Apologies, and remembering Daddy and Summerville...

Hello friends. I'm very sorry for being away so long...

Hardly a day goes by that I don't think about you. Poppy said just the other day, "every time I pull up your blog you still have pictures of those icicles from back in February."

"I've just been totally out of anything to post and then spring comes along and the big snowball bush blooms, well, you know me and the big snowball bush!"  :)  

Our teeny tiny house in the big woods is barely visible...

Every spring I am simply amazed at the size of this snowball bush, and the number of blossoms. Thank you for putting up with me. :)

So I set my buckets down there in the path to take a few pictures. Be still my heart! The Azaleas!

You know, I remember living in Summerville SC back in the late 1940s. In fact, I started school there and went through most of the third grade before we moved back to NC. 

Even at that young age, I fell in love with the beautiful giant Azaleas and trees with moss hanging from the branches. "I knew then that I wanted a yard with giant Azaleas" like those in Summerville and Charleston"!

Daddy was manager of a textile mill in Summerville. I don't remember much about the mill except the noise of all the big machines and that they used gray cones filled with thread of some sort. Occasionally daddy would bring home a stack of empty cones for us to play with. So much fun it was! The tips of the cones were different colors, to separate the kinds of threads, I suppose. 

Anyhow, guess what I did with one of my cones?? I filled it with soil and stuck a piece of an Azalea in it and buried it in a hole in the yard. It took root and grew! It sure did!

And, look way down Henny Penny Lane as far as you can see...

That's a home being built. It was probably 4 or maybe 5 years ago I posted that we would soon be getting new neighbors, well that is finally about to happen. Such a nice couple. We're glad they will soon be moving out here.

Oh, and I like this picture...

I went a little crazy with the camera. That's what spring does to me. 

Hopefully, soon I will post about the teeny tiny garden. The jobs around here seem to get harder and harder especially with my back problems, arthritis, and osteoporosis. Good grief! I'm not giving up yet! :) I managed to get all the leaves raked and hauled away again. Yay!!

Smokey, looks back as I tell him to be careful out on his adventures today...

One more little apology for such a long post about, of course, the snowball bush. But it is such a beautiful Spring! The wild azalea and the button bush too...

Thank you dear friends. 

Love, Henny

Wishing you all a very Happy Easter!!

A Little Easter post...

 So, I went all out yesterday and dyed six eggs for Easter. My little dish of colored eggs looked out of place on the table so I carried them outside and placed them in the violets and green grass, (and weeds)...

Oh, I think of Mama this time of the year, when the grass is green and the violets are in bloom.  Seeing a patch of tall green grass mama would say, "wouldn't you love to hide Easter eggs in that pretty green grass"?

and a little pink for my Easter post...

sorry about the weeds and leaves. The yard will look better after the first mowing of the season. 

and there are Easter bunnies hopping here...Willow and Wandall Wabbit...

sharing a bite of fresh hay. You know, I should have named Randall Wandall Wabbit because that is what I have called him since day one. He answers to Wandall. :)

Miss Willow has gained some weight. Here on Henny Penny Lane we don't skimp on the food, that's for sure...just ask Poppy. 

Got a sweet Eli story...

Remember back in November when he was very sick...had a large mass touching his right kidney, plus he had gastroenteritis? Well he has been well and gaining weight again but had to go in last Monday for x-rays.

Probably remembering all he went through, Eli looked awfully worried on his way to see the vet Monday morning...

Poor baby. We convinced him everything would be fine...

and told him all the girls would be waiting to see him...

I love how his look of distress eased up. Dr. Gerry and the girls in the vet's office really do love Eli, and Ellie...and best of all the x-rays showed no signs of the mass coming back. What a relief!

Well, I do wish you all a Happy Easter. We aren't doing anything special. I miss the days of grandchildren coming for a big Easter dinner and the fun of hiding eggs for them to find, miss too, seeing them climbing the big Mimosa tree on the hill by the pond. The days go too fast.

Happy Easter, dear friends!

Love, Henny

Leave you with pictures of the yellow Carolina Jasmin beginning to bloom along the path...

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

Comminity Rock Pile

 Who would've guessed Tropical Storm Ophelia was headed straight for North Carolina! "Not I, said the Little Red Hen".

Winds were terrible Friday night and all day Saturday. No damage here but man, the yard and porches were simply littered in dead tree limbs and green leaves.

Guess I'll wear out another wheelbarrow cleaning up the mess...

This was the first of many loads...Poppy carried the bigger pieces away by hand...The joy of living in the woods. :)

Anyhow, about that community rock pile...

Actually, my friend Carla's husband drives a dump truck. Occasionally he brings a load of not so perfect gravel to be spread on the dirt road. Turns out this load had too many big chunks of cement...

so the rock pile, once much bigger, keeps disappearing. Folks slipping in and carting off enough to repair holes in their driveways and such...

so I'm thinking to myself, why not slip over and cart off my own few loads of gravel...maybe build something pretty...

Not even one car passed by and caught me loading up my little pink wheelbarrow.   :) But I have an advantage...see the grey showing under that center board, right side, on the gate? That's the rock pile...just a stone's throw away. 

I built a little patio, joining the greenhouse and playhouse even extending  into a little entrance way...

I kinda like it, do you? Is there anything any more fun than building something pretty?

Remember the old green tub, part of an old fashioned wringer washing machine? Holds the potting soil...

well, it was sitting atop an old rotten pallet about to fall in...what to do? plus I needed it to be a little higher...so off to my stash of wood pieces, bricks, and cinderblocks. 

Perfect! There leaning against an old saw horse...a big, brand new, wooden pallet my neighbot Windy had given me about a year ago. Headed back up to the garden for a saw and the wheelbarrow.

Whew! quite a haul from down near pond! Anyhow, stacked there is the pallet sawed in half...and...

my new, sturdier, taller, easier to reach table! Actually, to me it doesn't look as pretty as the old dark pallet but in time this too will weather and age. And now I see part of the problem...I forgot to spread out the runners on the chocolate vine. That would sorta cover the new boards...

Boy I can sure go on and on, can't I. Bet you've all ssigned off. Anyhow, if not, thank you for visiting. Sure appreciate you all.

Love, Henny