A little Titmouse

Titmouse. Is that a pot of sunflower seeds?

This morning I finished picking up all the tree limbs from off the dam, then added them to the natural fence. It was a job.

yep, and a few shelled peanuts too!

It's cold and cloudy again this morning. I don't remember ever in my life having this much rain and this many cloudy days for months on end.

Got one!

Why the hens have gone on strike and totally stopped laying, and I don't blame them. Like me, they need a little sunshine in their lives. 

The hen house is damp and cold, even with eight to ten inches of wheat straw and soft hay covering the dirt floor, and it's dark and gloomy inside. Wet and muddy outside.

Is all this mine?

Funny how you don't notice the cold when you're working outside, but when you come in, you can't get warm. Chilled to the bone. 

It is now 3:35 and still no sun. The weatherman was wrong! Oh from the window here at the desk, I can see two small holes in the clouds with a little blue showing through.

My Grandma Thomas used to say, "it won't rain as long as there is enough blue in the sky to make a cat a pair of breeches".

Picket line - no more eggs until we get some sun!

and the sun finally broke through the clouds late today.

Love,
Henny

Still here!

Good gracious friends, due to these four or five days of sunshine and no rain, I may never catch up with blogging again or with visiting and reading posts. But man have I ever made a dent in those ankle deep leaves around the house.

I've taken full advantage of these sunny days, and have actually worn out one of our lifetime guaranteed yard rakes. It broke completely in half.

Thank goodness we had bought two of them many years ago. Neither one of them ever belonged to Poppy. Nope, both rakes were mine and I take full responsibility for wearing it out, and that goes for my back too!

There was a big change in the weather yesterday. Still sunny but downright cold with a  strong blustery wind  that...as daddy used to say, "would cut right through you".

Today we cut small trees and shrubs, and long cedar limbs that were beginning to cover the dam, taking up our walking space and making it hard to mow in the summer.

This will give me lots of limbs to add to the natural fence.

and all the leaves raked from here in the front yard...

were added here in the teeny tiny garden.

Looks like our sunny weather is about to end, for a while anyway. North Carolina has snow and freezing rain coming in tomorrow evening. Looks like we will get only rain, but that's okay with me. 

Not a very exciting post here. Though I'd better check in and apologize for not visiting lately. Hope you haven't deleted me just yet. :)

Love,

Henny

Rain, Rain. Rain

Can't help but laugh at this picture...

kinda looks like a crooked little house from an old-timey nursery rhyme, or maybe where Popeye would have lived.

Oh my goodness friends, it has rained all day long!!

and this flowering quince that grows out by the gas tank is simply covered in buds. Guess maybe it's confused again this year.

I'll believe it when I see it, but tomorrow is supposed to be sunny, no rain, and 70 degrees.  That's right!

Let me show you why my neighbor's free pine straw is so appreciated...

The straw turns this soft, mushy, soggy ground into a dry place to walk. Those little steps you see on the right lead to the chicken lot. 

Yesterday afternoon the rain stopped. Oh wow!! I announced to Poppy, "I am going outside and move. See how many calories I can burn off before supper". 

So I got the wheelbarrow and moved load after load of pretty dry pine straw. It felt wonderful!

That is dark muddy water and wet leaves you see in the back of the goat lot.

I swept out their little barn and spread enough straw to give them a little dry ground to walk on. 

Well It's 4:00 and still raining. Guess I'd better get the umbrella and a bucket and get the goats a little hay, then Eli will be expecting a walk up and down the muddy road. 

Poppy gets off work at 5:00 and thank heavens he is picking up fish plates for supper. What a nice break!

Love,
Henny

Will black eyed peas and collards bring sunny days?

Well, I may have been wrong, posting this is the wettest year on record. This morning the local weatherman said it is the fourth wettest year on record. 

and with rain predicted for the next four days, AGAIN! maybe I will spend most of this last day of 2018 in little sewing room.

I know one thing! We are eating black eyed peas and collards tomorrow for good luck and hopefully, start the year off right! Yes we are!

and speaking of the sewing room, I've been meaning to show you this...

Remember the 2 aprons, 2 bonnets, and 2 doll dresses I rushed to finish for the home-schooled girls for Christmas? Well, the mom picked them up. She seemed pleased with everything.

