Black Walnut Trees along Crabtree Creek

Poppy fills his pockets with black walnuts as he leaves the deer  stand and walks along the creek coming home...

Gosh, it's been 30 years since I picked up black walnuts there. Poppy has permission to deer hunt that property. Here's a smaller black walnut tree growing there too...

I want to shell some of these walnuts, and the hickory nuts too but talk about a job!! Wouldn't a taste of these wild nuts be delicious?

 And the tall hickory nut tree that grows along the path on our property...

I'm the one who gathers the hickory nuts...

Add a few ears of dried corn from the garden and...

it makes for a pretty, old fashioned picture. Do any of you love "old fashioned" as much as I do? Sometimes I think I should have lived back in the 1800. (didn't miss it by much, did I) :)

Look, I finally got around to putting up a few fall decorations and got to use some of the dried corn stalks from the teeny tiny garden...

The corn stalks were almost too tall. The dark red mum...

isn't it pretty! Andee brought it to me in September, and the buds have just opened up! I love how mums smell, do you?

I want to show you this tree root I found in the path. It must have fallen off a logging truck. To me, it looks just like a giant spider...

Can't you just see this thing on the side of an old barn or house...

Gives me goosebumps. What do you think, Willie??

So far this fall I haven't decorated the old cupboard, but I did find at Goodwill, the most perfect pitcher, it matches the big heavy dishes...

Hope you will pardon the dust. It is so dry here and when a car or truck goes up the path well, it's like a small dust storm settling over everything. Dust, dust, dust!!

Okay, I've gone on and on about stuff...everything is so pretty in the fall, even covered with dust, so here's few pictures from around the pond...

Guess I should have waited for the leaves to turn more, but I'll be back. :) 

Thank you friends. 

Love, Henny

I will get over...

  The fact that it's Fall!  

Seems like every direction I look there are beautiful colors that need to be captured in a picture! Keeps me busy running in for my camera...I mean my iPhone! 

But first, there is also a special picture from Poppy, so look for it...

So I have pictures, such as they are. Now I've seen the gorgeous colors you folks up in the beautiful mountain areas have, and also you the northern states too, and mine aren't that beautiful, but...

 here's a few from around the house and yard and woods...about as far away as I travel these days. Easy to see why I get excited. :)

Several years ago, it was in the Fall, I remember my sister Shelby saying, I wonder if I'm going to die soon because the colors have never looked this beautiful to me before. Kind of how I'm feeling now.

Miss Ellie wanted to get in this one. Eli and Ellie like being in the goat's lot...as long as Rosie, the spoiled goat, is locked inside her teeny tiny barn. Can you believe Rosie intimidates these two big livestock gardian dogs? 

Oh my gosh! The amount of leaves on the ground have tripled since taking this picture a day or two ago plus I've raked this front yard once already.

and have I shown you our weather vane?? I don't think so...

been meaning to, and we've had it two or three years. While wandering around with the camera, looking up into the trees, the rooster caught my eye.

Oh, and when the sun shines through the oak trees in the back yard, well...

makes me want to go sit on the back steps and feel the warmth of the sun.

Can you spot the fat kitty cat...

Thursday when we carried Ellie in for bloodwork, Smokie came along too for his 3 year Rabies shot. The doctor said he weighs 14 lbs. but I'm thinking maybe the scale was wrong. 

Yep, here we are waiting for the doctor...

Smokey said what bothered him most was the cute bobtail cat that sat and stared down at him. So embarrasing!

I apologize for all these pictures and so much talk. Now as promised here's Poppy's picture. Can you spot the deer??

So very glad Poppy had rather take her picture than shoot her.

 

Once again, thank you friends for stopping by...for putting up with me. 

Love, Henny (and Eli)

The little Parsley plant

Last March when I started a few seeds in the teeny tiny greenhouse, I put a parsley seed in a bit of potting soil. It sprouted and grew to about the size of a toothpick.

After the garden was planted, not wanting to leave the tiny little parsley plant to die, I dug a hole at the end of a row and planted it there, then forgot about it. 

Cleaning up the garden lately this big green healthy plant growing under the edge of a  bunch of zinias caught my eye. Could that be Parsley! Is that the tiny spindly litte sprout I stuck in the garden and forgot.  

It's Parsley alright. So big and pretty! The weatherman was calling for a hard freeze Friday night. With a shovel I scooped up the whole plant, roots and all and put it in a big bucket, watered it good and put it in the greenhouse. 

The little greenhouse is not heated except for a heat lamp, the kind used for baby chicks, with a red 250w bulb. Anyhow, it worked. That was two days ago and the parsley is still pretty. I've dried five trays of parsley in the dehydrator...enough to fill one spice jar. Yay!

Oh my gosh! The leaves, the leaves, the leaves...here they had just begun to fall...

Hard to tell where the driveway ends and the path begins...it's that time of the year!!

and there have been some really pretty colors around the pond this fall...

I love the gold in this big old hickory nut tree that grows just outside Rosie's lot...Sorry I have no picture of Rosie. She is so fat! Rosie tries to eat every leaf that falls in her pasture,  and so far has done a pretty good job of keeping up.  :)

I apologize for all the pictures. I've taken so many and just need to share them with folks I love. Thank you for looking. :) Oh, and I have a few "hello" pictures from the animals, plus a little Randall Rabbit video...

another one of the pond with miss ducky...

Isn't it hard to believe that our Eli is ten years old!  He loves being out in the sun these cool days. Sunshine makes his sweet face even sweeter...

and of course our baby Ellie. Ellie is doing well on her medications. She goes in once a month for bloodwork...so far,  so good...

and now here's Randall Rabbit. What a big sweet bunny this boy has become...

