The Dove

Thank you all for your kind and thoughtful comments. I know most of you have suffered over the loss of a special pet and understand the hurt. Thank you.

Do you see the Dove?

 I looked up and there it was, above the teeny tiny greenhouse and garden. How special is that!

Want to show you something too. Eli's favorite spot in the house had become between Poppy's side of the bed and his closet...

We put down this mat then covered it with Eli's favorite big camo comforter. He had his own fan there in the right-hand corner. He loved his special place. My point in showing you...getting to the computer was almost impossible. To type, I had to sit on the pillows and balance the computer on the edge of the desk. Another reason for being away so long.  Anyhow...

Shelby and I managed "somehow" to be vendors at the "Bee Jubilee" in June. Fabric is hard to come by anymore so I was rummaging through my fabric closet and found two big pieces of, remember when you could buy fabric by the yard that looked like a quilt top?? Well, I made a bunch of aprons from that fabric...

"These are going to sell like crazy", I thought to myself. "They're so cute"! 

With so many colors in the quilt fabric I could add different colored ruffles. It's the three in the middle.

Yep! These are going to sell like hot cakes...

We arrived at the Bee Jubilee, found our spot and began setting up our display...

Oops! Sorry, my stuff is opposite Shelby's jams, jellies, and baked goods. Anyhow, see the clothing hanging behind the table? That is aprons! Our spot was next to a lady selling aprons and she must have had 150 of them...all made from bath towels!

It was a terribly hot day and to tell you the truth, her aprons looked heavy and hot. Folks liked them though. She sold a lot! Wish I had taken a picture of her booth. All three sides were hanging in aprons, three rows high, overwhelming my little rack of aprons. It was a fun day though and I did sell some bonnets, potholders, bag holders, and 2 aprons. Drove home thinking about what to buy with my little wad of cash. :) Spending the day with Shelby and eating a piece of her apple cake with brown sugar frosting was the best part.

Guess I had better get up from here and get busy. I'm cleaning out the sewing room AGAIN!! Got everything pulled out! 

Sorry for posting again so soon. I will close with a picture of our little Ellie...

Love, Henny

Dear friends,

Welcome back down Henny Penny Lane...

 Hope you still are my friends. Forgive me for going away and not saying goodbye or I will be back or anything! Life sure can get crazy. I won't try to back up and bore you with all the details...just go from here. 

Must share with you though, we lost our sweet Eli last Tuesday. Of course, our hearts are broken. Our little house is just not the same. We have a big empty chair in the living room. It has been several months since Eli could even climb into his chair. Eli was going on 13 years old. He was certainly showing his age and had lost the muscles and most of the nerves, the vet said, in his back legs. He will forever be in our hearts...

Eli's vet says he lived a nice long life but not long enough for Poppy and me. Seems like just yesterday we brought this little ball of fur with the white eyelashes home...

It will take a while to recover from this one. 

How's your summer been? Hopefully, not as hot and dry as it has been here in our part of North Carolina. We have broken records...hottest June...dryest June...most days without rain! We were in a terrible drought all through spring and most of this summer. 

Only one pear survived on our two pear trees...

Funny, after that crazy ice storm in February, remember the one where I chopped up all my towels with a potato rake?? :) Well it warmed up so much that the pear trees bloomed, then we had winter come back in March. :(

Not a good year for gardening either...here are a couple of sunflowers. I always love a sunflower...

and this one trying to top the old birdhouse...

and Poppy took this one on our walk with Ellie this morning...

Not a very exciting post. Thank you if you're still here. I have missed you all!

Love, Henny

Mother Nature, Please!!

 Have you ever known such weather?? I mean, we had 80 degree days in February, and it began looking and sounding like spring! Oh, I couldn't have been happier, especially after going through two weeks of packed ice and frozen towels.  But winter was not over. February is supposed to be cold. Very cold!

Then comes March with more 80 degree days except there were three cold fronts which dropped temperatures down below freezing. Friday night, after a warm 78-degree beautiful day, we had a thunderstorm, a hard downpour of rain followed by another cold front. Woke up this morning to 29 degrees. Up and down! This is supposed to go down as the hottest March on record. 

This little Carolina Wren sits atop the old cupboard preaching about this crazy weather...

After starting her nest in three places that didn't work out, she settled on this old rusty kettle that set on the bench on the front porch...

Good nest building site but bad location. Smokey and the dogs spend time on this little porch. I'm afraid baby birds wouldn't last long there. So, we hooked a chain to the handle and lifted the old kettle little by little until it hung in a safe spot...

