A lively little garden, and a little Poppy story

Usually by late September or early October I've grown tired of the weeds and grass in the teeny tiny garden and cleared everything out. 

This year is different. Come peep through the fence...

the mystery vine keeps growing and seems determined to reach every corner before the first frost...

there are at least four mystery melons that look like watermelons. Poppy says these are citron melons?? Remember all the pretty citron melon seeds, and the preserves, a few years ago???

and the zinnias keep blooming and here late in the season one gomphrena plant has volunteered and come up, probably from a tiny seed left in the soil last year. You can see it there in the center back with the little purple blooms.

This little garden has taken on a life of it's own and I love it!

Even the collards are living...that's shocking!

and the stir-fry broccoli plants and marigolds look healthy...

We're not getting lots of vegetables, just peppers and okra, but that's okay. I like the pretty part..

okay, I'm sure you've seen and heard enough about the garden. 

So, here's something cute to share with you! 

Poppy was looking for one of his old yearbooks. He wanted to show me a cute little girl that used to flirt with him in seventh grade. Well, here's what he found...

A card he made for his mom on Mother's Day. Poppy says he remembers his mom laughing because of his spelling, "pitcher". How could any mom have kept from laughing. It's so funny!

I've sure she told Poppy how much she appreciated the card. She loved all her children, very much! Poppy seems to have turned out pretty normal to me. :)

old report cards. He made good grades too!

Better get busy. I just may go pick up a couple of fish plates for supper. Anything to get out of cooking once in a while!! :)

Love,
Henny

It's that teeny tiny sewing room again!

Oh, friends, do you remember the first time I went crazy? It was a year or so ago, and I spent an entire day trying to make the teeny tiny sewing room look like a page from one of those sweet little Brambly Hedge books?

(the second time I went crazy, you may remember, was this past August after seeing the kitchen of my dreams in that new fall magazine, and how I sped off to the Wake Forest thrift stores).

But that first crazy time was a wonderful dreamy day of decorating. Why, I felt just like a little mouse, scurrying about, building shelves and filling every inch of space.

After hours of listening to what must have sounded like a herd of mice, Poppy looked in the sewing room and asked, "what are you trying to do in here anyway"? "Build a mouse house", I replied!

So, yesterday, on my way to the grocery store, my car automatically turned in and stopped in front of the Goodwill store. "Surely there is time for a quick look. I won't spend much time, or money."  :) 

something told me to go straight to the big table in household goods...and there it was, this big puffy, pink, gathered comforter. Why, surely you will agree, it was meant for me to find this. It needs something though...ruffly pillows maybe?? Couldn't wait to get is washed and dried and on the bed.

Poppy's response? "eeew! pink and purple"? he asked. Nothing to do but pull out one of the little Brambly Hedge books and explain about my decorating. 

now, I really really want a pretty little dressing room chair...something dainty and sweet and upholstered in pink and white with flowers and a ruffle around the bottom.

I suppose it's too late in the day to strike off to the Re-store!! What I really really need to do next though is get rid of that green afghan and the box of fabric scraps, and that black shopping bag, and the rocking chair! 

Okay, I've gone on long enough about all this. Thank you for listening.

Love,
Henny

and to think, I didn't know about Brambly Hedge until some of you posted those sweetest pictures from the books...Pom Pom, Jo,   thank you!  

It's me again

What a happy surprise to see the sun come out yesterday afternoon! Thank goodness Hurricane Florence is moving on! 

I'm sorry for posting about the storm, then deleting the post. The storm has been devastating for NC. My post sounded silly and foolish.

Even this morning on the news we are hearing there is still no way in or out of Wilmington due to flooding. Isn't that a scary thought for those in Wilmington? We saw too, a crew from New York who are here to help, putting a rescue boat on Interstate 40, going to Wilmington. Hard to picture a boat traveling down I-40. 

Hope to get back to normal today...I want clean up the yard a little; it is littered with sticks, tree limbs, and leaves which, believe me, is nothing to complain about! I've got to put up deer fencing too, around the row of Rose of Sharon plants. We noticed the deer have eaten them down to nubs again! :(  

So, I should get busy and start by getting all the animals around here fed. Speaking of animals...

here's a few who've had it made through all the rain and wind.

Poppy bought two big fluffy camouflage (of course) comforters for the dogs to sleep on this winter.

somebody got a new toy...

where did it go!

and last but certainly not least, our Smokey who got all kinds of treats from Poppy yesterday for surprising us with a dead mouse just outside the front door.

Thank you for your friendship. 

Love,

Henny

The storm

Today friends, you can call me "Chicken Little" instead of Henny Penny. There is an awful storm coming our way. Those of you who have read my blog for any length of time, know that I am terribly afraid of storms. 

This Hurricane Florence has kept on the same path, growing and gaining in strength, and seems bound and determined to hit the North Carolina coast.

Poppy and I are absolutely surrounded by tall trees...too many trees, as a matter of fact. If we can just get through this Hurricane Florence without a tree falling on either of us, or the house, or an animal, we will be so thankful. 

and these trees seem to lean in every direction. If the ground is saturated and we get 60 plus, mph winds, well, it's going to be scary for sure.

Today on the noon news and weather, Governor Cooper called this storm "a monster", and like nothing we've ever seen.

Poppy had to work today, so tomorrow we will do what we can to keep things outside from blowing away. I did put together another wooden bench inside the cozy part of the goat barn. Goats, at least these two, can't stand the rain...

and since the front of the barn is wide open, they now have more protection.

