A thing or two...or maybe twelve or thirteen?

Ah, have you wondered about the baby Dove I rescued? Well, he has really grown. In fact, my plan was to release him this morning. 

you see, yesterday he refused to eat anything but bird seed. (Looks like enough seed to feed a flock). Twice, I mixed the usual wheat germ, cornmeal, and baby cereal with warm water and carried it to him. He has been eating from a large syringe, covered on one end with a finger cut from a rubber glove...

but he wanted nothing to do with me or the food. His home has been the screened-in back porch, where he has learned to fly from one end to the other. I brought in a dead tree limb...

that reaches from the cage he sleeps in to the porch railing. Anyhow, when I walked out on the porch this morning, he greeted me by lighting on top of my head. Glad I had his cereal mixed and warm...he ate like he was starving. So I'm thinking maybe he should stay with us another day or two. (the porch is needing a good scrubbing)!

I've surely neglected the teeny tiny garden lately. It's the heat and humidity! Gosh! It's so hot! This was yesterday's picking...

mostly Okra in the bottom. When it cools off a little I'm going in with a machete. :)

and there's rabbit news too...

Four hours I worked, cleaning two of the bunny condos. Oh, these digging rabbits! I pulled out everything and covered the ground with rabbit wire, then hauled dirt in from across the road. 

Got these two pet carriers from a lady on Craigslist. She was asking $25.00 for each, but said "yes" to $40.00 for both. So Poppy went with me to Wake Forest to pick them up.

Two more sections of the lot to clean and put down rabbit wire. Remember the two snow white rabbits...

Well, this is Lily, and you can barely see Ivy on the right. Can you believe how big they are now! When I finish their lots I will post an 'after' picture. 

and...

my two oldest bunbuns...Bun Bun and Fiona. These two never dig but I plan to re-do their lot too. Rabbit wire on the ground keeps little mice from visiting during the night.

You know, working on the "mushroom post" I thought, "now who would want to look at a bunch of mushrooms"? But goodness! Thank you for not only looking, but for leaving the nice comments. 

So thinking I'm done with the mushrooms, Poppy hollers , "Mel, where's your camera"? There's a mushroom down near the stepping stones the size of pie pan". So, here we go again, but I promise, just a few....

this is the one Poppy was yelling about. It was huge!

mention stepping stones and you see who is first out the door...

anyhow, you've got to see this really gross mushroom growing down by the bunny lot...

I mean, this thing looks like something that came up from the ocean floor.

and how about this nice suede one...

would make a nice table in our living room.

and Poppy thinks this one is cute...

and a scattering of teeny tiny baby orange ones...

and speaking of orange, this one toppled over but isn't it pretty...

okay, enough mushrooms!

Don't know if I should publish this or not :(  Well, here goes. Hope to be back soon.

Love,
Henny

Stick around for the last one

Dear friends,

Thank you for the nicest comments on my last post. I appreciate you all so much. 

Summer is on it's way out; we've just finished our last piece of cold watermelon. 

Remember how watermelons used to taste, many many years ago? Well...

We've found a farmer just up the road who grows and sells big ripe sweet watermelons, that have the taste and texture, watermelons had when I was a child...

We'll sure miss sitting on the porch in the late afternoon, eating a piece of watermelon.

and would you look...

yard-long beans, producing like crazy, again! Haven't found one a yard long yet, but there is one in the bunch, 29" long.

I have the cutest picture, one you may have seen already if you visit Betsy at thesimplelifeofaqueen.blogspot.com Betsy ordered two little clothespin dolls for her granddaughter, Piper...

and this is Piper's sweet little face when she opened the package from her grandma. Isn't she cute? Betsy says Piper has lots of babies that she loves and cares for. 

Betsy sent me the cutest picture and video of Piper opening her package, and I've lost them.  Can't imagine how, unless I accidentally deleted them. Sometimes I wonder how I've managed to keep a blog going. 

