Update

 Yep, we've spent a lot of time watching spring through the living room and kitchen windows lately...

Just a little update from Henny Penny Lane. My blood work tested negative for Lyme's disease...that's a good thing, and tomorrow, finally I see the orthopedic specialist. Still, my biggest concern is not being able to stand straight and walk at the same time. 

My one constant companion through all this has been Dumperoo. This kitty cat refuses to leave my side, and has slept on the couch with me every single night. 

I sat on the back steps this morning, worrying about all the grass and weeds that have come up in the little brick path. Good gosh! Work is piling up!

Then from the front porch this morning I took this picture of the chocolate vine. It is covered in tiny blooms and smells absolutely delicious. Look close to see the tiny white blooms.

The chocolate vine in the front yard has tiny purple blooms.

Not being able to work outside lately is driving me crazy...so yesterday I pulled a chair up to the table on the back porch, in the sun, and sowed a few seeds in these little starter pots.

Remember when that sweet lady at texan.blogspot.com was giving away the big bag of vegetable seeds...and I was the winner? Well there were all kinds of tomato seeds...the old varieties like Mortgage Lifter, and and I can't recall all the names...but I sure enjoyed sitting there in the sun with everything I needed close by. Poppy said he will move these trays to the teeny tiny greenhouse for me. 

Sure hope these tiny seeds sprout. Maybe by the time these are large enough to plant in the garden, my back will be well. Oh, I hope so!

I hope it's warm and sunny and springtime where you are. Thank you for visiting and I hope to be back here soon.

Love,
Henny

A big smile here!

 Dear friends,

Wish you knew just how much your nice and helpful comments have meant to me since I've been down with my back. I read, and take each one to heart, and appreciate your friendship so much. Thank you.

Yesterday I did call the orthopedic doctor to try and get my appointment moved up. They have nothing available, but promised to call if there is a cancellation. The appointment is March 30th, so at least we are down to less than a week now.

Believe it or not, yesterday was the first day that I really could feel an improvement. Even when Andee called, she said, mom, are you feeling better? Said she could hear it in my voice. Then I got a warning from Shelby to not go outside and do any work just because I was feeling a little better. Not to worry Shelby!!  :)

Before everything decided to go haywire around here, I had plans to make things pretty for Easter. Two baskets sit empty on the front porch table midst the other junk that has collected during my absence. I did hang the cute little bunny towels that Andee sent last year. I love the bunny print!

The mailman left a package at the door addressed to me...from Miss Lynn...

a little get well package filled with all kinds of fun stuff like vintage lace and buttons,  old newspaper ads and instruction sheets from vintage patterns, a really special elephant bracelet made by Lynn, and a pretty night shirt from Andee. There was good smelling lotion and a bag stitched up by Lynn and this very old print of a girl in a swing...

.

should have taken a picture when I first opened the package...cause not everything is shown here. Aren't surprises fun! One day last week, Andee drove down from Virginia just to spend a few hours with me, then drove the three hours back home. What ever would I do without these two sweet daughters, and a sister like Shelby, and special friends like you. 

Okay, I'll hush now. 

Love,

Henny

Still laid up

Not much news here as I am still biding my time waiting to see the back specialist! Waiting is not easy and my back is not getting better.

It is almost impossible to be home alone every day and do nothing. Poppy has been feeding Rosie and opening the chicken house door before he leaves for work. He feeds and waters the chickens and other animals when he gets home in the afternoon.

However, mid morning every day, the rooster needs to be let out of the goat lot and Eli needs to go in the goat lot. I have no choice but to do it myself. After getting Eli's leash hooked on, I wind the leash around my hand all the way up to his collar then holding on tightly I coax him all the way, saying... walk slow Eli...walk slow Eli...good boy. But when we get to the gate and open the latch, there's Rosie waiting to run out. Still bent over, I hold onto Rosie, unhook Eli's leash and let him go, then pick up Rosie and hold her until the rooster scoots out behind us. Still bent over, I put Rosie down and squeeze myself back out the gate and close the latch, then painfully hobble back to the house, up the steps, and onto the couch...to recuperate.

Last night Poppy was in his usual place watching TV and I was, of course, on the couch. Eli jumped up on the foot stool and then on over into Poppy's lap...what a surprise that was! It was the funnest thing. Sometimes I think Eli thinks he is still a puppy.

Thankfully, the camera was close by. Big old baby, bless his heart.

Thank you stopping by. Hope to be back soon.

Love,
Henny

It's spring!!

Thank you all for the kind comments and good advice you left on my last post. Sounds like a lot of you have gone through back problems too and understand what it's like. Thank you!

I've simply got to get back to blogging and reading and enjoying being with you all. Gosh, this feels like being in solitary confinement! You know what is worrying me even more than this pain...the fact that I can not stand up straight. Will this ever go away?  

