We could sure use a day of sunshine along about now! This will be the eighth day of thick clouds and rain. Not even a peep of sun. I need the sunshine!! With every cloudy, rainy, misty day, I feel gloomier and gloomier.
There are lots of Camellia blooms. The bushes look healthier now that there are less trees and more sun in the back yard...sun when it's not raining!
Speaking of rain, that rope is still hanging in that tree waiting for me to finish building the swing. Just this morning the weatherman said it will be Wednesday before we see the sun...so that means Wednesday before I can work on the swing again!
Shelby and I... you remember Shelby, my sister, the farmer. We were talking yesterday about the swing. Shelby said there were two things she really wanted when she and her husband moved to the farm...a tree house and a rope swing on a tree limb. She still has neither, like me! But listen, Shelby has a loft in their big tall barn...a loft!!! If only I had a loft full of sweet smelling hay!!! That's where I would spend most of my days! This is not Shelby's loft, but a neat one I found on line...
Oh, the memories Shelby and I have of playing and laughing, and jumping from the hay loft at our Aunt Macy's. Aunt Macy and Uncle Vester had lots of children to play with and the hay loft was our favorite place.
Imagine spending the night in this barn full of hay...
I found this on line and it is a place where you can actually stay...in France!! www.burgundystay.com
Back in the 50's...and living in Robbins, Shelby built each of us a simple tree house. We called them tree "houses" but it was more like a flat wooden floor nailed onto a forked limb. You need a large tree with several forked limbs, and there was just such a tree in our back yard. Shelby built three flat tree houses in that one tree. My house was on the bottom, Jackie's was second, and Shelby's was highest. She built it by starting at the narrow end nailing boards to the limbs and working her way out . Just a flat simple tree house. We spent many a day playing in that tree...especially Shelby! Shelby loved to read and what better place to read than up in a tree, on one of mama's good quilts. Many times we forgot and left a quilt up in the tree house and it would get rained on.
Here it is, bedtime Monday night..so I will stop here. Hope to be back soon!
Love,
Henny Penny
This is sweater weather for sure. An inch and three quarters of cold rain has fallen since last Monday. Rain we really needed!! In fact, the broccoli, cabbage, collards, turnips, and mustard have decided to grow. Sounds like a huge patch of greens when actually there is only eight or nine plants of each. Even that is more than Poppy and I will use. This is my first time growing broccoli, and I am seriously looking forward to eating broccoli from our garden!! :)
The turnip greens...
The Mustard...
The problem here is that Poppy likes only collards, no other greens. He also likes turnips, not turnip greens. I was reading just this morning about the health benefits of mustard greens, and that the peppery taste of raw mustard is good in salads and sandwiches. Somebody has got to eat this stuff and it looks like it will be me! I had a couple of leaves for lunch today...I know, Wow!!
"Tofu Eggless Salad"... 1 lb. tofu, 1/4 to 1/3 c. mayonnaise, 2 tsp. prepared mustard, 1/4 tsp. garlic powder, pepper (to taste), 1 rib celery chopped, 2 to 3 scallions (or 1 sm. onion minced), 1/8 tsp. turmeric, 1/2 tsp. soy sauce, 1/2 tsp. sea salt. Mix together...this is good in a whole wheat pita pocket topped with alfalfa or bean sprouts. I tried it with raw mustard leaves tucked in with the salad and it was very good!!! It has been years since I've made this salad. After digging around in the cabinets I also found my jar with the screen wire top for growing sprouts. Just may grow some sprouts!!!
Poppy made this picture Tuesday as we were getting in the truck to go shopping...late morning. It was dark cloudy and misty...a little spooky looking which reminds me of a Halloween story, a scary Halloween story I want to tell you. I will be back....
As mama used to say, I have simply got to get busy!!! Hope to return soon!
Love,
Henny Penny
This morning when I reached up in the cabinet for the coffee filters, I spotted my lovely (thrift store) silver tea pot, all tarnished and needing to be polished. Well this brought back a flood of dear sweet memories of mama again. Here are a few favorite pieces of my collection of silverware...
all from thrift stores, antique shops, and yard sales. I love all the different patterns. This tea pot reminds me a little of the teapot in mama's set. I enjoy polishing it and remembering mama polishing her silver. Of course, I was right next to her, ever watching!
