Surprises

On one of those extremely hot days early last week, suddenly a cloud came up and while the sun was still shining brightly, that cloud opened up and poured down rain, right through the sunshine.

I said to Poppy, as we walked out on the porch to watch the rain, "I bet there is a pretty rainbow out there somewhere, but we would never see it, under all these trees".

But...to my surprise, the rainbow found it's way through the trees, right into our yard...

Such a strange sight, I could not believe my eyes! 

and speaking of strange sights, look who hitched a ride up to the garden, supposedly to help out...

adding all that extra weight to my work basket.

but that's okay. Smokey is my sweetie pie. I had to reach under him to pull my camera out. 

wasn't long before he moved to a more comfortable spot.

The flowers along the fence inside the teeny tiny garden are blooming and there are bees and butterflies and all sorts of strange bugs...

my favorite spot in the garden...

Poppy asks, "why do you take so many pictures of the same thing". 

"well, it's just hard to stop".

did you notice the long skinny wasp type bug on the sunflower leaf? 

Need to get busy. Poppy works today and you should see my "to do" list. Everything from mowing to mopping. Oh, one more thing...

We cleaned up dead fallen maple tree and when Poppy pushed over the stump...

he upset this little frog's home. Can you find him?

I mean, this little guy was living in a frog cafe, surrounded by all sorts of insects. We carefully placed an old shingle over the hole and left him alone. 

Hope to be back here soon.

Love,
Henny

News from the Teeny Tiny Sewing Room

Well, yesterday was the "Pork, Pickles, and Peanuts" festival at the Duke Homestead in Durham, but Shelby and I were missing from the line up of vendors.

As the weekend drew near, we fully expected the event to be cancelled because of the extreme heat. So, since Duke did not cancel, we did. With a hot humid 98 degrees and heat index of 110 to 115 forecast, we decided to not risk having a heat stroke.

Oh we were prepared to be there and so looking forward to it. As mama used to say, I have worked my fingers to the bone", sitting at that sewing machine every night. :)

Oh, it hasn't been work. In fact, I wouldn't  have had it any other way. The teeny tiny sewing room is my cozy little nest...after all, it is way too hot to spend time in the playhouse. 

"Oh, another winter is coming on and I do so need a  little pot belly stove! I simply must begin my search again soon". 

Anyhow, the bonnets, aprons, and dolls have been taken from the chest and added to my much neglected "Henny's Bonnet Shop"...

It's the fabric that makes this such a cute little apron. It has lilacs, and sweet words, a little gathered pocket, and a pink ruffle...

have stitched up a few bright new sunbonnets too...

oh, and a new type bonnet for a toddler...

My first try at this one.  Sometimes I really struggle with a new pattern and the wording makes no sense at all to me, but DARN IT! a pattern marked "easy" will not get the best of me! I want to make more of these.

and have added a few new dolls...

That's about all the news from here...

except, I can tell you the next big event at Duke Homestead will be the "Harvest and Hornworm" festival on August 24th. Shelby says we have been invited to be there. Hopefully, we can be.

Sure appreciate your visiting. Hope to be back real soon.

Love,
Henny

Oops! Didn't mean to disturb you. 

Bug post

Did you ever play with a June Bug when you were a child? 

Image borrowed from the Triangle Gardener magazine

Poppy came in the house with a handful of ripe figs and asked if I had seen all the June bugs on the fig tree.

Boy, did that ever bring back good memories! Running around barefoot with a June bug tied to a string was one of the funnest things I remember playing with as a child...well besides my dolls and lightening bugs.  

These pretty emerald green beetle bugs are clumsy and sometimes fly into things. Occasionally, one would dive bomb into somebody's head and get tangled in their hair. Such screaming and hollering, oh, it was fun. We loved the June bugs and were careful not to hurt them. You would gently and carefully tie a string around a back leg then let them fly. 

Poppy was born on a big farm down in Georgia. They played with June bugs too. He remembers how sometimes the string would slip through your fingers and the June bug would fly away with the string trailing behind. Sounds kind of cruel now. Back then we thought the bugs were having as much fun as we were.

For some reason I associate June Bugs with visiting Aunt Macie and Uncle Vester. Shelby, Jackie, and I loved going to their house? We lived in town...they lived about twenty miles away, in the country. They had June Bugs, and lots of children. They also had a barn with a hay loft full of hay, and almost always when we were there, Uncle Vester would make a freezer of home made ice cream. The boys would take turns turning the crank on the old ice cream freezer. 

Want to know how many children Aunt Macie and Uncle Vester had? Well, there was Don, Jimmy, Peggy, Fred, Nancy, Janie, Eva Lee, and Diane. Aunt Macie was mama's sister and they lived up around Steeds, or it may have been Seagrove. There are several little towns along there together...going up Highway 705, the road with all the pottery places; the road where mama was born and raised.

picture borrowed from Wikipedia

Didn't mean to go on and on, but while I am on the subject of bugs...

It is so humid outside, my camera fogs up.

