A Grasshopper Trap??

I promise, this is not going to be another post about clover,

photo from Wikipedia

however, up at the garden this morning I noticed not only more beautiful clover, but plantain too. The skinny leaf plantain that has the long stems and flowers. This plantain brought back a sweet childhood memory of sitting in the yard with mama.

Mama knew how to weave a grasshopper trap from these long stems. Seriously. I never did catch a grasshopper in one, but she said that I might one day. 

I never did learn to weave a grasshopper trap as pretty as mama's but it went something like this.

Please do pardon my dirty red hands. I had just finished working in the garden when I spotted the plantain.

When my grasshopper trap was finished, I hung it just inside the garden gate. 

I'm afraid mama would be mighty disappointed in my work. Her traps always turned out much neater and prettier. Anyway, if I catch a grasshopper, I will let you know. :)

This wild blueberry grows in front of Poppy's shop. It is simply covered in small blueberries.

Most years I have managed to make one blueberry cobbler from the wild berries. That is, if I am diligent in picking the tiny berries as they ripen, before the birds get them. 

Okay I've managed to put together another boring post. Better go check on BunBun. He's playing in the old, but newly remodeled, dog lot. 

Thank you listening. Oh, The Stargazer Lilies are coming through the ground! I am so excited!

Love,
Henny

Clover and "Chicken Little"

We've got clover! I LOVE CLOVER! 

I have stepped on many a honey bee and got stung, from going barefoot in clover. We rarely see honey bees in clover now and what a shame.

This doesn't look like a lot of clover, but there IS clover and this is the first summer I've seen it here. It's coming up all around the house. Maybe it's because of the trees we've cut, letting in more sun.

When Poppy and I finally moved into our little cabin in the woods in 1989, about the only spot there was for a lawn was where the septic tank and lines had been installed, and that looked like packed clay. I wanted clover growing in what little space we did have. Poppy tilled and we sowed clover, but clover never grew. Now after all these years we've got clover.

I've been outside mowing today, trying to finish a job started the first of last week.  By Wednesday of last week that tick sickness had me feeling so bad I just had to quit on everything. This morning I took the last Doxycycline. Yay! 

Remember when "chicken little" hatched a week or so ago. 

Mom! mom! mama! look at me! 

Now, now, are you alright? I told you to stay off that wire.

Poppy should be here shortly, so I better get up from here. Not much of a post. Thank you...if you're still here. :)

Love,
Henny

My neighbor gave me the pretty lavender petunias. She had several baskets left over from her son's wedding. They fit here just right. Thank you Ann.

'Thee'

Dear friends, 

I realized this morning that yesterday's post read "Thee teeny tiny garden". That extra 'e' was simply my heavy finger lingering too long on the key.

Just before dark yesterday we got that much needed rain on the garden. In fact, we made the local news. We got three inches of rain in one and a half hours.

It is also just before dark every evening that the guineas fly up in the cedar tree overlooking the chicken lot to roost for the night. With the pouring rain, the thunder, and the lightening some of the guineas were stranded on the ground and on the grapevine posts, unable to fly up.

I went to bed worried about my guinea children who didn't make it into the tree before dark set in. These are the same guineas that hatched last October, just before cold weather set in.

The same babies I nurtured and cared for through the cold freezing dead of winter.

The same babies who survived a pine tree falling and landing smack dab through the middle of their pen. Can you imagine the fear when that tree came crashing through!

Poppy and I were sure glad to get that mess of twisted metal and torn tarps cleaned up a couple of weeks ago.

The two dog kennels sat side by side here. We once needed both kennels, back when we had Labs and were raising puppies.

BunBun says, while you're here with the camera, show them my beautiful new Angora coat. Can you believe it! I'm in a panic now. We can't let BunBun's fur get matted again. I am brushing him and so far, no tangles. Any suggestions?

And, back to the garden...

Amazing what a shower of rain can do. I think the tomato plants grew overnight.

Okay, I've been from the garden, down to the dog lots and back with a stop here in front. Thank you for going along. I'll hush for now and hope to be back soon.

