The Garden

Hey friends,

Well, after days and days of blustry winds and cooler than normal temperatures...the beauty and warmth of spring moved in...

and actually stayed several days, even long enough to get the teeny tiny garden planted...

as mama would say, "such as it is".   But it's a start.  Today, we have 59 degrees and steady rain...and this is supposed to stick around all week. 

This is my one horseradish plant. It grew in last year's garden but the girls I bought it from said not to harvest the root until the second year. Probably won't know what to do with the root anyway. 

and speaking of last year's garden...

do you remember the beautiful Leek that grew and grew? Well, it is no longer. Even the little bag of saved seeds have been misplaced. I loved that Leek!  Last year's garden was full of surprises and extra  special.

I've simply got to find another Leek plant. Lowes doesn't have them this year.

Anyhow, back to this year's garden...the teeny tiny row of red russian kale is looking good, however, I did see three pretty little blue butterflies dancing above the row which is probably not a good thing. 

Oh, and back to this picture. The old birdbath is cracked and no longer holds water. So, using the pretty white flower pot Andee gave me last Christmas, and the large antique bowl I found at Goodwill, put together with a verbena plant and a frog and some rocks, well, it's kinda pretty, I think. 

Not much to talk about lately except yard work, the garden, or back pain. So, I will finish up here with the garden Bee House...

not much difference except Poppy drilled holes in the ends of the sticks and I've added some big pieces of pine bark.

Still want to fill the large glass jar with bamboo pieces but haven't been able to find any.

I'm good at over-doing things...and may scare the bees away with the bark roof.

Hope I haven't bored you to the point of never coming back. Oh, and the back pain...I have an MRI scheduled for Friday. Hopefully, this will show if something has changed, causing more pain. :(

Thank you for visiting.

Love,
Henny

 

Another Rose, and a Bee House

I was expecting Mother's Day to be quiet and, well, a little lonely and depressing. 

Then Saturday afternoon, Andee called and asked, "mom, can we do a drive-by tomorrow for Mother's Day. We won't come in."   Of course! I was tickled to death! 

Then Poppy said, why don't you pick up some lunch on the way and I will pay.  Anything will be fine, and we will sit outside and eat. So we did. It was so good to see them both!

Andee and Todd brought me the beautiful rose in the picture.  It's yellow, pale pink, and dark pink too. I love it!

I've started a new project for the garden...by the way, that dot you can see going up the dirt road is Poppy riding his brand new John Deere mower to the mail box...

didn't realize he was in the picture until now.


Anyhow, I've been hearing and seeing a lot lately about Solitary (mason) bees and how to build a house for them in your garden.

and you know how I am...get an idea in my head and then simply can't wait to get started. Oh, I've already lost sleep over these bees, dreaming and planning all during the night while the rest of the world sleeps. 

Most surprising is the fact the I found everything I needed to build this bee house in my stash of junk boards and pieces of old wood down near the bunny lot.

Poppy's back with the mail and a big turkey feather and says tell ya'll "hey". Said he found the feather along the way.

So back to the bee house...I've found some really neat ideas online but one of the cutest and the one I tried to model my bee house after is by Jerri Landers at hopalonghollowgazette.blogspot.com She has such a beautiful place!

It's not finished yet. All those sticks piled on the left side need holes drilled in them and the wide mouth glass jar will hold pieces of bamboo...

Also picked up small pieces of cut firewood, and large pieces of pine bark. I love, love, love doing things like this!

Tomorrow Poppy and I are going to Lowes in Henderson to get a few things we need. Wearing our mask and keeping our distance, of course.

Turkey season ended last Saturday, thank the Lord! Now we can concentrate on getting some things done around here...before next deer season comes in again! No turkey this time, by the way. :)

Here it is Wednesday morning...was too tired to finish this last night. Will say bye for now and hope to be back soon. We're going to Lowes!! Yay!!

Love,
Henny

Mama and Roses

My Mother's Day post...a little early

Not much to post about these days. Well, the roses are blooming, that's something, and Sunday is Mother's Day, that's big. 

Have I ever mentioned that my Mother's name was Jewel?  Yes, and she truly was a jewel. 
Mama loved roses. Once upon a time, back in the early 1990's, before mama gave up her little home and moved in with my sister...

we went shopping for rose bushes, mama and me. My plan was to dig up a bed in her back yard and make her a rose garden. A beautiful rose garden. Well, all I accomplished that day was to make more work for mama in the coming days. 

My digging, chopping, and planting would have made a good teaching video on "How not to build a rose garden".  Anyhow, that was long ago and my intentions were good...that poorly built rose garden has long since been bulldozed over.

Oh Willie, the pink roses, pink wheelbarrow, and little Weetie in that first picture reminded me of you. Hope you like it.

This is a skimpy little rose but hangs heavy with blooms.

I do believe pink roses are my favorite. Mama loved yellow roses.  Wonder why I've never bought a yellow rose? That will be my next purchase!

maybe these knock-out roses are country roses, you know kinda like The Town Mouse and The Country Mouse. :)

move the camera a little to the left...

and there's a country cat drinking water.

and this poor struggling white rose surrounded by weeds has a few pretty blooms. The little yellow flowers are called Golden Star and grow wild here. 

Mama was always saying the funniest things...

When we first bought this piece of property, we would come out on weekends and work; clearing trees and honeysuckle vines, etc. One Sunday we were coming out to burn a pile of brush, which bothered mama. She said to me...

