Mockingbird Hill Cottage

We are in the middle of a heat wave, with very high temperatures and oppressive humidity. Because a young deer is chomping on my plants, I got out there early to spray every green thing in sight. Then I pruned a lot of wild roses and pulled a lot of weeds, and watered everything. On a day with heat advisories, I did more than I usually do on a normal summer day. But then it was back inside to turn the a/c on. Don had to go into the city for a fitting.

The hydrangeas are getting plumper and there are a lot of blooms this year. Inevitably, there will soon be a big thunderstorm that will pummel the blooms. Like clockwork.

The bee balm is blooming. Bee balm and catmint (both in the mint family) are avoided by deer. Thank goodness, something is!

And a new dress arrived in the mail. Since it’s green, I thought that Maeve would be the perfect model.

I have to mail an Etsy order this morning. But first, I’ll water everything, which takes a long time. I think we have two more days of this until temperatures drop a little – and you can bet a thunderstorm will be involved!

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

Running late this morning, as we were up later than usual watching the Tony Awards. It was great to see former colleagues and I’m happy to say a few of them won Tonys. Huzzah! Also, my former boss, Jack O’Brien, won a Lifetime Achievement Award. But the Tonys didn’t include it in the main broadcast on CBS because apparently a special award for a lifetime of dedication to the theater doesn’t even rate a mention on the primetime broadcast. Don’t get me started. I have a love/hate thing going with the Tonys. They keep trying to reach a younger audience but judging by the pharmaceutical commercials for diseases that tend to hit older people running throughout the broadcast, their audience is the same audience that watches Jeopardy – us oldsters.

Anyway, we pay for these later nights because we can’t get to sleep right away and our routine is thrown off. We are not as flexible with routine as we were in our younger days. Sad, but true.

Not only did we have the bear sighting on Friday night, but on Saturday night there was a motorcycle accident on our road, just across the street from our house. We didn’t hear it because it didn’t involve another vehicle, but the motorcyclist lost control and went off the road. I only realized something was happening when I kept hearing car doors shutting and finally noticed flashing lights. There were about 6 or 7 emergency vehicles on the road and in our driveway and my neighbor’s driveway. Thankfully, he will be okay, though he has a broken leg.

The amount of motorcycle traffic on this county road is insane in the summer and they go too fast. I’m surprised it doesn’t happen more often. Thankful he will be okay and that my neighbor’s son was on the scene helping the driver.

I mowed the lilac side of the lawn yesterday and then sat right there on the glider for a few hours. Eventually, Don came out to join me. There was a lovely breeze and the view was terrific. I wanted to take advantage of the nice weather because we head into very, very hot and humid weather starting tomorrow. It will last for 4 or 5 days, so we’ll be hunkered down inside the house, save for watering everything twice a day. There are heat warnings posted starting tomorrow at noon. Poor Don! He has to travel into Manhattan to have a fitting before filming next week. It will not be fun, as NYC in the heat can be unbearable.

I have to run some errands this morning and then package up another Etsy order and take it to the post office.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.

 

A little ursine story:

Last night around 8 pm, Don was outside. We had been expecting storms but ended up only having a little rain, so I went out on the porch to rehang my hanging plants since the expected big thunderstorms and winds didn’t happen. I then joined Don and we looked toward the mountains at the sunset. We were chatting about this and that, including how beautiful our property was; lots of green grass, flowers and bushes in bloom, a charming porch. I said that this little former farmhouse was exactly what I had dreamed of for so many years. Don took my chin in his hand and said “You did all this. You.” It was lovely.

Keep in mind that we were still facing the mountains/street. A few minutes later, we went back inside the house to watch our evening dose of Northern Exposure. Don was in the kitchen, I gravitated toward the den and checked my cell phone, which I had left inside. There was a message from my next door neighbor.

“Claudia, this is Valeria. I just wanted you to know that there was a bear walking through your property just now. I hope you’re safely in the house.”

What????

I called her right back. Their house is situated further back from the road than ours is, in the same area as our back forty. She said that she had been standing in her backyard with her two cats. One of them started growling. Since an ambulance had just gone by, Valeria assumed the growl was a response to the alarm emanating from the ambulance. But the cat kept growling. She looked up to see what he was growling at and saw a bear walking from the direction of our house, through the back forty, and out into the neighboring field. She, of course, froze in place, just as we do when we see a bear. Once he was gone, she called me on her cell phone.

We had been outside the entire time the bear was walking across the property and had no idea. It was all happening 40 or 50 feet  behind us. And, since we were talking, the bear was aware of us.

Don and I had just been talking about that time last year when we saw a bear by our kitchen door. And I remember calling Valeria to warn her when the bear took the same route up through the back forty and out toward the field.

I’m glad we have black bears, who are wary of humans, and keep to themselves. They aren’t aggressive.

I sure wish we had seen him last night.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.