Little treasures from Poppy

Dear friends, I sat here for about two hours last night putting together a post. Got it finished, hit publish, then thinking I was deleting a draft, deleted my newly published post. Grrrrr!!!

My post was titled "Little treasures from Poppy". Here's why...

Did you notice the painted box turtle on the table? Well, Poppy found the empty shell in the woods. It was old, so old in fact, the outer layer had peeled off leaving a solid white shell. I asked Poppy if he would paint it for me.

First, I Googled the Eastern Box Turtle and was surprised at their many color variations, then borrowed this picture from the Internet...

Funny, yesterday walking Eli and Ellie, we came upon this...

A young box turtle. Doesn't he look like the little one in the picture? I sat him on the rock and asked if I could take a picture...he disappeared into his shell. Sort of reminded me of myself. 

So after getting his picture I gently sat him back in the grass and headed him in the direction he was going in the first place. 

and another treasure...

Poppy found this old bird cage at the trash dump. Said he thought I might like it...and I do!

The little door still slides up and down. Think I will paint it Canary yellow :) and maybe hang it from a small chain somewhere at the playhouse. Maybe put a plant inside? Any suggestions?  I'm not good at decorating things like this. Wonder if people still keep Canaries in pretty bird cages ?

Anyhow, these are only two of my many treasures from the woods or trash dump...He has brought me tiles, old windows, old dishes to use in the greenhouse and garden, bird's nests...I could go on and on. 

Oh friends, the wild shrubberies are in bloom up and down the dirt road and their scent is heavenly. Heavenly!

My ex Mother-in-law called these, "wild shrubs". The sweet scent of these tiny white flowers takes me back to somewhere in my childhood maybe, or something like that. I just can't explain it. I could stand for hours under these blossoms and breath in their fragrance.

Well, what else? Oh, in my last post...a couple of you asked if I actually use the rocking chair in the playhouse. Well, I do. It's the perfect place to sit for a minute and wipe the sweat from my face after working in the garden. 

and Mari, I think you're right about the Iris being Siberian Iris. Thank you.

So in closing, if you don't mind, I will show you how the little garden has grown this week...

Thank you for looking in. Okay, I'm going to try and hit "publish" now and not "delete". :)

Love, Henny

A little visit

Can you believe, as sorry as I have been, there are two new followers on my little side bar. Thank you very much! 

Oh gosh, aren't the days busy! I'll have to show you how the teeny tiny garden is growing...

Got the little wattle fence built for the bean vines and bamboo poles for staking the tomatoes. Still got lots of growing to do. I love making a garden pretty...now if it will produce a few vegetables. That would be nice. :)

You'll never guess my latest addition to the "Old Motor Grader Road Museum"...

There it is, standing out like a sore thumb...a golf ball. Found it one morning last week while out walking Eli and Ellie. It was covered in red mud.

and while we're at the garden, might as well throw in a picture if the playhouse...again!

By the middle of May everything is dark green and growing like crazy. I love it!

Oh, the solid color dark purple Iris...I don't know if that is pollen or dust on the soft delicate petals...

and just as beautiful are the long stem Dutch Iris...(I think these are Dutch Iris)??

I'm boring you with all these pictures but wanted to show you how the chocolate vine is growing on the walls at the playhouse...

Okay, I will thank you now for stopping by and close with a few animal pictures.

"Wilder" still visits. At least, we hope he is Wilder. Poppy says this bunny is too tame not to be Wilder.

and here's Mr Smokey...

and Ellie...waits patiently on the porch while I am in the garden...

Eli was back there too, somewhere.

Love, Henny

Apologies from Henny Penny Lane

Whew! Must say, I'm glad to be past that last post! I have worried ever since hitting the publish button, and to make up for it (kidding, of course) is my last and final look, up into the snowball bush :)

Couldn't resist just one more. Some of the balls were as big as my head...course, I have a small head. :) 

Hope you all are still speaking to me after my last post.

Oh, we have baby Wood ducks! So yesterday, on our usual walk around the pond with Eli and Ellie

we rounded the corner and frightened mama duck and what looked like 10 to 15 teeny tiny newly hatched babies. Mama duck dove into the water and babies tried to follow...we quickly turned the dogs around and hurried away. 

We've had a duck box up several years and this is the first time a Wood duck has successfully left the box with a brood of ducklings. How adorable! 

I Googled and found out there are many predators of baby ducks; foxes, hawks, cats, turtles, and large mouth bass and we have all the above. Also read that 90 percent of baby ducks will die before they are a week old. Made me very sad. 

Thankfully, there are lots of safe places for mama duck to hide. Yellow water Iris surround the pond...

It was around this turn where we first saw the ducks.

more Iris...Hard to believe all this came from the one water Iris we bought at Lowes in 1996...

I went to sleep last night worrying about mama duck trying to protect her babies through the long dark night. It is 64 degrees this morning so she probably has them tucked under her wings for warmth.

Had lots of yellow to talk about...this is a cow pasture just up the road...

It is simply covered in tiny yellow flowers and dotted with black cows...

This farmer has hundreds of acres and hundreds of cows so this is just a glimpse from the car window.

Thank you dear friends

Love, Henny

Facts you didn't know about Henny

Remember Tom Wilson's "Ziggy" from the 70s and 80s? Well, you've probably never noticed 😔 but Ziggy and I are a lot alike.

I mean, stuff happens to me that if Ziggy could replace me in the situation it would be the perfect Ziggy cartoon.  Here's Ziggy...

I'm telling you, fits me to a T.

Stuff that happens to me makes no sense...

I was in Food Lion delivering a couple dozen eggs to a friend of Poppy's so leaving the grocery store empty handed I walked almost smack dab into the large automatic doors, because of course, the doors didn't automatically open for me, like they do for the other hundreds of folks that go out. 

Feeling a little flushed I looked back and saw Audrey and LaTonya, two of the front end managers looking at me..."why won't the doors open", I asked as LaTonya walked up and the doors opened wide..."you probably don't weigh enough", Audrey yelled, teasing me.

Things never worked for Ziggy either...

Automatic doors not opening is old news...at least twice I've parked at CVS Pharmacy, jumped out of the car to run in but the front doors were locked...well, locked until another customer walked up and went right in; as the doors opened, I followed them in. 😕

and once I saw a sign in a car that read, "Not For Sale"! I could have sworn that's what it said but later passing the car again the sign read, "For Sale".

Speaking of cars! It was the late 1960s, 5:00 and all us employees were trying to get out of the mill parking lot to go home...as I stopped to look both ways before pulling into highway, a car rams into the back of me. Oh no! Not me! Not now! How embarrassing! I pulled out and went on home. Next day the lady who hit me said, Honey, I tried to stop you. Did it do any damage"? "I don't know", I said, "it's okay".

Back in the day when we all wore a wrist watch, there was never a time that I could give anyone the correct time...my watch was always stopped. Watches don't run on my arm.

Oh, here's another one...drink machines don't work for me, never! Especially back during my working days . Breaktime, others went to the vending machines for a snack. I dreaded putting my two quarters in the machine...silence always followed; no sound of a Pepsi can rolling to the front, or a candy bar dropping to the bottom. I could feel my face get all flushed. Sometimes somebody would kick the machine for me or hit it with their fist...most times I just slid back into my work space and did without.

I've always blamed these weird happenings on being both left handed and a Virgo. 😟and being terribly terribly bashful didn't help either. 

So now you know. Okay, should I publish this tell all post? Well, why not! It's all in fun anyhow. By the way, Ziggy has always been my favorite cartoon character. 

Thank you dear friends.

Love,

Henny