Thank you Betsy and Piper.

Remember back when the timber was cut from across the road and I said, "if any good thing can come from this, maybe my little pear trees will get enough light and sunshine to grow a few pears".

Well, lo and behold. We have pears!

some way up high too...

and a close-up! I am tickled to death!

and mushrooms! We have mushrooms growing everywhere! We've had lots of rain lately, maybe that's the reason. Anyhow, I've simply got to show you a few.

We have some leaning to the right...

and some leaning to the left...

This one reminds me of a cannister set from back in the 70's.  :)

there are groups of mushrooms...

and rows...

and some just plain scary mushrooms...

strange black mushrooms...

and one that looks icy on top...

and a dainty little sidewalk cafe table and stool, in lovely pastel colors...

and another icy looking one in an unusual color...

and this pair look like they are up to something illegal...

could this one be Chinese...

and one that looks like a snow ball...

tiny red ones hiding in the weeds...

Oh gosh, and this one! Don't know what it looks like; maybe a little space alien? What do you think...

an under-cooked pancake with nuts?

and just a nice sturdy looking little mushroom...

a lemon...

a crunchy topping......

And now! Hope you waited for the most unusual of all...

without the purple stem, this could be a pretty seashell.

Sure appreciate your stopping by. Hope to be back here real soon.

Love,
Henny

Way too much!

Whew! Have I been busy!

Poppy says, all the time, "Mel, you do a lot of stuff that you don't HAVE to do", and "Mel, you've got all these animals spoiled".  

Well, poor Mrs. Duck. All she wanted was a little of the chicken's laying mash and a little pot of water.  She thanked me over and over.

Then Wilder showed up and asked for a little pile of pellets and some whole corn.  Said he noticed that Bun Bun and the other rabbits, each get their own bowl of pellets. So what was I to do?

By the way, did you notice the food scraps in the pan by the bucket? Scraps for the chickens, and Weetie there pretending to guard it all for me. But I know Weetie. She is actually waiting for a chance to eat that spaghetti, mixed in with the scraps.  :)

Seriously, there is no sense in anybody finding as much to do as I do! Of course, Hurricane Isaias blowing through last Monday night didn't help any...

The wind and rain has turned the teeny tiny garden into a teeny tiny jungle...

I've simply got to pull up some plants and make a path.

Anyhow, we woke up Tuesday morning, after the passing of Hurricane Isaias, to a soggy wet yard full of sticks and tree limbs and our little front porch and everything on it, standing in water, including boots and Crocs. No damage, just a mess to clean up.

Plus, the wind must have blown down a bird's nest, a Dove's nest. I found this tiny baby Dove sitting on a cinder block near the compost bin...

I have been feeding the little Dove for five days, so it's looks have improved a lot. When I found  it, it's feathers still looked like little quills. Hoping the mother Dove will hear her baby and come to the back porch. 

To feed the baby, I am mixing wheat germ and cornmeal with warm water and adding strained chicken baby food. I fill the rubber end of a dropper and with his beak he sucks the mixture, much like a baby Dove drinks crop milk from it's mother.

Rarely does Poppy walk outside that he doesn't yell for me to, "hurry, and bring the camera"!

Got a picture just before this big Locust flew away.

and back to the teeny tiny garden jungle...

This has definitely been the best year we've had in a long time for tomatoes. Haven't had much luck with peppers or eggplant either, but...

all the rain we've had in the last week or so has brought the yard long green beans back to life. Why, we had four thunderstorms yesterday! 

Oh, did you hear? North Carolina had an earthquake this morning! In a town called Sparta...not so very far from here! How scary! Measured 5.1  Very scary!

Well, better go. Time to think about supper, and besides that, got animals waiting...

Once again, I will be around to catch up. Sorry for posting so much at once. Just had so much I wanted to share, and this is not all! But don't leave, I'm done for today. :)  Thank you for visiting, well, if you're still here. 

Love,
Henny