It’s a sweetly quiet Sunday morning here in our neck of the woods. The occasional car goes by, Scout is snoring at my feet, Don is in the other room on his laptop, the air is blessedly cool and I’m on my second cup of Peet’s French Roast. I’m very disciplined about my coffee. Only two mugs a day and no coffee after 12 noon. If I drink any coffee after 12, it can be disaster when it comes time to go to sleep.
We’ve been watching Frasier on Netflix. Much of the time there’s nothing on the tube that we want to watch on any given night. We’ve taken to watching all the episodes of Frasier in order. That would be 11 seasons worth. We’re on Season Two.
It’s from a bygone era, you know: fiercely intelligent writing and acting, writing which never sinks to a lower common denominator, instead, the writers assume we’re smart and we’ll get it – the references, the repartee, the humor. And we do. It’s so well cast and the actors’ work is superb. Don worked on that show a couple of times and has worked with Kelsey Grammer both on screen and on the stage. Kelsey used a lot of his fellow stage actors on Frasier.
Anyway, we’ve been talking about Frasier a lot lately. We mourn the lack of smartly written comedies nowadays. There are a few, but not like there used to be. A pox on all reality television! I am so sick of it permeating the airwaves. The vast majority of it is a peek into lives that aren’t any of our business, aren’t interesting to anyone other than the people living those lives, and the peek involves obviously staged situations….hence, it isn’t at all ‘reality.’
I’ve been taking lots of photos of the dollhouse, as another publication – this one British – wants to do a feature on it. I’m very flattered and grateful. However, when you take photos for a magazine, they have to be submitted in their original large size, unedited. This makes for a big problem for me, because I always edit dollhouse photos – I have to. Taking photos of certain rooms is always problematic because they’re dark and narrow – i.e., the bathroom, kitchen and study. I’ve tried everything! Natural light. Lights on both sides of the dollhouse. Hauling the dollhouse outside and hoping for better light. The shot will look good in the view finder on the camera and then I’ll see it onscreen on my laptop and shudder.
It’s a pain in the tush and I’m never happy with the unedited look of them. I can only pray that whoever edits them at the magazine can work some sort of miracle.
I’m reading The Hanging Girl by Jussi Adler-Olsen. I’m a big fan of the Department Q series and this newest book in the series does not disappoint. I’ll be reviewing it on Just Let Me Finish This Page sometime this week.
I hope you’re having a lovely holiday weekend. Monday holidays never excite me, although I’m sure they did at some point in my younger working life – especially when I worked 9 to 5 in an office. In the theater, Monday is the traditional day off, so we usually feel cheated on the holiday front because there is never an additional day off to balance things out. And what do you do when the only day you have to take care of business is on a day where everything is closed for the holiday?
What are your plans for this weekend?
Happy Sunday.
Quiet day here today. Living in the country is such a change but I wouldn’t go back to living in town now! The rain is on it’s second day of falling. Love the pitter patter on the roof.
Today, we are cleaning out our old house and taking in donations to the charity shop. I have to pick up some baby blankets from a local mom to make them into quilts. A run to the store for groceries, then home to relax. I might try and paint the interior of the dollhouse today. Perfect day for inside stuff.
My “weekend” is always Sunday/Monday, so I have to remember to take the Tuesday off when there is a long weekend so I get a long weekend!
Enjoy the rest of yours.
I was thinking about painting the interior of the Top Secret Project today. Great minds, Chy! Have a wonderful weekend.
Quiet morning here also. I will be spending time with my Mom later this afternoon and taking her to do her grocery shopping. The goal for this weekend is to get my home cleaned and laundry caught up. Still today is more of a day of rest. I haven’t watched a comedy tv show in ages…they are so stupid to me and I hate stupid. I like clever and quick and Frasier is that for sure. Enjoy your day!
hugs,
Linda
I hate stupid, too, Linda. Watching Frasier, I was struck by just how badly written most comedies are nowadays. Have a great day!
Such exciting news about your dollhouse! I can’t wait to hear more about it.
I was so inspired by your chair build that I ordered the same kit from an Etsy vendor late last night. It’s difficult to sleep with my riding injury, so I foresee some late night online shopping in my future. That, or watching reruns of shows that were popular in the ’70s. My daughter thinks it’s slightly goofy that I want to watch all the TV shows I wasn’t allowed to watch as a kid. (I like that show ‘Rhoda’.)
It’s pouring outside, so after I’m done my second cup of coffee I’m off to the office to work without interruption. I’m sorry to say that holiday weekends usually bring loads of calls Tuesday from people who can’t behave themselves.
