Let's hope that I will not be running from storms tomorrow! This weather! We just made it through the coldest temperatures in decades here in North Carolina. Now we have this big warm up coming. Could possibly reach 70 degrees tomorrow. But with the big warm up comes the prediction of one to two inches of rain, high winds, and a chance of a tornado.
There are special places I hide out during a storm...The local hospital waiting room, the Goodwill store, and the Safe Space thrift store. Once I sought shelter in the Dollar General store. The sky was black, lightening streaking, thunder popping and rumbling through the sky, rain was blowing in sheets. I jumped from my car and dashed into the store. Several shoppers looked up, wondering if I had been struck! Just as I got inside the Dollar General, both front doors blew wide open from a gust of wind, strewing colorful plastic across the parking lot. Stacks of wading pools and trash cans slid with gusto across the lot and out of sight! One young clerk threatened to quit when the manager yelled, "we need to catch this stuff". Had I caused all this???
Many times in earlier posts I talked about storms. I am seriously afraid of storms. My Mother was seriously afraid of storms. Mama kept a little overnight bag packed and when it thundered, well she was out of the house and into the car. If you didn't want to run, fine, but the storm was over her house and she was leaving! Oh mama, what a trait to inherit. That's okay, I love you and miss you every day!
Most of the pictures of mama posted on my blog were taken when she was young. She was much older in this one...
Mama was spending a week with Poppy and me. I remember saying to her, "you look so pretty sitting there mama, let me take your picture".
Back when Lynn and Andee were small we lived in Smyrna, Tennessee. Stationed at Sewart Air Force Base. We lived on base in a mobile home park. Late one afternoon the sky turned a deep bluish purple color. Thunder could be heard rumbling in the distance. The living room started getting dark so I turned on the lamps. Before I knew it the storm was upon us. Trying to be brave, I took Andee and Lynn, the coloring books and crayons, and got on the bed in the back bedroom. Coloring was the farthest thing from my mind. Suddenly, lightening hit something nearby. I peeped up the hallway and could see flames through the kitchen curtains. No, it was not our place that was burning, but lightening had hit the telephone pole at the end of our mobile home. Somehow a car parked near the pole was on fire...the tires on the car were burning. In a panic I grabbed Andee in my arms and got Lynn by the hand. We ran out the back door, through the storm, to the nearest neighbor's place. This was a pretty stupid thing to do as there were live wires laying on the ground. Sometimes you are safer to hunker down and just stay put. I have a hard time believing this when a storm is brewing.
Lynn and Andee playing with a friend in that same old mobile home in Tennessee in 1965...
Lynn and our lovely yellow Cadillac...
Andee in her unusual crib. Made of wood and screen wire. Wish I had kept it...
Okay, I have gone on long enough. Thank you for visiting.
Love,
Henny Penny
The sewing room is just the place to be these cold days and nights. The skirted table sits over a heat vent. Underneath the table is my basket of clothes waiting to be worked...
Dumperoo loves this warm cozy spot too and has made his bed under the sewing table inside the basket of clothes! It's a job getting cat hair off every piece I pull out. :)
Opening a shop on Etsy has been on my mind. Maybe selling bonnets and handmade dolls. Actually, I'm a bit burned out with making all these things...
I need to get enthused and excited about a new project. There is way too much time for standing and staring out the window, wishing for warm gardening weather.
Now I cannot do the "altered couture" thing like Lynn. You can see some of her work at http://www.amothersjournal.com Lynn simply has a natural talent for this. She can turn almost any piece of clothing into a beautiful dress.
I have tried altering a couple of denim skirts, by sewing the bottom half of a ruffled skirt onto the bottom of a short denim skirt. Easy! My only try at altering a dress is this...
This was an older long dress with a small neckline and cap sleeves. I cut off the bottom of the dress and sewed it back, higher up on the dress making two layers with a lace ruffle around the seam. Then I cut a deep neckline and then cut off the sleeves, making it like a jumper to wear over a long ruffled dress or skirt. Every other piece of clothing in my collection to work with, I simply stand and stare at. Not knowing where to begin
I love the old feminine ruffled dresses and pantaloons and have been wearing some of these outfits lately. It's fun! Thanks to Lynn's encouragement!
This reversible apron, finished this week, would be cute with pantaloons...
And this super feminine lacy apron I made to wear with pantaloons...
It has been fun putting together some old fashioned outfits. Plus, the clothes look pretty hanging in the old wardrobe in the sewing room. I suppose I need to keep using a pattern. :)
Thank you for visiting.
Love,
Henny Penny
Why is it so hard to get yourself back to eating normal after the holidays? At least it is for me. It started Christmas Eve. That thinking, "eat all you want of everything! It's Christmas!" Well, Christmas is over!
