Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Saturday ended up being about prepping for the storm. I had the thought that we should check our gutters and right after that I saw our neighbor doing just that. Confirmation from the universe. So we hauled out the ladder and Don cleaned the gutters on the porch and on the roof over the kitchen while I started to scrub greenish stuff off our aluminum siding. I’m going to do more of that later this week when the temp goes up into the 50s. All in all, that took a couple of hours (we’re glad we did it!) and we decided to decorate the tree yesterday.

The storm was quite a doozy, and there was wind, but not quite what had been predicted. Either that, or I slept through the worst of it. It rained the heaviest overnight and I suppose we got 2 – 3 inches in the end. It was already wet around here and now it’s positively sopping. As I write this, it’s tapering off and should be out of here in an hour. I looked on the weather map and the rain had turned to wet snow almost everywhere in the Hudson Valley except for a very narrow south to north strip that stayed rainy. That’s where we live. We stored the bins in the shed in the early afternoon on Sunday, it didn’t freeze, and we’re safe.

This tree is simply lovely. There are more branches than usual and I wish I had a few more ornaments. But then again, we don’t load the branches with several ornaments per branch like others do. We’re pretty spare, wanting to highlight the deep green of the tree. All in all, we’re quite pleased with it this year.

it sure lifts our spirits!

The skirt consists of three panels of vintage barkcloth. Two are from old curtain panels. I love barkcloth, as you know, so I tend to buy a panel if it’s in good shape. I have a tree skirt that I made when Don and I first moved in together and it’s sweet and very Christmas-y, but I prefer the non-traditional look of the barkcloth these days.

Everything has been done for the holiday ahead, save what we’ll prepare for breakfast and dinner on Christmas day. Now, we can sit back and relax.

I have to alter the newest ornament sweaters and I’ll do that over the next few days. And I’m going to start a puzzle.

My husband wrote a poem for me. It’s called “Where the Dimple Resides.” He kisses me on that dimple every morning when he brings me my mug of coffee. Bless his heart, I was so touched by the poem. My mom would love it. She loved that dimple so much that she prepped me on how to pose for my school pictures with the dimple facing the camera.

No, I won’t share the poem. It’s just for me.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.