Home, home in the leaves

 Sorry things are a little messy around Randall Rabbit's home. Things seem to take on a ragged look in the winter months, don't you think? I was on my way down to feed him. If you look closely, you can see poppy through the wire fence.

awww, here we are...

The little veranda I had been building around Randall's house, Poppy saw as the perfect spot to sit and watch the deer at the end of the dam. He and Randall keep each other company. 

Seems Randall sees the deer first and signals to Poppy by thumping loudly.  Late yesterday, Poppy texted me to Look out the living room window. There were eight deer at the end of the dam. 

Taking a break. Apple peels are his favorite treat...

Randall sure is a sweetie pie. I missed the perfect opportunity to adopt a companion for him. Makes me sad to think about it. The Orange County Animal Services, about an hour's drive from here, had a large grey and white female, "spayed" rabbit that needed a home. I was ecstatic. This was late afternoon on Friday before the last big craft show. They are closed on Sunday, so I promised to be there Monday morning. Well, someone came and adopted her on Saturday. :(

Oh well, maybe it was for the best. So, while Randall helps Poppy hunt Smokey keeps me company...

Can't resist picking him up for a hug. He is so warm and cuddly these cold winter days...

His look says he had rather have the soft cushion back, so I got back to my work.

Well friends, just a little Randall and Smokey post. I have been in the Christmas decorating mood and hopefully will be back with a bit of a Christmas post. I actually got around to making an ice box fruit cake yesterday. Yum! So easy and so delicious!

Rian, hope you can visit and see our big boy, Randall. :)

Love, Henny

Oh yes, almost forgot, "Home home in the leaves...

Leaves, windstorms, clouds!

Willow oak leaves are all over the front yard again...third time this season!

So, I decided to start in a different part of the yard and rake the leaves between the house and the teeny tiny goat barn, Rosie's home...

I raked and raked and raked all the way down to the chicken lot, pulling away a bunch of leaves, and feeling mighty pleased with myself for making such a good start. I love seeing the green grass appear from underneath.

Well, 2 days later that big cold front dropped down bringing most of you snow and bringing us only high winds and cold temperatures. The wind woke us up in the middle of the night, Wednesday night with sticks and limbs hitting the house.

Needless to say, the nicely raked side yard is a mess! I will start over! Have to keep telling myself, "no, matter how bad it looks, all those loads of leaves I pulled away are still gone," so all is not lost.

Filling in here with a picture of the little sewing room where there were supposed to be pictures from the big Christmas craft event last Saturday...

I was supposed to come back and post about it, but it all happened so fast, and we were so busy, taking pictures never entered my mind. Anyhow, I'm sure you've seen enough of my bonnets and aprons and bags. Speaking of bags! Since the boho bags were such a hit at the last craft show, I had 14 made for this event...and would you believe, not even one bag sold! You just never know.

A few months back I did a lot of cleaning out the teeny tiny sewing room. Got rid of a lot of clutter and dust, but told Smokey he could stay...

along with miss Ellie, stretched out where I need to get to the ironing board...

a jumbled-up post I know but Poppy has taken a few neat sky pictures while deer hunting down near Randall Rabbit's lot. Poppy's chair sits backed up to the lot so he and Randall visit, watch for deer, and look at the sky as the sun sets just before dark...oh, and where am I? Inside getting supper on the table and keeping Eli and Ellie from barking. 

I think the pictures have a lonely look. Back when I was very young there was a painting that hung in the living room at home. It had the same colors as in these pictures but even more red in the sky, there was no blue at all. It had woods in the background, a lake, and there were two men in a small boat. That painting always looked lonely to me. Oh well...

Here's one more Poppy picture. The little squirrels are fussing over who gets to sit at the wheel of the tractor...

Not much of a post but if I delete it, no telling when I will get around to doing another one. Going to warm up supper now. Thank you for stopping by. 

Love, Henny

Dearest friends...

I know you all are probably thoroughly fed up and tired of my blog. Really, who want to follow a wishy-washy blog? Fact of the matter is it used to be fun to take pictures with my little $99.00 camera, load them on the computer, write a post, and pull pictures as I needed them. Now to use a picture I must send it from my iPhone to Poppy's iPhone. He then mails it to my Gmail, so that I can download it to the computer. Loading all the pictures from iPhone to computer doesn't work for me either...I can never find them. Oh fiddle sticks!

Meanwhile back in the jungle, or woods...

Poppy has been putting out pieces of apple for the deer. Look who found them...

So sweet! Hope he's careful under all the deer hooves stomping around. Yes, deer hunting is in full swing around these parts. Poppy seems more interested in helping the deer than he is in killing one. Wonder where that came from?? :)

Many pictures have I taken with plans for various blog posts.  Here's a few from my "funny mushroom" post that never happened.

