Mockingbird Hill Cottage — Page 703 — Mockingbird Hill Cottage

A View From The Pew

March 12, 2019 at 10:53 am by Claudia

I thought you might enjoy this view. Monty, still sporting his holiday garland, the pew, and off in the distance, the vintage dollhouse.

I see evidence of snow melt out there. I can tell the height of the snow has shrunk. Huzzah! The big piles that grew from shoveling will take longer, but eventually, they’ll be gone, too.

During our second cup of coffee this morning, I read the Mary Oliver poem I posted yesterday to Don. Then he read a poem by William Carlos Williams about Spring. In that poem Williams describes the brown and dead looking landscape perfectly. And we agreed that it’s hard to imagine my garden emerging from all that brown, dry, seemingly dead landscape. Or wildflowers emerging. Or daffodils pushing up from the ground. The rebirth that never fails to stun us with its beauty.

We spent the late morning and early afternoon with Rick, Doug, and Doug’s daughter, Alecia. She’s headed back to Japan today (where she teaches at a university) and we wanted to see her one more time. I got to know her last year, but Don was in NYC at the time, so he didn’t have that chance. They got to spend some time chatting together yesterday. As always, great conversation, lots of laughter, and time with Sam. We all went outside and threw his ball for him as he raced back and forth on the snow.

Then we realized that it looked like Don’s gas tank was leaking. Gulp. So Don drove over to his mechanic’s station and I followed. Turns out, it’s a leak from the line that goes from the gas cap to the tank and it only happens when the tank has been topped off. But we’re going to get the line replaced today.

All of this took up much of the day, so I will answer your comments from yesterday’s post this morning, right after I finish writing this post.

Contemplating sorting through all the stuff in the white armoire/cabinet in the living room. There’s much that can be tossed. And after it’s tossed, it will be easier to move the cabinet a few inches to the left. We’ll see if I get around to that.

Happy Tuesday.

A Favorite Poem

March 11, 2019 at 10:05 am by Claudia

It’s going to reach the fifties today. I can hear some birds singing.

Time to share this poem by the late, great Mary Oliver:

Such Singing in the Wild Branches

It was spring
and I finally heard him
among the first leaves—
then I saw him clutching the limb

in an island of shade
with his red-brown feathers
all trim and neat for the new year.
First, I stood still

and thought of nothing.
Then I began to listen.
Then I was filled with gladness
and that’s when it happened,

when I seemed to float,
to be, myself, a wing or a tree–
and I began to understand
what the bird was saying.

and the sands in the glass
stopped
for a pure white moment
while gravity sprinkled upward.

like rain, rising,
and in fact
it became difficult to tell just what it was that was singing
and it was the thrush for sure, but it seemed

not a single thrush, but himself, and all his brothers,
and also the trees around them,
as well as the gliding, long-tailed clouds
in the perfect blue sky–––all of them

were singing.
And, of course, so it seemed,
so was I.
Such soft and solemn and perfect music doesn’t last

For more than a few moments.
It’s one of those magical places wise people
like to talk about.
One of the things they say about it, that is true,

is that, once you’ve been there,
you’re there forever.
Listen, everyone has a chance.
Is it spring, is it morning?

Are there trees near you,
and does your own soul need comforting?
Quick, then––open the door and fly on your heavy feet; the song
may already be drifting away.

Mary Oliver

Spring is coming. There is still a lot of snow on the ground here. But we can sense it.

Happy Monday.

“New” Additions & A Little Rant About Social Media

March 10, 2019 at 11:32 am by Claudia

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that Don and I visited Milne Antiques yesterday and purchased the pew and the hanging cabinet. This was not without a lot of thought for our budget and for our space – I asked Rebekah to measure the pew before we made the decision and had a pretty good idea where I was going to put it. Don had the same idea, so we were in agreement.

