A kitty, and other bits of news

Well, as it turns out, Christmas was wonderful. Hope yours was wonderful too. Didn't get to see all the children or the grandchildren, but Andee and Todd, without Madison home for Christmas for the first time, had dinner with us. Got to say, that made Christmas!

So first things first...Is there anything cuter than the face of big sweet kitty cat that's not sure what's going on...

I picked him up for a hug and Andee said, Mom, I've got to get a picture of that. Smokey wasn't sure about Andee and that strange looking iPad.

This big boy gives THE BEST HUGS!

"It's okay Smoke! We're gonna whip Andee for scaring you". :)

Around the first of December we ordered a Santa poster...the 24"x 36" size for the big wooden frame on the front porch. The sunflower looked out of place at Christmas. 

Well we waited and waited, we made phone calls, and eventually tracked the package to the Louisburg post office but no one could find it. 

Guess what arrived Christmas Eve, delivered by our regular mailman...

I was really looking forward to hanging this life-size Santa. At least it got here, and did add a little joy to the porch and old cupboard for Christmas Eve and Day...

Were you surprised by any unusual gifts this Christmas? We surely were. Let me back up a little first...

Poppy's daughter Windy, and her family, moved from Missouri to Virginia about a year ago. They bought a nice home with a big fenced-in back yard with ready made raised beds for gardening. Had no idea what big gardeners they were until just before Christmas when Windy sent pictures...

Oh my gosh!  How pretty, and is that Bamboo I see growing in the background? (actually, I asked if that was reed growing in the back, I didn't know there was a difference) :) I searched all last spring for a decent piece of Bamboo to make homes for the mason bees. When you guys come for a visit, you can have all the Bamboo you want, Windy and Brian agreed. 

Before Christmas, a UPS truck backed into the driveway. The driver jumped out, opened both back doors and struggled to pull out a big heavy 7' long box. Poppy helped get the box up on the porch. What in the world is this, asked Poppy. Obviously, something that will have to be put together, said the driver...by the sound of the wood clanking together inside the box.

We opened our present Christmas Eve...

A box filled with beautiful perfectly cut, 7' tall Bamboo pieces! Prettiest I've ever seen! Can't wait to use these in the garden next spring and try to create something really pretty. 

Speaking of gardening...I'm already dreaming and planning.

Good grief! No wonder Poppy is always saying, will you get to the point! You've all probably signed out by now. If you're still here, thank you for visiting! 

Love,

Henny

Next Week! Christmas!!

Hey Friends,

Well, it was a week Friday since my last post. Need to get going here, because I know me...I'll mess around and miss wishing you all a Merry Christmas.

Where have the weeks of December gone! Next week is Christmas! I've done a little bit more decorating.

My beloved old cupboard that sits on the front porch really needed a Christmassy touch...so I went gathering more cedar, pine, and a few holly limbs...

and tied a little of the greenery together for our tiny screen door made with chicken wire...

This door badly needs a coat of stain. It used to be a warm golden color. If you've never seen such a door as this, it's because, it was built by me. :) I sawed an old full size screen door in half, bolted the two pieces together, and added chicken wire., and it worked!

This was back when Eli was ten weeks old. He loved being on the porch but we were afraid he would wander off. I also enclosed the porch with garden wire. You can probably tell. :)

Okay, don't know how I got off on all that. I have something to show you...

Also don't know  how I got lucky enough to be one of four to win a beautiful hand carved ornaments...

from Far Side of Fifty.blogspot.com  Both Connie and her husband are amazing wood carvers.  

Can you believe how much this looks like those old glass ornaments! I love it! Thank you Connie. Appreciate that little scrubby thing too. Those things are great, especially for those of us without dishwashers...

and I wish I had taken a better picture of the card. Connie makes these cards and they are beautiful...

Connie has the neatest blog and posts something every day...something interesting! I could never do that. Some of her posts are hilarious and make me laugh. She's great and got a great husband too.

Got something else to show you...

A very special bunny rabbit from a very special person!

A Bunny that ice skates. He is so cute, and fits right in with the animals on the tree. 

Most of you probably know Deb from Just Cats.  She is such an animal lover and boy do the animals love her. Even the tiny little Chickadees will light in her hands. It's amazing. 

This bunny is more than cute, He is beautiful! I love him!

And friends, I'm serious about Deb and the Chickadees...