"Melba, I'd be ashamed to go out there and burn brush on Sunday. You know that's how the man got put in the moon; burning brush on Sunday".

Happy Mother's Day!

Love,
Henny 

Dear friends,

Oh my goodness! Did my "cuteness" post seem a little strange and maybe unfinished? Well, here's what happened...

I was bound and determined to post something today, especially after receiving the picture of my friend's sweet granddaughter. She was wearing the bonnet I made for her when she was just a baby and the apron I had made for her grandmother. 

Anyhow, I started my blog post early then left the computer to get the usual chores done. Somehow I managed to work for three solid hours on the bunny lot, then pulled out the mower and mowed for two hours.

Just sat down here for a minute to work on my special post and realized it was published hours ago!  Good gosh!  😕 

I thank you for the nice comments. 

Love,
Henny

Cuteness

A very special online friend sent me a picture of her granddaughter I've simply got to share with you...

Isn't she adorable? She and her grandma had been busy planting vegetables in big pots. Oh, and her bunny's name is "BunBun", named after my bunny. 

Here's proof, I need to be wearing those new expensive bifocal glasses of mine. Have you ever seen so much dust! Maybe I'll pull out the dust rag tomorrow.

Well, this is tomorrow! We'll see about dusting later.

This picture was taken in early March...

and I was so excited to see a little spring green.

This picture was taken last week...

Now this is green! But we still aren't having spring-like weather. Cool, Cloudy, and showers of rain! That's it! Last night around 9:00 we had an unexpected thunderstorm with lots of rain.

Remember this bird feeder I bought and posted about last year...

well, two little wrens have say it's not a feeder, it's a birdhouse... 

It took lots of moss and straw and bits of Eli's hair, and lots of work to fill in the big hole in the back. But you know those tiny little wrens, they sing the loudest and work the hardest.

Windy Days

I've been back in the much neglected, teeny tiny sewing room. It's about time!!

also opened the door to the much neglected "Henny's Bonnet Shop" and, oh my goodness! Why, the sewing room is full of little aprons and bonnets that need to be added, like these in the picture.

I'm working on several small clothespin dolls too.

My heart has just not been into sewing, so mostly I've been standing and staring out the window, wanting to garden; wanting warm sunny days; wanting this Corona virus to go away, this black cloud hanging over all of us. 

We had frost three times last week, and the 'WIND' !!

But about my little shop...since there will be no craft shows any time soon, I could at least add what I've made to the shop.

Easter has come and gone.  This little Easter Egg apron and bonnet set should have been displayed in my shop...

Guess I'm not much of a shop keeper. :)

Friday afternoon, wearing my black fitted homemade face mask and a pair of rubber gloves, I made a trip to Walmart for a handful of groceries and to pick up a prescription for Poppy.

Keeping my distance, as best I could, from other shoppers, made my way back to the gardening center...

and bought four bell pepper plants, two eggplants, 

three tomato plants, and a sweet basil. A good start for the garden. Supposedly, we have rain coming in tonight and rain again tomorrow.

Poppy made these pictures of the giant azalea...

one of the first things we planted here thirty years ago.

It has been extra pretty this spring.

That's about it for now. Sure appreciate your visit. Hopefully, I'll get all the new bonnets and girls aprons added to the shop.

Love,
Henny

My Easter Bunny

Dear friends,

Thank you for the comments on my last post. I dearly loved every one of them and meant to come back and reply. Surely you must know, you are my best friends. Thank you!

HAPPY EASTER! 

Have you seen my adorable EASTER BUNNY...

Remember "Penny" and "Bun Bun"s son, "Chief, Son of Bun"? Don't let that bashful look fool you.

Every day around 4:00, the bunnies (all six of them, yep, six rabbits!) know it's feeding time. Besides pellets, they get a handful of kale, apple slices, and carrot pieces. When I walk into Chief's pen, he jumps to grab what's in my hand...recently his little teeth hit my finger and brought blood. Scared us both but it was an accident. He is very sweet and gentle.

Lately, I've been working on the bunny lot. The 10' x 10' lot is divided into four sections like this...

This is Penny. What do you think of her new house? It's made from the box my new mower was shipped in. Penny says it is nice and roomy and has a wood floor. The 10 x 10 lot has a top, so the cardboard will stay dry.

Anyhow, my reason for changing things around again was to give the two new white bunnies a condo of their own...

Oops, there's one missing. She must be under the house. See how these two have been digging, throwing dirt everywhere? Wish you could have seen these two bunnies when I put them in this pen. First time either rabbit had ever touched the ground. These were meat rabbits and were born and raised in a small cage. Very small! It makes me happy to watch them.

Bun Bun and Fiona share a condo. Sorry, I didn't get a good picture of them.

The playhouse/greenhouse again...

A long black snake came visiting. He saw me and crawled under the boards with the potted plants on the far right. 

and that's where our friend the frog lives. Poppy came to our rescue but the snake had disappeared. I will be watching for him! :(

This pink Azalea  in front of Poppy's shop has been absolutely beautiful...

so many blooms the limbs are sagging and ...

the sun was so bright I had to make a shadow for the color to show up.

Guess I had better get busy. Here it is bedtime again. Maybe I will dye a few Easter eggs. Just two or three. That would be fun. There will be no big dinner tomorrow, and no company. 

Love,
Henny

and Happy Easter!