Do ladies still use their silver service sets? The set mama had back in the mid 1950's was complete with coffee pot, tea pot, creamer and sugar bowl all on a beautiful heavy tray with a handle on each side...a gift from daddy, from a business trip to New York. The set was displayed on the buffet in the dining room. In fact, here is a set that looks very much like the one mama had...only the tray is different.
Mama did actually use her silver service set. Once a month the Circle Meeting was at our house and she served coffee to the ladies using this set, along with her china cups and saucers. I was fascinated! I adore tea sets.
More pieces of my collection...I have only one spoon from mama's set of silverware...second from the right...
I also have only one piece of mama's china...this sugar bowl with a cracked lid...
I also have a weakness for old linen napkins trimmed in lace, all starched and ironed and folded. You know with our life style, Poppy and me, in this simple cabin out here in the country, with dust, and cobwebs strung from one deer head to the other...I would hardly set the table with fine china and silverware, or serve coffee from a beautiful silver coffee pot. Can I picture Poppy drinking coffee from a china cup and saucer?? Definitely not!! Mugs, large mugs with a big handle and some wild animal pictured on the front, that's what Poppy reaches for.
Mama used her fine china and silverware at Thanksgiving and Christmas, and anytime company was there and we ate in the dining room.
I really don't need all this silverware and this teapot to keep polished...and add to my list of things to do...but there is just something there that tugs at my heart. Doesn't hurt to dream, does it?
Love,
Henny Penny
We are actually getting some of that much needed rain right now. Yep, the rain finally got here. It is cloudy and dark, very quiet out here in the country today. Nothing but the sound of rain falling. The close up rain drops reflect the flash...I suppose??
Let me tell you, I struggled with that rope yesterday, trying to build a tree swing before Poppy got home!!! Getting that heavy rope over a tree limb 20' up almost did me in. I must have moved and climbed that ladder 10 times and finally did get one end of rope over the tree limb and tied. It started raining this morning so here is a picture of my work :) taken from the porch. Not much to see!!
The man on the tree looks pretty disgusted! The pot over the rope is to keep the rain off! A wet rope...well, would be even heavier to throw up over that limb! :) Even after climbing that tall ladder and using that 16' metal pole...well it was a job! Poppy says he will help me. Lets just hope that limb doesn't break while I'm swinging out over the goat lot...I will never hear the end of it!!! Of course if that happens I probably won't be hearing anymore anyway!!
Here it is almost bedtime again. Where did this day go?? Glad for the rain we got today...and no bad storms!
Love,
Henny Penny
Up the dusty brick path...we need rain terribly bad!! Tropical storm Karen is supposed to bring us rain on Monday, but now that has weakened. It is very dry and dusty here. That reminds me of mama. A few years back we had a really bad drought. We went all summer without rain. The pond was so low that on the more shallow end, we could walk from one side of the pond to the other side on dry cracked ground. We were afraid the fish would die. Anyway, Mama was here for a visit and when I worried over and talked about the dry weather, and us getting no rain, mama would say, "Oh, it will rain again, it always does". And it did, and the pond filled again.
Recently I read a quote by Phillips Brooks that reminds
me of mama...
"No man or woman can be strong, gentle, pure, and good, without the world being better for it, and without someone being helped and comforted by the very existence of that goodness."
I've been cleaning up around the greenhouse...the Hostas are yellow and pretty much done for the year. The pots of roses have been moved into the tiny greenhouse for the winter. The deer won't leave the roses alone. Maybe their leaves will come back and there will be a few blooms to enjoy this winter. Lots of dry brown leaves falling now because of the dry weather. Hard to believe spring and summer have come and gone and it's time to put things away for the winter.
The larger roses I brought inside the garden fence. These should be okay through the winter...
A month or so ago when I planted a few things in the herb garden, even though it was late in the season, it actually looks pretty good. Two Dill plants have volunteered and come up. The Thyme has come out and the Basil is thriving. Tiny but fun!
Not much of a post. Thank you for stopping by. By the way...Poppy looked at the rope, looked at the tree limb and said, "Mel, you can't put a swing there"! So, while he is at work, I'm going outside with my new rope...try to throw the rope over that 20' high limb and prove "Mr. Poppy" wrong!!! Please wish me luck...it would be nice to be right for once! :)
Love,
Henny Penny
A fine rope...don't you think!
