Mockingbird Hill Cottage — Page 458 — Life in our little cottage in the country

Day One Hundred Twenty-One

July 12, 2020 at 10:07 am by Claudia

Big storms yesterday, unbearable humidity, lots of rain. From the level of water in my galvanized bucket, I’d say we got 4 inches over two days. Today? No humidity, a gentle breeze, the sound of the wind chimes. Heaven.

I finished the three exterior walls of the house late yesterday afternoon. Dove Cottage made a little trip outside this morning for a photo shoot.

I am also going to cover the base of the porch in these stones, as well as the base in the rear of the house, so there’s more work to do. But the big job – the cottage – is finished.

After that I’m going to spray the stones with a matte sealer so the color doesn’t run. I’m also going to do a few test stones. I’m experimenting with grout (grout made from spackle with a tiny bit of color added) and I want to see if spraying them with a sealer will keep them safe from the spackle. I know it will be painstaking work, but if I could pull it off, I’d be very pleased. If it turns out otherwise, I leave them as is, but the perfectionist in me will not be happy.

So, a bit more work to do on the exterior then I’ll move on to the interior.

I’m very pleased with the look of the stones. I have to admit, when I first started I wasn’t at all sure this was the way to go. I had serious doubts. But now, I’m really in love with the look.

Just to review, I collected cardboard egg cartons for months. When it was time to start making stones, I cut the textured section of the egg carton, usually the top, into strips. I painted each strip with a base coat of Deco Art Americana acrylic paint in Buttermilk – two coats. Then I used another paint I had on hand in a shade of rusty brown and added touches of it here and there, sometimes rubbing some of it off if it was too much. Then I cut each stone individually, trimming it as necessary. Then I glued each one into place. It was painstaking work, but now – after most of it is done – well worth it.

I’m excited about decorating it. I’ll try to share some of my ideas about the interior this week. Just know that these two pieces will be a big part of the kitchen end of the open concept first floor –

And in the living room, this:

Wallpaper, floors, bedroom, bathroom and much of the downstairs are to be determined. That’s the fun of it.

Stay safe.

Happy Sunday.

Day One Hundred Twenty

July 11, 2020 at 9:41 am by Claudia

The limelight hydrangeas are starting to appear. That doesn’t happen until mid-summer. Are we there already and if so, why is the summer going so fast when we’re social distancing and every day seems somewhat the same? I don’t expect an answer. This is, as the King in the King and I says,”a puzzlement.” (I played Lady Thiang many years ago, so I heard this particular song many, many times.)

I got going early yesterday because I wanted to beat out the rain. The big garden bed was getting really overgrown and I hadn’t weed whacked in ages. (Hyphen? No hyphen? I don’t know.) After finishing with said weed whacking, I started to prune a lot of the plants, pull weeds, cut back prickly plants, etc. Because the temperature was lower than it had been, I assumed that would make doing these jobs much more comfortable. Wrong. It was unbelievably humid out there – tropical storm humid – and I was wringing wet and exhausted. After I finished, I took a break, drank tons of water, and then went back out to put everything away. I never got to the mowing. It would have been too much.

I did virtually nothing for the rest of the day.

It rained all day long and into the night. We’re due for more storms today and there’s another heat advisory in place. Very humid. I swear, it’s like August around here.

Anyway, I’m glad I got the work done, but boy, was it exhausting.

The we watched the news programs last night and I became so enraged about Trump and William Barr and Roger Stone that I could barely sit still. The blatant corruption is stunning. I’m so sick of it all. I feel like I’ve aged faster than I normally would have because of all of this crap, day after day, year after year.

Then there are the horrific COVID numbers throughout the country. And it didn’t have to happen. But we have a malignant narcissist who is quite probably a sociopath, as well, sitting on his duff in the Oval Office, tweeting, conspiring, stuffing his face full of junk food, and not caring about a single human being other than himself.

So as the day ended, we declared the weekend to be a news-free zone. I am going to retreat into the world of dollhouses and tiny things. Things I can control. Happy little make-believe lives and pretty houses.

I finished Faith Fox by Jane Gardam. Truly excellent. Now I want to immediately read another one by this but the only book I have on hand is the third book in her trilogy, and I don’t want to read it out of order. Quality problem, of course. I’ll be forced to pick something else from my TBR pile.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

Day One Hundred Nineteen

July 10, 2020 at 8:24 am by Claudia

I’m writing this early in the morning as I want to get outside and do some work before it rains later in the afternoon. Happy about the rain, of course, but this is the first morning where the temperature has been bearable and I want to take advantage of it.

You are dear to me – all of you.

When I wrote of being on a tight budget yesterday, it was not my intention to paint a dire picture, just to state the facts. We are not special. So many without work are struggling and have children and bills and mouths to feed. I have noticed a larger sense of worry among my actor friends as this goes on and on. No one knew that theaters would be closed for what will be nearly a year. It could be longer. We couldn’t grasp that back in March, when everything suddenly shut down. On one hand, we’re freelancers and have always had to deal with periods where we weren’t working. On the other, we’ve never had to deal with absolutely no possibility of work for months and months. Anyway, I thank you for caring and for reaching out.

I don’t think either of us is comfortable selling prints of our photos. I take pictures because I like to do that and I like to share them with you. I see others marketing their photos, but that’s not really me. And Don’s camera is meant for portraits – Polaroid portraits. It’s not meant for landscapes. Neither of us has ever been comfortable with marketing our extra-career skills. I sold scarves for a while on Etsy, Don has sold his CDs, but it isn’t a place where we exist with ease.

Anyway. Today I’ll do some weed whacking, a little mowing, some pruning and cleaning up. I’m not going to let Don do anything as his back is really bothering him and he is not doing any lifting or pushing for a week. It’s slowly getting better, but it’s my turn to take over for a bit, just as he has done when my back was bothering me.

I’m about 2/3 done with the stonework on the dollhouse. It’s looking good.

R. – I’ve been thinking about you lately. We haven’t heard from you for a while. When you have a chance, would you let us know how you’re doing?

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

Day One Hundred Twenty-One

Day One Hundred Twenty

Day One Hundred Nineteen

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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