Not much of a post...

walking past the garden again and Poppy asks, didn't you just take a picture yesterday...

well, I did and will probably take another one tomorrow.  :)

Hey friends. I am starting a post with absolutely nothing interesting to talk about except maybe the weather. According to our weatherman, we have just been through the hottest June, and hottest July on record.

Then August, normally out hottest most humid month, comes in followed by a cold front and we have enjoyed almost a week of wonderful cooler weather with temps in the 60s and 70s. 

Smokey has been stretched out on our raggedy old back steps...

Gosh, I didn't realize how badly these steps and screen door need painting. Another job added to my list...the list that keeps growing with very little getting checked off. When I think of all the work, I used to get done around here...

Anyhow, a few weeks ago Poppy said, wonder if there is a recipe for "raspberry pie"?? Well, I found a recipe, tried it...

and we have eaten a raspberry pie a week ever since. It is absolutely delicious, (got to have whipped cream), and wouldn't you think, good for you?? Best of all, easy to make. Here's the recipe...

1 c. sugar, 3 T. cornstarch, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 c. water, 4 c. raspberries, 1 T. butter

Over medium heat stirring constantly, bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 1 minute. Add butter. Cool then pour into baked pie crust. Refrigerate.

I am ashamed to say that I cannot make my own piecrusts. and at my age!! The one in the picture was a little Pillsbury frozen crust. My favorite though is this one...

to unroll and place in my glass pie dish. Looks much better, kind of like a homemade. :(  One more thing, Food Lion puts their store brand frozen raspberries on sale 2 for $6.00. One bag makes this pie. 

Poppy came in the other day saying I brought you a flower...

awww, well actually, it was stuck to my boot, he said. Have you ever seen such a tiny flower?

Hope you will visit again, if you've made it this far. I do appreciate you all.  

I will end this mess with little Miss Violet, trying on a new dress...

Love, Henny

Special note to Darlene...I am so sorry for not seeing your comment sooner. Please see my reply. :)

"Even the best laid plans

of mice and men often go awry". :)

Yes, they do! My intentions were to post once a week.  Anyhow, busy this morning with my usual jobs, the words, "even the best laid plans", kept going through my mind. Where did this come from? So, I Googled it. Awww, the poem, "To a Mouse", by Robert Burns. I sat and read the poem. 

Oh my, now I could get into some mouse stories. I've done a couple posts way back about tiny mice and my struggle to save their tiny lives. 

image borrowed from the computer

 

Maybe later. :) Friends, I am not believing, (forgive me for bragging) how pretty the teeny tiny garden is. Thank you Rose for your suggesting the old timey corn...the corn stalks are tall, some already 10' and still growing...

It's so much fun to watch everything grow and thrive. Last year the bell peppers and eggplants and even the tomatoes were such a disappointment. This year everything is doing well, and the one squash plant...

Well, you can see Poppy's arm, how small it appears compared to the plant. So far, we've gathered 22 squashes, there are 5 more almost ready to pick, and still many tiny ones coming on...one squash plant!!

Back to the corn, we found a tiny ear of corn coming on. Hickory Cane Corn grows only 2 ears per stalk...

How cute! Pink tassels for hair and see the huge cornfield bean vines winding up the huge stalks...so exciting!

And look what I found in the shade beneath the corn, a kitty cat...

 The next prettiest thing growing in the garden is the one Cone Flower...

All these blooms are from one single plant. I've never had any luck growing Cone Flowers so next year I just may have a row of just flowers. Wouldn't that be fun, and pretty!

Speaking of fun, Shelby and I were vendors at the Bee Jubilee in Oxford last Saturday. Fun, but a very hot humid 95-degree day. I was too busy fanning myself to take pictures. :)  Thank goodness for the cooler full of crushed ice, drinks, and battery-operated fans. The day went well. lots of customers, lots of sells. 

I do have an apron picture to show you. I've decided this is my favorite of all apron patterns. It's a little harder to make but worth the work...

I love the heart shaped bib, skirt, and pocket, and here's a blue print...

and matching bonnets...

The chicken print sold fast, as usual. I came home ready to start sewing again. 

Oh my gosh, I have talked your ears off again. So I will end this bragging and showing off pictures, but can I show you one more?

