April flowers in February

I picked a teeny tiny pot of Violets yesterday...

and thought about Mama...

Mama loved violets and loved picking violets. Aunt Berlie and I loved to pick violets too. Mama never could never resist buying a little pitcher or a teacup and saucer with a violet on the front.

The other day, Shelby mentioned something about Aunt Burl. Growing up, we always called Aunt Berlie, Aunt Burl. I had forgotten about that. Her real name was Berlie Sarah.

The peach tree up at the garden is in full bloom. Poppy said just yesterday, you need to take a picture of this tree. We were walking Eli. I didn't have the camera with me.

So last night, just what I've been afraid would happen, happened. The temperature dropped to 31 degrees.  

These blooms are from the peach tree in the yard where the buds have just begun to open. Once it get daylight, I will cross my fingers and go check on everything.

Why, look at this button bush! It looks more like April here than February!

this thing has grown huge. Lots of sprouts have come up underneath. Aunt Berlie used to always be giving folks sprouts of blooming shrubbery. She had the prettiest big white bridals wreath spirea in her yard.  

daffodils, and quince

can you tell it was late in the day, just before sunset, when I wandered outside with the camera.

and finally! I finished spreading that last big load of pine straw. Our neighbor Fred says this is the last of the pine straw, for this year.

and finished cutting back the rose bushes...

another picture of the sweet little violets...

Poppy asks, why do take so many pictures of the same thing? Well, because it's pretty.

my kitty cat picture of the day...

Dumperoo, waiting for somebody to open another can of smelly fishy kitty cat food.

Didn't mean to go on and on about the yard and the flowers.

Poppy went to work this morning and will be gone until 2:00. I've got plenty of housework to do, and hope to get outside and rake a few leaves too. 

Thank you for visiting. 

Love,
Henny

Busy cleaning

Just wanted to say that we have company coming.

Smokey covered his ears and slept through all the cleaning, in Weetie's new bed...

 bless his heart, he did move a couple of times...

and finally stretched out on the bed...

you know how cats are about their daytime naps.

Not much of a post here, but I wanted to say, please don't give up me. I will be back. These last few days have been terribly busy, and guess what! I finally got the carpet cleaned!

Oh, and thank you Jean, a new follower. Thank you for looking at my blog...such as it is.

Love,

Henny

A bit of news

First, have you ever seen a prettier pair of socks in your whole life? I haven't!

These socks were hand-knitted by Pam and came to me all the way from Wales. Wales! Seriously! Thank you Pam. I LOVE these socks! Pam blogs at "A new life in Wales".

These are the softest, most comfortable socks I've ever put on my feet! Now I shuffle around the house in my sock feet all the time, and wear holes in the heels of my socks. These socks are too nice for that and I probably should wear then only when my feet are going to be propped up on the coffee table...to be admired. I simply cannot wear holes in these socks!

by the way, which is correct, "hand-knit by Pam" or "hand-knitted by Pam"? I looked this up on the internet, but still don't know so went with what sounded right to me. 

and my second bit of news...two new followers, Donna Richards and Lady Jane. Thank you so much! Wow!

The plants in the teeny tiny greenhouse needed watering. Look what was blooming inside. Several pots of vinca and a couple of flowering quince. 

Last summer, the quince had limbs growing too long and reaching into the path, so I clipped them off and stuck a few pieces in pots. Had no idea these would take root and bloom this soon.

The little greenhouse looks terribly dirty and ugly right now and I don't know how to make it pretty again. Red dirt and dust, from the dirt road, has settled in the grooves in the panels and no amount of washing will make it clean again. 

Poppy says we might as well buy a new greenhouse and to try and replace the panels. 

and speaking of flowers...

the pink flowered apron is finished. The picture does not show the true pink color.

This would be my favorite apron, so far. I love the softness of the flowers and the soft pink and even the fabric is a soft cotton. My favorite!

and while we're in the sewing room...Poppy popped his head in the door and asked, what size table could you use in there? Look, he ordered the perfect 2' x 4' , easy to fold and slide under the bed. That huge 8' x 4' table was taking up the whole room! Why, I had to use mama's old picker-upper stick to reach over the bed to open and close the curtains. Men do come in handy, at times.

from soft pink to bright yellow...

I got smart and made this lemon meringue pie yesterday...

I always manage to take the pie out of the oven before it gets brown enough...but it was good.

Guess I should get busy. Poppy works on Mondays and Tuesdays, 6:00 am to 1:00 pm. That gives me time to mop the kitchen and vacuum real good, as mama used to say, oh, and time to blog a little!

Speaking of mama...she used to get so mad and ill as a hornet, trying to clean with my step-dad, Bill, in the house. They were older at the time and my step-dad spent most of the day sitting in his spot at the kitchen table. Mama, had her mop water and was bent over mopping the kitchen as hard as she could go when Bill asked, "you want me to move"?  "No! Mama snapped. If there is any dirt on the floor under your chair, I'm sure you will keep it covered up all day"!   It was best to stay out of mama's way when she was in cleaning mode.

Like mama, I'm fixing to get busy!