Love,
Henny

Thee Teeny Tiny Garden

Thank you to a new follower, Psychelyn. My goodness, I appreciate this so much!

Haven't talked much about the teeny tiny garden this spring and actually, there is not much worth showing. The plants are just starting to grow and fill out. Maybe soon all will be lush and beautiful. Yeah right!

The little waddle fence at the far end of the Kale has 'yard long' beans planted along side. I can't imagine a bean measuring a yard long so I'm hoping these do good. And in the far left corner a few cucumber plants to climb up the fence.

The teeny tiny row of Kale. On the left are sunflowers and Zinnias coming up. That should brighten up the garden.

There are nine tomato plants.

A little patch of onions. On the right a few squash vines and a row of red potatoes coming along.

A little patch of Dill.

Somehow the teeny tiny garden seems a bit boring this year, like me. It just needs something. There is a good chance of getting a thunderstorm this afternoon. Maybe a shower of rain will perk things right up. Right now it's very dry in the garden.

Sometimes, well around here, most of the time, the most beautiful plants were not sown by me but volunteered and came up. Like this...

Not sure if this is a gourd vine.

That green little plant to the left of the vine folks is pesky lemon balm. It wouldn't surprise me to wake up one morning and the house be enclosed in lemon balm. It is growing at an alarming rate and taking over every inch of soil out here. 

And volunteering last year, was the pretty Citron vine that grew. Nary a citron seed did I put into the ground and yet that beautiful citron melon vine grew and grew and yielded several melons.

I need to wrap things up here. It's time for Poppy to get home. Oh gosh, and I forgot to make tea. Better get that done. Hope to be back soon.

Love,
Henny

A sweet little Fairy Rose in bloom. :)

A little update

Dear friends,

Thank you so much for the nice comments. The Doxycycline is working to make me well, but yuk, the Doxycycline itself makes me feel sick. It's not so easy on the stomach.

How was your Memorial Day? Poppy put a couple of steaks on the grill for our supper and let's see, late afternoon we did cut a watermelon and eat a slice. Pretty exciting stuff going on around here.

We did promise to show you Eli's new hair cut. 

Leslie at The Animal House did a great job. He is cute as a button, but I miss that long beautiful coat he wore. He looks like a puppy again with those little clipped ears.

I miss those big furry feet, looking and sounding like he was shuffling around in bedroom shoes. 

You really need to see Eli standing to appreciate how much long hair was cut off. Can't seem to catch him on his feet.

Shaking hands with Poppy.

This old wheelbarrow makes a pretty good bed for you know who.

Better get busy. Today seems like Monday but I'm not getting much done. We were at the vet's office at 9:15 this morning. Dr. Davis wanted to follow up on Eli's Ehrlichiosis and finish giving him his booster shoots. It's a shame Eli and I can't see the same doctor...after all we both have the same illness and are on the same medication. I'm scared to death that I am going to swallow one of Eli's big pills and give him one of mine. : )

Have I even posted about the teeny tiny garden yet? I don't think so. Doc told me to stay out of sun between the hours of 10:00 am and 4:00 pm while taking this Doxycycline. But I'll be back with pictures of the little garden.

Thank you for visiting.

Love,
Henny

It was bound to happen!

Okay fellows, somebody needs to move over...

         

As Piglet, from Winnie the Pooh would say,

                  Oh dear. Oh d-d-d-d-dear, dear.

It was bound to happen. You know all the ticks and tick bites I've been talking about. Well, it started Tuesday, my aching hips and weak legs. I must have said to Poppy a dozen times while outside working, why do I feel so weak.

On Wednesday, after my usual straightening up the house and running to the grocery store, I went to work staining the new well house. By early afternoon my aches and pains had returned. The bones in my hands hurt, my lower back hurt, my ankles hurt. I had a fever, my head hurt. I was sick! 

Thursday morning I was at my doctor's office at 9:00. After answering some questions and a check up, the doctor put it this way...this may be over treating, but I recommend a week on Doxycycline. That would take care of any tickborne disease.  Hummm, Eli is on three weeks of Doxycycline and he has Ehrlichiosis. The doctor said you could very well have Ehrlichiosis also. 

Thank goodness for antibiotics! 

