Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

On: The Blog, Nancy Drew, and An Update on the Rescued Horses

at by

Blog business first:

Oy. What a pain in the tush this has been! Last week I noticed something had been added to my blog and, at first, I thought I’d been hacked. A call to my host determined that I hadn’t been hacked but that the host had added a plugin to my site. A caching plugin. Plugins are the method in which a WordPress blog/site can be enhanced and adapted by the owner – just as widgets are for Blogger. Caching is the way in which static files can be created that ultimately enable a faster load time.

But they are not without their problems. I don’t like caching plugins and, early on, eliminated them on my blog. They don’t work so well when you post frequently, as I do. In addition, I was ticked off because something had been added to my site without my permission. I am the owner of my blogs and I determine what goes on the blog and what doesn’t. And it turns out that my host did this to all the sites under their umbrella. I called my host a couple of times last week, including on Christmas Eve, to get to the bottom of this and thought it had been resolved. Some of you, or many of you, would visit my blog on your browser and it would look as if I hadn’t updated the blog in several days, even though I had.

I can’t have that. So, last night, after receiving another email from a concerned reader who wondered why I hadn’t posted lately, I called them again. And the plugins are now powerless. It may take a day or two for all the caching complications to stop, but soon everything should be back to normal. I will keep an eye on things, of course. Sorry about that – but it was done without my knowledge and there has been a lot of blowback about it from other site owners, as well. This was not  a good idea!

Okay. Business over. Fingers crossed. If you have any trouble, just reload the blog on your browser, but that shouldn’t be an issue for much longer.

• Something arrived in my mailbox while I was in Hartford.

Number eleven in my collection. Another great cover illustration by Russell H. Tandy. It’s amazing to me that the colors remain so vivid many years later. Between my Nancy Drews and Don’s Hardy Boys, rearranging the bookshelves is fast becoming a priority.

• I want to share four links with you concerning the two local horses, Ashley and Pliers, that were rescued by the Catskill Animal Sanctuary. I just discovered some videos done by the Sanctuary about their rehabilitation and the good news is that they’ve been moved from their temporary quarters on a farm to the Sanctuary itself. If you watch the videos, you’ll understand why they needed to be worked with before that could happen.

Intro to Ashley & Pliers

Ashley & Pliers, Day One

Ashley & Pliers, Setting Boundaries

Ashley & Pliers, Home at Last

We were so concerned about them, as were other local residents, and seeing how well they are doing fills me with gratitude – gratitude for the Sanctuary and for our friend who gave them a temporary home and initially contacted the Sanctuary, hoping they would take them. They will live out their days in peace and when Ashley leaves us, Pliers will be much better prepared for life without her.

What a blessing.

Happy Thursday.

Home Away From Home

at by

I’ve always liked these apartments. There’s plenty of room for one person. The ceilings are high, the walls are white and bright, the kitchen is equipped with everything I need (including a working dishwasher, which I don’t have at home) and Company Management is extremely accommodating and helpful.

Heck, the apartment is three to four times the size of some of the studio apartments I rented over the years. It’s positively spacious. Believe me when I say that I know  small. I’m always amused when I read blog posts about ‘cottages’ which are really large houses, or small apartments that have a separate bedroom, kitchen and walk-in closets. There was a time when an apartment that size would have been nirvana for me! It’s all relative, of course. If you’ve downsized from something larger, your new space will seem small. Anyway, all this is to say that I appreciate this space provided by the theater and feel perfectly comfortable here.

A little tour with some commentary on things I’ve added:

This is the hallway. The apartment door is at the end. The bathroom is on the left, the bedroom on the right. The floors used to be carpeted, but they changed them out to laminated wood a few years back. I like the look of them, though when Scout was here with me I had to put rugs down so she wouldn’t slip.

The kitchen counter. Some of the apartments have stools on the other side of the counter because there is a nice overhang. The table and chairs are new to this space. There used to be a round table and some mid-century looking chairs that had seen better days. A nice improvement.

You’e seen the quilt before. The Christmas Tree will remain on the table through Saturday.

The desk and the weird hooks hanging high up on the wall. They’ve turned out to be quite handy for hanging the wreaths. I’m contemplating what to do with them when the wreaths come down at the end of the week. The little table on the right holds my Bose speaker and my new on-the-road Canon printer. I bought a USB cord and now it’s working perfectly.

I use the McCoy planter to hold all my charging cords. When did life become so complicated?

The living room. The quilt on the wall is the newest addition to the space. I made it when we were living in California and the fabrics used are batiks. I’m partial to that orange and, as must be clear by now, I like purple.

Amazing that the bark cloth remnant fits the top of the coffee table so perfectly. Who would have thought? Since all the tables are black, I used some fabric to break things up. I also grabbed that pillow from our bedroom at home (Don never puts them on the bed when I’m away, so he won’t miss it) to add some color to that big, brown sofa.

