How can I walk away...

 when the teeny tiny garden is saying, wait, we're not done yet...

Poppy said just the other day, why don't you just let the garden go now, it's so hot and humid! 

Well, I just can't.  The beans are a little bug eaten and the grass is trying to take over, but there are still vegetables to pick

why, we haven't had squash from the garden in two or three years because of those stinking squash bugs...but look now!

I gathered all the peppers one day last week and strung them up...just got to show you...

most all the peppers were green when picked but are now such pretty colors. Guess you can tell by the pantry shelf, I haven't done much canning this summer but have filled the freezer with bell peppers, stewed tomatoes, corn, and okra. 

Want to show you too, a little hummingbird; an unusual hummingbird...

This little bird looks mostly black.  He seems to have a problem getting his beak down into the hole to drink. We put up another feeder; a saucer type which seems to work better for him.

At times I wonder if he can see...he lights on top of the feeder and tries to drink nectar from where there are no holes. Poor little fluffy fellow. Sure hope he will be strong enough to leave with the others when they start their long journey to southern Mexico.

Oh, while we're outside...remember the cutover? All that hundred acres of bare land across the path?? Well there are now some fantastic, big, beautiful, weeds growing along the path...

Crazy, I know! Most folks showing their beautiful flowers and here I am posting our giant weeds. There's just something pretty here. These weeds grow higher than my head!

and standing tall way over yonder is the lone pine tree the loggers left for Poppy to use when deer season comes in.  Oh gosh, and deer season is not far off. Bow hunting comes in next month, I think. Sure dread it, for the deer.

I will leave you, once again, with old sweet Smokey...waiting to come back in for another bowl of something to eat...

We hear it from Poppy all the time..."Mel, you're feeding Smokey too much"...

one of these days, something is going to get after him and he won't be able to climb a tree".

Sure appreciate your visit. Hope to be back real soon.

Love,

Henny

What now!

Oh dear! I've just deleted my last post and can't find a way to restore it. Don't know how I manage do these things!! 😕

Smokey keeps watch over the cut-over from the top of the car. I tried to tip-toe past....

but he heard me....

by the way, let me tell you about that cut-over...

Instead of the hundred acres of trees that once grew there we now have a hundred acres of weeds...

Tall fuzzy weeds! Strange weeds! Weeds higher than my head!

and for at least a month now we have watched what looks like snow blowing through the yard. It is unbelievable! Look at this little cedar tree...

simply covered in white fuzz! Looks cold and icy, doesn't it?  I have searched for the name of this weed and can't find it.  Willie, would you have any idea? Here's a close-up...

These fuzzy things are everywhere! There's a layer floating on the pond, and it's stuck in all the spiderwebs, it's in Eli's hair, and in my hair. Have even had it in my eyes.

Okay, you know what I hate most about the new blogger? The size of the print changes, all by itself! Drives me crazy! 

I spent three days last week cleaning the goat barn, the chicken house, and the bunny lot.

So the two white bunnies now have nice clean pens with wire on the bottom...no more digging. I added dirt, then soft clean hay...

Monday morning I discovered the bunny on the right had dug a huge tunnel and was in the  pen with the bunny on the left. That would have been fine except these two rabbits fight. 

Strange, they don't like each other. Before they came here, they were kept in a very small cage with hardly room to turn around. Now, with their own space, they hardly speak to each other. :) 

Oh, I've been meaning to show you...

this is a full view of the bunny pen. They have plenty of protection from the rain. This was back in 2016 when Bun Bun was my only bunny. The pen is now sectioned off into four lots and that huge dog house is out of there. I love my bunny rabbits!

Okay, I've got to show you this spider...

This guy had a web that went from a low growing bush, all the way up into a tall tree...

kinda makes me shiver...

and see the fuzzy seed pod in his web?

might as well show you this too...speaking of making me shiver...

My first time ever, seeing one of these. It's an Eastern hog-nose, or spreading adder snake. It was short and fat with such a weird shaped head. Thankfully, this was not in our yard. We were with friends at their home about ten miles from here. 

Guess I've driven you all away with this, so I will end here. Hope you will come back...love to have you visit any time! :)

Love,

Henny

 

Catching up

 Dear friends,

I've had the hardest time posting lately, in fact, these spring pictures were taken three or four days ago and you know how spring colors change every day.

Thank goodness for spring! and didn't it arrive at just the right time?

We are staying home except for going to the grocery store or to pick up prescriptions, and speaking of prescriptions, my doctor has prescribed 600 mg Ibuprofen, three times a day, for my sciatic nerve pain. The Ibuprofen has helped so much! The MRI has been postponed until things settle down a bit. 

Back to more pleasant things...

Springtime! Once things start turning green I can't bear to mow, or to cut down even the tiniest weed...

 well, not until it gets too snaky looking to walk barefoot...

there's little violets and blue bells mixed in all this grass and weeds.

It's surprising that we have any flowers left with all the wind lately! Four days straight last week the winds blew at 25 mph.

Then yesterday we had a thunderstorm with winds that actually blew half the tin roof off the chicken house. The giant snowball bush took a beating too, littering the ground with big white balls.

I'm thinking the cut-over, and no longer having a windbreak is causing a lot of this wind problem. Darn it!

Anyhow...

around the porch the ferns are beginning to leaf out and azaleas beginning to bloom...

the wild azalea too...

and up to the garden, around the playhouse...

the red honeysuckle vine, intertwined with the chocolate vine...I love it!

Potted plants are being brought from the greenhouse, along with pots that were tucked away under the leaves in a corner of the teeny tiny garden during the cold days of winter... 

I do love bringing everything out again...and never did get around to making myself a cup of tea inside the playhouse...on the teeny tiny cook stove...hopefully, there is still time. Pretty slow-going with back problems, and there is still a little garden to be planted.

Way too many words and pictures here, but I do have a bit of good news about the "cut-over"...


Saturday morning, very early, a white van and trailer pulled over along the path. Six men got out, each one with two large canvas bags strapped to their back; the bags were filled with small pine trees.

Here's how they looked...

must have been terribly tiring. These men walked rather fast and every three wide steps would dig a shovel into the ground, drop in a young pine tree, and move on...covering this 100 acres.

Pines grow fast. Hope we are still around to see them half grown anyway.

Forgive me please for making this post too long. I will leave you with this spoiled kitty cat...

he was expecting me to scratch his fat belly, not take his picture.

Love,
Henny