Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Traveling, Resisting

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Thanks for all the supportive comments on our upcoming trip! I’ve been to London three times, so I know what to see there and I’ve been to Edinburgh, as well, where I was fortunate to spend two weeks working on a show for the Fringe, giving me a lot of time to get to know that beautiful city. But it’s been a long while since that visit. Don has never been to either city, so it will all be new to him. He has  been to Paris, whereas I haven’t.

As far as whether Parisians might be rude or any of that kind of thing, Don and I are open, friendly, respectful travelers, and I don’t expect, nor do I look for, any problems. Let’s just say that people are the same everywhere. Some are friendly and open, others aren’t. That doesn’t bother me. I’m not a Parisian. I’m an American who will be visiting a foreign city and there’s no way to disguise that fact. I’m not going to try to blend in, I’m going to be me and that includes dressing comfortably because we will be walking everywhere. I have a smattering of high school French and I’m going to refresh my skills over the next month. And I’m a nice person, as is my husband. Just another way of saying I refuse to go into anything with a negative attitude. It’s all positive. And it will be positive.

We went to one of our local bookstores yesterday evening to hear a guy that I follow on Twitter, Greg Olear, speak about his new book – Dirty Rubles, an Introduction to Trump/Russia. I had no idea he lived in this area and when he mentioned he would be at this bookstore – one that we often frequent – I was excited. He read from the book and there was an excellent Q & A afterwards. It’s a smallish paperback and Don and I each purchased a copy.

Always good to be with like-minded members of the resistance and hear their thoughts on where we are and where we need to be.

I’m throwing this in because it’s hard to get a good shot of the dollhouse as it’s in a corner of the often dark den; however, I was sitting on the sofa the other day and the light perfectly illuminated it, so I grabbed my phone and took a picture. It’s awfully pretty.

The humidity has dropped, thank goodness. Recycling today, a little mowing, and we have to sit down and map out the days of our trip and book our flights.

Happy Friday.

 

 

Little and Big Things

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The humidity continues but it is supposed to break sometime today or tonight.

Please?

Since I stayed indoors yesterday, I got a lot done around the house. Remember, I’m always more efficient when Don isn’t here and he was in the city yesterday. Also – my part of the deductions is finished, Don’s in the middle of putting his part together and we will be done on time. Ta dah!

My friend Barbara, a reader of this blog, recently contacted me and asked if I wanted her Arthur dollhouse kit, as she had never used it. If you remember, I need replacement parts for my rescued dollhouse, which is an Arthur. Yes, I said! So she sent them off to me and the other day I went to the post office and there was a big package from Barbara.

All of the Arthur components. Yay!

Being Barbara, she also added a few little gifts.

A beautiful painting that looked kind of familiar. As I turned it over I saw this:

Wallace Nutting! Perfect.

On a side note, if you look to the right, you’ll get an idea of the globs of glue I need to remove from this dollhouse.

A sweet stool with pretty flowers on the seat.

And two charming plates.

Thank you so much, Barbara! For everything!

Yesterday, I started to address the glaringly empty mantel/shelf that is over my desk. It used to hold many of my figural egg cups.

Here’s what I came up with:

The beginning of shelf full of sheep. There are four putz sheep and one little sheep, most likely from a nativity scene. (Putz sheep were also used in nativity scenes.) The one in the middle is the official Lamb With a Party Hat that I bought in California many years ago. I made a hat for her and she became the logo for this blog.

I look forward to collecting more sheep and adding them to the shelf.

Our Big News

Here’s what’s on the docket for October. We celebrate 20 years of marriage on October 12th. Considering we didn’t meet until we were in our forties, 20 years is quite a big deal for us. This year has been both incredible and heartbreaking and we want to finish it off on a positive note.

So…we’re going to London and Paris with a stop in Edinburgh and we’re in the midst of planning it right now. We’re going to make our flight reservations tomorrow. We figure we’ll be gone about 2½ weeks, maybe a bit longer. We’re so excited!!!

We have been discussing this for a long time, trying to pin down where exactly we want to go. Last week we suddenly changed the itinerary to Paris and Venice, which would also be wonderful. But we ended up changing it back to London and Paris. If we can afford another trip in the future, we’d love to do Venice, Budapest, Prague, etc. This morning we firmed up a lot of details, now we just have to sit down tomorrow and figure out travel times, how many days in each city, and book the flights.

It’s a big, big deal for us as we don’t have a lot of discretionary income and this may end up being a one-time-only sort of trip. If so, we figured London and Paris were the places we simply had  to visit. A romantic anniversary in Paris sounds pretty darned wonderful.

Since this is coming out of my inheritance, I thank my mom and dad for this opportunity for Don and I to travel to Europe together.

We’d love to hear where you’ve stayed, what you suggest we see, any tips on reasonable hotels, etc. I haven’t been to London since 2001 and that trip was with my students and it was planned for us. The one thing that Don and I want to do is explore the cities and walk a lot. Yes, we want to see certain well known tourist attractions, but our main focus will be on discovering little side streets and cafes and the architecture and beauty of each city. And we’ll see a couple of plays while we’re in London, as well.

Cannot wait!

Happy Thursday.

 

 

 

Hazy, Hot and Humid

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This says it all; a surprise day lily and fallen leaves right next to each other. Every day I see more leaves on the ground. The leaves from our big maple tend to fall first. It’s a very old tree and I wonder if that is part of the reason. But maples in general, especially on our windy property, shed their leaves before the other trees, with the oaks and catalpas waiting until well into autumn.

Lord, is it hot here! The heat index had us well over 100 degrees yesterday and it was just plain awful to be outside for more than a few minutes. I watered everything in the morning, then stayed inside the rest of the day. More of the same, with even higher temps, today. It will break tomorrow.

Don, as luck would have it, has to go into the city today for an audition. The audition is no big deal – just one line in a tv series – but it’s going to be 96 degrees there today and you know that means the heat index will be off the charts. Better him than me, but I hope he gets in and out of the city quickly. I’ll be happy when he’s safely home.

I’m almost done with my deductions. Don has yet to do his, but he’ll be starting today. Might I add that he’ll be starting today because I have had to bug him about it for several days, several times a day. Sigh.

We watched La Strada  last night, Fellini’s masterpiece. I had never seen it. A couple of years ago we saw Nights of Cabiria with Giulietta Masina, Fellini’s wife, in the lead role and I was utterly enchanted with her performance. I think I wrote about it on the blog. She was the kind of actress that had a face for film and you could not take your eyes off her. Still can’t. The same thing happened in La Strada. But what was revelatory about this film for me was Anthony Quinn’s performance. I’ve never been a big fan of Quinn. He was a good actor and I certainly saw my share of his films. But this! He is amazing, playing a brutish character with such nuance that in the end, despite his actions, he breaks your heart. Wow. Add to that a young Richard Basehart in a role so much more interesting than anything he was saddled with in later years. It made me see him with fresh eyes. Quinn, too.

You can tell I’m still thinking about it this morning, can’t you?

Most of the coneflowers are still hanging in there after having opened quite a while ago, but here and there I see some that have just opened, like this one.

I’m sad that we’re coming up on Labor Day and the unofficial end of summer.

I’m not ready yet.

Happy Wednesday.

 

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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