Have a lovely peaceful Sunday. :)
Oh good! I’m so glad you ordered the kit, Barbara. I’m sorry to hear that the riding injury is keeping you from a good night’s sleep. I hope you feel better soon.
Love Rhoda. Love The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Have a great day.
Enjoying a beautiful New England day. Apples and cider are in; will have to go get some. Reading Louise Penny’s new book. Love those Three Pines’ characters. Enjoy your day.
Apples and cider already! Too soon! (Although I live in apple country, so I’ll be seeing them shortly.) I’m on a waiting list for Penny’s newest – budget constraints keep me from buying it, unfortunately! Have a lovely day.
We enjoy Frazier too. The humor on the show is just so good. The cast just meshes so well together.
We’re going to a chili cook off today. It’s an annual event in our town that every one looks forward to. They have live music. It’s a lot of fun. All the proceeds go to our library and the SPCA.
It sounds like you’ll have a wonderful day and for a good cause.
Sounds like a relaxing day for you…us too! Flowers need watering…90 today…with humidity. Good day to stay inside. My son brought over a bookcase yesterday for me…yahoo! I was running out of room to store my books…I should be donating them…but I just can’t. Now I can get them off the floor! Enjoy your Sunday! ;)
Yay! We always need more room for books, don’t we? Have a great day!
Nosey me – of course I want to know which British publication? Are you going to wait a while then share, please pretty please, don’t keep me in suspense too long Claudia. I do have an international subscription to UK Country Living – best mag in the entire world for me – but any other one I’d have to be sure to find a copy to see you! Good luck with the photos, I’m like you, always anxious to do a little editing – guess we’re perfectionists!
Enjoy your show series – I never watched it as I prefer drama to comedy. Tonight PBS starts the story of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, ‘Arthur & George’ starring Martin Clunes (the fab ‘Doc Martin’) and Charles Edwards from ‘Downton Abbey’ – I’m hoping it’s going to be great. It’s followed by ‘Sherlock’ which I watched for the first time last weekend – a very clever show!!!
Enjoy the weekend – and Monday!
Hugs – Mary
I saw the preview for the Arthur Conan Doyle series and told Don that we have to remember to watch it. You must catch up on all the Sherlocks – it is excellent – one of my favorite series! Have a great day, Mary.
Oh, I’m not going to reveal the publication yet, just in case it falls through. I think it will be several months until it’s published, anyway!
I’m watching “Frasier’ on Netflix too, Claudia – and loving it. Olympic-calibre writing and the spot-on perfect cast to give it life. You know it’s a great show when you can use lines from it in your own life. My all-time “Frasier” favorite is – “…you’d need an electron microscope to locate my interest in this topic…” I guess the Golden Age of Sitcoms has passed, like the Golden Ages of Movies & Television have. I wonder if we could be in a Golden Age of Something Else right now? And if so, what? That thought is a bit frightening, isn’t it? LOL. Oh well, keep cool as possible and have a relaxing Sunday/non-working Labor Day. Monday may be a traditional day off in the show biz world but by the same token, people don’t generally clap for barbers, plumbers & farmers. Good & not-so-good things for everyone, on both sides of the dial, I guess. Enjoy your holiday however you get it! :>)
I don’t know about you, but I clap for them. I’m very appreciative of anyone’s work that is laborious and time consuming. I always give a lot of praise. And I don’t walk out before they can take their curtain call, unlike a lot of audience members these days.
Yes, I try to praise whenever I can too. Maybe it’s because I was a teacher of very young children. I know it can be difficult to stand all day in a retail store. And it’s no picnic getting up at the crack of Dark to bake bread, or tend dairy cows. And I actually read the credits at the end of movies, in theaters or TV. If I liked the movie at least. Mostly so I know to look for more of this or that person’s work. I’m sure you’re right about audiences these days. People really are shockingly “into” themselves these days, aren’t they? Maybe that’s what we have right now – the Golden Age of Narcissism. Hey,. I’m bumming myself out here. I need an ice cream cone. :>)
Oh, go for the cone, Janet! Otherwise you’ll just be depressed about the state of the Golden Age of Narcissism…we can’t have that! Have a wonderful weekend, my friend.
Amen! Amen! Amen!! I am proud to say I have never watched one episode of stupid looking “ladies” bar hopping in a limo. Real Housewives? Give me a break. No one would watch an episode of real housewives. I have never watched an episode of the Kardashians. They are all very pretty, but I haven’t been interested enough to actually tune them in. And the new Cait? Cait must really need the money. Anyway, I would love to see TV with good writers and actors. The only reality tv I watch is the news, and that is horrifying enough. And a British mag wants to show the dollhouse? Lovely. I thought I saw Caroline in Nordies.
