Mockingbird Hill Cottage — Page 998 — Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Sunday Drive

August 8, 2016 at 9:37 am by Claudia

We were feeling a bit restless yesterday and it seemed to be the perfect time for a Sunday Drive. Remember Sunday Drives when you were a kid? Don and I used to do this sort of thing fairly often, but we’ve been lax lately. So, off we went, not sure at all where we were headed.

First stop: we ended up at our new favorite antique emporium.

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I’m in love with this industrial looking cubby with the hairpin legs. I posted it on IG a week or so ago and it’s still there.

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Oh heavens. Roseville jardinieres and matching pedestals. It’s rare to find both the pot and the pedestal intact. On the left: Clematis. On the right: Peony. Did I want them? Yes. Could I afford them? No. Would they be knocked over almost immediately upon entering our home? Most likely.

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Imagine getting your hair permed with this electrified contraption. Horrors!

I saw many things I wanted, of course. This is a great shop (in a former Joann’s Fabric store) and it’s filled with very high quality vintage items. Not the sort of junky stuff I’ve been seeing lately in other shops. Lots of architectural salvage and industrial and pottery and regular old antiques. We really love it there.

We then crossed the Hudson River.

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It was a gorgeous day. Those little white specks are sailboats.

And stopped at one of our favorite towns, Beacon, NY.

We hadn’t been there for a while and there are lots of new businesses and galleries and shops. Beacon is rather trendy – a couple of years before the time we were looking for a house, Beacon became an up and coming town for NYC transplants. People were buying old houses for a song and renovating them. We looked at houses in Beacon. It’s closer to NYC and is a stop on the Hudson Line, making for an easy (and less time consuming) commute. But we just missed the boom and the affordable prices, so we started to look further north.

It has a wonderful art museum, the DIA.

We found a great little restaurant and grabbed some lunch.

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Had to grab a picture of the tile floors in the bathroom. My favorite design. It reminds me of my bathroom in Cambridge, MA, all those years ago. Not quite the same, but close.

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We had veggie burgers and fries. Really, really tasty. That’s Don’s hand and wrist (upper right) after I told him to stop grabbing fries so I could get a picture.

Don’t worry. We were back at it rather quickly.

Six months ago today, we lost our little girl. It’s a very sad anniversary.

Don’t forget to leave a comment here if you want to be considered for the coloring book giveaway. The deadline is at 8 pm tonight.

Happy Monday.

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Early Morning Light in the Garden

August 7, 2016 at 10:05 am by Claudia

As I started my trek upstairs this morning to write this post, I realized I had no new photos to share with you. So I grabbed my camera and went outside.

Oh, the morning light was beautiful! Its rays were shooting down through the shadows of the early morning, softening every tree, flower, and blade of grass.

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A lovely way to start the day, topped off by a phone call from Little Z. Oh, I love that boy.

Happy Sunday.

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A Bit Blue

August 6, 2016 at 9:46 am by Claudia

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Saturday morning. Light rain falling.

There was a flurry of mowing yesterday because we thought it was going to rain all day today, which now looks not to be the case. Don was out and about yesterday morning, so I started in on the largest swath of the front lawn while he was away. And, you guessed it, I mowed a bit longer than I should have. That, coupled with waking up at 5 am, made Claudia a tired girl. Don came home and finished everything off, thank goodness. We still have to do the back, but that can wait.

I love seeing the lawn just after mowing; a lovely gorgeous expanse of green – nicely green thanks to the three days of rain we had last week. Since we live in the country there are a mix of grasses and weeds that make up our ‘lawn.’ This is not the land of manicured lawns, though most everyone mows and keeps everything neat. I grew up in suburbia and I well remember the fertilizing, edging, and manicuring that went on all over my neighborhood.

I like this better. And I don’t use chemicals anyway, so the lawn is what it is. I need to get a Fit Bit so I can figure out just how many steps I take when I mow.

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These daylilies have been fabulous this year. Constant blooms – and a lot of them. I think we’re drawing to an end, though. I’ll miss these beauties.

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I’m missing my bunnies and Henry. I did see Henry very briefly about a week ago and one of the larger rabbits. But baby bunny? Nope. They disappeared during the heat wave and haven’t come back. I spent a fair chunk of time observing them and I miss them. I still look for them several times a day, but so far…nothing. I’m wondering if this happens every year and I simply forget about their patterns by the time the next year rolls around.

With Scout gone, I guess I counted on their presence a bit more than usual.

It’s sort of a blue day today. Mom’s birthday was last week. Dad’s estate has just been settled, which is a good thing; however, it is an ending of sorts that brings sadness. And I miss Scout.

Happy Saturday.

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Sunday Drive

Early Morning Light in the Garden

A Bit Blue

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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