Mockingbird Hill Cottage

We’re on chrysalis watch.

Really, that’s what yesterday was mostly about. I could see the chrysalis changing from green to a darker color and I knew it was time. I think I went outside around 10:30, after constantly checking on it through the window, and I sat by the birdbath for about 4 or 5 hours. Don would occasionally spell me, or we’d sit there together. It changed to this:

You can see the wings! I can’t tell you how hard it is to take a picture as this is the underside of the birdbath and it’s dark there.

We eventually went inside with frequent trips back outside to see if there were any changes. Late in the day, I posted on Instagram asking how long this part of the process takes, and I also did a search on the internet. Contrary to what we thought, it can take up to 48 hours. Okay.

So, it’s been almost 24 hours and I just asked Don to check on the chrysalis and it’s still like the photo above. My former colleague at the animal hospital tells me that the monarchs she has raised usually eclose (that’s the term for it) in the morning. Another friend from San Diego tells me that the chrysalis gets cloudy right before the butterfly emerges. So, after I finish this post, I’ll go back outside and keep up the vigil. I sure hope we get to see it emerge. It’s already been so miraculous seeing the wings inside the chrysalis.

I’m calling it Nature Week here at the cottage. A black bear and the emergence of a monarch butterfly.

Some wallpaper that I ordered for the dollhouse living room came the other day, along with another pattern that I plan to use elsewhere in the house. I wanted it faded looking but sort of formal, like something that had been in the house for a long time.

I’m still not sold, but I think I’ll go with it. I could have gone with a William Morris pattern (and I love them) but with the sofa being upholstered in a Morris design, it seemed too ‘on the nose.’ My intention is to have this cottage look like a place that has been put together with an eclectic group of furniture and books and knickknacks. Maybe it’s a weekend place for someone who lives in London. Maybe it’s a charming full-time residence in a small town. I’ll know more as it evolves. Charming is the key word, charming like all those wonderful photos I see of old English residences, a hodgepodge of comfy sofas and old chairs and old rugs and paintings on the wall. I don’t know if you’re familiar with him, but designer and shop owner John Derian’s apartment in Manhattan and his house in Provincetown are my inspiration. And he’s American, not British! But his style is much the same. I’ll post more photos tomorrow.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

Fading sunflower. I think it’s so beautiful.

Last Rose of Sharon. Despite the deer chomping on most of the buds, I did get about 6 flowers. Next year: more. And the bush will be protected.

If you follow me on Instagram, you already know about our ‘adventure’ yesterday. And by adventure, I mean an oh-my-god adventure.

I had been feeling out of sorts and edgy yesterday given the state of this country. At about 2 pm, I decided to take a little walk in our woods. I asked Don if he wanted to come along and he said yes. We did the usual – we took the main path that starts over by the shed. I was in the lead. We chatted about the vegetation and almost stopped to sit in the ‘park’ but decided not to. As we neared the first curve in the path, I looked to the right in the direction of a clearing that is right next to our property. We walk over there fairly frequently. It’s full of long grass, etc., but there are no trees in the clearing. Anyway, I looked over there and saw a black bear. He was probably 100 feet from us. It took me a moment to realize it was really a bear and then I alerted Don. He finally saw it. A big black bear on all fours. We stopped, mesmerized. The bear lifted his/her head and sniffed the air. Several times. He was picking up our scent. I started to walk back toward the entrance, telling Don we had to get out of there. Don clapped a couple of times to scare him off. He wasn’t scared. In fact, he took a couple of steps in our direction.

We left. Very quickly.

We were sure he/she had already taken off and we were fascinated by the unreality of what we saw, so we waited a bit, I grabbed our cowbell so we could make noise, and – yes, I know you think we’re crazy – we went back to the path. I think we were still stunned by what we’d seen and we also wanted to finish our walk. Sure enough, there was no sign of him. Sigh of relief.

We made the turn to the left on the path and headed toward Maple Grove. Don heard a sound, something that made him look back, and there was the bear.

Oh my god.

The bear was right at the edge of our property, still on our neighbor’s property, but nearer to us. And he was staring at us. I didn’t sense any aggression, but he was intently watching us. This time he was about 75 feet away. Not very far. As we stood there, frozen, he took a couple of steps toward us again. Oh boy. I said something like “Let’s get the hell out of here” to Don. We didn’t run, but we moved very quickly, down the path, through the back forty and into the house. The bear could have covered that 75 feet in a second.

Once in the house, we were feeling a strange mix of adrenaline, euphoria, and flat-out fear. I’ve never seen a bear that close before, not even in a zoo. His head was HUGE. I mean, unbelievable!

Needless to say, we stayed in the house until I ventured out to water the garden a few hours later. The entire time I watered, I kept looking up at the woods, even though the chances of a bear emerging from the woods in the daytime were almost nil.

By the time the end of the evening came around, it was really hitting us. We had been very, very close to a big black bear and that bear warned us off. Twice. I wonder if there were cubs nearby. Black bears don’t attack very often, but if they feel threatened, they do.

Holy crap.

As Don said, and I quote, “The sensation of wonder, mystical connection, and soiling yourself.”

I concur.

It was scary as hell, but in the middle of it all we were simply mesmerized. In fact, after the whole thing ended, Don had an urge to go back there. That’s the draw; you’re so fascinated that you want to see it again. Needless to say, I disabused him of that notion immediately.

The bear was magnificent. Truly stunning.

But I don’t want to run into him again.

You might remember that I saw a big black bear walking across the top of the back forty a few years ago. Again, I was frozen, but that time I was standing by my car and the bear didn’t even notice me.

And our neighbors have seen mama bears and cubs. That happened last year, I think.

Yesterday was such an intense day. We were finishing our deductions trying to get them to our accountant by the end of the day, Don was dealing with the ramifications of turning down an audition for a small, low budget film because he doesn’t feel safe doing that yet and wrestling with the guilt of turning it down. We had a long talk about that. Driving to a set north of us, coming home at night, possibly endangering me…we just had to admit that since film is barely starting up and we have no sense of whether safety protocols will be successful or not, we’d rather wait another month at least. But if you’re an actor, you always feel you should audition, hence the guilt.

And then the bear.

We would like a quiet day today.

Stay safe.

Happy Tuesday.

I made the choice not to go on Twitter yesterday. So I remained relatively calm. But near dinner time, Don came to me because he had been doing the opposite, reading too much news, and he needed calming down. So then I got stressed. And so it goes.

It’s a battle, isn’t it? How to stay informed yet maintain a healthy distance. There’s so much going on, the devastating fires, the hurricane headed toward Mississippi and Louisiana, shootings, protests, OM holding indoor rallies in a state that has prohibited them, (we won’t go into his vile speech.) I’m sure I’ve missed something. As my friend Caroline, who is Australian and was in the cast of Anastasia  says, I can’t watch the news from America. It’s imploding.

My anxiety is rearing its ugly head again.

So I took a walk around the property yesterday afternoon, taking photos along the way. I’ll share them with you this week. It’s a good reminder that taking photos of nature calms me down.

The coleus is sending up purple flowers.

I counted 5 or 6 orb weavers.

The limelight hydrangea is turning pink.

Our monarch chrysalis is still intact, still green. We’re coming up on 2 weeks since I discovered it hanging from the bottom of the birdbath. That will be on Thursday. But it very well might have been there for a few days before that. So I go out there and check on it several times a day. When it begins to turn dark, the monarch will be getting ready to emerge. I sure hope we can sit out there on the funky patio and watch the whole thing. Wouldn’t that be amazing?

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.