The big event on Saturday

Have you ever seen a prettier place for vendors to sell their crafts? This is the "Pork, Pickles, and Peanuts" event at the Duke Homestead in Durham that Shelby and I attended on Saturday...

We're there, under the first white tent on the left. It was such a fun day, and we were busy! Very busy! We hardly had time to speak to each other...but the sells were good!

and way, way back there, where you can see folks milling around is the Duke homestead, the old wooden fence, and tobacco growing in the field. Back there too was where the barbecue cook-off and pie competition were being held.

I really wanted to walk around and take pictures of the homestead (now can't you just see me doing that) but we simply did not have time, so I borrowed a picture off the internet. It took all the nerve I could muster up to walk far enough away from our table to get the two pictures that I did. Seriously.

Aww, that's my sweet daughter Lynn. She stopped in to see us.

So, now I've got plenty of catching up to do, not only blogging, but sewing and doll making. All my little country dolls sold on Saturday. Yay!

Would you believe that Poppy now has a "to do" list? He sure does, and has been steady marking stuff off.

One item was putting up a new clothesline for me. He got that done first thing this morning. 

He put the new line way up high. Said it needed to be high to hold the heavy stuff. Why, I had to stand on my tip-toes to hang this little load of whites. Oh, by the way, MK, that's one of my many white (thrift store) skirts on the line. MK blogs at throughaglass,darkly.blogspot.com  and like myself, she loves white skirts. I love her blog! Is there still going to be a white skirt club?

The little goat barn has been leaking lately, every time it rains...so Poppy got the new tin roof put on. Something else marked off his list.

Guess that's about it for now. Oh, I was surprised to see two new followers, Debra and Beca. Thank you so much. So, I'm hoping to be back soon.

Love,
Henny

Little bit of everything...Pickles to spiders

Looks like I am getting worse and worse at replying to comments. We simply need more hours in the day, don't we?

All of sudden we are bringing in enough cucumbers from the teeny tiny garden to make pickles, and I'm not much of a pickle maker. Going through some old recipes I found one that mama used years ago:

Kosher Dill Pickles

To each quart jar add 1 or 2 heads fresh dill

2 or 3 cloves garlic

1 green hot pepper

wash and leave cucumbers whole

pack in jars

Bring to rolling boil:

2 qts. water

1 qt. vinegar

1 cup salt (non-iodized)

Pour this over and seal

Back then folks made pickles like these without processing them. Guess the boiling brine causes the jars to seal. I just may try a jar...or call the real pickler in the family, my sister Shelby, and asks for her advice.

I did make this one jar of cucumber delight pickles that will keep in the refrigerator for three weeks. 

Oh, about the recipe for that delicious eggplant parmesan. The recipe is on line at www.allrecipes.com under Baked Eggplant Parmesan. It's wonderful, and simple! But you know what...the picture I posted of my eggplant parmesan...

looks better than the picture shown on the recipe, well, I think so.  Check it out and see if you agree. :)

Good gosh! I don't even like being in the kitchen and here this has turned into a recipe post.

Let me get out of the kitchen...

Dumperoo was curious. Why is this pan in the living room, he asked.

Mama's fixing to give you a bath, he told Dumper. Poppy likes to worry Dumper that way.

and this sweetie pie! Couldn't you pick him up and squeeze him? This is one cuddly kitty cat.

and here's the opposite of cuddly...

Poppy was way up high on the ladder when this huge scary spider crawled down the side of the house to meet him. Poppy said it was probably 4 inches wide with it's legs spread out. When Poppy backed down the ladder, the spider backed off too, but as Poppy went up the ladder, the spider crawled down. Makes me shiver!!!

Poppy decided to leave filling in bee holes and go fishing.

Then along about supper time, I found him vacuuming the shop. We have really cleaned out and hauled away a ton of stuff lately. I'm almost afraid to go in Goodwill or the Safespace thrift store...afraid I will buy back something we donated.

It's getting on near 9:30 and I need to sew some tonight. Shelby and I will be vendors at the Duke Homestead "Pork, Pickles, and Peanuts" event on Saturday. Been a long time since we did a big craft show together.

Goodness, I didn't mean to go on and on. Guess I've scared you all away. Hope not. :)

Love,

Henny 

Around Henny Penny Lane

It's been dry as a bone around here lately. The rain clouds seem to fizzle out before reaching our little patch of real estate.