Little Violet got a new pocketbook to carry her important stuff in...

One year old and putting a cell phone in her bag. :) 

Thank you for visiting. Hope I haven't driven you all away. 

Love, Henny

A bed in the greenhouse??

First, thank you all for the nice comments on my last post. I feel bad for not replying to each one, but especially to those of you without blogs. Those with blogs, it's easy to visit and say thank you. Anyhow, I sure appreciate you all!

In my last post I told you that Eli is going on 11 years old. I was wrong. He will be 12 in January! We were in the vet's office with him yesterday and the chart on the door says that Mr. Eli, in human years, would be 92. 

Something about this picture I really like. The early morning sunrise cast such pretty colors on the old dirt road. Eli had stopped to rest, and I was asking him if he was ok. Sort of looks like an old painting, doesn't it?

The teeny tiny garden and all the potted plants are keeping me pretty busy. Poppy says I need to put myself a bed up in the greenhouse. Humm, now that's a thought...

But look, are these pictures neat...

and this one...

This is an ice plant. My friend Karen brought me a pot full last summer and I started more pots.  Oh, and while we're up at the garden, remember the old washing machine tub I use for potting soil...

and the trash can lid Poppy found lying beside the road?? Well, the lid doesn't fit tight and when it rains the soil gets wet. 

Walmart had a display of plastic tablecloths for $4.38. I bought one of the large size ones, folded it in half and cut out a circle. Sewed some binding along the edge and...

Dry soil! Also found these clips at Walmart...

Oops! Wrong picture! These clips...

Making and clipping little pleats along the bottom keeps the cover on nice and tight.

and here's a little idea...

I cut several pieces of old green clothesline wire and bent them into "S" hooks. Makes hanging things easy, like my little garden basket. 

So, that's about it for this time. I will leave you with a picture of little miss Violet. She turned one year old on May 25th! 

She is such a sweet baby and smiles all the time!!

Thank you, dear friends!

Love, Henny

Dear me, how time flies!

Seems like I ended my last post with something about coming back with Christmas decorations. :) Anyhow, glad February is here. We had some really cold days in January...

Rare to see icicles like these around here. These were on the fig tree near the back porch...and the teeny tiny pond froze over...

and miss ducky was not able to swim for a couple of weeks. makes me wonder how ducks, geese, birds, survive north of us where it's like this all winter?? 

Anyhow, I do have a special Christmas picture to show you, well very special to me. Remember our great granddaughter, Violet, born last May 25th? Well, her parents carried her to see Santa. Here she is at 7 months old...

Not one bit afraid of Santa, in fact, looks like she thoroughly enjoyed being with him...So much so that Santa read her a book. :)

 Violet has the sweetest personality. Here's one of the latest pictures from Andee. Grandma Andee and Violet...

Sorry, I don't have a recent grandpa and Violet picture. I'll have to ask for one. 

So, Eli and Ellie have both had birthdays...

Oops! A little lop-sided picture. Poppy must have been rocking the recliner when he took this one. :) Ellie turned 4 in December and Eli turned 11 in January. Our sweetie-pies. 

Love how Ellie crosses her front feet...

Such a smart girl, and she is doing great with her Addison's Disease...as long as we keep her prescriptions filled. It's the steroids that keep her going. Miss Ellie takes 13 pills a day. We love her so much. She is worth every penny. We love Eli just as much.

Isn't it amazing how quickly things change. Take the country road we live on for example. I have always dearly loved a country dirt road, especially a path with the roadsides and ditches filled with wildflowers and bunnies. This morning as we started our walk with Eli and Ellie, the sight of the road made me sad. What happened, I asked Poppy...

Of course, I realize it's winter. Things will look better come spring. But a week ago during the cold frigid weather there was a guy cutting and sawing all along the path...even chopped down a small holly tree and a few young cedar trees. :(  No longer looks like a country path but the beginning of a four-lane highway.  Heaven forbid! 

Guess I've worn out my welcome today. Thanks for listening. 

Love, Henny

Instead of posting this morning...

 I should be reading your posts and leaving you comments, and I will do that. I just first had to say "thank you" for looking at baby Violet and leaving me such nice comments on my last post. Each one is truly appreciated. I meant to come back and reply to each one...hope you will forgive me.

