Nice Resting Spot and A Mowing

This actually looks quite comfortable and the bottom board makes a perfect Corgi chin rest. via

I had a much needed field mowing yesterday. My friend brought his big blue tractor dragging a brush hog and chopped down a three year growth of those woody weeds called Mugwort. I am on his list for regular mowings next year to keep them under control. I love having my far view back again. It rained almost all night and all morning and started back again in the early evening. 

Getty Museum Challenge Favorite

This is one of my favorite look-alike photos from the Getty Museum Art Challenge on Instagram. It is a strangely wonderful reenactment of a famous painting. Can you see it too? Have a great weekend. xo

End of A Perfect Weekend

This photo personifies the end of a perfect weekend, doesn't it? Hope you had one too. via

Dog on Book on Desk

Happy Earth Day

Just a random photo from my phone. 

I always buy dogs reclining on books whenever I can.

This one looks so nice on my slant front desk.

Sheep Dog and Owl Camouflage

I absolutely love this photo. Such a happy face on this dog stuck in a herd of sheep. Found on Instagram. Photograph by Charlie Mackinnon, a Tasmanian farmer. This photo went viral when it was published in the Daily Mail Australia. 

Great Gray Owl

Hiding in Plain Sight

British Columbia

This is the best Owl Camouflage I have ever seen. You have to look really hard to see the body. Found on Instagram. Photographs by Alan Murphy Photography.

Here is a back view of the same owl with no face showing. Honestly, he is almost invisible! This is the second photo on the same Instagram post above. All the same links apply here. This is amazing.

Continue to stay at home and try to keep busy. There is a case of Covid-19 very near me and I know the lady. Very scary. She is recovering at home. Stay home, wash your hands, and try to stay busy. I will continue to try to uplift you in my meager ways. xo

Help is On The Way

Jack Ma, co-founder of Alibaba. is donating 500,000 coronavirus testing kits and one million protective face masks to the United States. The Chinese billionaire already has pledged 2 million protective masks to European countries.

Read the article in the link below.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/14/21179624/alibaba-co-founder-jack-ma-coronavirus-test-kits-masks-us

The Washington Post has a daily free newsletter on coronavirus. I signed up for it and it's very good. I cannot find a link devoted to the newsletter alone but it appears on today's Washington Post article. Look closely and sign up. It's got all the information most of us need.

Look for a black box with the words Sign Up and a circle with a red envelope indicating email and the wording below:
Get our Coronavirus Updates newsletter

Receive the most important developments in your inbox every day. All stories linked in the newsletter are free to access.

Sign up

I put my outerwear out in the sun to disinfect after I went food shopping yesterday. I put my phone outside too. It's raining today and will be again tomorrow; I'm so glad I went out when I did. There were lots of empty shelves but I got everything on my list. There was no bread and absolutely no canned goods and not much cereal. I keep trying to sign up for InstaCart for home food delivery but I can't make it do what I want so far. The things I want don't seem to come up on the list. Will keep trying and keep you informed.

I am a homebody at heart and I love being at home anyway so my life seems much the same. Friends are checking in with me and that's comforting in case I need them. Be well and hang in there. xo

The Metropolitan Opera is streaming operas FREE during coronavirus closure. Read more here.

Free Digital Concerts - Berlin Symphony. Read more here.

I just found a really darling video of an Australian shepherd giving advice on how to protect yourself from this virus. Follow @my_aussie_gal showing you how. You will have to click on the arrow to start the video. She is the smartest dog ever.

My Old Clothes Line with Webster

As I mentioned in this old post, I lost all the trees to the right of my garage/barn after Superstorm Sandy but I still have the white pine on the left. Webster the Wonder Dog used to love watching me hang out the wash. All I need is a new post and I could have a clothes line again. I still manage quite well with drying things outside on wooden clothes racks and my balcony railing so all is not lost. In the winter, the clothes racks are perfect in my furnace room for all but large top sheets which I dry on my balcony. I love sleeping on sheets that have been dried outside and I can honestly report that sunshine leaves an aroma on them like no other. When I enter my bedroom after putting on clean linens, the whole room smells like sunshine. The items dried inside have no aroma at all because I use a detergent with no scent.