Moving the old pot didn't seem to bother her...

Hopefully, there will be baby birds and warm days again soon.

The Carolina Jasmine is blooming along the dirt path...

and is spreading right along...

Jasmine in the cedar tree. Oh, and while across the path I saw what looked like a snake...does it look like a snake to you?? Coming out of the ground??

Another eerie looking picture, or at least I think so. A vulture on our raggedy old pier, soaking in the warm sunshine...

Well, that's about it for me. Hope you all, friends, are doing well. I feel ashamed for complaining about the weather as things can always be worse. I've been playing up at the teeny tiny greenhouse and garden...raking leaves and making things pretty. Will save pictures for my next post.

Smokey and the Bunnies. :)  Waiting for breakfast...

afternoon snack of apple slices, kale, and a little carrot...

Thank you for stopping by. 

Love, Henny

Cleaning up the Mess!

But first, I am so happy that the month of February is winding down. Out feeding chickens this morning, I noticed buds on the Flowering Quince. 

Be still my heart! I can hardly wait to feel the warmth of spring again...to hear the frogs down at the pond...and see grass that needs mowing.

Awww, speaking of the pond, we'll sure miss our old Miss Ducky. Sadly, she passed away last month...

The teeny tiny pond won't be the same without her. This was her pond for at least 15 years, and she stood guard and protected it daily. It was funny watching her swim out to meet any wild duck that might stop by...explaining to them that she was in charge here. She was our sweetie pie. 

Another bit of news from January that I forgot to mention...

Our sweetest boy Eli turned 12 years old. The books say that's pretty old for a Pyrenees. He is doing well except for those big back legs which have become very weak. We keep looking at those wheels or wheelchairs for dogs but those made sturdy enough for a Pyrenees are expensive. :(  

Still dreaming of Springtime, this is the little playhouse of my dreams...

Hope I won't get into trouble using this picture from off the internet. It's just so beautiful!!

Okay, about cleaning up the mess and what a mess it was! Remember my brilliant idea of using every towel in the house to make walking paths over the packed snow and ice?

Well, it took days for these towels to thaw up enough that I could pull them apart. Seriously! Frozen towels cannot be pulled apart. I used a potato rake to pull each towel from the ice and ground frozen beneath it. Chopped a few holes in the towels too!

That wheelbarrow packed with frozen towels facing the sun...stayed here for two days without thawing. I finally had to carry buckets of hot water from the house and pour over them.

Even though the sun came out the days were cold and the ice stayed around. The fun part was setting up a little laundry area with an old bench and No. 2 tub. My hands were more than a little chapped and dry after all this. Oh my gosh...there were bird seeds and sunflower seeds and gravel all frozen into the towels! My goal now is to buy all new towels and save these for future ice storms. :)

back to spring being just around the corner...the Jonquils are coming up...

I raked pine straw from off the dam and covered the bare winter ground around them. At least, it looks a little warmer for them. 

Guess I've kept you long enough friends, well, that is if you're still here. Sure do appreciate your visiting.

Love, Henny

Uggg! This weather!

 No siree!! You will not hear me wishing for snow any time soon!! I am scared to death trying to get from the front porch steps to the chicken house door...slick as ice out there!!

No soft, fluffy snow here! We have sleet, and freezing rain, all packed down hard and slippery! Poppy went to the mailbox yesterday...

There was no mail and no sign of tire tracks that the mail had run. Going in the opposite direction here, takes you into town. In case you're interested. :)

 

                  

I started this post last Tuesday and here it is Saturday! The ground is still solid packed ice and we're waiting now for the next snowstorm. 

We are not used to weather like this...ice covering the ground for a week and now a major snowstorm predicted for today and tomorrow! 

So afraid of falling, I had to come up with some way to get to the goat lot and chicken house...

Well, necessity is the mother of invention! Our towels will probably never come clean but that's okay. We need a stack of new ones anyway. This idea works perfectly!! The towels stick to the ice and the top feels like walking on grass.

This pink one especially won't come clean! I had spilled a cup of coffee on it before adding it to my path. :) The damp towels stick to the ice better. 

One more weather-related item and I will hush about it...Take a look, if you will at the weird icicle...

Okay, I'm done. You Northerners are probably thinking, "she doesn't know anything!!  and I bet you're right!

Staying inside now, Ugg!!! I was bound and determined to finish this apron that has almost broke me from sewing altogether...