I love this picture of Deb in the snow with a Chickadee. (I didn't ask permission to post this picture. Hope you don't mind, Deb). It is so pretty! Thank you for another bun bun.

Well, before I go, here's an old picture from the 40's. 

                                    Kids on the right; Shelby(standing), me(center), Jackie(on the sled)

Taken probably some time around Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Love,

Henny

A little decorating, A little painting

Seems like the harder I try to be a good blogger, the worse I do, and getting worser and worser. Is worser a word? Shakespeare said, "I cannot hate thee worser than I do",  (just learned this from Merriam-Webster). 😊 Also learned from the Collins English Dictionary that the word 'worser' is found only in some regional dialects, and is considered non-standard. Sounds like me! 

Anyhow, been doing a little decorating, 'little' for sure...

I did bring in lots of cedar (from limbs hanging over the dam that needed to be cut anyway).

and the mantle...nothing special, just set up parts of the little Christmas village without taking down the Indian pictures...

Seems like everyone, well, except me, is going all out with decorations this Christmas. Oh, but I am excited about Christmas. I love Christmas!

We did move the little tree from in front of the windows to the wall space under the deer...

and picked out just a few ornaments, but then noticed the green cord is showing and half the lights are burned out...sigh. Well, half my lights are burned out too. 

and again...I have pulled out my old 'Country Living' magazines from the late 1980's and early 1990's. These were the most beautiful Christmas magazines, and usually featured log homes. 

Candy canes on the coffee table. Have you tried the 'hot chocolate' flavored ones? 

Here's a bit of news.  Lowes Home Improvements installed our new front door this week. Yay!!

The glass in the old door had become cloudy. After 31 years, the seal had broken and no amount of cleaning made it better. It was awful and depressing to look at? I dearly love clean windows so having to look through this cloudy glass for the last few years was driving me crazy.

The new door! I LOVE it, but it's white and needs painting. The white is beautiful, isn't it?

but just doesn't go with these dark cedar walls. Here's the outside...

Tomorrow I will start the tedious job of painting. The color we picked for the door is 'sweet tea,' and the trim will be dark, like the board over the door. I will post 'after' pictures. 

This new blogger!!! I like big print and Blogger is determined to pick the print size for me...and not only that...mix all print sizes together!!!  and move my words around! I hate how it all looks! 

Better say goodnight. It's Poppy's bedtime. He will be in here to check the emails one last time. 

This is a terrible post, but I'll publish it anyway. Thank you friends for putting up with me.  Maybe a picture of Smokey will make things better...

Love,

Henny

 

Patty and Holly, no, Holly and Patty

I've just got to say thank you for the nice comments on my last post, and Gale, who had never left a comment before...thank you so much! Your comment sure touched my heart.

The Holly trees are beautiful this year...

and were even prettier a few days ago. Poppy has reminded me every day..."you better get a picture of the holly berries before the birds eat them all".

First the Robins came...hundreds of them filling up on the red berries before moving on. Now the Cardinals fill the holly trees but that's okay.

Back when we cleared a spot in the woods to build the cabin, we intentionally left all the holly trees and all the cedar trees...

and in the dead of winter when other trees are bare, the hollies and cedars are dark green and beautiful. The green trees in the background are hollies and cedars too.

You probably remember my cousin Patty, don't you? Patty, who gave me the old cupboard, and the old pie safe, plus many many other things too numerous to mention...well, Patty called me last week...

by the way, this is cousin Pat and her husband Mike, (the nice looking couple on the left).  Anyhow, Patty said, "every morning I get up and get started on something. This morning I decided to sit here and read this old church cookbook."  

It's one of those cookbooks put together by members of the church. This church is located in a small community called Ether ...

near where my mother Jewel, and Pat's mother Agathel, were born and raised...along with their sisters, Aunt Bass, Aunt Berlie, Aunt Martha, Aunt Ruby, Aunt Macie, and Aunt Eva, oh and brothers, Uncle Henry and Uncle Charlie.  these folks...

Front row is Aunt Eva, Jewel (mama), Aunt Martha, Aunt Bass

Back row is Aunt Macie, Aunt Agathel (Pat's mom), Aunt Berlie, Aunt Ruby, Uncle Henry, Uncle Charlie

So the old cookbook contains recipes and tips from relatives and friends from all those folks. The main thing Pat called about were the hundreds of tips and ideas listed in the back of the old cookbook. "I've just got to share these with you", she said. Some are really good, some a bit strange, some funny...