March 31st I have an appointment with an orthopedic doctor and April 7th, an appointment with an osteoporosis doctor. Yesterday, Shelby, bless her heart, spent another Monday driving me to an "Urgent Care" facility in Wake Forest. I wanted another doctor's opinion and also wanted to be tested for Lyme's disease. The doctor at Urgent Care feels sure my problem is "Sciatica" and he is testing for Lyme's disease. The results will be back in a couple of days.

Enjoying spring through a window....

It's pretty chilly here this morning...32 degrees, but lately the weather has been simply beautiful!

This flowering quince bloomed in December when we had the 70 degree weather at Christmas. I'm surprised at it blooming again.

Sunday, while stretched out on the couch, I watched Poppy put together my new pink wheelbarrow. Can you tell there was a basketball game on too? I'm surprised he got the wheels on the right end. :)

Perfect! It's lightweight and easy to push or pull.

Eli says he is tired of looking out the window too. We miss walking up the path every afternoon, watching for Poppy's truck.

Oh my, the house needs a good cleaning...the furniture needs polishing...the windows and screens need washing...I've simply got to get well!

Hope to be back soon.

Love,
Henny

My aching back!

Dear friends,

Sorry to have been away so long...I am having a terrible time with my back. It started last Saturday...the excruciating pain, and the stiffness. It hurts to lie down, or sit, or stand up straight, or walk. Sleeping was impossible over the weekend...I sat on the couch both nights with a pillow behind my lower back.

Early Monday morning after calling my doctor, I called my sister Shelby. She was out with Jimmy feeding the cows, but answered her cell phone, and said she would be right over.

She drove me to the doctor's office and then on to radiology for x-rays.  My doctor said he found no obvious fracture, put me on pain medication, and said I should lay as horizontal as I possibly can and rest for three more days. Not being able to walk is killing me!

Hope to be better, and back real soon...and hope you will come back too.

Love,
Henny

Checking in...

Bun Bun makes me smile...and it's a good thing he does!

This has been one of those weeks!! Here it is 2:15 on Friday and I just turned off the vacuum cleaner and left the darn thing sitting in the middle of the living room floor. Poppy will be home...probably around 3:30 and I have not had a free minute all day...hardly all week.

I had an appointment at 8:30 this morning...then errands to run...got home with a fifty pound bag of chicken feed, 25 pounds of kitty litter, a bale of hay wrapped in a king size sheet and stuffed in the trunk...to be unloaded and put in the hay rack for the goats, and twelve bags of groceries to unload and put away.

Yesterday I did get outside and put a cup of 10-10-10 fertilizer on each pitiful looking little fruit tree...the next step on my list of what fruit trees need each month. Yep, early March, the website said, give each fruit tree one cup full of 10-10-10. Wonder if I need to start buying bushel baskets for my big harvest this year? :)

Eli got a brand new red ball. Walmart got in more of those small soccer balls.  Just the right size for a big boy like Eli. 

Not much of a post here. I need to visit all my favorite blogs now and catch up. Hard to believe another weekend is here. Hope to be back soon.

Love,
Henny

Mama sang too

I appreciate and enjoyed the comments on the singing post. That got me to remembering even more, and especially about my own Mother singing. Not that I have memories of mama sitting in a rocking chair with me in her arms, singing lullabies...but I'm sure she did. She was that kind of mother. 

Mama and daddy used to sing together. Mostly they sang hymns, and mostly it was when we were driving in the car. Shelby, Jackie, and I were young and riding in the back seat . It was absolutely beautiful, those hymns they sang together, to me anyways. Mama rode with her arm resting across the back of the seat and sometimes she would reach back and squeeze my hand, especially if daddy was fussing at us for arguing or scuffling around. 

You've probably seen this picture before. Mama used to play the piano and sing. Especially late afternoon before daddy got home from work. She played by ear...never had piano lessons. One of my favorite songs she played and sang was "The Old Spinning Wheel".  Sorry if you have read all this before...I just need to tell it again. You know how us old folks are...telling the same old stories over and over. :)

Anyhow, again, here it is, The Old Spinning Wheel...

Mama and daddy may have been listening to the radio in the car, way back then and singing along. I vividly remember the static on the car radio, the old AM station...and the voice saying, "you are listening to Cincinnati 101 Ohio". 

We were probably a couple years older then, than we are in this picture. If we got too rambunctious in the back seat of the car, mama would say, why don't you count horses and cows? But then there was an argument over who got to sit by the window. Remember counting horses and cows? If you spotted a white horse, you added 10 to your count. If you spotted a cemetery on your opponent's side of the road, you buried all their horses and cows.

