Another flower, and a bug

Our neighbor Ann pulled into the driveway yesterday and tooted the horn. No, she was not carrying a shoe box with a baby bunny this time, she had a flower cutting...

prettiest thing I've ever seen! This picture does not do it justice. Heavy clusters of dark red berries, and white blooms, both!! "I don't remember where I bought it or what it's called", she said. 

So, I've been on line looking and it looks like, "Cardinal Candy Viburnum". I've simply got to have one. Wonder if it is the wrong time of year to root a cutting??

Anyhow, I woke up this morning with puffy eyes...

from working inside the chicken house. What a mess. Cobwebs strung from one side to the other, full of feathers and dust. I went in with the broom and rake and fresh straw. 

The guineas watched from the grapevine posts, but chickens...

they are curious and nosy, and in the middle of everything. They scattered the clean hay as soon as it hit the floor.

Did you notice little Weetie standing guard just outside the fence? She will not leave my side, and I honestly think she would tackle a bear, trying to protect me.

Oh, and speaking of chickens...I had the big idea of turning them out. Out to eat grass and roam around the pond, and down the dirt path. But friends, these 20 chickens, within 30 minutes, tore up a year's worth of my hard work. They wandered nowhere! but scratched all the mulch and pine straw from under and around every shrub and flower bed in the yard. They left no stone unturned!  Poppy said, "told you so". "I knew you were making a mistake".

I was thinking, with the leaves falling and the grass dying from the dry weather, what harm could the hens do. Well, here they were just getting started.

Noticed none of the chickens ate this stinging worm from off the chicken house door...

a strange looking creature. Googled it and found out, this is a Banded Tussock moth, Halysidota tessellaris. 

Oh, have I mentioned that the NC State Fair opened last Thursday? Shelby and I are planning to be there when the gates open on Tuesday morning!! 

We so look forward to this day. It's been a whole year! You may remember how much I wanted to ride the hobby horses last year, but didn't. Well this year, Shelby and I are seriously going to ride...first thing, or right after we eat our first ear of corn dipped in butter. There will be pictures, if I can get up on one of the horses...and back down, without breaking something. 

Love,
Henny