Frocks and Marigolds

About 30 years ago Poppy bought me two nice metal rakes, rakes that came with a lifetime guarantee. Well, I wore them out.  Seriously! Too bad I didn't keep the receipt. :) 

So I bought another rake this week. A much cheaper, lighter weight, rake...

Never owned a big plastic rake before! It makes a nice wide sweep but doesn't grab all the leaves and debris like the medal rakes. 

Anyhow, I've raked leaves for three days now and barely made a dent in them, but can sure feel it in my back and legs. I'm beat!

I'm still cleaning up the teeny tiny garden too and today pulled up the marigolds...

"Wonder if the chickens would like marigolds", I thought? Then remembered! Do you remember Frank Perdue's TV ads? He bragged about the nice color of his chickens. He fed them marigold petals! He also produced his own chicken feed containing marigold petals...

Well then! I dressed up the raggedy old chicken lot by placing bunches of marigolds all around...

Of course, the rooster bragged that all this was his idea...

The hens hardly had time to eat with him calling them from one bunch of flowers to another.

Wonder where the four new red hens are...

close together as usual and  gathered around the feeder inside the little hen house.

Well, I didn't wear an old frock outside to work these last few days. I do have a few old frocks, but none so beautiful as those Tasha Tudor wore.

This one, Oh my gosh, was hard to make, for me anyhow. I am not a dressmaker! Three layers of fabric in the bodice!

two layers in the skirt. I love the buttons in back, but who could wear this out raking leaves! It looks uncomfortable.

I made this simple dress too. Little red checks. Not too pretty though...

I might could rake leaves wearing this one with an apron, maybe...

and this dress, my favorite, I found a Goodwill store...

I wore this one to the Duke Homestead Festival a few years ago where Shelby and I were vendors.

Oh, wouldn't you love to have a few of Tasha Tudor's dresses, or some like them? I would settle for just the pattern.

These dresses have been hanging in the sewing room for ages! When I started trying them on the dress form for pictures, I realized all three were dusty and dirty. I threw them in the washer. 

and hung them out to dry...made for a right pretty picture anyway...

Guess that's about it for now. It's near 8:00. Think I'll go dip us a cup of ice cream. Thank you for visiting. 

Love,

Henny
 

 

The big event on Saturday

Have you ever seen a prettier place for vendors to sell their crafts? This is the "Pork, Pickles, and Peanuts" event at the Duke Homestead in Durham that Shelby and I attended on Saturday...

We're there, under the first white tent on the left. It was such a fun day, and we were busy! Very busy! We hardly had time to speak to each other...but the sells were good!

and way, way back there, where you can see folks milling around is the Duke homestead, the old wooden fence, and tobacco growing in the field. Back there too was where the barbecue cook-off and pie competition were being held.

I really wanted to walk around and take pictures of the homestead (now can't you just see me doing that) but we simply did not have time, so I borrowed a picture off the internet. It took all the nerve I could muster up to walk far enough away from our table to get the two pictures that I did. Seriously.

Aww, that's my sweet daughter Lynn. She stopped in to see us.

So, now I've got plenty of catching up to do, not only blogging, but sewing and doll making. All my little country dolls sold on Saturday. Yay!

Would you believe that Poppy now has a "to do" list? He sure does, and has been steady marking stuff off.

One item was putting up a new clothesline for me. He got that done first thing this morning. 

He put the new line way up high. Said it needed to be high to hold the heavy stuff. Why, I had to stand on my tip-toes to hang this little load of whites. Oh, by the way, MK, that's one of my many white (thrift store) skirts on the line. MK blogs at throughaglass,darkly.blogspot.com  and like myself, she loves white skirts. I love her blog! Is there still going to be a white skirt club?

The little goat barn has been leaking lately, every time it rains...so Poppy got the new tin roof put on. Something else marked off his list.

Guess that's about it for now. Oh, I was surprised to see two new followers, Debra and Beca. Thank you so much. So, I'm hoping to be back soon.

Love,
Henny

Feeling happy

Dear friends,

Today has been wonderful!! We woke up to a cold 18 degrees, but by lunch time the temperature was above freezing. First time in 209 hours! By 4:00 it was a wonderful warm 45 degrees! 

There was sunshine too a good part of the day. I hung Eli's damp frozen blankets on the clothesline to air and dry out.

  Even the birds seemed happier.

Back on November 20th, Sandra at prairiepatchquilts.blogspot.com did a post on Swedish Weaving. I was so excited because I've never known anybody except my mother who did Swedish Weaving, or as mama called it, Swedish Darning.

I have searched the house over looking for the red Swedish Darning afghan mama made for me, and cannot find it, but I do have the one I was working on before mama died. She was teaching me...

It was so close to being finished...just 6 or 8  inches left at the bottom, then make the fringe.  

The sad part is, I can't figure out now, how to finish it. The instructions are very difficult...to me, anyhow. Let me show you. These are in mama's handwriting...