As much as I hated to, I finished off the crock pot chocolate covered peanuts, the brown sugar chew bread, the truffles, and the caramel popcorn mix with chocolate covered pecans. With this out of the way, I was off to a new start. But wait, Saturday night Poppy was plundering in the kitchen cabinets, craving something chocolate. So being the nice person that I am, I made a batch of chocolate oatmeal cookies, or as Poppy calls them, "meadow flops"...
You know how it is, you eat something sweet, you want something salty. You eat something salty, you want something sweet. Continuously!
Something salty...
I could not help but think about mama. She loved shelled raw peanuts cooked slowly in a frying pan with a little oil and salt. Reminds me of the warm salted nuts you used to buy in the dime store. Again, this is Poppy's fault. His very words were, "If I shell some of these peanuts will you cook them in oil and salt".
Jeffrey Pierce, who owns the deer processing plant where Poppy works part time, brought us a bag of raw peanuts, a pack of country cured ham, and a big chunk of hoop cheese for Christmas.
I must stop feeling like it is my responsibility to finish off all these foods!
Everyone probably makes chocolate oatmeal cookies. It is so easy...
1 stick butter
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
1/2 cup milk
Boil for 3 minutes. Remove from heat. Add a big scoop of crunchy peanut butter and 1 1/2 to 2 cups oatmeal (quick cooking), 1 tsp. vanilla. Stir and quickly drop on wax paper.
My heart is telling me to eat healthy and lite today...get back in the routine, but my mind keeps going back to those cookies and nuts.
Okay, I am getting busy, before Poppy gets home!!
Love,
Henny Penny
Meet Mr. Murphy's pet bull...
Is he not the sweetest, most gorgeous bull ever? He weighs 2800 pounds now and will weigh 3000 when fully grown. He was born here on Mr. Murphy's hay farm.
Shortly after Poppy and I moved into our little log cabin in the woods in 1989, we got busy and built a small fenced-in area and a tiny barn. I wanted a pet sheep. Poppy got me a black sheep. Shortly thereafter, I met Mr. Murphy. At the time Mr. Murphy owned a sheep farm and sold a little feed on the side. Buying feed one day I asked him if he would sell me a baby lamb. He did.. So these were my two sheep...
Eventually, we gave both sheep back to Mr. Murphy. Sheep need shearing! We tried! What a mess we had! Makes me sad to look at them. I had dreams of shearing sheep and spinning yarn. I've had many dreams over the years that didn't work out. Like a milk cow. I want a milk cow! Poppy says we need a farm for stuff like that. :)
Mr. Murphy got out of the sheep business and started a booming, very busy, "Murphy's Hay Farm". You can buy just about anything farm related here. There is a constant line of trucks and trailers driving through to be loaded.
I have always loved this farm. The farm is beautiful in the summer when the grass and the trees are green. Like everywhere this time of the year, Mr. Murphy's is dull and grey. There used to be sheep and little lambs, cats and kittens everywhere!
Supposedly we have rain and very cold, single digit temperatures coming in by Tuesday...7 -9 degrees! I wanted to take that "not so great" bale of hay I bought for the goats last week and put it in the chicken house to keep the chickens warm. Also wanted to fill all the nests with soft hay, and then buy the goats a better quality hay to eat. Mr. Murphy sells that better quality hay. You can actually see green in the bale. The goats love it...it's like their own little green grassy pasture!
While at the farm, Mr. Murphy said "walk out back and look at my pet bull". At first, Mr. Bull would only peep out from behind his shelter. He's a mess. Wanted us to think that he was shy!...
Thanks for stopping by. Oh, Mr. Murphy gave us the name of a farm near by that has miniature donkeys for sale...near by!!! Will keep you posted!
Love,
Henny penny
Dear friends,
It is not often that we wake up to a cold 16 degrees! Not often that we look out over a frozen pond! If this weather keeps up Poppy and I might learn to ice skate. :) Imagine that!!
The pond is not frozen solid, just icy.
Compared to the freezing, below zero temps, deep deep snow, and ice you folks north and west of here are having, this is nothing! Nevertheless, 16 is still cold. Cold enough to keep me busy making sure the animals have water to drink.
Looking out at the brown dead yard and trees today, it's hard to remember how it looked a few months ago. The trees covered in leaves and the grass needing to be mowed! Oh, and the smell of sweet honeysuckle vines in bloom around the pond.
I love all the seasons of the year! Cold weather like this does make me dream of spring and summer. Gardening and working in the yard.