 The mushroom that winked at me...

and the lovely mahogany one, standing in the soft green moss...

and the lumpy bumpy mushroom, that came from under the straw...

Not quite the collection that was in my mushroom post from a few years back. 

and, oh my goodness! Leaves, leaves, leaves! I've cleaned out the teeny tiny garden and covered it with little willow oak leaves raked from the front yard.

Oops! wrong picture. I wasn't quite finished here. But I dare not try and change anything! The garden is actually completely covered in a warm blanket of leaves now and ready for winter. Oh, but this...

Late in the season, one Cosmos came up in the garden and covered itself in buds. Hoping so much that the buds would open before the first frost, and they did...

Winter has been slow coming this year. We still haven't had the first frost.

Remember my make believe "covered bridge on Henny Penny Lane"? :) Had to get a picture while the truck was gone...

Does kind of look like a covered bridge. I can dream. :)

All the little farm animals, such as they are, are fairing well..

Miss Ducky for one...

Eli and Ellie, two more...

and "me", trying to relax my legs after a few hours in the garden...Smokey never misses a chance to take advantage of a soft bed...

Well dear friends, guess that's about it for this time. Truly, I do understand if you've had it!! :) I shall return. Shelby and I have a big craft fair this Saturday. Hopefully, I can post about it. :)

Love,

Henny

PS: Randall Rabbit sends his love, and so does Rosie. 

In and out here on Henny Penny Lane...

My little cupboard runneth over...

but I simply cannot bear to part with my collection of mostly, old dishes. Plus, some of my favorites are from blogging friends, Andee, Lynn, and cousin Pat. 

What got me started on this subject anyhow, was pulling the "spring" dishes from the old cupboard on the front porch and replacing them with "fall" dishes. Aren't the colors of "fall" beautiful!

and you know what? Never once did I get around to posting the old cupboard filled with "springtime". Where did "spring" go, and so quickly?

My goodness! It took near half a bottle of "Old English" polish to bring the old cupboard back to life. The daily settling of dust from the dirt path, or as Mama used to say, "cars going up and down the road stirring up dust".

Is it my eyes or is there a touch of blurriness in this picture.? Anyhow, here it is "fall". The rest of the porch could use a good cleaning, and I would love to find a couple of pretty pillows for these old rocking chairs. Maybe a stop by Goodwill before Line Dancing tomorrow??

Saturday morning, I talked Poppy into driving his truck out to Murphy's hay farm for a bale of hay. "I just bought you a bale of hay", he said! Well, that was orchard grass for Rosie Goat...now Randall Rabbit needs Timothy hay. So, we drove to Murphy's, not a far trip, maybe 10 miles or so. 

Oh my gosh!! Can you imagine owning a hay farm! If only I had a barn with a hay loft filled with sweet smelling hay. Anyhow, I pulled the hay bale off the tailgate of the truck onto my now much used pink wheelbarrow, across the yard and down the path...

to my makeshift hay barn...

a shelter with an old freezer chest with the lid removed :(

You know what's fun about going to Murphy's Hay Farm, besides all the hay, you never know what new animal will be there to greet you. You may remember the 2,000 lbs. bashful bull from several years ago...

and a few weeks ago was this adorable miniature bull...

and now greeting customers...

Oh, this fella is so sweet and gentle and slow moving...

I would love to bring him home...

I said to Mr. Murphy, I want the camel! He laughed and said, well you can get him! Now where in the world could we keep a camel! You may remember also it was Mr. Murphy who took all my beloved rabbits. Oh yes, he said, there's a big place here for rabbits and a house for them. "sigh".  Will I ever stop missing my bunnies? 

But then there's big loveable Randall Rabbit who has stolen my heart...

with his very own bale of Timothy Hay...

Have been meaning to tell you, Willow Wabbit has a new home. She just didn't work out here. She now lives with another black Flemish Giant, a male so I'm sure she is happy and cared for. The owner wants to raise more Flemish Giants. Willow was a digger. She had turned the entire rabbit lot into a maze of tunnels. I was so afraid of her digging out and something bad happening to them both!

Oh my gosh, how I've gone on and on. It's okay if you checked out several stories ago. I must have been starved for someone to talk to :) Thank you for listening. Love all my blogging friends! 

Henny

A little post to say, "I am still here!"

 and thankful too considering all the storms yesterday from Tropical Storm Debby! Oh my gosh! Our little Franklin County made the local news big time with three tornado warnings and two of those tornadoes touching down, with damage. One tornado touched down just east of us and the other just west of us and were only five miles apart. Scary! and any of you that have read my blog for any length of time know how afraid I am of storms.