I love Fraiser too…the humor never gets old for me. I like the old shows better than the new ones. Lately, my 20-something daughter discovered Newhart, the one set in the Vermont Inn, and I can hear her laughing out loud at the characters’ antics.
I mostly watch PBS and baseball games when my home team is playing. Thanks to Mary, who commented above about Martin Clunis’ new mini-series on Arthur Conan Doyle…good reminder for me. I’m also a Sherlock fan, and am so glad the contemporary version was not dumbed down.
Me too, Wendy. At first, the purist in me thought “Contemporary Sherlock? No!” But I soon realized how brilliant it was and I’m well and truly hooked. No dumbing down at all!
We are on the same on coffee–one cup a day in the early morning–and reality TV and TV comedy. I am not much on the sexual enuendo jokes and political persuasions. Another exciting magazine article, congratulations. Have your tried your smart phone camera to take photos of the dollhouse? I have the same problem taking photos for the blog. I often use the iPhone because I can place it inside the room. Beside, the magazine staff will probably edit the photos. Good luck. Happy Week End.
It’s not the camera as much as it is light and shadow. That’s the tricky part. My camera does a good job but it can’t overcome the darkness of the rooms when they’re photographed. Have a great day, Ann.
It is quiet and cool here in MN. It has been raining since yesterday but we are grateful for the rain. I went outside to pick crab apples in my backyard and noticed my neighbors apple tree was full of big hanging fruit. Luckily for me, he brought his dog out and I asked him what type of apples he was growing. He wound up going inside to get a bowl and gave me twelve apples! He said they were called Pearmain apples. I’ve never heard of them but they are delicious!
Don’t worry about your photos! You have an eye for photography and I’ve never seen one bad photo from you :D
But that’s because I edit them! And I can’t edit these. I have to send them as is. Oh, it’s maddening!
LOVE Frasier. It is on Hallmark in the wee hours from midnight until 2 AM. They show them in order, also. I sometimes wake up and flip it on, and we have DVR’d a few as well. The writing is some of the very best ever. And it seems that each time I watch an episode, I can find something I missed the 10x I saw it before. Just superb TV! Mary Tyler Moore was another, as well as the old Dick Van Dyke show. Newhart, too. I have often wondered why Murphy Brown is not in reruns anywhere. We never watch “reality” shows. I truly don’t understand them. If Survivor took place in Siberia, no one would watch because they aren’t in bikinis.
It is so hot and so humid here today…… just ugh is all I can think of to say.
I wonder why that is? Why Murphy Brown isn’t in reruns? I really liked that show! It’s hot here today – not so humid, but definitely hot! But I will stop myself from complaining too much….I’m not even ready for fall yet.
My husband and I have watched re-runs of Frasier over and over. I agree with you it is one of the few television series that has intelligent humor. So little of that now. Actually other than Frasier and Masterpiece Theater I rarely watch tv. I do enjoy BBC series on Netflix. “Waiting For God” is quite funny, as is “Bless Me Father” and “Vicar of Dibley” with Dawn French. Also “As Time Goes By” with Judi Dench. If you haven’t already seen them I think you would like them.
I’ve seen all of them except Bless Me Father – I might have seen that one, but it doesn’t ring a bell. Anything with Judi Dench is a must-see for me!
Congrats on getting published again with the doll house! Perhaps they’re accustomed to working with less-than-perfect photos although, frankly, I always feel your photos are pretty…and pretty-perfect!
I tend to avoid crowds in general, such as store sale days…but especially on holiday weekends, also with clogged traffic…and who wants to be out in that heat? Not me. (We’re hot here in SoCal as usual.) Of course, when I was younger, nothing like that was bothersome and I’d go-go-go with three days off from the office, always a great excuse to get the heck out of town. My husband’s been away on business so we are enjoying tucking in at home. He currently can’t seem to wind down off his schedule…but I’m hoping he’ll crash back on the bed with the dog and take an afternoon snooze (he needs it and a slower pace!). He’s brushing the dog at the moment; going to give her a trim (she’s a shepherd mix and has a lot of ‘feathers’ and keeping her trimmed cools her off and also keeps her cleaner). Then, it’s the bath for her. So, I think after all that, they’ll both wipe out.