This little lamp I bought at Target is rather small. When I get back home, it will go on Don’s desk. So I used some books to give it some height. That’s another fabric scrap on the black table. Looking at it in this photo, I think I should give it a pass with the iron!

The bedroom is too dark to photograph, but this quilt is on the bed:

Yes, it’s a bit of a hodgepodge, but these touches make a basically blank space a home-away-from-home. I’m fortunate, I know, that I can load the car up with all of this stuff and drive to Hartford. But I did the same thing when I worked in San Diego for 10 weeks at a time (we were living in the Northeast.) I packed three big boxes with things I knew would brighten up the apartment space and make it mine and sent them out to California. It’s worth it for me. When I walk in the door after a day of rehearsal, I feel I’ve come home. It’s a temporary home, of course, but making a little nest makes a huge difference in the quality of my life on the road.

Happy Wednesday.

 

Back In The Saddle

at by

Back in the saddle in Hartford.

I drove back here yesterday morning because I had some coaching to do yesterday afternoon. I can’t complain! I love my work, so it’s nice to be back. And, I was lucky enough to get two and half days back home.

We had a lovely low-key Christmas, which is just how we wanted it. Christmas Eve was full of chores; doing the laundry, cleaning the house (because even though I know Don cleans, he doesn’t see what I see…) wrapping presents, and listening to Christmas music. We watched It’s a Wonderful Life  in the evening and we cried, as we always do. Side note: Old Man Potter is the movie version of a certain all-too-real man who shall remain nameless, but you know who I’m talking about. I can’t tell you how many times we turned to each other and said “It’s him!”

We lazed around on Christmas morning, finally getting around to opening gifts around 11 am or so. No, we didn’t have coffee cake because it’s full of dairy and decidedly non-vegan. At some point, I’ll figure out how to adjust the recipe, but I was tired and it was Christmas Eve and we decided to forego the cake for this year. Don did find two vegan turnovers at a local bakery and they were delicious!

Dinner? Don decided to throw caution to the winds and we ordered Chinese take-out. All in all, a perfect day. We ended it by watching Eight Days a Week, Ron Howard’s new documentary about the touring years of the Beatles. The DVD was one of my presents to Don. Excellent and full of footage never seen before.

I didn’t take many photos, though one of my presents from Don was a camera lens I’ve been wanting for a long time: a long-range telephoto lens that will be perfect for capturing bird life around the cottage! I’m thrilled with it.

Photo courtesy of Don’s iPhone. I played around with it only for a short while, as I quickly discovered my camera battery needed charging and the charger was back in Hartford. I try to avoid posting Christmas morning photos as I’m always still in my flannel pajamas, with messy hair and no make-up. As you can see.

Goodness, I look like my mother!

I did manage to get this shot of a nest high up in one of our maple trees.

One day when I have some spare time, I’ll visit the park across the street from my apartment building and see what I can capture with the new lens.

Don’s big gift was given to him in November – a new guitar. Under the tree for him this year: five vintage editions of the Hardy Boys, a vintage Big Boy ashtray and a book of Bob’s Big Boy matches in pristine condition with an ad for Death Valley Days  on the back! We both got a neat little battery charger for our cars that will also charge our phones. And he got the DVD.

For me: the long-awaited lens, earrings and a necklace from Nest Pretty Things, a fabulous Etsy shop, Mary Oliver’s newest book of essays, Upstream, two beautiful handmade stone coasters by a local artist that show a view of our local mountain range, and a photo book that Don made for me, full of photos he’s taken on his iPhone, many of them at the Protest March we attended in NYC. He included some quotes about strong women/his wife and I, of course, cried.

Priceless and utterly beautiful.

All in all, a beautiful day.

I’ve told you about the strange way in which little mirrors and canvases are hung on these walls. Much too far apart to make any sort of statement and, in this case, too far apart to adequately cover up with this quilt I brought from home. Nope – neither horizontally or vertically. I tried.

So I hung this right below the canvases. I don’t feel I have the right to take them down because doing so would make it impossible to hang them up again. Just know that there is one 12-inch square sort- of-modern-art canvas at the upper left hand corner of the quilt and one at the upper right hand corner. I’ve cropped them out of this photo. The quilt does draw my eye away from the canvases, which is a good thing.

Okay. We’re all caught up. Little Z had a fabulous Christmas and hearing the excitement in his voice as he was gearing up for Christmas Eve was heaven. His new red wagon is “loud!” and he is having a great time with it, as well as the plethora of Paw Patrol toys and accessories that he found under the tree.

Happy Tuesday.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

Thanks for visiting! Feel free to browse, read and enjoy. All content is my own; including photos and text. Please do not use anything on this site without permission.

Disclosure/Privacy Policy can be found in the Navigation Bar under ‘About MHC.’

Also, I love receiving comments! I do, however, reserve the right to delete any comment that is in poor taste, offensive or is verging on spam. It’s my blog. If you’re a bot or a troll you’ll be blocked. Thanks!

Archives