Last night, however, well at the edge of dark, we had just started to eat supper when it thundered real loud. I jumped up and looked out the window...not because of being afraid, no, not this time! I jumped for joy. 

After the thunder, then came the rain...and it poured! Simply poured! Leaving an inch and a half in the rain gauge before moving on. 

So this morning there was fog on the pond.

and fog up at the playhouse.

and did you notice those puny looking stargazer lilies flopped over in the birdbath?There go my big plans for beautiful lilies growing all around the birdbath. I give up. First it's red lilies with six foot stalks, and now it's little spindly stargazer lily stems that can't support the bloom. That's okay. What difference does it make? 

Maybe I should move on and show you what the teeny tiny garden is giving us...

and this...

and see those two eggplants...well once again I made "Baked Eggplant Parmesan" and once again Poppy and I came close to a big argument. Mark my word, eggplant parmesan is going to be the end of our marriage yet.  Poppy says his mom always fried eggplant...why did I have to make something fancy like eggplant parmesan? :(

So, I can understand an argument after my first try at making eggplant parmesan, a few years ago. You see, it was a very difficult recipe...one that called for fried eggplant slices...oh, it was mess! I was hot and tired and mad at the recipe and then for it to not even taste good! 

Anyhow, would you just look at this...

Oh my gosh, it was delicious! That mozzarella cheese! and the eggplant slices are dipped in egg, rolled in Italian bread crumbs and baked until crispy...before putting them into the casserole. He ate a small serving without any comment. Me? I finished off a good size square from one corner of the pan. :) 

Okay, moving on out of the kitchen...

the pond is taking on that nice dark "July" color, which is so much prettier than that winter muddy look.

Guess I'm about done here. Thank you, well, if you're still here. 

Oh, a special "thank you" to my new follower Lisa. Thank you Lisa.

Love,
Henny 

Oh, and before I get into any trouble here...I am kidding about my marriage breaking up over eggplant parmesan. :)

We Tried

I hate so bad to tell you all that the baby bird died today. Oh I hoped so much that it would live, especially after all it had been through.

You know, we probably should have carried the baby bird to a wildlife place that cares for injured or baby animals, but it never entered my mind. My first thought was to get it to a safe warm place and give it food. It just seemed to come to life after being fed...but then went down hill. 

Poppy and I have saved several birds over the years. There were two baby starlings that had fallen from a nest above the door on a loading dock, and landed on a cement floor. The guys working there picked up the two featherless babies that had survived the fall and brought them to my desk. I brought the two starlings home and raised them. This was in the mid 1990's.

Here, they were fully feathered and growing fast. We named them Needy and Greedy...

Greedy, of course, was the larger one.

We brought a small tree up on the back screened-in porch. Sadly, later on, we lost Needy to a snake, but Greedy grew and grew and when we set him free...

he stayed close by. Any time we were outside, Greedy would appear from nowhere and scare us half to death by lighting on us. He used to light on top of my head. We loved them so much.

Another time, we raised a baby Robin that fell from a tall pine tree in the back yard. I actually carried that baby Robin in a shopping bag to work with me and kept him under my workstation so he could be fed regularly. When he was old enough to set free, the mother bird showed up and took over feeding him. It was the cutest thing. She must have been hanging around all along, watching. When we released the Robin, the two flew together and lit on top of the house.

Then another time, we raised a baby Wren...

I have pictures of them all but would need to pull out the box of pictures from under the bed and dig through it. 

Thought maybe talking about these other birds would help me feel better about losing the baby today.

I promised Poppy that I would not get all down and depressed, but it's hard not to. Thank you all for listening and for your nice comments.

Thank you to my new followers, Lisa, and Oklahoma Girl. Blogging friends are the best!

Love,
Henny 

A man with a BIG heart!

Let me tell you about a man with a great big tender heart...

You know we've been cleaning out? Well, just this morning we managed to put together another load to carry to the dumpsters, so off Poppy went.

Wasn't long before the phone rang. It was Poppy. "I'm coming down the path", he said, "walk outside, I'm bringing you something". Of course, all kinds of stuff went through my mind. What in the world could it be. The last time Poppy brought home something from the dumpsters...it was kitty cat. 

No kitty cat this time...

