Mockingbird Hill Cottage — Page 937 — Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Bracing for the Storm

March 13, 2017 at 9:22 am by Claudia

I’ll be very happy when I can take pictures of my garden again. As it is, with this relentless winter, I run around the house at the last minute and snap a picture for the blog, hoping that it will do. You can bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow’s picture will be of snow and blizzard-like conditions.

Over a foot of snow expected and…wait for it…high winds.

Don is out getting salt and last minute stuff. I’m running to the store after finishing this post. We just discovered we have less heating oil than we thought, so we called our supplier in a panic. He has hundreds of deliveries today, so we’re praying he makes it here. In the meantime, Don is buying a space heater. Of course, there’s always the possibility that we could lose power. Fingers crossed that we stay plugged in here at the cottage.

Don has so much to do before he leaves at the end of the week and the combination of feeling under the weather and this storm is not helping. Poor guy. He’d like to get on the road by Friday, but I’m wondering if that will be possible.

I wrote about this on Instagram and I’ll write about it here – I went to my tiny local library yesterday afternoon to check out a couple of books. You know that I donate books to the library a couple of times a year, right? Since I have so many books and many of them are new review copies, I like to pass them on to the library because they have an annual book sale. We all know that libraries are just keeping it together financially, so anything we can do to help them is a good thing.

So I walked over to the ‘new fiction and nonfiction’ table and realized that three of the books were donated by me. They were new books, just out this year. I opened each book to make sure I was right and, sure enough, each had the word ‘donated’ inside the cover. That made me so happy – happy that I can contribute to their collection, happy that others can check out these books and enjoy them. Maybe this has happened before, but this is the first time I’ve seen books that I’ve donated become part of the library’s collection.

Well, friends, I have to get going. Time for a quick shower and then errands.

Wish us luck. Everyone who is in the path of this storm, please stay safe.

Happy Monday.

Crazing-Making Weather, Reading & Biscuits

March 12, 2017 at 10:21 am by Claudia

Equal time. These guys were feeling left out.

As I’m sure many of you are, I’m thrown off by the time change. There I was, sitting in my cozy chair in the den, reading a good book, when I realized this pesky time change made it later than my body felt it was and I had better hightail it upstairs to write a quick post.

So here I am.

Again. Wind tunnel. Though slightly less than yesterday, there is something about the placement of this upstairs room – right at the front of the house – that makes it sound much windier than it does in our bedroom. Same with the den. It’s making me a crazy woman. Several days of this, along with even more as the Nor’easter heads our way on Tuesday, might force Don to put me in a strait jacket.

For my own good.

On the other hand, the time change gave us one hour less of this Presidency. Thank you for that.

I finished The Dollhouse by Fiona Davis yesterday. A bit clunky, but an engrossing story that I really enjoyed. I would have thought it a bit clunky not matter what, but to be fair, it wasn’t helped by having just finished the Amor Towles.

Now I’m reading On Turpentine Lane by Elinor Lipman: delightful, witty, good storytelling and wonderful characters. I’m almost done, so a journey to my little local library might be in order today. Yes, I have a large TBR stack, but I’m what I call ‘book restless.’

We’re awaiting the dreaded Nor’easter. The amount predicted keeps changing. As of this morning, it’s 8 – 12 inches.

I feel another scream coming.

All that being said, I vigorously cleaned the bathrooms yesterday. I swiffered. I dusted. I vacuumed. I straightened up my desk. I read – a lot. I’m keeping myself occupied.

And I cuddled with my soon-to-depart husband. Thank goodness he’ll be here to man the snowblower on Tuesday because that thing is heavy.

I may have to make some biscuits. In fact, I will be making some biscuits.

How many of you are going to be impacted by this storm? It’s been a crazy winter, no?

Happy Sunday.

The Wind Tunnel

March 11, 2017 at 9:43 am by Claudia

Greetings from the wind tunnel.

I’m not kidding. It sounds like I’m in a wind tunnel, especially upstairs in the office. The winds kicked up yesterday afternoon and they raged all night long. At this point, I’m ready to scream. In fact, I did scream some invective last night. Luckily, both Don and I are well versed in the dramatic turn, so he just laughed at me. (I did it twice.)

I grew up in Dearborn, Michigan, home of the Ford Motor Company. Not only was it the home of the World Headquarters, there was also the Rouge Plant (every school kid went on a tour of the Rouge Plant) and mysterious things like the Testing Ground and the….Wind Tunnel.

I was fascinated by the Wind Tunnel. What must it have been like inside the tunnel?

I think I know now.

Welcome to life in and around my cottage in what seems to be the windiest part of my neck of the woods. Again, not kidding. The other day, during a horrendously windy day, I got in the car to run some errands. Once I left my road and ventured onto neighboring roads, it struck me that the trees weren’t moving. Nor were the bushes. But back home? Crazy movement everywhere. I’ve observed this same thing many times. Windy here, but not there.

It’s in the single digits right now. Lovely.

I saw robins for the first time yesterday. They looked stunned by all the snow on the ground. Oh, we’re getting over a foot of snow on Tuesday.

I found myself whiling away some time on eBay yesterday afternoon. Roseville has been very pricey for the past 6 months or so. Ever hopeful, I did a search. Still too pricey. I miss adding to my collection, but truth be told, because I have amassed quite a bit of Roseville, I’m pickier now. Same thing with McCoy. I have a lot of McCoy and there are really only a few pieces I would bid on at this point.

But I love collecting. What’s a girl to do?

Never fear, I found a vintage Nancy Drew and it’s on the way to the cottage. The newest will be The Mystery at Lilac Inn. I can’t wait to show you the cover illustration!

We’re hunkered down here at the cottage because it’s so gosh-darned cold out there! Reading, cuddling (it’s our last weekend together for quite a while), maybe some quilting, and some cleaning, straightening, plant watering…that kind of thing.

Happy Saturday.

Bracing for the Storm

Crazing-Making Weather, Reading & Biscuits

The Wind Tunnel

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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