Have I mentioned that I want another bunny?? Well, I do. Not just for me, but for Randall. There are some for sell in Wake Forest for only $20.00...not as big as Randall but are considered large rabbits. The problem is finding a way to get her spayed. My gosh! Why is it so expensive!

I've heard there are places that will help with the expense of spaying and neutering pets, so I am checking around. I have a Christmas craft show coming up November 18th. Hopefully, it will be a good one. Haven't mentioned all this to Poppy yet. So don't tell anybody. :)

and now the Randall Rabbit video... (especially for you Rian) Hope I remember how to load one...

Not the best post I've ever done. Thank you friends for stopping by. Our computer is dying...of course, it's about time for a new one. The screen is jumping up and down as I try to type. It's like trying to type while riding on a four-wheeler! :)

Love, Henny

Still out with the camera...

taking pictures of things you've seen a hundred times...

I'm sorry. It's just that this is the prettiest fall we've had in several years and I can't get over it! :)

We've had a week or more of cool cloudy days so when the sun came up early one morning last week and lit up the trees to the west well..."hold Ellie's leash", I said to Poppy, "I'm going back for the camera".

There was just so much color that morning...

There are lots of dogwood berries this fall, oh, and let me show you this one...

a dogwood tree this size growing in a flower pot! There's a story here. I saved this tiny sprig of a dogwood many years ago. It was growing wild, and in an "L" shape, out the side of a clay bank. Watching it and feeling sorry for it, I finally pulled it up and put it in a little pot. It must have been so happy to be able to straighten up and spread it's roots in dark rich soil. So I sat my little dogwood near the garden and left it way too long. 

Now the roots go deep and I dare not try moving it. Several people have asked if I would sell them the potted dogwood.  I'm afraid my heart strings go pretty deep there too.

and while we're up near the garden and greenhouse there is another plant to show you...

this is Cooper's ice plant (Delosperma) a succulent. My friend Karen and her husband Norm stopped by for a short visit. Karen brought this plant to me. Oh, there is a story here too. 

For 12 years Norm and I worked together at the same business in Raleigh. I retired in 1999 and had not seen or heard anything about Norm or his wife since then, until! You may remember the farm show and swap meet (maybe it was called the tractor show) that was held in 2020, just down the road, maybe 6 or 8 miles. I was a vendor there. Well who should walk up to my table but Norm and Karen. Wait, you may remember this...

That's Karen and me sitting in the Model T, taken at the tractor show. The shocker is, we are practically neighbors and have been for a long long time and had no idea. They live just down the road...6 or 8 miles. I'm so happy to get to know Karen better. They both are super nice people. 

and, on the subject of plants, Poppy brought me a flower today...

Seriously! You know, deer hunting season is in and he has been sitting in the tree across the road, overlooking the cut-over. He told me there were several beautiful bunches of white flowers growing there. Today he climbed down and picked one for me.  

The tiny flowers, close up look like little brushes...

after much searching, found out this is a Baccharis halimifolia

Common names: Consumption Weed, Coyote Bush, Eastern Baccharis, Groundsel Tree, High Tide Bush, Salt Bush, Salt Marsh  Elder, Sea Myrtle, and Silvering. Have you ever!! 

I think it is really pretty and would like one growing in the yard. Now to find a large vase.

Anyhow, back to my "loving fall" pictures...the teeny tiny pond...

and you know what makes our colored trees so unusual? Well, they're so darn tall you have to stand and look straight up to get a picture...

Anyhow, I could go on and on, after all, when I came in to load my pictures, there were 78 and that was from just one walk outside. Guess I had better say goodnight.  Poppy will be asking, "are we eating ice cream tonight"? 

Thank you for stopping by. Just one more. The color was a little better in this one. :) I've got to get over this!

Love, Henny

Sunshine and Chickens, Yay!

One of these days, when Lynn has time, I'm going to update the look of my blog. It's about time isn't it. Been this way since February 2013, but it still works. :)

We actually had a little sunshine yesterday and I was like a chicken with it's head cut off running around trying to decide what to do first. Then I noticed the rake leaning against a tree. :( Three tarp loads and three wheelbarrow loads later I dragged myself up the front steps and in the door, mighty proud of how that part of the yards looks now.

I wasn't the only one tickled to see the sun. Our soon to be neighbor Steve, was out working on the path. I waved from the chicken lot but he didn't see me...

Chickens excited over a little sunshine, gathered in a sunny corner...

 Notice how the new red hens have grown...

These sweet hens stay under my feet. Sure have to watch where I step. Don't think I've told you, but we lost one of our new hens which broke my heart. Have no idea what was wrong with her. She just got sick and died. She was eating and drinking right up to the end, but when I picked her up, was shocked at how little she weighed. 

Glad the hens are getting along now. Bringing in new chickens while the old chickens were moulting was stressful. That was an ill bunch of old hens the new hens had to adjust to.

We have had way too much rain lately and even the days without rain, were cloudy. Anyhow, late one evening the first of the week, the sun came out just before dark and made the most unusual colors on the trees...

almost looks like fall instead of winter...

Now we have rain again today with a chance of snow flurries tonight. We'll see.

Eli thought the trees were strange looking too. 

I'll never understand about Blogger and why it won't let use the large print. Lynn says she will help me with that too, when she has time. Lynn just started work at Michaels...her dream job! Guess it would be, for anyone into crafting, like Lynn is.  She is still making journals...big time!

Thank you for visiting. :)

Love,

Henny