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

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

Falling oops! Leaves and other silly things

Earlier, I started a post looking out the back screen door...

 saying there were no fall colors here yet, then thought, well let me take another look...

so carrying the camera, I walked around the outside of the house and down to the pond...

and actually found some pretty fall colors, and there on an old log, sat a big frog...

then going back up the leaf strewn path to the house...

past the rusty old yard chairs that need a coat of paint...

and around to the front of the house where the little willow oak leaves are starting to fall...

and friends, this is just the beginning of the falling leaves. Another few weeks and we will be ankle deep in leaves; not a speck of green will show through.

I love the little willow oak leaves that fall in the front yard and enjoy raking them. It's the willow oak leaves I use to cover the teeny tiny garden before cold freezing weather sets in.

While wantering around, I made another picture of Poppy's new carport. I'll tell you why...

In passing, something about it reminded me of a covered bridge...so this will be "the covered bridge" on Henny Penny Lane. :) How's that for make believe? 

Made me remember "The Bridges of Madison County", the book and the movie.  Oh my gosh! But I really wanted Francesca to run away with Robert Kincaid. I mean, how could she not have gone with him! But then, I love Clint Eastwood!

Okay back to the yard, and the dullness of my life. The most excitement I've had lately is breaking my wrist, and the new knobs and pulls on the kitchen cabinets.

Oh, and would you look...

While down at the pond taking pictures, a plane flew over, heading to RDU from up north. I just pointed the camera up and had no idea I would see the plane in the picture. Had to zoom in, but there it is. Takes very little to make me happy. :)

Let me end this here. I'm going in all directions! Sure appreciate you all!

Love,

Henny

  

Porches and color

Well, it's that time of the year when the pond clears up and looks pretty enough to bring us out to sit on the back porch...

and from the porch we can look down at those red lilies that grow 7' tall! I've never in my life...

Today we got a little rain and the tiniest bit of a breeze blew the tallest of the lilies over.

Couldn't leave the lilies lying on the ground so I stuck them in a vase, without a lot of arranging to make them pretty...

Anyhow, the back porch! Our neighbor Ann called and asked if I wanted their two old highback rocking chairs. She said Fred was carrying them to the dump, that I might want them to sit up at the garden...how cute that would be...

Well, it sounded good to me so I said yes! The old chairs never made it to the garden...

Oh, old and worn and comfortable. That's just what this old back porch needs...One of the chairs was blue so I've painted it brown.

The old green rocking chairs that we've used for 30 years, I moved to the other end of the porch...where they fit in pretty good...

Oops! almost forgot to show you the old chair I painted brown...

Looks like a terrible paint job, but there were spots of blue where glue had been used and the brown paint would not cover it. That's okay. The chairs sit good.

While on the subject of porches...again! We finished working on the front porch and got the little half screen door painted. Got to show you...

Remember back when we had the new french doors put up and  bought paint, the color "sweet tea", to paint the doors?? Well, I am so thankful we decided to leave the doors white. The little screen door is painted in "sweet tea" and it would have looked awful on those french doors. It still almost clashes with the red logs...but not quite. There's something I really like about the colors. 

Almost forgot, but here's a "before" picture of the little door...

It is an unusual color. Sometimes it looks almost pink. So glad we didn't use it on the new french doors!!

Our Ellie girl is growing, isn't she? and always keeping an eye on me...

Sure appreciate your visiting. Hope to be back soon.

Love,

Henny