Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Wind

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We had a high wind warning yesterday and from 3 pm until about 2 am, the wind was relentless. At one point, I happened to look out the kitchen door window and saw another branch (though not nearly as big) fall from the catalpa just  to the left of Don’s car. Needless to say, I ran out there and moved his car next to mine. The branch was long but it was light enough for me to carry to the wood pile, but my heavens, I felt like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz  out there trying to open car doors and just plain maneuver in that wind.

It took me a long time to get to sleep, so I slept in a bit this morning. It’s still ‘breezy’ but the sun is shining. We’re due for a couple more visits from winter over the weekend in the form of snow showers, but it will melt quickly. I am SO ready for spring. I had a little meltdown on the phone with Don yesterday because it’s just been plain old hard this winter and that, along with my recent bout with a bug and my sore back, sent me off into ‘feeling sorry for myself’ territory.

I guess I needed to get it out. I’m better this morning. Bless my husband for being there.

I wanted to share the growth on this Zz plant with you. It, along with my two other Zz plants, has been growing steadily during the winter. One of my readers wrote in a comment a while back that someone had told her that Zz plants were slow growers. I assured her that I hadn’t found that to be the case. They’ve been pretty prolific so far and I’ve only had them a few months. Imagine how they might perform during the summer! The two tallest shoots are recent additions.

I love these plants. They can get by on low light and, like a succulent, they don’t need a lot of watering. They have a sculptural quality that is quite lovely.

Current morning light from the skylight.

I’m grateful that it’s sunny today. One day of sunny or even partly sunny can keep me going.

Happy Thursday.

April Showers

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It’s that kind of day where the lamps remain lit all day long. So was yesterday, a day in which it rained all day and into the night. I have no idea what the forecast is for today; however, looking out the window indicates gray skies and general yuck.

April showers, right?

I’m just about to finish Avid Reader, which has been a complete pleasure to read. Do I try for fiction next, or more non-fiction? I have a copy of Russian Roulette  by Michael Isikoff and David Corn and I haven’t started it yet. But the contents of that book will make me angry, as they should, so I’ll have to read it in fits and starts, if only to maintain some sort of equilibrium.

This succulent has been a part of Riley’s dish garden ever since I planted it, not long after he died. Other succulents have come and gone, but this one has remained and much to my surprise, it really took off this winter. Constant new growth. I think it likes its new position at the center of the kitchen table, as well as its buddies, the monstera and the rubber plant. I do know that houseplants often thrive when placed in a group with other plants and I think that’s the case here.

Or maybe Riley is speaking to me. I hope so.

The tulips are winding down and, like all flowers, there is a beauty in every stage of life.

I’ve been nursing a sore back, brought about, I’m pretty sure, by having to sleep propped up for several days when I had the cold/flu/whatever-it-was. It’s getting better.

Gosh, I’m ready for some work outside. And I still want to paint the remaining unpainted wall in the kitchen. It’s never been the right time, but I have to do it soon before spring starts to bring in more bugs. Maybe next week.

I have a whole list of things to do outside, including cleaning up the garden beds, raking the gravel that was snowplowed onto the grass back onto the driveway, picking up falling branches, and cleaning the side of the house and the porch railings. None of those tasks excite me, but they have to be done before I can attend to the gardens.

I saw a big rabbit sitting very still yesterday afternoon. He was up in the back forty. First rabbit sighting – a good sign!

Happy Wednesday.

 

Patience and Balance

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I’m currently reading this book.

That’s a big deal to me, since I haven’t been able to concentrate on any reading other than short magazine articles. Books? No. And this is a memoir, not something I usually read. But fiction seems to be a problem at present, so I thought I’d try this and I’m 2/3 of the way through it.

What a relief! The very fact that I’m reading anything of some length is a comfort.

I wanted to buy this when it was in hardcover, but I didn’t. When I was at Three Lives and Co. bookstore in Greenwich Village a month or so ago, I saw it in paperback and I grabbed it. Robert Gottlieb is probably the most famous book editor of the past 50 or so years. He worked at Simon & Shuster, Knopf, and also edited the New Yorker. Well into his eighties, he still  edits. This is such a fascinating read. It’s chatty; you can imagine yourself sitting with Gottlieb in his study while he regales you with stories about his career and the authors he worked with. Such a pleasure to read. Since I’m drawn to books about books and bookstores and reading, this is right up my alley.

It’s part of the ongoing battle I’m waging with the need to be informed, to stay in activist mode, balanced with allotting myself only so much time with twitter, etc. Reading, projects, soon, hopefully, the garden, listening to music that makes me happy – all of that helps.

Of course, yesterday’s snow managed to disappear in record time and Don and I were left feeling sad that we didn’t go for it in terms of travel. But hindsight is always 20/20 and we had to make the call right in the middle of a heavy snowfall. It is what it is.

Spotted in my peperomia: two more white flower stalks coming up from the soil. Hurrah!

It’s a gray and rainy day today. Dang, I wish spring would make a spectacular appearance! I know the birds are back, I hear the peepers at night, the daffs are coming out of the ground. The temperatures, however, are on the cold side today. I just have to be patient and know that in a couple of weeks, winter will be long gone and we’ll be well and truly into spring.

Happy Tuesday.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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