Poppy came in from the garden carrying this big Cicada...

Pretty, aren't they?

well, enough about the bugs around here. 

There were other things I had planned to post but will them keep for later.

Did want to say that Shelby and I will be vendors at the Duke Homestead, "Pork, Pickles, and Peanuts" festival this coming Saturday. The temperature is supposed to be 97 degrees with heat index of 106. If you don't hear from me again, you will know that we melted. That's HOT! Was thinking about carrying a No. 2 tub filled with ice...to stand it.

Thank you for visiting. 

Love,
Henny

Thank you to my new followers. I do love my blogging friends! Thank you!

We are back! and gifts from Cousin Pat

Can you believe it! Poppy and I are back in business!!! We have our Internet back. Turns out, on top of everything else, our modem was bad so we had to wait until late Monday for UPS to deliver a new one.

Anyhow, that 5 1/2 inches of rain last Thursday was unbelievable. Wish I had pictures to show you. No damage done but the little pond filled so quickly, the water flooded the spillway and flowed over the dam. The chairs on the teeny tiny pier were standing in water up to the top of the seats, and a mountain of leaves, being pushed by the gushing rain water, slammed into the little footbridge so hard, it turned the bridge up on it's side. 

Oh well, all is back to normal so...A big Thank You!

Lynn said to me yesterday, mom, when you post again, please thank all your friends for me, and tell them how much I appreciated their comments on that blog post. Lynn said she read and enjoyed each comment. I thank you too. You truly are the best friends ever!

So much to tell you and so little time so I'm going to finish the post started before the Internet went out...

Have been moving things around a bit in the teeny tiny sewing room...

My cousin Patty, you may remember Patty...

Eli was looking a little wild. He was excited that Pat was visiting. 

So, it was Pat who gave us that beautiful antique cupboard that sits on our porch...

My heart still skips a beat when I see it and realize it is mine, for keeps!

Well Patty has gifted me with another piece. Oh my goodness, as Lynn would say, "be still my heart"!

Take a look down the hall into the teeny tiny sewing room. It's there on the left...

 an old pie safe

Simply love that old timey wooden latch at the top.  This gives me more space for fabric too...

and came with yards and yards of beautiful "Holly Hobbie" fabric. "Thank you Patty".


and speaking of Holly Hobbie, my daughter Andee recently gave me this picture...

It's adorable, isn't it? Thank you Andee.

Guess I had better close this and get supper started. Thank you for visiting and I will be around to catch up. 

Love,

Henny

Henny Penny Gone AWOL

This is Lynn, Henny Penny's most troublesome child.  Maybe I am not really as troublesome as I think, but have you seen my mother's fabric room???  Have you seen that closet full of color coordination?  Have you seen her folding skills?? Mama is a Virgo.  She is neat as a pin.  Everything is folded, ironed, sorted, color-coded, and done so efficiently and with such love!  I, on the other hand, am an Aries.  I have trouble understanding why anyone would instinctively close a drawer.  You might need something out of it again!!

Zodiac signs aside, she is the way she is, and I am the way I am, but we love and adore each other more than words can say!  We are two parts of a trio.  My sister Andee is the third part, and dang it, she's a Virgo!!!  I can't win.  My sister has had her share of frustrations from me as well.  Just ask how many straight pins she stepped on after I decided back in the day that using straight pins was a good way to put skirts on hangers.

From the time of my first memory of sitting in my beautiful mother's lap, watching her lovely face,  looking at her neat, beautiful handwriting, I wanted to be just like her.  Alas, even in spite of my chaotic ways and, according to her, needing to clean up "giblets" of paper I'd left all over the couch, I did pick up a lot of Henny Penny by way of osmosis.  She taught me well!

Why am I here on her blog?  Henny Penny and Poppy had a bunch of rain last week!  They had 5-1/2 inches all at one time.  It somehow affected the internet all around where she lives and the internet is not expected to be up again until about Tuesday!  Henny Penny is worried that all her readers have "given up" on her.  Doesn't that sound just like her?  Can you hear her saying that?

I thought I'd drop in and ease the mind of each person who has given up on her.  :)  She will be back.  My dear mama -- she is exactly all she seems.  Making play houses in the woods.  Doctoring animals.  Somehow keeping the house clean, cooking, being kind, sewing, all at the same time without missing a beat.  I write this from a room that looks like it could be the scene of a thrift store bag sale.

I am partly kidding there.  It is a mess, but I am rearranging my STUFF.  I like for things to look the way mama makes them look.  For me it is a conscious decision.  It takes work to choose it.  My mom, however, is just that way.  Bless her.

In the photo above are my four children and me.  Left to right:  Daniel, Michaela, Lynn (mess maker), John, and Joseph.  These are four of Henny Penny's five grandchildren.  She is the best mama and grandma in the world!!! 

Your Friend,
Lynn
abitofbirdsong.com

PS -- Feel free to comment here to Mrs. Henny Penny.  When she returns, I know Mama would enjoy reading whether or not you'd given up on her.