The days are full and busy...do any of you ever catch up or get ahead? Oh, but it was wonderful having Andee and Todd home for a couple of nights last week. On Wednesday (last week) Lynn and Jason, and my granddaughter Michaela and husband Jacob came for the day too meaning I got to see sweet little Kendall, my great grandson. It was such a fun day. 

With company coming I had to clean out the teeny tiny sewing room and boy! did I ever clean out! Almost looks empty...

Got rid of lots of dust and clutter and moved things around a bit...actually turned it back into a bedroom.

Then come Saturday, Shelby and I had a craft event to attend so that meant pulling out stuff I had just put away. It was the Bee Jubilee in Oxford. Oh my gosh, what a hot day! It was sunny and like 98 degrees, and what a tiring job! It was fun though and best of all, made a little spending money. :)

Speaking of hot! How about hot and dry! We have been weeks, weeks! without rain and temperatures in the high 90s! I've been keeping the garden alive with the water hose. 

Mr. Sunshine and the big sunflower...and the bean vines are covered in tiny green beans...Oh, if only it would rain!

It was very foggy this morning. Probably because there were rain showers around yesterday but none, not one drop came over us. 

Look how brown and dead the grass is! I mean, a few weeks ago it was green all around the garden. 

It has been one thing after the other! Last Sunday Poppy went to wash his hands and yelled, "Mel, there's no water"! Oh, good grief! Had the well gone dry from the drought? Turns out the pump had gone bad. Thankfully, we found a company that would come help us out even though it was Sunday. Cost us a whopping $1,600.00 but we have water again, and a new pump and new wiring! 

Back to the garden...guess where this little fella hides when he sees us coming up the road...

In the garden! He is tiny and goes right through the fence. I couldn't help but think about Peter Rabbit in Mr. McGregor's garden. I've got to come up with something...he is eating the leaves off the small okra plants. Okra! of all things! And there is kale growing nearby!

Guess I should stop here and say goodby. Could go on and on but I should save a little for next time. Thank you, thank you for stopping by. Oh, so many of you commented about the name "Violet". Isn't it sweet, and her middle name is Lorraine, and that's my middle name. Named after me. I am so pleased. 

Love, Henny

Look what's happened...

 since my last post!

Meet little "Violet", our new great granddaughter. Born May 25th. Remember the big wedding we attended last June up in West Virginia...The marriage of Madison and Hunter? Well, they wanted a baby right away. Can't wait to meet her in person!

Guess my other news won't be quite so exciting or nearly as cute...like my teeny tiny garden. Just have to show you how the beans are growing...

The little wattle fence is holding up fine. On the right is a sunflower that volunteered and came up and then there's four eggplants. 

and here's the onions, lettuce, kale and a few other things...

Tomatoes on the left. I've got a few odd plants scattered here and there...

Found one German Johnson tomato plant at Walmart. It had been dropped and was falling out of the pot. Of course, I felt sorry for it and brought it home, paying full price for it, of course. Anyhow, it's now the prettiest one in the garden. All others I started from seed in the teeny tiny greenhouse.

Well friends, I started this post early last week. Since then, little Violet has grown, the garden has grown, I'm older :) Anyhow, got a few more pictures...wanted to show you Randall Rabbit...

He can't wait for the treats in the bag, kale, apple peels, and grapes...

Randall is such a big sweet bunny...

Willow is doing fine too. She is still timid and will not let me pet her but trusts me more and doesn't mind stepping on my feet.

The playhouse and garden have been wonderful this spring. I could spend my days playing there but :( there are meals to cook and clothes to wash...anyhow this picture was taken from my little rocking chair in the playhouse...

and all those 7' red lilies! Growing and blooming from flowerpots. Sometime last year I dug all the bulbs and put them in pots and sat them inside the garden. Had no idea this would happen. Where in the world can I plant them! The deer eat them!

Poor lilies! Well friends, I must get busy. Have bored you long enough and there is more housework to be done. Andee and Todd are coming tomorrow to stay until Thursday. We are so excited...Lynn and Jason are coming for the day on Wednesday. Can't wait!

Thank you for listening. :)

Love, Henny