Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Life in our little cottage in the country

Puzzle and Upcoming Readalong

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Finished! It’s not the best picture, but we have had dark and dreary skies all week long, so I had to use some artificial light. Sigh.

Will we ever see the sun?

Anyway, I finished it just before dinner time yesterday. I have yet to read the explanation of all the characters and symbols. I’ll do that later today.

I’m writing this early Saturday morning because we have to get some grocery shopping in before Don leaves for his gig.

I’m taking part in another readalong this year. Simon, the same lovely gentleman from England who ran the War and Peace  readalong is not only repeating it for those who missed out – he’s also presiding over a readalong of the Cromwell trilogy by Hilary Mantel. We start with Wolf Hall  on January 1st.

I am not generally a reader or even a fan of historical fiction but when Mantel died unexpectedly last year, I read a lot about her and her books. The raves about the trilogy were unqualified and unanimous. That intrigued me, and I remember vowing to read one of them in the near future. Fast forward to this year when Simon suggested Mantel and I was immediately onboard. Since the chapters aren’t as short as Tolstoy’s, we can’t do a chapter a day, so he’s gone through every book and mapped out a certain number of pages per week. For example, the first week of January consists of pages 1 -33. He also provides a guide to all the characters. I’m really looking forward to it. The book is right by my reading chair in the den and I’m ready.

A couple of months ago, I ordered a couple of hats and a sweater from a wonderful artist in Ukraine. She makes them to order so it took a while for them to ship and then to arrive at my door. This is one of the hats – or helmets, as the Blythe community calls them. Isn’t it adorable? (Chloe is still wearing her Christmas sweater because I realized how adorable she looks in red. And it’s really a winter sweater, right?)

So. Grocery shopping and cleaning are on the docket. I’m also getting anxious to reorganize things in this house. That happens to me every January.

I’m going to store the putz houses and put the Vintage by Crystal figures back in the upstairs cabinet later today. But the tree will be lit and loved as long as it hangs in there.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

A Bleak Landscape, Puzzles, & Walking

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Gray, gray, gray.

This is the part of winter that can trigger mild depression or, at the very least, a case of the blues. Yes, it’s the lack of sunlight, but more importantly, it’s the bleakness of the landscape. That’s the way it’s been for four days now, coupled with rain. Don and I have started walking every day. Our local library is set way back from the road on a hill and the driveway is a great place to walk. No busy traffic, no muddy trails. I’ve walked it a couple of times in the past. We do 5 loops down and up. It’s a nice little walk. It’s much more pleasant with Don than it would be by myself. We only missed one day this week because it was pouring rain all day long. We want to lose weight and we want to stay fit and, let’s face it, winter is the time I tend to become a slug.

No snow in the forecast. It looks like we’re going into January with more of the same. There are two days I don’t want snow – the 16th and 17th. Those are the days I make the 5 hour drive to Rochester to watch a preview and then return home the next morning. Rochester is on the other side of the state, near Lake Ontario, so it’s in a snow belt. Fingers crossed!

By the way, we plan to keep the tree up as long as it’s safe to do so. We need the sparkle and the lights. So far, it’s over two weeks since we bought it and there has been no needle drop.

This is the Poirot puzzle I have been working on. Lots of lovely little details! I think I’ll finish it sometime over the weekend.

Don has a gig tomorrow and several more coming up over January and February. Hurrah! Tomorrow’s gig is in the late afternoon, so he won’t have a late night. It will be good for him. Not having any acting work for over four years has taken a toll on my sweetheart. I hope that changes this year.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

Checking In

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Well! We’ve had our Christmas dinner and another meal of leftovers. Delicious. Christmas day was lovely and very low key. We have decided that we miss opening a present on  Christmas! We’ll do it differently next year. I made french toast for breakfast and we took a lovely walk in the afternoon – during one of the few periods where the sun was shining. Yesterday was gray and dismal. Today is gray and it’s raining. And no snow in sight.

This was the scene under the Christmas tree:

And there they stayed for most of the day. Big congratulations to Chloe for managing to sit securely on that stool all day long, even with both of us treading on the floorboards throughout the day.

I hope all of you enjoyed the holiday, if you celebrate. I hope that you felt some level of peace, if only for one day. We did and I’m very grateful.

As it happens, we watched “It’s a Wonderful Life” on Christmas Eve, “Meet John Doe” on Tuesday night, and “It Happened One Night” last night. A Frank Capra triple feature. It wasn’t planned, but I can’t imagine a better way to spend an evening. I think I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again. Frank Capra is my favorite film director. He’s Don’s, as well.

I’m reading the newest Michael Connelly. After two months of waiting in the queue, it arrived just before Christmas. I’m also working on another puzzle – The World of Hercule Poirot.

And, that my friends, is all I have to share. We’re fairly low key this week, as are, I suspect, many of you.

I just read that the date on NYE will be 12-31-23 or 123123. Pretty neat!

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

 

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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