Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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.

We had a hard frost overnight. When I checked the weather app this morning, it was 31 degrees. As the skies lightened, I saw all the leaves falling from the Catalpa. They stay green until a frost.

It hit me hard. We had just walked around the property yesterday, admiring the catalpas and the oaks and the maples. The forecast for the rest of the month doesn’t show any nights that will go below freezing. This has happened before, of course, but this time, when I started to talk to Don about it, I started crying.

I think the nightmare that has been 2020 and the ongoing stress I feel – that we all feel – has resulted in me feeling these changes more acutely. I mourn the passing of summer and I mourn fall seemingly winding down too soon. The thought of winter and the darkness and the bare trees and the snow is always hard for me to handle. This year, I guess it’s just harder than normal.

I’m usually a fairly positive person. But I’ll admit it. The combination of this disgusting administration and the heartbreaking loss of life to the coronavirus, the fact that an estimated 150,000 of those lives could have been saved if OM had done his damn job, the upcoming election, the racism and the misogyny and the xenophobia and the Supreme Court and the complete complicity of the GOP – I’m sure I’ve left something out – has left me depressed and disheartened.

I’m no different than anyone else, of course. But I realized that the frost and the catalpa leaves falling triggered a sadness I was trying to bury in order to stay positive. I’ll be fine. I’m texting EVERY DAY for Biden up to and through November 3rd. That’s my job right now. Don is doing the same, though he does phone banking.

It always helps me to write this kind of thing down. It’s cathartic.

I found another piece of Petite Princess furniture in my stash and it’s now in another room in the vintage dollhouse. Slowly but surely, a piece or two of 3/4 scale furniture will be added to each of the rooms. Spare, not too much. That mirror on the wall is the only ‘furnishing’ that had survived by the time I got the house. It’s right where it was when I first saw it and it will stay there.

Stay safe.

Happy Sunday.