I never figured out why mama laughed at me once when I yelled out "there's a cemetery"!  She go so tickled. What I thought was a cemetery was a big old brown church...made of wood that was never painted. The other time she laughed at me was when we drove past a field of hay piles and I asked why a tree was growing up in the middle of every pile of hay. You never forget your mama laughing at you. :)

Okay, I am headed outside to enjoy this wonderful beautiful sunny day. Thank you, if by some chance you are still here. Hope to be back soon.

Love,
Henny

Looking back...

Did you sing to your children when they were young? I did, and I can't sing a lick. I sang to my sweet daughters, Lynn and Andee.

they were convinced their mama could sing. Even today, I've heard Lynn say, "yes you can sing mama, remember the song you sang to us about the doll". I'm their mama, they are supposed to feel this way about me. :). 

There was one very special song...they loved it. It was The Mama Doll Song by Patti Page.

Back in the late 50's, we had this old Patti Page 78rpm record. It was a favorite of mine and I must have listened to that thing a hundred times. No wonder I knew it by heart and could sing the entire song to my daughters.

Daddy loved Patty Page too and his favorite was The Tennessee Waltz. Oh my goodness! Such a beautiful song. I remember dancing with daddy to this song. We had a juke box in the basement of our house in the country. A fun place to have parties. I remember dancing the polka with my cousin Patty one partying night...I've never laughed so much. We tore the floor up!! And speaking of tearing the floor up...now my sister Shelby could dance! We all danced and had fun!

My ninth grade school picture. Pardon the coffee stains from many many years ago. It was along about this time or a year or so later that I danced with daddy...

and this was daddy along about about that time too.

Funny how I woke up this morning thinking about all this. No wonder I woke up tired and feeling a little sad.

Guess I need to get back to work. Got phone calls to make and lots to do. Hope to back here soon. Appreciate your visiting.

Love,
Henny

Clearing around the pond

Sometimes it's hard to find time for blogging...like this weekend. For now, Poppy has dozed off in front of the TV, I've just fed Rosie, and Eli is asleep on the front porch.

It's easy to see how much rain we've had lately by the mud in the pond; and across the way, well, that's our little old log cabin in the woods. Guess it will be July before the pond water clears again.

Poppy and I worked around the pond yesterday...he used a machete to knock down the small trees and shrubs, and I hauled away.

This is one of favorite jobs...being that Virgo you know...picking up, sorting, and stacking every little stick and twig. Good gosh! My hair looks like it has been fried. It needs to be put up.

Weetie stood guard. Eli enjoyed playing with the goats.

I've been looking forward to gathering new sticks for the coming gardening season. I love building a wattle fence for beans in the teeny tiny garden. 

The years really fly, don't they. This little birdhouse was one of the first ones Poppy and I hung here on the property in the early 90's. I remember there being a little wisp of a cedar tree growing there in the edge of the woods. Would you look at it now! On this hill above the pond too is where several of our sweet old dogs are buried.

Our makeshift memorial is falling apart now, but it reads...In loving memory of Splash, Cocoa, Susie, Nikki, Sampson, Teddy, Jack, Chip, Millie, Bear, Honey. We need make a better one and add Pooh.

The ducks followed us around.

I went ahead and trimmed the saplings and stored them under the shed. Can't wait to cut these into usable pieces. I love doing things like this!

Poppy found a nice bunch of rabbit tobacco. Guess we should have kept it...why we could have tried smoking it in one of the old Indian pipes we have collected around here. Seems like I've heard that rabbit tobacco is good for opening up your sinuses. I can remember my brother Jackie, back in the 50's, looking for rabbit tobacco to smoke. 

Poppy got a text just as we finished up...

This pretty much wrapped up our Saturday.

Hard to believe the weekend is about over, and here it is time to start supper. Thank you for going around the pond with us in this not so interesting post. 

Love,

Henny

Not much going on...

Dear friends,

Spring needs to hurry up and get here. I need something new to talk about...and something bright and pretty to photograph. 

On my way to the grocery store yesterday, my car turned into the Goodwill store parking lot, so, what the heck, I walked inside. The sixteen dollars in my pocket had been burning a hole anyway. After wasting about forty five minutes, I paid for my two items and hurried on about my business.

Here's are my purchases. A hat for Lynn...

I carried this hat all over the house, trying to get a good picture. Those of you who visit my daughter Lynn, over at Tracked Side, probably know how much she loves hats. Lynn features old and pretty hats in her shop. I just had to get this one for her collection.

my other purchase was for Eli...

Wish you could have seen how excited he was. He thinks this is another teddy bear. Didn't take long for the new toy to get dirty and covered in straw...first thing he did was carry it in the goat lot to play.

  
So glad this wild azalea survived. It was growing in the woods when we first moved here. I dug it up and moved it to the yard. Never should have done that, but I had even less sense then than I do now. 

I simply must get busy! We had rain again overnight, so it is too wet and chilly to enjoy being outside today. Dusting, that's what needs to be done...but I HATE to dust! :)

Appreciate your stopping by.

Love,
Henny