I say all this because I wrote a slightly funny and dramatic IG post (I am a writer and an actress, after all) about how I’d been thinking about those two pieces and that we are on a budget and where will we put them??? (That’s the dramatic part.) I did the same kind of post with the vintage dollhouse and the egg cup cubby. 99% of readers get it and love it. But, I got a comment from one person that urged me to think about why I buy things when I don’t have the money or the space.

Excuse me?

I never said anything about not having the money. I used the word “budget.” Obviously if we didn’t have the money, we wouldn’t make the purchase. And equally obviously, if we didn’t have the space we wouldn’t buy it.

We paid with cash, I might add.

It ticked me off and I responded, but then I thought the better choice was to just delete the comment and not get into something with this person who I don’t know and who doesn’t know me or my husband. Just as I sometimes have to do on the blog.

What is it with people who feel they can ‘tsk tsk’ you on social media? This rarely happens to me, thank goodness, but I know it happens a lot to those who have a large presence online, whether on a blog or on IG. People make comments that they would never express to your face. Anyway, it was misinformed and rude.

Just need to vent a bit on this one. We rarely eat out. We rarely go to the movies at a movie theater. We rarely go to Broadway shows because they’re too expensive. (And we work on Broadway!) Except for our trip to Europe and our journey across America the summer before, both of which happened in the past year and a half, we’ve never taken a vacation together the entire time we’ve been a couple. We’ve only traveled for work. That would be 24 going on 25 years. We don’t get new cars. We drive them until we can no longer drive them.

Our home is everything to us: two nomads who moved from place to place during their adult years, moving from one job in the arts to another. That’s the nature of our work. To finally have a nest to feather that is ours and not another rental, a nest that we’ve created together, is something we never take for granted. There’s not a day that goes by where we don’t thank God for our little cottage. Not one. We’re in our 14th year of living here. We love it. So I won’t apologize for finding more things to feather this nest or for thinking, as everyone does when faced with fitting something new into a room, about where I’m going to put it and what might be moved to accommodate that. (Or for making sure we have the money to pay for it.) It’s part of my creativity. I express myself that way. And Don and I always make those decisions together.

End of rant. Sorry, but not sorry, because I had to put in words. Writing puts things in perspective.

So, let me show you what we’ve done. The photos aren’t the best, partly because it was late in the day yesterday when I took them, and partly because it’s snowing/raining outside today and it’s quite gloomy out there.

The vintage dollhouse got moved to the den. This is where I originally envisioned it and I love it here.

I think it stands out more here. You can see it from the living room. It’s folk art and putting it on top of the cabinet highlights that fact.

Then we moved the blue bench that was next to the big white wardrobe cupboard in the living room. Since we’d measured the space, we knew the pew would fit there.

We’re going to move the white cupboard closer to the door, but that’s a big job so it will have to wait a few days. I want some space between the cabinet and the pew so we can see the carving on that side. Don likes that it delineates the den and the living room.

I may even pull it out from the wall a bit. The reason the two sides are different is because it was clearly attached to another pew at one point. The pew came from a church in Kingston, which is north of us and was, at one time, the capital of New York State.

I’ve always wanted a pew, but they’re usually quite long and we don’t have the space for that. Plus, the weather here is too harsh, so I would never put it outside. This is perfect. And seeing how it sits directly opposite our antique Hymns board, it seems like a match made in heaven. (Yes, I know…groan!)

I’m not sure if the McCoy bird dish will stay there, but I wanted something bright there. I like it so far.

We haven’t decided where to hang the cabinet. It’s large and deep and it needs the perfect space. But I came up with this combination, which I rather like. I like having the option to have it sitting on something and the contrast between the painted wood and the maple of the cabinet makes me smile. Plus, this corner in the office was unfinished. We hadn’t done anything with it. Now it looks much more interesting and intentional.

So there you have it. Changes at the cottage. But pieces that will appreciate in value. Assets, as Don says. And pieces that bring warmth to our house, that are part of our story.

As you know, everything here has a story. And everything, except for the snow and sleet on the ground right now, makes us happy.

Happy Sunday.

A View From The Pew

A Favorite Poem

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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