In and out here on Henny Penny Lane...

My little cupboard runneth over...

but I simply cannot bear to part with my collection of mostly, old dishes. Plus, some of my favorites are from blogging friends, Andee, Lynn, and cousin Pat. 

What got me started on this subject anyhow, was pulling the "spring" dishes from the old cupboard on the front porch and replacing them with "fall" dishes. Aren't the colors of "fall" beautiful!

and you know what? Never once did I get around to posting the old cupboard filled with "springtime". Where did "spring" go, and so quickly?

My goodness! It took near half a bottle of "Old English" polish to bring the old cupboard back to life. The daily settling of dust from the dirt path, or as Mama used to say, "cars going up and down the road stirring up dust".

Is it my eyes or is there a touch of blurriness in this picture.? Anyhow, here it is "fall". The rest of the porch could use a good cleaning, and I would love to find a couple of pretty pillows for these old rocking chairs. Maybe a stop by Goodwill before Line Dancing tomorrow??

Saturday morning, I talked Poppy into driving his truck out to Murphy's hay farm for a bale of hay. "I just bought you a bale of hay", he said! Well, that was orchard grass for Rosie Goat...now Randall Rabbit needs Timothy hay. So, we drove to Murphy's, not a far trip, maybe 10 miles or so. 

Oh my gosh!! Can you imagine owning a hay farm! If only I had a barn with a hay loft filled with sweet smelling hay. Anyhow, I pulled the hay bale off the tailgate of the truck onto my now much used pink wheelbarrow, across the yard and down the path...

to my makeshift hay barn...

a shelter with an old freezer chest with the lid removed :(

You know what's fun about going to Murphy's Hay Farm, besides all the hay, you never know what new animal will be there to greet you. You may remember the 2,000 lbs. bashful bull from several years ago...

and a few weeks ago was this adorable miniature bull...

and now greeting customers...

Oh, this fella is so sweet and gentle and slow moving...

I would love to bring him home...

I said to Mr. Murphy, I want the camel! He laughed and said, well you can get him! Now where in the world could we keep a camel! You may remember also it was Mr. Murphy who took all my beloved rabbits. Oh yes, he said, there's a big place here for rabbits and a house for them. "sigh".  Will I ever stop missing my bunnies? 

But then there's big loveable Randall Rabbit who has stolen my heart...

with his very own bale of Timothy Hay...

Have been meaning to tell you, Willow Wabbit has a new home. She just didn't work out here. She now lives with another black Flemish Giant, a male so I'm sure she is happy and cared for. The owner wants to raise more Flemish Giants. Willow was a digger. She had turned the entire rabbit lot into a maze of tunnels. I was so afraid of her digging out and something bad happening to them both!

Oh my gosh, how I've gone on and on. It's okay if you checked out several stories ago. I must have been starved for someone to talk to :) Thank you for listening. Love all my blogging friends! 

Henny

Are your days busy?

How can there possibly be so much to do on a teeny tiny farm? Whatever would I do with a real farm!

Anyhow, my days are full. Did you know a fireplace screen makes a great drying rack for green beans...

I wasted half a day trying to build a drying rack with old screen wire then happened to notice the fireplace screen and it worked! 

Funny, when I stood the screen up against the tree, Smokey thought it was playtime...all for him.

Silly kitty! The beans frightened him so he found another place near by to sun...

Can you tell I haven't started raking leaves yet? All these little willow oak leaves will be raked up and put on the garden, hopefully, if I remain able. I am bound and determined to improve conditions in the teeny tiny garden before next year. The garden was awful this summer. Simply awful! 

Oh, I finally got around to adding a little more Fall decor to the old cupboard...

I stopped by Goodwill on my way to line dancing last week and found the pitcher. Andee sent me the cute little welcome mat for my birthday...

and the matching flag that hangs up at the playhouse...