First, this apron has darts. Darts! I don't like making darts and the ones in this apron are odd and hard to get right. Then I had to sew the pocket on twice. I made the ruffle too short and had to take it completely off, add another length and gather it all over again! Then I pinned the bib to the skirt, sat down to sew it on and had pinned the bibb on backwards. Whew!! 

I've made a few teeny tiny pinafores and bonnets. These used to sell really well at the farmer's market. Don't know why I stopped making them...

Well, it's 10:41 am here and a few tiny snowflakes have started to fall. Guess I'll go prop up at the kitchen window, watch the birds, and finish off the bowl of popcorn from last night. :(

Want to mention though, I was looking back at the comments on my last post, the one just before Christmas. There were some very nice comments that I am just seeing. Thank you! And South Carolina girl, I enjoyed reading about the wormy Hickory nuts. The panful on our front porch may have worms but are too frozen to move around. :) 

Thank you, dear friends.

Love, Henny

Come on in friends, and Merry Christmas!

Good grief! That door really needs painting. Anyhow, not much planned here for Christmas this year. In fact, we have nothing planned. Guess it will be just Poppy and me. 

This is the first year ever that I didn't put up a tree in the living room. I did, however, put up a small tree on the teeny tiny front porch...

It's hard to get good pictures. The porch is small, and I can't back up far enough. :)

Poppy cut a big cedar limb, that needed to be cut anyway. It grew out over the dam and got in the way of his mowing. Anyhow, I had a big No. 2 tub of green cedar to use for decorating...

My friend Karen made the pretty Christmas pillows and gave them to me. I love them!

And here's the old cupboard filled with cedar that doesn't show up too well...

Oh my gosh, I left my dusting rag in the chair! We did get another Santa poster for the big old barnwood frame. A windstorm year before last ripped the old one into pieces. 

That's about it for outside. Let's go in, I'll show you my pretty polished red delicious apples...

It just wouldn't be Christmas without them. I buy a two or three every time I go to the store...I've eaten one almost every day in December. Reminds me of Christmases long ago when we got a red delicious apple in our stocking. 

and I bought a small Poinsettia for the table...

So, this is my little Christmas post for December 2025. I mostly wanted to wish all of you a MERRY CHRISTMAS! 

Thank you for putting up with me for another year. 

I love you and appreciate you dear friends. 

Henny

 

If I hurry...

I just might get this, and one more post done before Christmas! I'll tell you what!  I've had "The Night Before Christmas" going through my head since the day after Thanksgiving!

Like outside trying to rake up a few leaves and going over and over in my head, "as dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly, when they meet with an obstacle mount to the sky",

and, seeing the moon early mornings while out with Ellie lately, "the moon on the breast of the new fallen snow, gave a lustre of midday to objects below".  One of my favorite poems for sure! 

Moving on to more important things :) My scissors...

and this isn't all of them! There are scissors in the greenhouse and in the shop, in the kitchen, and laundry room, in my car, and a teeny tiny pair in my pocketbook! These 5 are in my sewing room. Opening the new pack of 2 yesterday (the smaller ones on the far end), made me think of my aunt Berlie...

That's her, 3rd from the left in the back row. My dear Aunt Berlie! I loved spending nights with her. She lived alone in a big old house that had an attic. I loved cutting out of an old catalog...we would go up in the attic and find an old Sears Roebuck catalog, bring it back down to the sitting room, where the heater was toasty warm, and Aunt Berlie would start looking through drawers for a pair of scissors. "I know there's a little old pair of scissors here somewhere", she would say. 

Scissors! we have so much of everything now, don't we?

Anyhow, Shelby and I, well now it's Shelby, Karen, and I were vendors at the Christmas Bazaar last month. Karen makes the most beautiful doll clothes...

Karen was bound and determined to have 50 outfits made before doing craft events. Her set-up was so pretty! Her husband Norm built the clothes rack...

and you know Shelby with all her baked goods and jams and jellies..

Customers always flock around her table. And a little glimpse of my stuff, such as it is, as mama would say...

So, a craft event really gets me going! I've been sewing just about every day since...making a few new things too!

Not much going on outside these days except trying to rake up acres of giant oak leaves! It's raining and cold today, still in the 30s as I write this. My little greenhouse, full of plants I hope to keep alive through the winter...

Need to end this but I did promise Smokey to show you this picture. You see, I forgot it last time and he especially wanted Precious to see it. You know Precious has her own blog. :) 

Thank you, Dear friends.  I appreciate you all so much. I always mean to reply to each of your comments. Where do the days go! Oh, my new Santa poster arrived this week and is hanging on the front porch. Anxious to get out all the Christmas decorations. :)

Love, Henny