There was a little girl who had a little curl...

  right in the middle of her forehead...

You may remember our great granddaughter, sweet little Violet. She wasn't even walking last time I posted her picture.  She is the most adorable child. 

Looks like she was fixing to water her Grandma Andee and Grandpa Todd's flowers...

which just happens to be my all-time favorite picture! And now that Violet is two and a half, she has a new baby brother...

This is Henry, born last May...

Little Violet and baby Henry along with their parents Madison and Hunter just spent a few days at Disney World in Florida. Hopefully, we will get to see them soon. Violet was just a baby last time they were home. We haven't seen Henry yet. Andee keeps us up to date with lots of pictures. 

The early morning sun sure made us long and skinny this morning...

and the Black-eyed Susans must like this dry dusty weather...

It's odd how the Goldenrods aren't blooming. See them in the background how they look like they might bloom. But then they just turn brown. Got to be the drought.

There were a few purple flowers mixed in...

Makes our morning walk with Ellie more enjoyable.

One more thing. I've got to show you my "Rusty Heart"...

My good friend Karen who lives just down the road a piece loves rusty things, like me. She has a rusty heart and tells me that she and Norm, her husband, were driving along and she spotted this rusty heart for sell. She bought it for me. Karen says, "now we both have rusty hearts". Isn't that sweet?

Well friends, that's about it for this post. Oh, I've got to mention this. I was looking at comments awaiting moderation, (something I never think to look at) and saw dozens of comments concerned about me, since I was missing for about 3 months. Made me feel just awful but touched my heart. Thank you so much for worrying about me. Thank you for caring. 

Love, Henny

September Morning...

and there sat a crow looking at the moon...

It was our early morning walk with Ellie, and I didn't have my camera, but Poppy did have his. "hurry", I said, "I want a picture of that crow and the moon"! 

Made me think of mama...It was on a Sunday many years ago even before we moved out here. We were clearing a spot to build the cabin and was burning brush. Mama said, "Melba, I'd be ashamed to be burning brush on Sunday. You know that's how the man got put in the moon"!

Anyhow, hello again dear friends. It's good to be back even though there isn't much to post. The teeny tiny pond is still here even through this summer of extreme heat and drought...

We were beginning to worry but then it rained in July! Enough to bring the water level up but have had no more since then. Things are looking bad again...

Good to have a place for the animals to get water and cool off a bit. We have seen deer wading over near the cattails. Once a mama deer and her twins were in the water.

Let me show you how I grow grass... :)

or should I say weeds? This spot going into the goat lot was a small, washed-out gully. Driving me crazy!! So once again I filled it with dirt and this time covered it with bark off a dead tree. See, I figured if the grass thought that I was building a path, it would grow there.  :)

Probably shouldn't mention this but it's the old 37-year-old couch. I've covered the cushions again. Several months ago, I found a beautiful large piece of upholstery fabric at a thrift shop for $3.00!!

my colors too! Red, gold,

So here we go again...this should do us for a while longer. Not perfect but will do for now. 

Well, I'm sure you've all seen enough, if you've made it this far. Thank you for visiting. I appreciate you so much!

Love, Henny

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