The dog got her distemper shot yesterday and she’s going in for teeth cleaning this week. I always get a little worried about the anesthesia part of that. With drought and whatever is happening to our environment, she still doesn’t have fleas, yet has developed a grass rash (what grass?…our lawns are struggling mightily with water restriction and the neverending heat…and she’s mostly indoors…but we had a border collie mix once who suffered similarly and, at one point, we had her walking in booties); so, antibiotics for the dog. The cat’s bloodwork came back fine…he just has a very-slight bladder infection, of all things. So, antibiotics for him, too. Just like me (at the moment, I have a bronchial infection for which I’m being treated but it’s always something lately!). Too many antibiotics all the way around…but, what to do otherwise. Husband, myself, vet all talked at length with each other about the very-elderly cat and consensus is we watch and wait. Which is all I’ve done for the past too-many years with him anyway. He took a nosedive when he lost his longtime companion cat (to old age) as much as eight years ago now; don’t tell me animals don’t get depressed. We haven’t been able to introduce another friend (he has rejected all other cats ever since). I read an article that certain breeds of cat can indeed live to age 19 or 20; he’s a mixed-breed. But, yes, he did rally (again!), as they often do. The vet says there’s no indication he is in any other pain except his arthritic back legs and he’ll get his monthly arthritis injection next week. The doctor says try to remember he’s the equivalent of a 100-year-old person who, yeah, is unsteady in the legs, especially after getting up from a long nap. Anyway, Old-Man Cat is getting A LOT of attention, so he’s basking in that! But it was a rough week and this hasn’t been an easy call. It never is. Quality of life will continue to be paramount…so, back to the day by day which, of course, you understand as you go thru this with Scout.
Glad you got some cooler weather. I’m looking forward to eventually seeing a round of autumn photos from you as your property changes seasons!
Totally understand. Scout is well over 100 in dog years!
I totally agree about comedies and so-called reality shows…I do like true crime murder mystery shows just as I enjoy reading some books about the same…Since Mr Robot is finished for this season there is not much else I am interested in on TV for now…I do believe that is a well done show and just like a good novel…every time I think I might have something figured out it takes a turn in another direction…What fun that a British publication has taken an interest in Hummingbird Cottage…you should be totally chuffed…We are planning on cooking out on the charcoal grill for the holiday tomorrow..as long as it doesn’t decide to rain or to be extremely hot out…of course we can always tolerate the heat long enough to cook on the grill and go inside to the AC to eat…Have a great weekend my friends!!!
We are still confused about Mr. Robot – but in a good way. It’s meant to be a little less than clear, I think. Nothing planned tomorrow other than the usual…have a great day, Nancy.
I had some photography struggles too….especially with lighting. I bought a light reflector on eBay. 5 in 1 fold up thingy or 2 in 1 fold up thingy “photography light reflector” if you search it. Set it for cheapest results first. I get my husband to hold it as I take pics. It has helped get light into dark corners where aiming desk lamps look too over done.
Thanks for the tip! I’ll check that out, although the deadline for these pix is Tuesday, so I might have to rig something up in the meantime.
Spent yesterday in Evanston with hubby, my mom and aunt. Today we’re staying home and we’ve gotten some big things done – pulling up carpeting and padding in our bedroom (hardwood floors are being put in on Friday) and I worked more on touching up paint mistakes where the wall meets the ceiling. Watered all the plants outside as it’s been 90 and humid all weekend. Haven’t watched TV here in any form in awhile. Prefer to read books or be on my laptop. Have a list of movies I’d like to eventually see on Netflix, but I tend to watch more movies in the winter. Have a good weekend!
Oooh! Hardwood floors! I bet you’re excited, Melanie. I’m just about to sit down to read a bit. Aaaah. Heaven!
Your miniaturist fame has spread across the Atlantic, Claudia; congratulations! You will have been published internationally!
Now what if you had two LED flashlights and someone (ahem. Don.) aimed one flashlight at the front of the room and held the other up to the window or skylight? Another possibility would be to get one of those little LED touch-lights (I saw some at the dollar store; they operate on battery power) and hide one in the room behind a piece of furniture.
I am not much of a photographer and I hope that these are not ridiculous suggestions. You are needing side-light and/or back-light to banish shadows, correct?
That’s not a ridiculous suggestion. First, I’m going to try having Don hold up a white board as a reflector and see what happens. I’ve already told him we have to do this tomorrow. We do have an LED flashlight. I think. But we’ll try the white board first!
I enjoyed watching a Columbo marathon Saturday, ending with episode 1. Tomorrow I will window sop with my sister. Monday morning I hope the doctor will say I can take off my ankle brace; I’ve had a broken ankle since July 5! Put a real damper on taking care of my flower garden and walking with Miss Bella! Enjoy your day!
Love Columbo! I’m sorry to hear about your ankle, Patricia! I hope you can get rid of that brace. I understand. I got married with my leg in a cast from a broken ankle!!