The chickens, except for "big boy", seem to be doing fine in this frigid weather. "Big Boy" has always slept in the goat's barn. He has his own roost there. For those of you who are not familiar with "big boy"...
A year or so ago, someone pulled into our driveway late one night and threw him over the fence into the goat's lot. This has been his home ever since. I love him. He is the best rooster ever! Not a mean bone in his body. Sometimes I think he would get in the car and ride with me! Anyway, the cold is really bothering him. Last night he slept hunkered down in the hay inside a hen's nest. When the gate was opened this morning he did not want to come out, very unusual.
There were 10 Cardinals at the feeder. After taking four pictures through the kitchen window (not good), I managed to capture three and poor cold "big boy" sitting at the fence...
Not much of a post. Just wanted to check in and complain a little. Keep warm and be happy.
Love,
Henny Penny
It does not seem that long ago that I was riding the school bus home...seated in the back of the bus with Mary, Loretta, Audrey, and Hilda. We had lots to talk about. Our senior trip was coming up soon. Our class was going to Washington, DC. Yep, and I was going too. Shelby had already said that she would let me borrow her camera, if I brought it back in one piece..
Mary, Loretta, Audrey, Hilda, and I were making lists of things we needed to pack, and deciding how much money we needed to beg from our parents. We were seriously busy, lots to discuss on that bumpy ride home. We were comparing our lists, talking, showing each other what we had written down, the clothes we planned to pack. Suddenly, silly, giggling, laughter broke out amongst the girls...they were reading my list...what was so funny? Mary said, "so you're taking hills"? I meant heels, not hills! I had written "hills" on my list! Glad we were getting close to home! Maybe all would be forgotten tomorrow morning! I was bashful, and easily embarrassed (even at that age)!
As I said, it doesn't seem that long ago...but it has been 53 years . Take a look at that nice streamline Trailways bus we rode to Washington, and the cute driver. Actually, it was Mary who thought the driver was sooo cute! Not me!...Not my type!
Mary and me, climbing the Washington monument...
Mary, Loretta, and Audrey all buddy buddy! :) The three of them lived close together. They had grown up together. By 1960 Daddy had bought the farm and moved our family to the country, away from my beloved Robbins and Elise High School. Shelby graduated from Elise in 1957. That meant I had to change schools and spend my last two years at West End High School...
And again, Mary, Audrey, and Loretta. These girls were very sweet....
Audrey and Hilda...
Mary and Audrey with one of our teachers...
Is this not just like the boys...gathered around a "no smoking" sign with their cigarettes...
Now this boy was cute! Notice the picture was cut to fit into my billfold. :) Ronald...
West End School was fine and the people were fine. It's just that Robbins was home, and would always be home.
Moving to the country meant having lots of land, ponds to fish in, a garden, fields of corn, farm animals, a tractor, a big house, a country dirt road, and country folks as neighbors. It meant riding a school bus to school and back home instead of walking with friends or having mama or daddy drive us. For me, life was never as good after we moved from Robbins.
Thank you for stopping by.
Love,
Henny Penny
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
What a good feeling! 2014 is here! A brand new year! It is pretty useless for me to make a list of new year's resolutions. However, Poppy and I have decided to give up eating ice cream every night! "Turkey Hill" will probably feel the loss! I am hoping my waistline will too! Dr. Oz says Jello helps you sleep, so we are thinking about switching to a dish of Jello. When I am all slim and rested, I will post a picture! :)
Did everyone party last night? Did you all stay up to see the new year come in? Poppy and I were in bed at the usual time. Neither of us could stay awake. We were up at 4:30 yesterday morning. Poppy had to be at work at 6:00, so we were pretty tired.
One of my favorite New Years, as far as partying goes, was in the early 1980's....maybe even 1979. Poppy and I were dating. There was a New Year's party held at the Sheraton Hotel in Southern Pines. We danced the night away...We were surely in love!
Why in the world did I wake up this morning with the song "Blue Skies" on my mind. "Blue skies smilin' at me. Nothin' but blue skies do I see". If you must have a song in your head all day, "Blue Skies" is better than some! Could that be a good sign? Let's hope so! :)
Andee drove down from York Town again Monday. She got here around 9:00 am...I was ready and waiting! We spent the day in Raleigh. Had a nice lunch. We did a little shopping (the sales), and a lot of talking and laughing. It was over way to fast! A fun day like that is when I need to take pictures, but when it's fun day I totally forget the camera! Dumperoo parked himself in front of Andee's packages when we got home, so I did get one picture...
Oh my, I need to get busy! If you want time to fly, sit down at the computer!
Thank you for stopping by. Maybe the new year will also bring new ideas for a better blog! You reckon?
Love,
Henny Penny