Love,
Henny

A short visit

Does this look like the middle of February?

The trees are budding, daffodils are blooming, and look at this flowering quince...

  

The days are beautiful, but I'm scared to death winter will return and kill everything.

I fought the wind and raked leaves again today. Would you look at the size of this leaf that blew in and made itself at home...

Sometimes I think the leaves are watching me, trying to drive me crazy, or maybe they already have, driven me crazy. This big one keeps following me around. :(

lurking behind the flowers...revenge of the giant oak leaf.

Walmart had these teeny tiny pet beds for $5.47, so I brought one home for Weetie's little spot on the couch. 

but look who else likes the bed.

Did you see all the scratches on the leather couch? Eli does that. The whole big couch needs going over with a rich leather conditioner. I just may start on that project tomorrow. 

Here it is bedtime folks. Where do the days go? I will be around to visit and catch up. Thank you, if you're still here...

Oh, I've almost finished the doll dress...

To me, it looks a little big. Maybe I need to press the dress better and I still need to put snaps on the sleeves. Anyhow, at least she has a dress.

Love,
Henny

Worn slap out!

When bedtime arrived here Saturday night, my Fit bit was showing 25,000 steps and having walked 10 miles. Here's how...

We hardly knew where to begin? What a mess!

Friday afternoon a man came out and cut down all the dead pine trees from the left side of our property. With all the windy days we've had lately, it was dangerous walking down this way.

Do you see our little Weetie, standing guard in all these pictures? 

It was noon before we got all the logs and trees moved away, then Poppy had other things to do so I started raking.

There were two years worth of leaves packed in places, and you know me...once I get started, I don't have sense enough to stop and rest. No, I am bound and determined to clean up every inch of ground, and every leaf!

So, here are a couple of "after" pictures...

We're going to sow grass seed here. This add a lot more yard space.

Knowing there was still other work to be done outside and supper to cook, at 4:30 I stood the rake against a tree, went in the house, got two Tylenol and a bottle of water, and sat down for five minutes.

I was exhausted! My hair was in knots, my cheeks and eyes red from the sun, and my eyelids white...seriously, probably from squinting. Looking in the mirror actually scared me.

This eastern red cedar grows at the end of our property...

Poppy says it is unusually large and I think he's probably right...

On line information says the eastern red cedar can grow 40 to 50' high with a spread of 8 to 20'. This cedar looks to be all that, and more. 

 anyhow, it's a beautiful tree. We love the cedars and hollies as they add lots of green during the winter months when the other trees are brown and gray.

okay, one other bit of boring information...

ever seen this many pine cones on one little limb? Twenty! Doesn't look like twenty, but Poppy counted them. Good year for pines cones maybe. Poppy said, "this is the kind of thing you need to put on your blog".

That's about it for my nature post for the month. Hope you will come back. I worked a little on the doll dress last night, and I have another sweet doll to show you.

Love,
Henny

Oh, and I have a new follower, thank you, Prairie Needleworks 

A sewing post or a cat post?

Here's one of the cutest dolls I've found at a thrift store. She is about 10" tall and has such a pretty face. The markings on her back are 1988 (the best I can tell), a scalloped circle with a Z in the center, and the numbers 22/34. 

I've had no luck finding anything about this doll on line either. Just need to spend more time searching.

The dress pattern for my latest thrift store doll, the American Girl, came in the mail yesterday. 

Good gosh, it took a while to cut out all those tiny pattern pieces, then after supper I managed to get in the sewing room early...6:30!

The outfit I wanted to make was the bottom left view, the dress and pretty pink coat, but then decided to cut out the top right view for now. Anyhow, it took forever to cut out all those fabric pieces too.

I had also started a new pink flowered apron and worked on making the bias tape for it. About 9:30 that tired feeling came over me. 

Do you know how hard it is to sew, or spread out a pattern, or cut a piece of fabric, or thread a needle with two or three kitty cats in the sewing room? Why, I've given up trying to lay out pattern pieces on the bed...even with the new cutting board...

Poppy says, "run them out and close the door"! Now he knows better than that! Look at that face. I could never hurt their feelings.

Pull out the cutting board and Dumperoo thinks it's play time. He has two empty thread spools that he loves to hear rolling down the board...he even jumps out and bats the spools back at me.

Well I had a brain storm last night and asked Poppy to bring in our big folding table from the shop. Like there's room for it in the teeny tiny sewing room! I have to turn sideways and squeeze in, but it worked, and no cats!

Bickett even kept his little paws on the bed.

that's right, you, Mr. B!

Gosh, the table is a big eight feet long and four feet wide, so now I'm looking to buy a smaller, inexpensive folding table.

Come to think of it, Smokey has never bothered anything in the sewing room. He usually stretches out on the foot stool in front of Poppy's chair at night.

Smokey is just a big old furry sweetie pie...

more shots from the sewing room...

Always a kitty cat stretched out just where you need to be...

I wouldn't have it any other way :)

Better get up from here. Big sweet Eli is at the Groomer's getting a much needed bath. They should be calling any time now. Can't wait to see him.

Hope to be back soon.

Love,
Henny