Mockingbird Hill Cottage — Page 939 — Mockingbird Hill Cottage

A Story

February 21, 2017 at 9:05 am by Claudia

Still feeling crappy. A cold? A sinus thing? I’m not sure, but I’m coughing a lot and sleep was elusive last night. I must feel better by tomorrow as I have to go into the city for rehearsal. So I’m ordering this ‘thing’ to leave my body by tonight.

I’m going to share a little story with you. Some of you may have seen it on Facebook yesterday.

Don went to a local protest yesterday in the neighboring college town. (Obviously, I couldn’t go.) The idea behind the protest – on President’s Day – was to erect a ‘wall’ made of boxes. Everyone brought a box, and soon after the protest commenced, the wall was built. At the end of the protest, several children were going to knock down the wall.

As the band played, out of nowhere a bald eagle appeared.

As more and more people in the crowd noticed the eagle, the cheers grew louder.

That beautiful eagle – a symbol of our democracy – circled three times and then moved on.

Then they knocked the wall down.

I’ve seen bald eagles before, but not in this neck of the woods – though I’m sure they’re out there.

You can’t tell me that wasn’t a message. Don told me everyone remarked on how spiritual the experience was.

The bald eagle has spoken. Time to take back our country.

Happy Tuesday.

Books, Clutter and Beautiful Weather

February 20, 2017 at 9:28 am by Claudia

Cluttery office. Charging cords, stacks of receipts from NYC, printer…you know, stuff.

This fits right in with my thoughts about living in a space, a home, that reflects who you are, not what you think you should be. There are too many styled interiors on Pinterest, Instagram and blogs. I know I’m not alone when I look at some of these very pretty pictures and think to myself, “Does anybody live there?”

I’ve written about this before, so I don’t need to belabor the topic. On our excursion yesterday, I found a lovely book that beautifully illustrates that very idea.

It’s the book in the upper left hand corner, Life Unstyled by Emily Henson. Beautiful photos of interiors that are real, funky, imaginative and not styled within an inch of their lives. I’m a bit more than halfway through it and I’m really enjoying it. And Emily is a stylist! (I’ve also written in the past about the book Undecorated, which covers this same subject. It’s in my personal library.)

Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit was recommended to me by Sarah, Darko’s assistant. Sarah and I have worked together before and we both love books and reading (Sarah’s mother is a librarian.) This book has been a beacon for Sarah during this period since the election. Our local independent bookseller had a copy, so I snapped it up.

I picked up The Creative Cottage when I was staying in NYC a week or so ago. I’d seen it last year and found it absolutely charming, so this time I bought it. I love the cottages that the author has chosen to highlight – all of them artistic and individual. All of them the kind of place where you walk in the door and know that you will not see this anywhere else because the space absolutely reflects the owners’ tastes and passion.

I also found Inside the Dream Palace on the shelves at the bookshop. It’s about New York’s famous and storied Chelsea Hotel, a place that has always fascinated me. So many artists and musicians and writers have lived there over the years.

Don got a book about the history of the railroads in our neck of the woods.

We had lunch at The Commissary, where this message was on the wall next to the cash register:

Indeed.

I had the Tofu Pocket – oh, so tasty! And vegan hot chocolate, of course.

It was 60 degrees and sunny here and everyone was out on the streets, lapping it up. College students in t-shirts and shorts, people carrying their coats rather than wearing them, happy, laughing and crowded, as it’s a three-day weekend.

I’m feeling a bit under the weather today. Coughing, stuffed up, not at all fun. But I trust it will all go away in the next 24 hours or so. In the meantime, I’m taking it easy.

Thank you so much for your blog birthday wishes yesterday! Here’s to ten years.

Happy Monday.

Nine Years

February 19, 2017 at 9:50 am by Claudia

First things, first: I was so busy last week with over 24 hours of travel time back and forth to the city, as well as rehearsals for the glorious Anastasia, and with only a few hours at the cottage to try to catch some shut-eye, that I completely forgot that Friday, February 17th was the 9th Anniversary of this blog!

Nine years! How can that be?

Nevertheless, I hit ‘publish’ for the first time on February 17, 2008. That was back when I was on Blogger and I remained there until 2012, when I moved the whole blog over to WordPress. At that point, I started to post every day. A total of 2,733 posts as of today. 106,632 comments. No guest posts. All written by yours truly.

The blog has evolved over the years but it has always been about life here at the cottage. The original tagline after the blog title was ‘Life in our little cottage in the country.” Nothing has changed. It’s still about that, along with our adventures here and there.

During the course of the last nine years, we’ve lost Don’s father, my mother and father, and two beloved pets, Riley and Scout, as well as dear friends. It’s all down on ‘virtual’ paper. This blog of mine is what I always wanted it to be, a journal. Since I was a woeful failure at keeping a real journal, I’d given up on ever writing one until this new blogging medium came along. Somehow, the combination of writing online and adding the visual element of photos did it for me. And as the actress/theatrical coach that I am, I loved having an audience.

Which brings me to you. Over the course of the past nine years, I’ve met so many new friends here at Mockingbird Hill Cottage! Some have come and gone, some have been with me right from the start (I’m looking at you, Donna!) Each and every one of you, present and past, has been a blessing. My world has expanded.

There were many times in which this blog was a lifeline. And I am so profoundly grateful for that. The process of putting thoughts and emotions into words, editing, editing again, not always getting it absolutely right but getting it, nonetheless, has been a game changer for me. At times, it has provided the catharsis I’ve desperately needed. When I go back and read certain posts, I’m moved to tears. Some make me laugh. All of them, from the mundane to the gut-wrenching, are precious to me and I’d never delete them. They’re part of my journey and, I think, part of yours, because you share your thoughts, as well. The comments section has become a way to exchange thoughts with each other and how I love that. We laugh together, we learn together, and we comfort each other.

So thank you, my friends, for being here; for understanding when I needed to take a break after my parents died and after Riley and Scout died. Or this week, when I was so overwhelmed and so tired that I felt like I was losing it. Without you, this blog would have been abandoned long ago.

Next year will be rather momentous, won’t it? 10 years!

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I’m back at home after having finished 6 days of rehearsal on Anastasia. Heavens, I love that cast and everyone associated with this production. I can’t get the music out of my head. I have to go back into Manhattan on Wednesday and Thursday of next week. I’m very, very grateful to be a part of this process.

I reveled in the morning today, a morning when I didn’t have to leave the house at the crack of dawn to travel to NYC but, instead, could sit and sip my coffee and finish Garden of Lamentations by Deborah Crombie. I was so tired this past week that I couldn’t read anything but the newspaper and obsessively scroll through Twitter. Anyway, the Crombie is excellent as I knew it would be. She is such a wonderful writer. I cannot recommend it highly enough. I love her recurring characters and their world in London and I find I don’t want to leave them when the story is over.

Today? My husband and I are going to have a little lunch at our new favorite place, The Commissary, and visit the bookshop and record store. It’s our belated salute to Valentine’s Day, which, frankly, we never make a big deal of, knowing that we say “I love you” to each other several times a day, every day.

Happy Sunday.

A Story

Books, Clutter and Beautiful Weather

Nine Years

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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