Mockingbird Hill Cottage — Page 622 — Life in our little cottage in the country

Clearing

February 22, 2019 at 8:58 am by Claudia

On their last legs. Nevertheless, so beautiful.

Yesterday was spent chopping ice, hacking away at the un-shoveled parking area at the top of our driveway – I could only manage half of it. We were completely wiped out afterwards. We have a two day window in which to tackle this; the temps are in the forties, snow is melting a bit, so if we’re going to get things back to normal now is the time.

We’re both still under the weather, but what can you do?

Since I feel like I’ve been held captive in the cottage for a month, I have to get out of here today or I will lose my mind. Truly. So it will be back out there this morning to get rid of the remaining snow and put some salt down so I can make my escape.

I’ve heard nothing but raves about Andrew McCabe’s new book, so I’m going to buy it. Especially since the dictator-wannabe in the Oval Office fired him 48 hours before his pension was going to kick in out of sheer cruelty. The more sales the better for Mr. McCabe, and a nice thumb-your-nose at the Orange Man.

What else? It was warm enough yesterday to open a window and I did. I wanted to air the cottage out after all the coughs and sneezes and the smell of Vicks.

That’s it for today, simply because there isn’t anything else to chat with you about and I have to get moving on the shoveling.

Happy Friday.

Potpourri on Thursday

February 21, 2019 at 9:59 am by Claudia

• In order to find space for my great-grandmother’s china in the cabinet, I had to find a new home for some of my McCoy. I added several pieces to this grouping.

I like it.

• Some housekeeping:

Yesterday’s blog post was written late in the morning and it didn’t go out to those of you who get email versions of the daily post. I wasn’t sure why, but when I investigated, I discovered that the most recent posts have been going out a bit earlier than normal. So I just missed the deadline. Anyway. You should most likely get two posts today: yesterday’s and today’s. Yesterday’s post was all about my great-grandma’s china – with lots of photos.

Also, when I was speaking of losing ad income when I couldn’t post during my illness, some of you commented about clicking on the ads. Bless you. But you don’t need to do that. I get income just from you visiting the blog. I don’t get it when you simply read the email version of the post. Or read the post on another feed. You have to visit the blog. But that’s all you have to do. And you don’t even have to do that if you don’t want to! So don’t worry about clicking on ads. Thank you so much for caring. Only your ‘presence is required.’

• More snow. More ice – about an inch of it. I am so sick of this once-a-week snow/ice combination. My car is stuck on the parking level because we were too sick to shovel that area. But I’m feeling better now and I’d like access to my car. It’s supposed to hit 50 degrees here today and I’m going to try to chop up some of that snow/ice so that it will melt more quickly. The good thing is that the addition of item #4 has eliminated the problems we had last winter with huge areas of ice on the top of the driveway. Remember that? I was out there chopping the ice every day.

• Don had to withdraw from a workshop he was going to do for a new musical. It would have rehearsed every day next week in NYC and he would have had to do a lot of singing. There’s no way he could have done it. I’m in my fourth week of this crap and, though I’m much better, I still cough, I still have chest congestion. And he’s a week behind me. He wasn’t getting paid much – it wasn’t about that – but it would have been a great experience for him. He finally made the decision to withdraw because he didn’t want to leave them in the lurch at the last minute.

February has not been good to us.

I’m thinking of throwing a party to celebrate March. I will be glad to kick February to the curb.

At least it’s sunny today!

Happy Thursday.

The China

February 20, 2019 at 11:35 am by Claudia

I finally managed to unwrap all of my great-grandmother’s china yesterday. It was packed in a big box, but the china itself was in an old crate tucked inside the box. Now, I’ve had all of this for years, but I had never looked at the crate. Nor had I done anything but look at one or two pieces of the china (which turned out to be Haviland Limoges) so I had no idea what was there.

First, the crate.

Amazing right? It’s very old. And it’s sort of wonky. We’re currently trying to figure out where to put it.

Now, the china.

Here are a few pieces that are Haviland Limoges:

And I have a small Haviland Limoges dish that I’ve used to hold jewelry for many years. It’s upstairs in the bedroom.

But that’s it for this pattern. The big surprise is that most of the china – plates, salad plates, cups, saucers and serving dish – is made by a company called O & EG Royal Austria.

The theme that connects all of the china is pink roses. You’ve seen the design on the Haviland. Here’s the design on the O & EG.

I really, really love this pattern – even more than the Haviland. The roses are intertwined with a blue ribbon. And I love the scalloped edges.

There’s one more piece – a candy dish or something like that. It’s a different Haviland pattern.

Along with larger pink roses, there are lavender blooms, as well.

I had a post up on IG yesterday and I said that I couldn’t figure out what the marking said. Reader Linda came through big time with “Hudson Crockery Co.” I compared other marks from that company and they match. The company was based in Syracuse NY. Thank you so much, Linda!

And here’s the mark for the other pieces of Haviland Limoges:

So. What my grandmother told me was a set of Haviland Limoges is not that. It’s a combination of two different china manufacturers – both beautiful, both linked by a pink roses theme. Who knew?

I’m thrilled.

Everything stacked up and ready to go in the china cabinet.

I had to clear the bottom shelf, which involved some shuffling of McCoy pieces.

Here it is. I kept the blue napkins that my grandmother used to protect the plates. I didn’t want to get rid of them. After all, Grandma kept and protected these dishes for decades. And then she passed them on to me.

I’m so glad they’re on permanent display here at the cottage after years of being in storage.

I should clean them and I will, but slowly, over time.

More snow tonight with yet another layer of ice. That’s been the case with every storm we’ve had in February.

Over it.

We’re taking it easy today. I’m slowly getting stronger, thank goodness.

Happy Wednesday.

Clearing

Potpourri on Thursday

The China

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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