Oh, and those green beans drying in the sun...well I've never had any beans worth drying and saving until now. These are old timey heirloom half runner beans...seeds passed down over the years by my Mother's family. Thanks to Shelby for asking around and sure enough a cousin had a bag full stored in her freezer. Shelby and Jimmy grew a couple of long rows of these delicious beans...plenty to eat and plenty to save for seed. Shelby gave me enough beans to plant a couple of rows too. 

By the way, what is your favorite color of the Fall mums? Oh, I love them all! But if I had to pick just one, it would be the deep reds. My son-in-law Todd brought this pretty mum to me for my birthday...

Good grief! I am so embarrassed. My last post has a misspelled word...right up there big as day in the title. That was supposed to be "Community" rock pile.

Okay, I could go on and on. There are spiders and webs and animals to talk about...I need to post more often. 

Thank you friends...if you are still here.

Love, Henny

On the 1st day of September...

a cold front came through tricking us into thinking Fall had arrived.

I rushed out and gathered all the pink and white Spring dishes from the old cupboard, fixed a dishpan full of warm soapy water, pulled out the Old English furniture polish and went to work.

What a dirty dusty mess covered the old cupboard! Henny Penny Lane is dirt, you know. It has been hot and dry and the cloud of dust kicked up behind going and coming cars, drifts and settles on the everything on the teeny tiny porch. 

I pulled out a few "almost Fall" looking things...

We had three wonderfully cooler days and nights, even turned the air conditioner off and slept with the windows open. Been a few months since we could enjoy cool night air and hear the frogs down at the pond. Sleep was good.

Rarely do I pick flowers for a vase except for Goldenrods in the Fall and Goldenrods are not in full bloom yet. There are masses of these plants with tiny little flowers growing along the path...so I gathered a few. 

Sorry for posting three pictures of the cupboard. Would delete one, but that would throw all different font sizes into my post and that drives me crazy! :(   Same with the picture below, It is not worth posting. 

Anyhow, still spending time in the sewing room...

working mostly on bags and bonnets. Can't believe I haven't been to the farmer's market since I started making bags. That's just like me! :(  Guess I need to get up from here and go take a picture to show you. Be right back...

Well, here are a few... Have 3 more bags in the sewing room and 2 more cut out ready to sew...

It's kinda fun using this low hanging limb on the old snowball bush for picture taking. Maybe I should try bonnets and aprons here too. Log homes are dark. I've just discovered how much better the natural light makes things look. 

Don't tell anyone there's a big sweet kitty cat that hangs out in my sewing room...

No way could I ever advertise, "made in a pet free home"...

Good thing Smokey doesn't bother things...like the pin cushion. Sweet Dumperoo, (we miss you so much), would have, with his teeth,  pulled every pin and needle from that pin cushion.

Guess I've gone on long enough. Hate to wear out my welcome.  Forgot to mention above that the hot weather came back with a vengeance. Temps in the high 90s and Wednesday was 102 out here in the country.

Here's a neat sunset picture I took looking up the road toward the garden...

and I thank you very much for stopping by, dear friends.

Love, Henny

Can you believe!! Someone must have heard me talking and for meaness threw some large font words into my post! :)

 

Yearly Porch Cleaning...

and it's that time again! Sometimes here under all the trees, seems like the pollen will never end! What a green dusty mess the back porch was, so on a warm sunny day last week I went to work with a mop and bucket of warm soapy water...and of course the water hose.

far from perfect, but here's our clean porch...chairs fit to sit in again...

Oops! Just realized I took the picture before putting the clean tablecloth back on the table. The old porch floor needs another coat of paint...maybe one day.  

and, the other end of the porch...

Well, the porch doesn't look as pretty as I would like but most of the dirt and dust is gone.

So yesterday I went to work on our little front porch...dragging furniture around while mopping and scrubbing and rinsing away a year's worth of dirt...

and here's the other end of the teeny tiny porch...

My favorite thing about the little front porch is the old cupboard. You can barely see it over to the right in the first picture. I've told the story a hundred times, but the cupboard was a gift from my cousin Patty...

Anyhow, I've taken out all the fall dishes and stuff and added spring dishes...

