A little post to say, "I am still here!"

 and thankful too considering all the storms yesterday from Tropical Storm Debby! Oh my gosh! Our little Franklin County made the local news big time with three tornado warnings and two of those tornadoes touching down, with damage. One tornado touched down just east of us and the other just west of us and were only five miles apart. Scary! and any of you that have read my blog for any length of time know how afraid I am of storms.

So how about a picture with a little sunshine and shadows...

We were walking Eli and Ellie early one morning. Gosh, looks like early spring. The leaves were still not on the little trees along the cutover. Can you tell which shadow is mine and Ellie's? :) This is a picture I liked and just now getting around to using it.  I've simply got to do better at blogging. 

and another one...

another walk, this time around the pond. Hard to believe our little cabin is hidden behind the trees in the background and hard to believe this is even our little pond. Sometimes pictures show more beauty than what we actually see while walking. Huh? Did that make any sense?? 

and one more picture, saved for this post...

Don't know why I love this picture so much. Maybe the colors, texture, or just sweet Ellie? Anyhow, on to life here on Henny Penny Lane...

Remember the baby chicks I bought at Tractor Supply and brought them home March 16th? Well, those sweet chicks are now hens and have started laying...

Time flies, doesn't it! So, after going through terribly dry weather in May and June, the rains came in July and have been overwhelming. The teeny tiny garden! Too much water causes tomatoes to split and ours did! We enjoyed one big perfect tomato...

The center slice was just under 4" across. Mighty proud of this one! :)

Oh, and back in the winter months I bought tomatoes at Food Lion called "cocktail tomatoes". They were actually sweet and good. So I saved the seeds from one and started them in the greenhouse...

These tomatoes are larger than cherry tomatoes and smaller than regular tomatoes...and are delicious! I will be saving more seeds!

and while bragging on the tomatoes I might as well tell you how good the old timey half runner beans have been...

Thanks again to Shelby for finding a cousin in the family that had saved these seed beans over the years. These were Mama's favorite beans and probably her favorite part of the garden. I always think of mama when picking beans...

A few quotes from mama while helping her pick beans...

"Try not to tear the vines all to pieces, I'd like to get another mess to cook".

"Watch out for old snakes. Shirley saw an old copperhead curled up under a bean vine".

"Lord, Mary said she could sometimes smell an old snake".

Mama was something! I miss her every day. 

Well, I guess that's about it for now. Thank you for looking in. I miss blogging and miss you, dear friends. I've simply got to do better. 

Love, Henny

Thank you friends!!

for all the nice comments on my last post. I appreciate you all so much...I really do!

Oh my! Is it hot and humid where you are? 

You know, last winter I waited and hoped and wished for spring and summer...telling myself, "I will not gripe and complain about the heat, not this summer". I craved the feel of warm sunshine on my bare arms and the healing powers of the sun for my aching body. 

Have to admit, I have complained just a wee bit this month of July.  It's so hot and humid!!

The sweet little canary yellow bird cage hangs empty at the playhouse...

Poppy did the painting and that's about as far as we got...

I am too ashamed to show you the teeny tiny garden. We have had thunderstorms, lots of rain, and high winds which can wreak havoc on garden plants. However...

tomatoes are plentiful and some are kind of big...

and these Pablano peppers...

Back when the garden was just starting, our soon to be new neighbors, Steve and Loye stopped by and gave us four Pablano pepper plants. 

I've Gooled and found a simple recipe for Rajas; Pablano peppers sauteed with onions and garlic, that looks good. 

Well, we have been walking the dogs a little earlier these days because of the heat. Our boy Eli was sick yesterday...

Poppy asking him if he felt up to a walk this morning...can you believe our sweet Eli is almost eight years old now?

Eli did want to go. We had planned to be at the vet's office at eight this morning but whatever it was that made Eli sick, seemed to be gone. Obviously, he had eaten something that didn't agree with that big tummy of his. Vet told us to watch him today and bring him in if he gets sick again. 

Always ready for a walk...

Ellie says she has been ready!

looks like Smokey had a busy night...said he would just soon stay home and catch a nap...

Guess that's about it for now. Thank you for visiting. Be back soon, I hope!

Love, Henny

My little garden book

Hey friends,

I've sat down here at least a dozen times lately to do a little blog post, get started then think, "yuk, who would want to read this boring stuff"!

Sometimes I feel like ending it all! Well, not all, just my blog. 

Guess I will muddle through and show you the only sunflower growing in my teeny tiny garden...and it volunteered and came up in the bean row...

10 feet it grew before sunflowers began opening...

It towers a good two feet above the eight foot garden fence and is such a happy sight for me.

How has your garden grown this summer?

My little garden struggled

through many hot dry days with no rain and now during the hot humid, "dog days of summer", we get late afternoon thunderstorms with hard downpours of rain causing limbs heavy with fruit to break.

Have you ever looked up from under an eggplant? I practically stood on my head to get this picture...

We have lots and lots of eggplants...

Lots of tomatoes too...and after all my picking I see another red one...

and so the teeny tiny garden is looking a little wind blown and ragged. The once, big pretty tomato plants have slid down the bamboo stakes and lay in piles. No pretty zinnias to show off this summer...not one seed sprouted.

Thank you Mr. Sunflower! and yay!! Look who was waiting for me just outside the gate...

Old sweet yellow eyes. Of course, the walk back to the house took twice as long with this kitty cat weaving in and out of every step. 

If you're still here friends, I thank you. 

Love, Henny

What's for supper???