Poppy said when he turned off the main road onto our dirt path and stopped at the mail box, a car went passed causing something in the road to move and flutter a bit. Poppy thought maybe it was a butterfly, hit by a car.

He walked into the road to check and found this tiny pitiful baby bird, with ants crawling on it's little legs. 

How in the world did a baby bird this young get in out of its nest and in the middle of a highway? 

What could we feed it?? I got an empty yogurt container and put in a little cornmeal, a few wild blueberries, a little bread, the insides of a cherry tomato...and mixed it all with a bit of water...then Poppy added some earth worms from the compost bin...:(

with the tweezers we managed to get a couple of bites in his tiny mouth. He swallowed like he was starving. 

Trying to think like a mama bird, I've been going on the back porch every ten or fifteen minutes, or about as long as it would take a bird to locate and bring home a squashed bug, and feeding the little fellow.

The change has been amazing. Already the little bird perks up and opens his mouth when we touch container he is in.

So, that's our excitement for today. Oh, the wild Yarrow was beginning to look a bit ragged so I mowed it down, but not before breaking off a vase full...

Poppy really does have a big tender heart...especially toward little animals.

Love,

Henny

Cleaning out!!

Some days you just can't get it all done! I get busy as soon as my feet hit the floor at 5:30 every morning...and before I can turn around, it's bed time again!

Eli stopped to rest in the cool grass...well, it's not really grass, but mowed weeds...

that's okay, weeds make a good resting spot too.

Whoever said, "A man may work from sun to sun, but a woman's work is never done", hit the nail on the head!

We have done some big time cleaning out and hauling away lately. Why, I've carried three car loads...packed to gills...to donate. First load to Goodwill, and the other two went to Safe Space.

Busy in the kitchen late yesterday, Poppy said, Mel, you've got to see this! It's perfect for your blog! A little squirrel balancing on top of the clothesline prop, eating a peach he stole off the tree, (not a very good picture, taken through the kitchen window), but he was so cute.

Oh yes! I was washing supper dishes at eight o'clock last night and still had to put the clean sheets and bedspread on the bed. 

Yuk! Don't you hate it when you're dead tired and remember that you took the sheets off the bed and washed them, and now the bed has to be made.

See, some folks got a break, before the sheets were back on the bed. :) My hands were still in the hot dishwater. 

So, by the time I can sit down for a few minutes, it's bedtime! and there go my big plans for sewing...to make a bonnet, finish an apron.

Speaking of aprons, I have at least three new ones finished to put in the teeny tiny shop...Here's one...

This fabric is "Little House on the Prairie", and cute as can be.

found it on line and ordered the last two yards available.

Okay, Poppy just woke up from a little nap and Eli is telling us it's time for a walk...so my time at the computer is up. 

I'm very proud to have a new follower...Thank you Willie!

Love,
Henny

Here it is!!

The teeny tiny garden, such as it is....

A little square of corn, pole beans, cucumbers. The zucchini next to the pole beans volunteered and came up.

Probably need to wear my reading glasses up at the garden. The bean vines were simply hanging in beans that I hadn't noticed until this morning.

and here's the rest of this morning's little gathering.

Last night we had bacon, lettuce, tomato sandwiches made with the first Cherokee Purple tomato from the garden. It was really good. 

and our little square of corn which actually looks like might give us a few ears of corn. That would be a first!

I stopped trying to grow corn back in the early 90's when our garden spot was nothing but red clay. I nearly had a heat stroke, out trying to stand up the corn stalks that had blown over during a thunderstorm. Crawling around on my hands and knees packing clumps of red mud against the corn stalks.

Never again!! That's when I knew we had to change the color of the soil if we were ever going to have a decent garden. Fencing in the garden spot was the second best thing we ever did.

Bean vines that were picked this morning.

These three cucumber vines want to grow out instead up the tee pee.

little row of sunflowers and cosmos...

and a little row of zinnias from which only one has bloomed.

So I'm closing the gate to the teeny tiny garden now and going back inside to snap the beans and put them on to cook for supper.

Shelby and Jimmy, my sister and brother-in-law grow a garden big enough to feed Durham County (I exaggerate a tiny bit), therefore our garden is the "teeny tiny garden".  But it's all we need. 

Love,

Henny

Oh, thank you Silver Willow for following my blog. I do love my blogging friends!