I had to rake and scrape to gather the right dishes. My next trip to the thrift store I hope to find a pretty flowered pitcher and a few more things. 

Patty and I were texting about the new spring look and she suggested moving the candle to the side instead of in the center...so I did.  Poppy must have thought it looked off balance and centered it again. :(  

Anyhow, decorating the old cupboard added joy to the scrubbing of the front porch.

Better get busy. I'll be doing the farmer's market tomorrow. I have finished three aprons and 4 bonnets this week. Want to show you this cute one with the flowers and bees and butterflies...

and a couple of lavender bonnets...(pardon the messy bed)

Sewing is messy work.  :)   Thank you so much dear friends, and a new follower. Oh my. Thank you!

Love, Henny

A little fall cleaning

Would you believe I finally got around to cleaning the front porch and putting out a little fall decor...

Something I've been talking about doing for weeks now but just couldn't get started.

so, beginning with the bottom of the old cupboard...

I pulled out all the canning jars and washed them. An old plastic tablecloth cut in half was perfect for lining the shelves.

It was Poppy with the brilliant idea this time. :) He said, "Why don't you just put the jars in your pink wheelbarrow and clean them with the hose. It's not like you're washing them to can in right away". So I did.

Then moved a couple of chairs around in the living room and bed room and decided to move this one out...

Oh my gosh, having this rocking chair on the front porch is wonderful! I just might sit more!

Okay, Poppy has his own chair and so does Eli. This needs to be labeled "Henny's"!

Had to move all the rusty items from off the table, you know, Poppy's collection of old metal pieces dug from the dirt road. These are now in the old wash pan under the table. That wooden bird cage looks a little off balance...need to change that.

By the way...wandered out on the porch and caught Poppy rocking and dozing, in my chair!

I've had this big poster size wooden frame, made from old barn wood, for years. In fact, had listed it for sale on Craigslist. 

Then the idea of framing a sunflower print for the porch popped into my head...and I love it, except for the glare...

Walking Eli and Weetie early this morning, we rescued these wild flowers. I love them growing along side the dirt road, but there were so many, some had spilled over into the dry dusty road. We need rain!

Guess that's about it. Need to get busy. Got a list of things to do before Poppy gets home at 1:00. The fish truck is coming to Spring Hope this afternoon and we have ordered 50 baby catfish for the pond. 

Hope to be back soon.

Love,
Henny
Tried once more to get a picture of the sunflower and the bee, without the glare...

Busy as a bee!

We picked these wildflowers along the dirt road..I picked the Goldenrod flowers, and Poppy went through the deep, snaky looking grass for the purple and yellow ones. The two zinnias look pretty bad. 

All summer I've wanted a vase of zinnias for the house, but simply can't bear to cut them. What's wrong with me?? 

These last few days, I've actually been doing some fall cleaning. Remember that dreadful bottle collection in the living room? "Dreadful" because it's me who does the dusting...

the "before" picture from the last cleaning frenzy.

and "after"!

All summer we've had the curtains down. But for fall and winter, with the windows and screens washed and clean, I like the coziness of curtains.

Oh, you can still find dust, I'm not finished yet, but mostly I'm proud of the shiny clean windows and screens...and bottles!

looking out onto the back porch.

and, I washed all the old pots and oil lamps on the porches, and added a clean tablecloth.

have you ever seen anybody as proud of doing a little cleaning?

got the kitchen window washed too and hung the clean curtains. Gosh, didn't see all the wrinkles until now. Maybe the wrinkles will fall out after a few nights of washing dishes in hot water just below them. If not, the ironing board is in the sewing room.

Big ruffled curtains are probably out of style but I still love them.

the old cupboard sure looks better with the dust wiped off.

Still have lots of cleaning to do, but for now I'm off the the grocery store. The kitties finished the last can of food first thing this morning. There will be a lot of meowing before long. 

Thank you, if you're still here. Who wants to hear about cleaning house, anyhow. :)

Love,
Henny