Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

In the Mail

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Friday. I find that half the time I have no idea what day of the week it is. Though I’m constantly aware of how quickly the weeks fly by. This summer, especially. This summer has definitely had its challenges, but I’m not ready for it to end. This morning I realized I can see changes in the light, changes in the look of the gardens, and the sun comes up a bit later and sets a bit earlier. All signs of the seasonal change to come. Sigh.

I mowed yesterday and did it slowly, constantly monitoring my back. Though, frustratingly, I did feel a twinge in my left lower back when I pulled the cord to start the mower. That hurts a bit today, but my original injury is much, much better. Don took over the mowing when he got home and will finish it up this weekend, so I’ll rest. But it was so good to DO something! My endorphins kicked in, which is always a satisfying feeling.

Two packages arrived in yesterday’s mail:

Cara (a reader of this blog) sent me her copy of Colleen Moore’s Dollhouse – a dollhouse I didn’t get a chance to see when I was in the Chicago area. Thank you so much, Cara!

And Kathy from Iowa (also a reader of this blog) sent me this:

To Kill a Mockingbird  in Spanish! I was completely surprised.

I’ve written before on the blog about my desire to collect as many copies of TKAM in foreign languages as I can. When Don was in Prague several years ago to film for PBS, he looked everywhere for one in Czech, but couldn’t find one. Last year, while in Paris, I found an edition written in French. I also found a copy when we were in London. It’s not in another language, but it is a special edition that was printed and published in England and it’s quite lovely.

Now I have one in Spanish! What next? German? Italian? Russian? Greek? Portuguese?

Thanks, Kathy!

The nicest people read this blog! I’m blessed.

It’s a gorgeous day today. I plan on sitting on the porch – carefully – and watching all the birds and bees and insects. I saw a hummingbird yesterday. And I saw Henry the day before that.

Happy Friday.

 

Insects, Former Students, & The Overstory

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I took a little walk around the gardens yesterday in between massive thunderstorms. We had two days of big, prolonged, and loud thunderstorms. Huge cracks of thunder which shook the house, torrential rain that seemed to go on and on – what I think of as summer storms.

Anyway, sometimes I wander around just to see if I can spy some insect life on the flowers.

Look at this guy! Miniscule!

I looked for the yellow garden spider. The web was still there, but no spider. When they leave, they usually dismantle the web, so I figured he was still around somewhere. Then I noticed him on top of one of the nearby coneflowers.

He was expanding his web. You can see part of it on the left. This guy is like a major property developer. If you could only see how large this three-sided complex is, you’d be astounded! By the way, one of my former students commented on IG that I should name him Edward.

So Edward it is.

I was chatting on Instagram with a former student, Brian Hutchison, who is currently out in Los Angeles filming The Boys in the Band, along with another former student, Jim Parsons. They were part of the cast of the Tony Award-winning Broadway production about a year ago and now it’s being recorded on film. Anyway, apparently Jim and Brian were talking about me the other day and that made me smile. I’m so proud of both of them – truly nice guys who have done well. Brian sent me a picture of the two of them on set. We’re all still friends and I’m so grateful for that.

It’s always nice to hear from former students – both from the Old Globe/USD and Boston University. My extended family, I suppose. Thankfully, most of them keep in touch via Facebook or Instagram or email. I can follow their careers, their marriages, babies – quite frankly, that’s the only reason I remain on Facebook. It connects me to hundreds of former students.

I finished the Kate Atkinson yesterday and dropped it off at the library. I’ve started The Overstory  by Richard Powers, which won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It’s rather extraordinary, unlike anything I’ve read before. I don’t have the words to describe it yet, so I’ll use the words from the publisher’s blurb on the back of the book.

“National Book Award winner Richard Powers’s twelfth novel is a sweeping, impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of – and paean to – the natural world. From the roots to the crown and back to the seeds, The Overstory  unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. There is a world alongside ours – vast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us. This is the story of a handful of people who learn how to see that world and who are drawn up into its unfolding catastrophe.”

So far, I’m completely enthralled and I expect to feel even more so as I delve further into the novel. He is a beautiful writer. I’ve had my eye on it for a while, but it just came out in paperback and that clinched the deal.

My back is getting much better. It’s still sore when I first wake up and begin to move around, but on the whole, I’ve turned a corner.

Happy Thursday.

Deconstructed

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You might have seen this on Instagram yesterday.

My dear husband had been watering the plants for me while I rested my back. He tends to be overzealous with the water. The day before yesterday, I felt ready to water the porch plants once more (Don was in the city.)

I immediately noticed a large amount of water on top of the former kitchen island. And some of that water had run down the front of the piece. I ran for some paper towels and quickly realized that the water had probably been there for a couple of days, resulting in the veneer warping – both on top of the cabinet and on the drawer fronts.

I was actually pretty calm about it since I knew the veneers were problematical given the fact that this piece is now outside on the porch. The sides of the cabinet had already shown some evidence of warping. I grabbed a screwdriver to separate the two drawers (which had expanded due to the water) and then I started peeling the veneer.

Current status.

There’s more to do. Frankly, I had already envisioned getting rid of the veneer, which has been troublesome from the beginning – way back when I first painted this formerly dark sideboard. When it was still in the kitchen, I pondered taking the top down to the raw wood. But then Stella came and all of that was shelved.

The whole thing needs a new paint job and some weather proofing. Whether I keep it two-toned or paint it all white again is the question. So far, the cupboard doors are fine. I may peel the veneer on the sides of the cabinet.

Don, having been told of his overwatering mistake, said: “I like it better this way.” (I’m sure he does.)

I’m not averse to it either. It gives it some texture. And I like chippy things, which, given the current condition of the sideboard, is putting it mildly.

This will be a good Autumn Project.

Maybe Don is just trying to keep me busy.

Happy Wednesday.

 

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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