I'll cover two sides of the bunny lot with tarps, to protect them from the wind and rain.

And the guineas! Please keep your fingers crossed that I will be able to coax them into their old lot behind the little chicken house. It's a cozy spot where they will be safe. I can't stand the thought of them roosting high up in that old cedar in the rain and wind. All eight of them might get blown away. Sometimes they will listen and follow me...but sometimes not.   

I hope and pray everyone in the path of this storm will stay safe. If possible, I will try to post updates of what's happening right here during the storm. 


Thank you...

Love,
Henny

Simply a green post

Thank you friends for helping me with the ugly little flower garden, or as Pablo put it, "flowerless garden". You left lots of helpful suggestions and ideas.

So, by next spring all those rabbit and goat droppings and old hay should be well rotted, and then if I add lots of good rich soil on top, well, the bed should be ready to grow most anything. Plus, the suggestions of finding the right perennials for this area. Thank you! 

and that mystery vine growing in the garden...

look how the little melon has grown since my post three days ago. My first thought was a citron melon, but it has been two years since the last citron melons were grown here. So maybe a watermelon?? 

here's another fuzzy little melon. If these are watermelons, I'm afraid it's too late in the season for them to grow big and ripen.

All this green! But look what I found hiding in the garden this morning. Another big bell pepper.  We planted only one pepper plant this year and have had plenty for us and some to give away. If only perennials would grow here like the peppers do.

and speaking of "green", do any of you have those long skinny cute green snakes in your part of the country? (picture borrowed off the internet)...

Had I been smart and not waited too long, I would have my own picture.  

Anyhow, here's the green snake story. But wait, let me go waaaay back to the beginning...to when Poppy bought the new camouflage four-wheeler, which required a new camouflage shotgun to carry on the four-wheeler, and all of that led to needing a little building, a "he shed", as Poppy calls it, to house the four-wheeler.

Then, how could he haul a nice new four-wheeler and shotgun on a scuffed up, paint peeling, rusty tongued old trailer with two bad tires, and one damaged hubcap...so with lots of elbow grease and the use of steel brushes, sand paper, can after can of the best black spray paint, new tires, and big shiny hubcaps, that old trailer looks brand new!

Anyhow, pardon the leaves that have fallen, but see the white spots on the newly painted fender? Yep, a bird decided to roost on a tree limb right over Poppy's hard work. "At the edge of dark tonight", said Poppy, "I'll take the spotlight out and see what kind of bird that is and scare him away". Well, he never saw a bird, but spotted a green snake on another limb nearby, at night! 

Next morning the green snake was still there and again that night. "Why would that snake stay there in one spot in a rough old cedar tree, of all places", I asked Poppy. "Must be, he is sick or dead maybe", I said.  

Well, the following morning...

there was nothing left but an empty snake skin. Who knew, little green snakes shed their skin, and especially this time of the year!

As soon as Poppy unlocks the "man cave", I'll get a picture of all the camo to show you. 

and more green...

Pilar asked, how are the Rose of Sharon doing...well one little bush actually has a bloom. These trees would be twice this size if the deer would stop eating them. We bought deer repellent spray and that is helping some. Thank you for asking.

Oh, let me throw in a little orange with all this green. 

You've probably shut your computer down, maybe for good, after all this, but here's the "man cave"...

Thank you for putting up with me.

Love,
Henny

The ugliest flower garden

Heat index 100, and Eli basking in the hot sun. It was his decision. We didn't stay there long. 

Remember back in early spring, my post about digging up a new flower bed...and that I mentioned showing you a picture later??? Well, it never amounted to anything worth showing. 

It was a neat little spot up by the teeny tiny greenhouse. I sectioned it off with some old landscape timbers, loosened the soil, then added lots of stuff from the goat lot and bunny cages. It should have been wonderful, but look...

Behind the lattice wall is the teeny tiny playhouse, and growing on the lattice is all that came up from two packets of morning glory seeds. I've always wanted to grow morning glories. Always!

close-up of the one bloom

See the one pitiful bloom with the yellowed leaves? That's cock's comb. The only one in the whole bed, struggling to live. Why, that weed is the only healthy plant there! One of our egg customers brought a medicine bottle filled with tiny cock's comb seeds which were sowed over the entire bed.

Also along the side of the greenhouse I planted a row of gladiolas which came up only to flop over dead, never blooming. 

Such a mystery. You know, I put pictures on this blog of beautiful flowers...the azaleas, the snowball bush, the peonies; but I simply cannot grow perennials. So, what do you think, all you who have those beautiful flower beds? Any help will be appreciated.

Moving to the other side of the greenhouse and into the garden, and on a happier note...

is this lovely vine growing and spreading all over the garden...

I spotted this tiny plant in July growing near the compost bin. It was wilted and dry and had only three leaves, so scooped it up and planted it in the garden. It has lots of yellow blooms that keep disappearing, and no fruit...until this...

still have no idea what it is.  The vine looks kinda like a watermelon??

dirty boots and pretty pink zinnias.

Guess that's my gardening post for today. Sure looks like I need some lessons in growing flowers. That ugly flower bed does get the hot evening sun. Maybe a couple big bags of good potting soil would help, and adding mulch until planting time next spring. 

Thank you, if you're still here.

Early morning play!

Love,
Henny 

Oh, and about that big spider living on our back screen door.

It is an Argiope aurantia, yellow garden spider, sometimes called the writing spider. The weaving in it's web sometimes looks like a letter of the alphabet.  :)