Hope passed away several months ago. I knew she had been ill; nonetheless, I was shocked when I realized she had died. Louise speaks movingly about Hope in her Acknowledgements. Make sure you read about her. She was something else.

Last, but not least, Kathy sent us a little package which Don picked up at the post office the other day.

Whoo hoo! We LOVE them!

Thank you so much, Kathy!

Stay safe.

Happy Sunday.

183 days since we went into lockdown. Exactly half a year.

Don was doing some digging yesterday. It was just light work because, frankly, the bottles and things he’s finding are not that old and they’re not worth anything, which means they’ll be recycled. Most of the little treasures I’ve found on the property over the past 15 years have been spontaneous finds; something coming up from below the surface, some clearing of leaves that reveals a little object, or digging for something specific, like a new garden bed, which results in a discovery or two.

That being said, he found something interesting yesterday on top of an old foundation that is on the edge of our property. It’s now in my little Dish of Curiosities.

Do you see the little hand? And, to the right, a piece of a limb? There are touches of red on the finger nails. So it either comes from a doll or a figurine of some sort. They were just lying on the surface of the foundation. That might be my second favorite find, right after my antique red transferware plate.

You can see the green teacup handle I found a few years back. A couple of ironstone shards. Another piece of pottery with a blue stripe. Shells, feathers, colored glass, fossils, pods, part of a robin’s egg, and an old hose nozzle. All of it on top of a beautiful brown transferware plate, which I just cleaned the other day.

We may go over and look at the foundation later today.

Don’s already made a quick run to the store for a few items. I finished The Starless Sea  this morning (because I had plenty of time, waking up at 4:30) and I’ve just started All the Devils are Here  by Louise Penny. Best cover of any of her books, in my humble opinion, and the endpaper art is gorgeous, as well.

I have mixed feelings about The Starless Sea. I really loved The Night Circus. This one, however, wasn’t as compelling, it was harder to navigate and understand and, in the end, I found myself rather confused and just slightly underwhelmed. Morgenstern has a magical and vivid imagination and the worlds she creates are wondrous. Her stories are fascinating. But this one didn’t quite do it for me, though I enjoyed the read and have no regrets about tackling it. If you’ve read it, I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts.

Normally, I deliberately put off reading the newest Louise Penny until about November but I find that in this year – which has been unlike any other in my life – I desperately need to read her words.

We’re laying low this weekend. The world is too much with us (a nod to Wordsworth) and we need to take some time for peace and a bit of healing, if that’s possible.

I hope you are able to do the same.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

The book I’m currently reading (almost finished) and the next two in line are curiously color coordinated. That rarely happens, so I had to take a photo of it.

I didn’t respond to your comments yesterday because I know you know how I feel and letting you express how you  feel without my running commentary seemed to be the right thing to do. I read every one of them. I’m with you. And for those of you who live with a partner who is a Trumper, I simply cannot imagine how hard that must be for you. Sending you love and a big hug. I am ever grateful that Don and I are on the same page.

A lovely guy that I coached at Hartford Stage and who remains a friend lost everything he owns in the Oregon fires. He is an actor, but is also an educator and he had moved out to Ashland, Oregon to work at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in that capacity. His apartment burned to the ground. Another friend, who is a stage manager at OSF, is currently watching the fires which are frighteningly near her house.

It’s devastating.

Our friend Bob Hays (of Airplane  fame) lost everything he owned: his house, his belongings, all the memorabilia from a long career in theater and film, outbuildings, his son’s recording studio, in one of the California fires a couple of years ago. He barely got out with his life. Fires aren’t discriminating. They don’t care who you are.

(Don and Bob were roommates when they were just starting out. They remain quite close and I had the pleasure of working with Bob in a production of Mister Roberts  at the Old Globe.)

Climate change is real.

My heart is with all of you who are seeing this firsthand, who are worried about the air you breathe, about loved ones. I can’t imagine the devastation to the landscape, to wildlife, to homes, property and to lives.

My god, it’s a beyond-frightening time.

Yes, I know it’s September 11th and I certainly remember the horror of that day. We were living just north of the city. But there is an ongoing horror NOW. We are nearing 200,000 deaths from COVID, a number almost too big to comprehend. People are dying in hurricanes and fires. Our country is being run by a fascist who wants to be a dictator. Children are still in cages (have we heard anything about that lately? Not enough.) A corrupt and soulless man holds the office of Attorney General. The GOP has zip to say about the revelation that the OM knew.

One could surely wonder if the world is going to hell.

Don and I had a conversation about it yesterday. We are desperately trying to remain hopeful about our future, even in the face of no work for who knows how long. We are trying to remain hopeful about the state of the world, of our country, hoping against hope that masses of us can bring about change.

I’ve been taught not to hate. It’s deeply imbedded in my spiritual beliefs. But what I feel toward that disgusting excuse for a human being is awfully close. In fact, I could simply choose a synonym: loathe, abominate, detest, despise, abhor. Combine them all together and add a few more.

Then we might come close to what I feel.

I revile him. I have fantasies about what I wish for him, which shall remain unspoken. If there is such a thing as an Antichrist, we may well be looking at him.

Who would have thought the Antichrist would wear orange makeup, a badly dyed combover, and lifts in his shoes?

Let’s all try to find some beauty this weekend. Some lightness, some laughter. Escape into the pages of a book. Take a long walk. Watch a butterfly. Sing. Listen to music. Eat something sinfully delicious. And pray for our country and for the world.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.