Not sure how easy these will be to read...Oh, I would be overwhelmed if someone put all this in front of me to read so please...

Some of these are pretty amazing. It's easy to tell there were no microwave ovens around at the time. Patty thought this would make a good blog post...and I agree. 

Better get up from here...looks like some of the sweetie pies around here played too hard today...

Sorry about the raggedy old couch, it's just so darn comfortable. One of these days we may get a new living room suit. :)

Love,

Henny

PS.. Debby, just saw your comment for the first time too. Thank you so much!

Pies Pies and more pies!

My Goodness! Here it is 8:00 Wednesday night. If I hurry, I might get a little post done in time to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving.

Been almost two weeks since my last post and I don't know where the days have gone. Isn't it always something?

Anyhow, this post is perfect for Thanksgiving. Remember my sister Shelby? Bet you remember her kitchen. This was taken a few years ago...

Well she is still into baking except this time it's pies, and a few cakes! She and my brother-in-law Jimmy no longer sell at the farmer's market every Saturday, but they do sell at a special farmer's market held every Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Here, you may remember Jimmy too...

this picture is from a few years ago too. Anyhow, Shelby called me last night. They were home from the market, dead tired and cold. Shelby said she was chilled through and through and was on the couch snuggled up in a quilt while Jimmy had gone out to throw more wood in the furnace, out near the smokehouse. Sounds rather cozy doesn't it...

As Poppy often says, "get to the point", get to the point! So, Shelby made from scratch...48 pies and 2 cakes...to take to the market yesterday! I mean 48 pies! 

A one man pie factory, right there in her kitchen!

These are some of her pie crust rounds, made from scratch, of course, chilled and ready to be rolled out...

and here are a few of the finished pies...

Shelby told me she used 14 pounds of butter, 9 dozen eggs, and 16 cups of pecans.

This is just amazing to me. I find it a job to make even one pie!

I didn't ask if she would be baking a pie for herself and Jimmy for Thanksgiving day.

Thanksgiving will be a little different this year. Lots of worries. But anyhow, hope all of you have a happy Thanksgiving. Stay safe and well.

Have had a few computer problems, but up and running again and hope to be back real soon.

Love, 

Henny

Rainy Days

Tuesday, before the rains came...

Oh friends, I need the sun to keep me cheerful and going and right now I'm feeling pretty desperate.

The pouring rains started yesterday (Wednesday) morning. So here it is 3:00 pm (Thursday) and the rain is still coming down. At 8:00 this morning there were 4 inches in the rain gauge. Who knows how much now and it's simply too wet and messy to go check.

Maybe I should back up and talk about our warm and sunny day, Tuesday; with the back door propped open and the animals wandering in and out...

Tuesday was a day filled with sunshine and colored leaves; camellia blossoms and shadows on the porch. 

and looking a little closer, a Christmas cactus too. 

Most folks who love house plants  probably have a Christmes cactus, but this one is kinda special...

This cactus came from cuttings taken from an old, very large, Christmas cactus that belonged to Poppy's mother. She had it for years and years and when she passed away, Poppy's sister Pat, brought it to her house.

One Thanksgiving Day down home, probably five years ago, Pat gave me cuttings from the old plant. It is now blooming, for the first time...

Did you notice Eli's feet? Old sweetie pie. He is a sweet blossom alright!

Oh, let me tell you. I brough in all those "frocks" from off the clothesline and plugged in the iron. What a job! Made me wish I had left them hanging in the sewing room, dusty and dirty. That was a lot of ironing!

but the dresses are fresh and clean now and back in the sewing room. I finished another apron too...

Little farm animals. Here's another apron I finished last night...

Something about this one I really like. It's just pink and cute.

So, the teeny tiny sewing room is back in business now...

           

My neighbor Ann, out taking orders for dolls and aprons, has been just the inspiration I needed. 

Wow!  Update on the rain! It stopped somewhere around 4:00 and I couldn't wait to walk outside. Guess how much was in the rain gauge? 6 inches!! Six inches!! The town of Rocky Mount, a little northeast of us got almost 10".

Sure looking forward to seeing the sun tomorrow. Hope you will come back.

Love,

Henny