Old sweetie pie is feeling better, in fact he is getting a bath and his hair trimmed as we speak. The groomer moved to a new location about five miles away. I'm sure Eli will want you to see his new look so we may have a picture to post tomorrow.

Thanks for not crossing me off yet. Take care and watch out for ticks!

Love,
Henny 

More work to be done...always!

I've said it before but where the heck do the days go! Thank you for looking at my last post and leaving a comment. Oh, and I do appreciate my new followers. Wow! Never would I have believed that anyone would follow my blog! Thank you! Sure makes me feel like "somebody"! :)

As mama would say, I am simply worn out.  The yard was snaky looking again so I've been mowing. I started mowing on Friday but ran my little taxi cab yellow push mower up under a bush and got a limb tangled in the motor causing a tiny little spring to pop out.

The mower sputtered to a stop and died. Poppy loaded the little broken mower onto his truck and carried it with him to work on Saturday. Scott, the same guy who built the well house, fixed it for us. You know, some folks can just do anything!

During February it felt like spring would never get here. Now May, my favorite month of the year, is half over. Amazing how fast the flowers bloom and then go away...we've been through the daffodils and yellow bells, then the Azaleas and the Iris. Now the roses and peonies.

"Plant white rose" was added to my to do list for tomorrow. It needs to be in the ground. I started it from a cutting about three years ago and here it is blooming so pretty in the same  old pot.

About three weeks ago, maybe longer, I planted six Stargazer Lilies in this bed. What could have happened? Shouldn't they be coming up by now? I was so looking forward to seeing these lilies in bloom this summer.

Okay, I'm hunting and searching for something to talk about here. Guess I had better get all the animals settled in for the night. For me, the bed will feel mighty good tonight. Hope to be back soon.

Love,
Henny 

Poppy is crazy!!

Poppy and I were out playing with Eli. Poppy picked up a stick and said, look Mel, do I look like an old man"? I cracked up. He said, "I guess you will put this on your blog".  

Friends, we got through deer season and now we're done with turkey season. Poppy never killed a turkey, by the way. Three months he was tied up with deer hunting, and one month with turkey hunting. Today was like old times, we actually worked in the yard together.  Yep, together!

We finished tearing down that old dog lot the tree fell on this past winter. Poppy sawed the tree into pieces small enough that we could move them.

While I was mowing the yard with the push mower, he mowed around the pond for the first time this season. Poppy carried the camera. "I will take some pictures for your blog", he said. So, here's pictures, courtesy of Poppy...

On the hill above the pond.

The freshly mowed dam.

There is lots of Honeysuckle in bloom around the pond and it fills the air with sweetness. It smells just wonderful. Did you ever pinch off the end of the honeysuckle flower and taste the sweet nectar inside. That was another childhood adventure almost as exciting as catching lightening bugs. The afternoon sun was shinning through the vines.

That reminds me of mama. As a child I thought Dandelions were beautiful flowers. Mama said if you hold a Dandelion under your chin and it reflects yellow, then you love butter. So I picked a Dandelion flower and brought it to mama. I wanted to find out if I loved butter. Mama held it under my chin and sure enough, it made my skin look yellow. It works, I love butter! :)

And another shot from over on the hill where Poppy was mowing. Not only is the pond muddy but now it's covered in pollen. Still hoping it will clear up. All that melting snow, and then lots of rain rushing down the muddy path and into the pond.

He mowed under the Mimosa tree.

Several of our beloved dogs are buried on this hill above the pond and this was a little memorial Poppy and I made several years ago showing their names. There was Sampson, Nikki, Susie, Cocoa, Splash, Honey, Teddy, Millie, Chip, and Pooh. All were Labs except Teddy and Pooh were small Poodles. Nikki was Wolf and Lab. All were great dogs and we miss them. The spot is pretty run down looking now.

Water Iris are in bloom.

Once again, I need to get busy. My to do list has grown. I did take care of the bugs in the garden with some Dipel DF. Gosh, one eggplant was so bug eaten it may not survive. I got all the tomatoes staked but two, so I need to finish that. Thank you for visiting. :)

Love,
Henny