So how about a picture with a little sunshine and shadows...

We were walking Eli and Ellie early one morning. Gosh, looks like early spring. The leaves were still not on the little trees along the cutover. Can you tell which shadow is mine and Ellie's? :) This is a picture I liked and just now getting around to using it.  I've simply got to do better at blogging. 

and another one...

another walk, this time around the pond. Hard to believe our little cabin is hidden behind the trees in the background and hard to believe this is even our little pond. Sometimes pictures show more beauty than what we actually see while walking. Huh? Did that make any sense?? 

and one more picture, saved for this post...

Don't know why I love this picture so much. Maybe the colors, texture, or just sweet Ellie? Anyhow, on to life here on Henny Penny Lane...

Remember the baby chicks I bought at Tractor Supply and brought them home March 16th? Well, those sweet chicks are now hens and have started laying...

Time flies, doesn't it! So, after going through terribly dry weather in May and June, the rains came in July and have been overwhelming. The teeny tiny garden! Too much water causes tomatoes to split and ours did! We enjoyed one big perfect tomato...

The center slice was just under 4" across. Mighty proud of this one! :)

Oh, and back in the winter months I bought tomatoes at Food Lion called "cocktail tomatoes". They were actually sweet and good. So I saved the seeds from one and started them in the greenhouse...

These tomatoes are larger than cherry tomatoes and smaller than regular tomatoes...and are delicious! I will be saving more seeds!

and while bragging on the tomatoes I might as well tell you how good the old timey half runner beans have been...

Thanks again to Shelby for finding a cousin in the family that had saved these seed beans over the years. These were Mama's favorite beans and probably her favorite part of the garden. I always think of mama when picking beans...

A few quotes from mama while helping her pick beans...

"Try not to tear the vines all to pieces, I'd like to get another mess to cook".

"Watch out for old snakes. Shirley saw an old copperhead curled up under a bean vine".

"Lord, Mary said she could sometimes smell an old snake".

Mama was something! I miss her every day. 

Well, I guess that's about it for now. Thank you for looking in. I miss blogging and miss you, dear friends. I've simply got to do better. 

Love, Henny

Instead of posting this morning...

 I should be reading your posts and leaving you comments, and I will do that. I just first had to say "thank you" for looking at baby Violet and leaving me such nice comments on my last post. Each one is truly appreciated. I meant to come back and reply to each one...hope you will forgive me.

The days are full and busy...do any of you ever catch up or get ahead? Oh, but it was wonderful having Andee and Todd home for a couple of nights last week. On Wednesday (last week) Lynn and Jason, and my granddaughter Michaela and husband Jacob came for the day too meaning I got to see sweet little Kendall, my great grandson. It was such a fun day. 

With company coming I had to clean out the teeny tiny sewing room and boy! did I ever clean out! Almost looks empty...

Got rid of lots of dust and clutter and moved things around a bit...actually turned it back into a bedroom.

Then come Saturday, Shelby and I had a craft event to attend so that meant pulling out stuff I had just put away. It was the Bee Jubilee in Oxford. Oh my gosh, what a hot day! It was sunny and like 98 degrees, and what a tiring job! It was fun though and best of all, made a little spending money. :)

Speaking of hot! How about hot and dry! We have been weeks, weeks! without rain and temperatures in the high 90s! I've been keeping the garden alive with the water hose. 

Mr. Sunshine and the big sunflower...and the bean vines are covered in tiny green beans...Oh, if only it would rain!

It was very foggy this morning. Probably because there were rain showers around yesterday but none, not one drop came over us. 

Look how brown and dead the grass is! I mean, a few weeks ago it was green all around the garden. 

It has been one thing after the other! Last Sunday Poppy went to wash his hands and yelled, "Mel, there's no water"! Oh, good grief! Had the well gone dry from the drought? Turns out the pump had gone bad. Thankfully, we found a company that would come help us out even though it was Sunday. Cost us a whopping $1,600.00 but we have water again, and a new pump and new wiring! 

Back to the garden...guess where this little fella hides when he sees us coming up the road...

In the garden! He is tiny and goes right through the fence. I couldn't help but think about Peter Rabbit in Mr. McGregor's garden. I've got to come up with something...he is eating the leaves off the small okra plants. Okra! of all things! And there is kale growing nearby!

Guess I should stop here and say goodby. Could go on and on but I should save a little for next time. Thank you, thank you for stopping by. Oh, so many of you commented about the name "Violet". Isn't it sweet, and her middle name is Lorraine, and that's my middle name. Named after me. I am so pleased. 

Love, Henny