The row of mail boxes up at the main road can be a pretty raggedy sight, but not ours. Not any more...

a little "late Mother's Day gift" Andee said when the package arrived in the mail this week...

Five adorable bunnies. I just want to reach in and pick one up. Looks like I'm going to have to get myself another real live bunny. My heart still aches for those at Mr. Murphy farm. 

Thank you Andee and Todd.

Remember when Grandpa Jones used to ask, "what's for supper"? Well last night it was...

Candied sweet potatoes...

Oh my goodness friends! More than 20 years ago I gave up trying to make candied sweet potatoes like those mama made. 

Thought to myself, everything else can be Googled, why not old timey candied sweet potatoes? Found what sounded most like mama's...but left out the spices...

Mama never covered up that delicious sweet potato flovor with spices...

this is simply sweet potato, real butter, and sugar. I left them simmering until the syrup was sticky and the potatoes were a touch crisp or chewy on the edges.

Of course, a pan of cornbread was necessary...

to go with the green beans and hand full of small potatoes, seasoned with a little fat back grease, fresh from the teeny tiny garden. Grandpa Jones would have approved, don't you think...

and in the small bowl, stewed yellow squash, who would have thought! and here...

the more tender green beans I cooked with garlic and butter...

Eli says, "well,  can we eat now"! What a surprise again this summer to get yellow squash from the garden. No stinking squash bugs, yet, anyways.

Better get busy. I was happily mowing away yesterday when my little red mower knocked off. Poppy tinkered with it for a while...told me to let it sit over night and if it doesn't run today he will get Truman to look at it.  

Truman is a trip! The folks around here call him the junk man...you should see his place! Maybe I'll get a picture and do a "Truman" post. 

Okay, the squash picture came out on the bottom??

Be back soon (hopefully)...

Love, Henny 

Garden vegetables, mostly

I know, our garden is just a teeny tiny garden and that's why my dream of filling the pantry shelves with jars and jars of canned vegetables never works out.   But we have certainly enjoyed a bounty of fresh vegetables for the table this summer...

Why, last summer the eggplant and bell pepper plants refused to grow; not even one pepper or one eggplant did I harvest. But look this year. This is the fourth big beautiful eggplant off just two plants, and I've been slicing and freezing the bell peppers. Aren't eggplants pretty!

Have plenty of tomatoes and cucumbers too. Most days I have a tomato sandwich for lunch or maybe a salad of just tomato, onion, and cucumber with a little Ranch dressing. 

Wish I could take credit for growing the corn but afraid not. The farmer that sells watermelons up the road also has a cornfield. We bought three dozen ears to put in the freezer. Need to be working on that instead of on the computer. Needed a little break. :)

Oh, and the green beans have been simply delicious. Don't know why I didn't get a picture. Guess we couldn't wait to get to the table once the cornbread was done and taking a picture was the furtherest thing from my mind. 

but you can see how big and healthy the vines are...hardly a speck of the wattle fence shows. 

Have been meaning to show you...

Dear friends, do you remember Wilder, the wild rabbit I raised three or four years ago? Well, he is still here! I find it hard to believe that he has survived all these years but Poppy says, "Mel, no wild rabbit is going to hop right up to your feet. This is Wilder"! This rabbit watches for me and actually comes up to me.  He recognizes my feed bucket. Wilder loves apple peelings. Sure makes me feel good.

Just got to show you how tall our sweet Ellie is getting...

Still not as tall as our big Eli but she is beginning to fill out and gain some weight. 

Eli patiently waiting for us. We should have named him Job. Seriously, You can say to Eli, "wait here a minute" and he will stand there and wait. There will never be another Eli!

Two sweetie pies!

Well, for sure you're bored and tired of all this. Thank you, if you are still here. :) I will leave you with the most recent  (taken tonight) picture of Eli and his bear...

Love,

Henny

 

Who could ask for more?

Mother Nature was teasing us yesterday...

when she gave us both rain and sun, together. Isn't this neat? It was pouring down rain and all the while, the sun was shining bright.

Searched the sky over for a rainbow but didn't find one. Then my neighbor Ann called and said, "Mel, on the way home from town, I saw the biggest most beautiful rainbow".

Oh well, on to the teeny tiny garden...

which is winding down after that long dry hot spell.

and let me tell you about the corn we were so proud of...

Two short rows of green healthy corn and the ears are not fit to eat. Seriously! It has absolutely no taste, and the kernels are, are, well, unusual...stick to you teeth kind of texture, and did I say it has no taste.

This has also been a bad year for green beans. Why, anybody can grow green beans, but not me, not this year. A few years back I canned 64 quarts of green beans, all from the little garden. This year we've eaten green beans twice and once, I've given Nellie a bag full.

Don't you just love zinnias? A little garden is not complete without a row of flowers, no matter how small. 

I do love the wreath of tiny yellow flowers inside the pink petals.

and a big old sunflower with lots more buds to open.

This is way too many pictures, oops! and this one...

might as well add it too. Maters and stuff from the garden. :) Oh, I've told this before, but years ago, down home...

Billy stopped by to see mama and my step-dad Bill. They were in the kitchen, where most of the visiting took place, and mama said, "I sure wish we had a good ripe tomato from the garden".  Billy said, "ain't aunt Rache got'ne maters?"  Good old hillbilly slang. (Rache was short for Rachel.  Aunt Rachel lived down the road a piece.)

Need to get back to work. I've cleaned and vacuumed and mopped, even moved the dining table and chairs to get to all the dust!

Hope to be back soon!

Love,
Henny