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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.

Checking In

February 17, 2017 at 6:09 am by Claudia

A benefit of getting on the road so early in the morning: the spectacular sunrises, which we clock as we drive east toward the Hudson River.

Speaking of spectacular, I am spectacularly tired. Sleep has been nearly nonexistent and as I head toward the end of a six-day-straight week of commuting back and forth, I am just trying to get through the day today and tomorrow and then I can relax. Maybe it’s the stimulation of the senses – so much music and text, long train rides, long bus rides, the crowds in Grand Central Station and Times Square, the insanity in Washington DC…probably a combination of all of the above. Sometimes I can’t get to sleep at night. At other times, I get to sleep but wake up in the middle of the night. The night before last, I actually slept through the night and I felt so much better yesterday, only to lose sleep again last night.

Though I often commute to the city, I don’t think I’ve done it for 6 days in a row for a long time and the rehearsals start at 10 am. I now regret that I didn’t push to be put up in the city this week, but I didn’t…so that’s that.

That’s West Point in the photo. I get a gorgeous view of it each morning as the train travels south along the Hudson River.

Even though I’m sleep-deprived, let me say that it is absolutely worth it to be a part of this production. Anastasia won my heart last spring in Hartford. It’s simply glorious. When Darko told me he wanted me to be a part of the Broadway production, I was so grateful and happy. I don’t know how to explain it, but it’s special. It’s rare. The cast is special. Wonderful people both onstage and off. Who knows if I’ll ever get another chance to work on Broadway? So I am lapping the whole thing up, trying to be present every moment, which also, coincidentally, helps me weather the work day after a sleepless night.

All is well. At least, in my little Hudson Valley – New York City – Anastasia world. I am fully aware of what is going on in our nation’s capital. To say I’m appalled is putting it mildly. My sister wrote a great post the other day about needing to speak out. If you’re a blogger, one of the avenues for your voice to be heard is through your blog. I applaud her for writing about it. I will again, as well, when I have some time to put my thoughts together in a coherent fashion. I’m pretty sure you know what I’m thinking. Saving our republic, our democracy, is at stake and the need to do so is about as urgent as it can get. Finding out the truth about the FIC’s ties to Russia is imperative. Speaking out is of the utmost importance.

More on Sunday. I miss you all. I do not like being away from the blog!

Happy Friday.

Books, Clutter and Beautiful Weather

Nine Years

Checking In

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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