Guess what?? The rope for the tree swing has been ordered from Amazon and should be here any day! I am so excited and will keep you posted. Won't be long now! I may soon be swinging out over the goat lot!
Don't you just love these crisp cool mornings! Fall is such a pretty time of the year. The leaves are not turning so much around here yet, but lots of leaves are falling, probably because of the long dry spell we've had. I could actually start raking leaves now. Just remembered this picture from last year...
The squirrels are busier than usual...fussing in the trees and scurrying about burying acorns and pieces of corn found in the yard. Wonder if they are telling us we are in for a rough winter? Never have I seen them eat as many new pine cones...pieces are scattered up and down our rock path!
A few years back Poppy and I were working outside one spring day...we had raised beds back then. Suddenly a small, young squirrel came running up to us and hopped up on the side of one of the beds. Well, I ran for the front door thinking something was wrong with this squirrel and it would attack us. Poppy reached down and picked it up, saying "Mel, come back, this squirrel won't hurt you". To this day we have no idea where this squirrel came from, or who raised it, but we became the best of friends. At night he slept in a little nest in a cage and early each morning I let him out. He lived in the yard just like all the other squirrels, but he loved to play hide and seek with me and would actually frighten me when he would jump onto the tree I was hiding behind. When I clapped, he would jump into my hands. This went on for months then one day I stopped at the tree he was playing on, we played for a while, I held him, and saying to him that I needed to get busy, I put him back on the tree. I never saw him again after that day, which broke my heart. Remembering this makes me sad. I get so attached to, and love these animals so much.
I suppose one of the most, "not so enjoyable" things that comes with fall...those stinking little green stink bugs. How do so many find their way in?
Yuk! Have you ever vacuumed up one of these bugs? I have and the smell if awful! It lingers!! Nothing to do but change the vacuum bag! I've heard that these green stink bugs like darker houses like a log cabin, and lady bugs move into white houses. That reminds me of mama. Lady bugs loved mama's house!!! I don't know which caused mama more stress...lady bugs or squirrels!!! :)
Another sign of fall that I enjoy...those cute, "teddy bear" looking wooly worms. Wooly worms amaze me crawling so fast. I'm always seeing them crossing the highway. I swerved the other day to avoid hitting one on my way to town, but may have hit it...I didn't look back to see....These cuties are probably more accurate at predicting the weather than most weathermen!!! ;) just kidding
After a bit of reading I found out that the wooly worm is the larval stage of the Isabella tiger moth. As far as the wooly worm predicting the weather...when the brown bands on a wooly worm are narrow, it means a harsh winter. The wider the brown band the milder the winter will be. Lets try to remember that!!! :)
Didn't mean to ramble on so...thank you for stopping by.
Love,
Henny Penny
Dear Friends,
I have figured out and fixed what has made me feel so "out of sorts" lately!! It was those darned old bamboo roll-up shades!!! One thing is for sure, I have not felt like myself in quite a while!! Thinking back, it was along about the time we hung those shades that I started feeling down!
The old fashioned ruffled curtains are hanging again...Sorry about the dusty, raggedy old dining chairs. We could really use some new ones. Furniture polish would help a lot! :)
One thing for sure...I am not a bamboo person! Every time Poppy and I sat down to eat a meal, I felt like we were in Panama and needed to be dressed in white, listening to the flap, flap, flap of a slow moving, palm leaf ceiling fan!! I need to remember, this is a cabin in the woods...not a tropical escape!! :) Maybe I can get into sewing again or be able to stick to a diet!!
I have not been myself lately, or have I said that already!! Anyone interested in a couple of cheap bamboo shades???
Speaking of dust...by 7:00 this morning I had washed the shelves and dusted every piece of old granite ware in the pantry. The dining chairs are next on the list. The red pantry walls look pink in this picture...just know that I don't have a pink pantry! :)
The newest hens looked rather fetching in their Sunday outfits......
Very sweet hens!
Dumper Roo napping...
My posts haven't been all that great lately. Thank you if you have managed to stay long enough to read this.
Love,
Henny Penny