Mama used to cut all the lengths of yarn she would need and put the yarn in envelopes marked Row 1, Rows 2 & 3, Rows 3 & 4, and so forth.

Many many times while working on my afghan, a row would get to looking off. Mama would notice it and say, here, let me go back to where you made the mistake...she would sit and patiently take out stitches and get me going again. 

It has been at least 12 years now and I could never figure out from these instructions, how to make those last rows of stitching. 

Mama also made Shelby an afghan, and made all of her granddaughters afghans, and several of her nieces. 

I hope that you will check out Sandra's blog. She has made several beautiful afghans, or throws, (mama always called them afghans) using pretty colors and patterns.

Guess that's about it. Oh, except for this...

This clean white bedspread was washed and dried and put on the bed this morning. But that's okay. These kitty cats earn their keep. Why, Smokey brought us a little mouse one day last week. Left it right at the front door. Made me feel really sad, but I didn't tell him. 

Love,

Henny

Beans and lilies and me again

Prettiest flower on Henny Penny Lane!! and right now, the only flower on Henny Penny Lane!!

Guess I will be getting another steroid injection in my back today. Didn't want to say anything, but yep, the pain is back.

Probably overdid it in the garden and the yard after getting that last injection. It just felt so darn good for that pain to be gone.

Glad for the little wattle fence, built by me :), while the pain was gone. I did manage to pick enough beans, while standing, for a dutch oven full...which I cooked and shared with my friend Nellie.

Shelby said to me just yesterday, "well, you can't be picking up cinder blocks anymore".  "I haven't picked up any cinder blocks lately", I said, "everything but the cinder block, maybe".

"I want to be able to work"! My Aunt Nannie Mae, who worked hard her whole life, used to say that she wanted to "fall in the harness". Me too, dear friends!

and back to the loveliest flower here. Last summer when this Stargazer lily bloomed, it spoke to my heart. Mama loved these lilies! Out I went and bought a pack of bulbs and put them in this flower bed...

actually, this was the newly prepared flower bed about three years ago. Anyhow, I couldn't "leave well enough alone", as mama used to say. The rose bush on the left grew and grew and then early spring of this year I desperately needed a spot to set out that big peach tree that had outgrown it's pot up at the teeny tiny garden. So, a big hole I dug and in went the peach tree, which by the way, loves this spot!

now, same flower bed, and where are those lovely lilies...

puny and weak, struggling beneath the peach tree. If my back gets well, I will move these bulbs and put them in the front of this bed. That would be perfect! Location, location, location!  Just had to say that. Those words actually fit here, don't they? 

Wondering if you're still here as I ramble on. Better try standing up and getting a few things done. It's mighty slow going right now.

Love,
Henny

A filthy post

I can't possibly begin this post with a picture of what I want to talk about. It is way too filthy!

I should be ashamed to post something this dirty.

It's the ceiling fan on that high ceiling in the living room. I'm fixing to climb a ladder and clean it.

Filthy! and this is the very ceiling fan that Poppy looks at and says, "I don't see any dust". Well, he IS waiting for a call from the eye place saying his new glasses are ready.

Tell me how this much dirt and dust collects on an object that spins. This fan runs almost non-stop. 

Mama would have disowned me.

a late afternoon picture taken when the sun was low and shining through the trees onto this pink rose bush. It was so bright, you can hardly tell the roses are pink.

Thank you for looking in. Oh, and here's how that ceiling fan looks now...

and I didn't get dizzy or fall off the ladder or any of that stuff. Think Poppy will notice?

Love,
Henny

More work to be done...always!

I've said it before but where the heck do the days go! Thank you for looking at my last post and leaving a comment. Oh, and I do appreciate my new followers. Wow! Never would I have believed that anyone would follow my blog! Thank you! Sure makes me feel like "somebody"! :)

As mama would say, I am simply worn out.  The yard was snaky looking again so I've been mowing. I started mowing on Friday but ran my little taxi cab yellow push mower up under a bush and got a limb tangled in the motor causing a tiny little spring to pop out.

The mower sputtered to a stop and died. Poppy loaded the little broken mower onto his truck and carried it with him to work on Saturday. Scott, the same guy who built the well house, fixed it for us. You know, some folks can just do anything!

During February it felt like spring would never get here. Now May, my favorite month of the year, is half over. Amazing how fast the flowers bloom and then go away...we've been through the daffodils and yellow bells, then the Azaleas and the Iris. Now the roses and peonies.

"Plant white rose" was added to my to do list for tomorrow. It needs to be in the ground. I started it from a cutting about three years ago and here it is blooming so pretty in the same  old pot.

About three weeks ago, maybe longer, I planted six Stargazer Lilies in this bed. What could have happened? Shouldn't they be coming up by now? I was so looking forward to seeing these lilies in bloom this summer.

Okay, I'm hunting and searching for something to talk about here. Guess I had better get all the animals settled in for the night. For me, the bed will feel mighty good tonight. Hope to be back soon.

Love,
Henny