The little blouse was the hardest to make, but it turned out pretty cute, I think. In fact, while the mom was here, she bought another bonnet and apron set. 

and while we're in the sewing room I'll show you my newest aprons...

Sandy, a blogging friend in New York got me started on this idea by asking if I make clothespin aprons.

I had seen on line, something called a gathering apron and thought how neat, for gathering eggs or bringing vegetables in from the garden, or carrying clothespins out to the line!!

Plundering through my pattern drawer one day, right there in front of my eyes was this cutest apron pattern I had never noticed before. These are fun aprons to make!

Most of these things I've added to my little bonnet shop, along with a few dolls.

The teapot apron with most of the teapots up-side-down.

Good grief, this is a gloomy Monday morning!

There is so much I could get done on this dreary rainy day..the floors need vacuuming, and the bathrooms need cleaning, all the Christmas decorations need to be taken down and stored in the shop, but it's too gloomy to even get started! But boy, just let that sun shine come back and I'll tackle anything!!

I think about mama too on dreary days. She used to say, "I can't get anything done but stand and look out the window when it's snowing". We are kind of that way too when it rains. 

I've posted this before, but mama used to play the piano, by ear. She never had a lesson. One of her favorite tunes to play and sing was "The Old Spinning Wheel"...

and here's the video! I must have done something right! Hope it will actually play!

I suppose we will be in bed fast asleep when the new year comes in. It's been many years since Poppy and I were up past midnight. 

Here's a picture from one New Year's Eve back in the late 1970's...we were on our way to a party at the Sheraton Hotel in Southern Pines...to dance the night away. One of my most favorite nights out...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Love,
Henny

Back to work

Well, Christmas has come, and gone in a hurry, but wasn't it fun! Hope it was a merry one for you all. I've got pictures to show you and the chew bread recipe, in a minute.

But first, now that Christmas is over I could hardly wait to get outside and work! Thank goodness for steroid injections!! 

Wednesday I worked four hours putting up a retaining wall to stop our chicken lot from completely washing away. Why I've been expecting to see hens lose their footing in all this gushing rainfall and go with the current under the fence and down the hill!

Should have taken a before picture, but as usual, forgot...

Oh my gosh, you should have seen the "before". The bridge was totally hidden under black soil from the chicken lot.

I shoveled and hauled away six wheelbarrow loads of dirt off the little bridge!! The 4" x 4" post helped me keep the spot level. 

From old pieces of scrap tin, I cut sections and hammered them into the ground along the fence line. Then drove Rebar into the ground to support the tin and then wired the Rebar to the fence. There! That should hold it!

Hopefully, the bridge will dry out now. It has been treacherous walking back there for Eli and me...well, for me anyhow.

and next on the list of jobs...

get some of these leaves raked up so I can use this beautiful pine straw from our neighbor Fred. 

Wednesday, I did rake leaves for about three hours...before the rains came back. Do you know this is the wettest year on record for us? 

Okay, I've got Christmas pictures, except nothing about the pictures looks like Christmas...

except for our smiling faces. This is my daughter Andee, son-in-law Todd, and home on college break, granddaughter Madison, and her friend Paul. 

Having them here simply "made" Christmas for Poppy and me!!

Rosie said there would be no picture taking!!

 Rosie is a little rough-neck!

we must have spent an hour playing in the goat lot!

Madison tried out the swing.

Little Weetie  enjoyed all the attention. What a fun Christmas for her!!

See, nothing here looks like Christmas, and yet inside there was a fire going in the fireplace and the entire bar was covered with foods...we had three crock pots going, one with spicy meatball, one with seasoned new potatoes, and the other with little sausages...there was potato salad, ham, deviled eggs, a vegetable tray, yeast rolls, cheesecake, chocolate pecan pies, fudge, chew bread, Christmas cookies and more...and I forgot to take a picture!

and here's the recipe...

brown sugar chew bread

1 stick butter

1 box light brown sugar

1 tsp. pure vanilla

3 eggs

2 cups self-rising flour

1 cup chopped pecans

1 cup sweetened flaked coconut

Mix in order given

grease 9 x 13 pan

bake at 350 degrees 40-45 min.