The sun can kill the Corona Virus bacteria that can live on fabric for 6-12 hours. Normal laundry detergent should kill it on items in the washing machine. Winter clothes that can't be washed can be put out in the sun to kill the virus. Continue to wash your hands often and be smart about being out in public. xo

PS: I just found an easy recipe for DIY: Homemade Hand Sanitizer

Dog Topiary in London

Love this. I saw it on Instagram and just had to post it. One of the comments said she saw this dog topiary in Islington London. It is simply wonderful, isn't it? This post is short but sweet. I had an 8:30 annual eye exam this morning and my pupils are still huge from being dilated. Have a great Friday. xo

Folk Art Cat - Winter Show @ The Armory in NYC

"We generally cast our affections with dogs in the pet department, but there’s something pretty lovable about this c. 1840 watercolor gray-and-white cat. Poor mouse …"

I think this cat looks exactly like a dog. 😊

Offered by: David A. Schorsch and Eileen M. Smiles American Antiques booth at Winter Show.
Click on link to see many more photos of the wonderful antiques and folk art being offered at this annual event. Article from The Magazine Antiques.

Guest Dog in my Living Room

Meet Harper. She was quite interested in a nature program about alligators. I had her for a few days while her owners enjoyed an out of town trip. 

Perfect Napping Place

This napping dog has it all figured out by sleeping inside and outside at the same time. Yawn. xo

Climbing Roses + Embroidery Stitches

via

There are so many charming elements wrapped up in a single photo, right?

via

This handmade cloth needlework book illustrating embroidery stitches is truly a treasure and a work of love. I think this woman is the creator of this embroidery book.

Wonderful Dog Portrait

He's gorgeous, isn't he? I adore animal paintings. 

Head Study of an American Pointer by Maud Earl, 1932.

found here

or

English Pointer by George Percy R.E. Jacomb-Hood, 1882

found here

Doyles Auction House NYC March 24, 2009 HERE

Dog Rules for My Friend Missy

I photographed this sign in the home of a friend who has a dog named Missy. She is shown below in a field of long grass on an exercise run. She's really well behaved in the house and isn't allowed on the furniture but she actually prefers the dog bed I gave her that belonged to Webster. 

She's a rescue dog too. I'm still not ready to get one of my own but can visit Missy anytime.

Darling Doggie Door w/ Brick Exterior and Awning

It took a while and lots of searching on Google Images but I finally found a darling doggie door with a beautiful exterior. All it needs is a canine door man. This little dog must surely live on 5th Avenue.

Cutest Doggie Door Ever

How Darling.

If the door to the house is closed, it appears there is a holding area on the porch where the dog can have shelter and dry off. Photo found here.

xo, Rosemary @ Content in a Cottage

Snow Dog

What a great idea. You could do this with a little human standing behind an appropriately sized snow body too. via

Kep the Dog by Beatrix Potter 1909

This study of ‘Kep’, one of Beatrix Potter’s sheepdogs, dates from a visit to Near Sawrey in March 1909, when Potter made a number of studies of the Lakeland landscape in snow. Potter gave this drawing to Stephanie Hyde Parker, the daughter of her cousin Ethel, who stuck it in an album: remnants of the album can be seen in the floral motif adhered to the lower left of the design, and in a drawing by Amy Hyde Parker attached to the back of the study.

Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) is one of the world's best-loved children's authors and illustrators. She wrote the majority of the twenty-three Original Peter Rabbit Books between 1901 and 1913. The Tale of Peter Rabbit (Frederick Warne, 1902) is her most famous and best-loved tale.

Beatrix Potter purchased Hill Top in Near Sawrey, her first Lake District farm, in 1905. After this date she visited Hill Top regularly for holidays, eventually settling permanently in nearby Castle Cottage following her marriage in 1913.

In the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum. Click on photo to enlarge.

Flower Pot Dog with Water Dish

Here is the Pluto the Dog at the end of a very hot day and a thunder storm is coming any minute now. I wasn't outside very much today so I don't know if any birds or bees used the water dish. I think I should look for a better rock tomorrow. Enjoy your Monday evening. xo

Around My Cottage Outside

Looking down from my balcony. Keep your eye focused on something sticking out beside my limelight hydrangea in the bright sun in the area above the red geranium.

I discovered this long-forgotten dog made from terra cotta flower pots in my barn/garage and now he's my watchdog.

The lamb's ears I planted in this part of my back garden are blooming and standing tall and the humming birds love them.

Here's a closeup of the dog. A young rabbit had a standoff with him at dusk on the day I put him out over the weekend. It was so cute to watch from my bedroom window that is above the raised garden. There are remnants of hot glue in certain places where moss was once attached. I think this was project for a garden club contest at one time and I hope it was a prize winner. I got it at our annual firehouse flea market and auction years ago. It was very heavy to lug to my car but it made me smile and still does. It reminds me of Pluto and he seems right at home on this small patch of blacktop that is in my backyard for some reason. I think I will put a water dish out for him that the birds and chipmunks might enjoy. Happy Monday! xo