Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

I Love Spring

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My one lone grape hyacinth surprises me each spring. It pops up between these rocks which line the garden bed by the porch. It’s tiny, so I often miss its entrance into the world until I happen to walk by and – there it is! Whether it self-seeded or was planted by a past owner of the cottage, I’m not sure. But I love it.

Don is home. His bus was about an hour late last night. Apparently, people were leaving the city in droves, so getting to the Lincoln Tunnel took forever. We’re having a slow morning. Looking out the kitchen door, we’re seen blue jays, robins, sparrows, a chipmunk, squirrels, and a bunny rabbit. Our morning Disney movie.

I broke my promise to myself yesterday and cleared out two more garden beds. So I was tuckered out at the end of the day. I’ll take a day off from all of that today because Don is home. My back will be thanking me!

The daffodils in full flower. Because these sit on the the edge of the woods, the flowers are always on one side only, facing the sun. Aren’t they pretty?

Hearing the birds singing joyfully as I write this makes me smile.

Happy Birthday to William Shakespeare. He’s brought a lot of work my way.

Happy Monday.

Porching and Henry

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After a long winter, the last two sunny and warmish days have been most welcome! In the early evening, I sat on the glider with the warmth of the sun on my back and it was heaven. There are no potted plants yet, no hanging plants, no leaves on the trees. But I’ve got my porch back.

I continued to work on cleaning up the porch, sweeping every corner, cleaning off the ‘greenhouse’ sign, cleaning the former kitchen island, which is now…what? potting bench? porch dresser? I’m not sure.

It was already very chippy when we brought it outside, and we covered it with a tarp for the winter, but it’s definitely much chippier than it was. I don’t mind; you know I like that look. At some point, when it gets to be too much, I will probably repaint it with something more durable like porch paint.

I also made some more ‘cleanup’ inroads on the big garden bed. I have yet to clean up the memorial garden bed or the garden beds on the far side of the house, but this week will offer plenty of time to tackle that.

For today, I’ll take it easy. Don is arriving this evening and I don’t want to feel as tired as I have the past two nights when I pick him up at the bus station. Luckily, the weather is supposed to be lovely tomorrow, so he can really enjoy his time here.

I saw a bunny outside the kitchen window this morning. And last night, I ran and grabbed my telephoto lens so I could get a picture of someone dining way over on the other side of the driveway, under the lilac. (Taken from inside the living room or he would have run away.)

That’s our boy!

Happy Sunday.

Scrubbing, Cleaning: Time for Spring

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Well, that was a resounding success, don’t you think? The conversation is still going on as I write this new post and I couldn’t be happier! I have thoroughly enjoyed reading about where you are from, about your individual journeys. And I have loved seeing the dialogue that has taken over the comment page. I figured I would just sit back and enjoy.

Connection. We all need to connect.

Thank you, Judy, for the idea, and thank you all for taking part. Much love to all of you.

And now to the mundane.

I worked like the dickens yesterday, if I do say so myself!

I cleaned the porch railing and the individual spindles and everything. Since our outside hose connection is not working at the moment, this involved hauling buckets of water from the kitchen to the porch. Over and over. But it looks so much better!

This is a chore that is not on my favorites list, which is why I ignored it for a few years.

Then I started to clean up the porch – still in progress as I write this – sorting through the accumulation of crap that built up over the autumn and winter. I drove the now 17 year old CR-V to the storage facility, retrieved the adirondack chairs and a few other things. Then I cleaned the glider and the chairs. I stopped for the day around 4 pm, so I haven’t added the cushions to the furniture. That will happen today.

It just felt good to start making the porch into our extra room for the spring and summer and fall. No potted plants yet – too early – but that will come. Today it will be sunny and reach 60 degrees, so I’ll be out there again working on the porch and the garden beds.

It’s slowly getting there. Slowly.

Don informed me that he wants to come home for his day off. He’s homesick. So I won’t go in, obviously. I’m just as happy to have him here. And it will be sunny – no rain! I’ll go in next week as we have tickets to listen to one the guys in the cast perform at a club on Sunday evening. By the way, Don signed up for access to a community garden around the block from the apartment. It looks lovely. There are benches to sit on, flowers blooming, birds singing, plants thriving. I’ll be sure to take photos when I see it next weekend.

Happy Saturday.

 

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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