Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Sunday Morning Heading into the New Year

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A lazy Sunday morning – I’m just now getting to the blog. I woke up late, only because I had trouble sleeping last night. When I opened the blinds upstairs, it was snowing. No snow was predicted and this barely covers the ground, but it was a lovely sight, nonetheless. I like my snow this way: just a bit, big, fat, pretty flakes, and very little coverage. Can we have that all winter long, please?

I made a batch of linzer cookies this year and we are slowly making our way through them before sweets are sharply curtailed at the first of the year. These are vegan linzers and, as a linzer expert, I guarantee you would never notice any difference. If anything, they’re better.

Favorite cookie ever.

We threw out the rest of the coffee cake and I’m just about to toss the rest of the pumpkin pie. We haven’t been eating either, an indication of officially hitting the ‘too much sugar’ mark.

I brought this little sofa downstairs the other day. I want to see what it looks like in the vintage dollhouse to get an idea of the scale. But I’ll have to move the dollhouse in order to check that out and I’m not ready to. I’ll need to move it to the coffee table in the den in order to clean it and take some photos. Maybe tomorrow?

In the meantime, I thought it would be fun to see it next to the pots and ‘big’ things in the den. Looks lilliputian, doesn’t it?

I sorted through everything in the pink cabinet in the office yesterday; organized the drawer and the contents of the cupboard. A lot got thrown out. I also cleaned up the desk. The big task – mammoth, really – will be cleaning out the closet. I’m holding off until I take down the Christmas decorations.

The other day, when hanging the Paris sign, we also hung Don’s hat and the signed poster from Escape to Margaritaville above his desk. Someday, when all of this is organized and the room looks settled, I’ll take some pictures.

Most of our conversations of late have been reflective. We’ve been thinking about 2018 and everything it contained: so much joy, so much good, but also heartache and sadness with a bit of anger. The good far, far outweighed the bad, however, and we count our blessings today and every day.

Happy Sunday.

Potpourri on Saturday

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• The tree is still up and will be until January 1st. Most likely, I will take it down on that day simply because I need to put it all away in the closet under the stairs. Currently, all the Christmas boxes are taking up residence in the office and I’m starting to sort through things there – getting rid of anything I don’t need. I need the space.

• I finished up in the bedroom yesterday – one more bag of books going to the library. That makes five.

• One of the little things in what Don calls my “stocking.”

A bumper sticker from our local used bookstore. Reminds me of when I had bangs.

• Do you remember me telling you that one of my presents from Don was going to be late? He ordered it stateside but it turns out it shipped from China. He showed me a picture of it on Christmas Day. It arrived yesterday.

It’s difficult to get a good photo of it, but here it is. He swears I mentioned ‘neon’ when we were discussing gifts and I have no recollection of that at all. None; which is slightly scary. Anyway, when he first showed it to me I was surprised, to say the least. But I actually really love it! It’s LED, by the way, not neon. Saint-German is the area of Paris we spent a lot of time in. It’s really lovely. We carried the sign around the house yesterday trying to determine where it would work the best, but we had always thought our office – which is full of memorabilia and whimsey – would be the best place for it, and it is. I like it here because I can see it clearly when I’m working on my projects.

I don’t think it would work anywhere else in the house (doesn’t fit with the rest of the decor) save the upstairs hallway, but we couldn’t find a good place for it there. This little area, tucked under the sloped ceiling, is perfect.

He’s such a sweetie! I’m a happy girl.

• The piano tuner messaged me this morning saying the piano was built in 1941. Mom would have been 14 then, which makes sense as I seem to remember her taking piano lessons when she was a teenager.

• I ordered a piece of sheet music yesterday on Amazon. Did you know that most sheet music today is only offered via a digital download? Ummm…no. I wanted the real deal, with a cover illustration and everything. So I found a used version that was in very good condition and I ordered that.

I remember growing up in an area where I could find sheet music at several local shops. My piano teacher ordered sheet music for us from Grinnell’s, a long ago store in downtown Detroit. Grinnell’s was a fantasy land for me. It had several floors filled with pianos; all sizes, all shapes, all prices. It had a great sheet music department. You could buy things like metronomes there. Once a year, we had a recital on one of the upper floors of Grinnell’s where we were judged by professional pianists. It was all very exciting and scary and wondrous.

There was also a shop in San Diego when I lived there – I don’t think it’s there any longer, but maybe it is – right by Balboa Park. It was a music store and when I could finally afford to have my piano shipped from Michigan to San Diego, I went there to buy all sorts of classical music. They had tons of sheet music. Does anyone know if it’s still there? I’d like to think it is.

Another thing from the past that I miss.

Our conversations here at the cottage have been full of this kind of thing lately. What have we lost to technology? Our list keeps getting longer.

Happy Saturday.

The Piano

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A busy morning so far!

Don has been gently pushing me to get the piano tuned and to have whatever needs to be repaired attended to. I’ve known since the last time it was tuned that some repair was needed and it was just not a top priority. He took over and called a local guy who tunes and repairs pianos for a lot of professional pianists and this morning, he came to check it out.

All of what you see here has been removed and taken back to his shop. He found the same things in need of repair, as the previous tuner. The hammers need filing, the dampers need adjusting, screws need tightening – the keys had what was called a ‘shallow key dip’ because of that and the action will be much better when all is repaired. He’ll bring it back in about a week and put it all back together. Then he’ll tune it.

That serial number tells me that it was made by Chickering (an American company based in Boston)  somewhere between 1940 – 1943. Chickering was one of the finest piano makers in the country for decades and the pianos were incredibly well made. Abraham Lincoln had a Chickering. Adam (the piano tuner) told us that pianos of that era were so much better than any of the Asian import pianos made nowadays. The import pianos are cheaper, but the quality is lacking. I remember that the man who tuned our piano when I was young made an offer to buy the piano every time he tuned it.

So. I’m lucky. My grandmother bought this piano. Both she and my mother played it. Every time I went to my grandparents’ house, I played it (banged on it when I as little). Eventually, my grandmother had it moved to my parents’ house so I could take lessons. My brother and sisters played it. My uncle and aunt – who played beautifully, by ear – played it during family Christmas Eve celebrations. It’s priceless. So, even though it’s somewhat costly, it’s worth it. It needs some love. And I need to play it more. I’ve sat down to play once or twice lately but it was so badly out of tune that I couldn’t handle it.

Thanks for prodding me, Don.

Also this morning, some house moving:

I moved Don’s Studio (with his permission) out to the upstairs hallway where it sits on top of the linen cabinet. This real estate was previously occupied by the modern dollhouse, which has been moved to the bedroom.

Now I can actually see it and work on it!

I’m going to start sorting through things in the office today, a bit at a time. I have 4 big Trader Joe’s bags full of books that will be donated to the library. Right now, they’re in the car and they’ll stay there until we have a non-rainy day. Right now, it’s pouring out there and I don’t want them to get wet.

I’ve started the Louise Penny. I’m about 80 pages in. I’m going slowly so I can savor every word.

Happy Friday.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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