(until toothpick comes out clean)

do not over bake!

Seems to do better if you sift the flour before measuring 

Guess I need to get busy. Got to go to town for a few things before I can work outside. After today, we have four more days of rain coming! and yesterday we got another three quarters of an inch!

okay, the rare and unusual picture! One with Poppy, and me too! :)

Thank you for visiting.

Love,

Henny

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

IT'S CHRISTMAS!!

Can you believe it's Christmas Eve!!

I've just pulled a pan of brown sugar chew bread from the oven...

The first bit of baking I've done for Christmas! Hope to get three chocolate pecan pies in the oven next, and make a pan of fudge (wonder why, make a pan of fudge, reminded me of "pick a bale of cotton". Need to be wondering about my mind these days! :)

Just wanted to stop a minute and wish you all a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Connie, I just love this little card! It's so special! and the little scrubber is way too pretty to use. Thank you!

Smokey said for me to wish you a Merry Christmas. He was way too tired.

Woo says, "what hair on the bed?

and this! is Peach Jam with Rum! It is delicious! I've eaten some. (maybe that's why I was thinking about picking a bale of cotton earlier). Just kidding. I didn't even taste the rum. Thank you so much Vic!!

Thank you for reading my silly blog. I love you all my blogging friends, and appreciate your friendship.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

pardon the raggedy look, but a pretty Cardinal lit on the roof.

an add-on to my blog after reading five comments...

Willie is right! It's the wonderful comments that really make a blog special. Your comments mean everything to me. Thank you!

Love, 
Henny

A blurry walk through town, and sweetest gifts!

"Gall-lee"!  friends, is it busy where you are this last week before Christmas! Where do the hours go?

A Christmas wish of mine has been to walk down main street in our little town of Louisburg...

one night near Christmas and look at all the decorated old homes (just a few here) and such awful pictures...

and the college...

Picture borrowed from the internet

Picture borrowed from the internet

the courthouse...

Picture borrowed from the internet

then cross the Tar river bridge where you can see way down the river, and in the night sky, see Santa, his sleigh and all the reindeer all lit up and bright and beautiful...

it was a little scary looking down at that black water. I thought this would be such a good post, but all my pictures came out fuzzy. My little camera does not take good pictures at night. What a disappointment.

Anyhow, our walk through downtown happened because of Andee and Todd. Andee called and said, "Mom, let's do it"! They both are so sweet about things like this.

But you know what? With or without good pictures, it was very special to me. It was cold outside, it was a beautiful night and every place looked like Christmas.

Something else to show you...

The sweetest little bun bun has traveled to us all the way from Fox Grove in Canada to Henny Penny Lane...

he is adorable, and we are tickled to death to have him.

Why, he fits in just perfect, everywhere! 

But says he likes standing tall here with these three tall skinny snowmen, and all these other tall skinny folks.

 and like me too, mama? 

Thank you Deb, so much! Hard to imagine any little critter leaving you and Fox Grove and all the special attention they get there. 

Here's another sweet gift from a friend I met through blogging...

A crocheted dish cloth...something I am always searching for. An apron pattern, of all things! This apron is cute enough to wear to town. I intend to make one too! and Sandy embroidered the cute cup and saucer on the dish towel...and a Christmas pot holder...A pot holder I won't be ashamed to pull out of the drawer on Christmas day. :) Thank you Sandy in New York!

and how special is this!

See those gorgeous large pillowcases with red cabbage roses. Sharon's mom, you probably know Sharon from here, sent those to her years ago and Sharon is now giving them to me. Sharon has sent me gardening books, decorating books, and even a subscription to The Cottage Journal. Remember the Autumn issue of that same magazine...the one that arrived in the mail and I went crazy over, wanting my kitchen to look exactly like the kitchen in that magazine? I dropped everything that morning and took off to Goodwill! :) Thank you Sharon!

Oh my goodness! I've got to get up from this computer and get busy!! I've finished the bonnets, the aprons, and the doll clothes for the lady and she is coming this morning to get them. Guess I'll worry myself to death before she gets here, that she won't like them. 

Okay, I'll hush now! Except, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Aren't blogging friends simply the best!!!

Love,
Henny