What now!

Oh dear! I've just deleted my last post and can't find a way to restore it. Don't know how I manage do these things!! 😕

Smokey keeps watch over the cut-over from the top of the car. I tried to tip-toe past....

but he heard me....

by the way, let me tell you about that cut-over...

Instead of the hundred acres of trees that once grew there we now have a hundred acres of weeds...

Tall fuzzy weeds! Strange weeds! Weeds higher than my head!

and for at least a month now we have watched what looks like snow blowing through the yard. It is unbelievable! Look at this little cedar tree...

simply covered in white fuzz! Looks cold and icy, doesn't it?  I have searched for the name of this weed and can't find it.  Willie, would you have any idea? Here's a close-up...

These fuzzy things are everywhere! There's a layer floating on the pond, and it's stuck in all the spiderwebs, it's in Eli's hair, and in my hair. Have even had it in my eyes.

Okay, you know what I hate most about the new blogger? The size of the print changes, all by itself! Drives me crazy! 

I spent three days last week cleaning the goat barn, the chicken house, and the bunny lot.

So the two white bunnies now have nice clean pens with wire on the bottom...no more digging. I added dirt, then soft clean hay...

Monday morning I discovered the bunny on the right had dug a huge tunnel and was in the  pen with the bunny on the left. That would have been fine except these two rabbits fight. 

Strange, they don't like each other. Before they came here, they were kept in a very small cage with hardly room to turn around. Now, with their own space, they hardly speak to each other. :) 

Oh, I've been meaning to show you...

this is a full view of the bunny pen. They have plenty of protection from the rain. This was back in 2016 when Bun Bun was my only bunny. The pen is now sectioned off into four lots and that huge dog house is out of there. I love my bunny rabbits!

Okay, I've got to show you this spider...

This guy had a web that went from a low growing bush, all the way up into a tall tree...

kinda makes me shiver...

and see the fuzzy seed pod in his web?

might as well show you this too...speaking of making me shiver...

My first time ever, seeing one of these. It's an Eastern hog-nose, or spreading adder snake. It was short and fat with such a weird shaped head. Thankfully, this was not in our yard. We were with friends at their home about ten miles from here. 

Guess I've driven you all away with this, so I will end here. Hope you will come back...love to have you visit any time! :)

Love,

Henny

 

Babies!

Hey Friends,

Here it is going on two weeks since my last post! Where do the days go anyhow?

Oh my goodness, have I ever got something special to show you... 

This adorable baby boy is Kendall, our new great grandson. Isn't he simply adorable! Kendall was born July 15th to our beautiful grandaughter Michaela and her fiance, Jacob. 

and since the day he came into this world, I must have said a hundred times, "he is so adorable"!

Been wanting to show you Kendall but didn't want to post pictures without his mommy's approval, so when Michaela said, "Grandma, post all the pictures you want to", Well, I was tickled to death. But I'll try not to post too many tonight. 

And in other baby news...The early part of last week I released the baby dove. Little did I know how tightly that baby bird had attached itself to my heart. My heart has actually ached for him...

So, here's what happened. I sat the young dove on top of a post just outside the kitchen window where we feed the birds. Most days there are three or four doves, along with dozens of other birds, that visit and eat there.

When the little dove realized he was free, he flew up into the trees, then he came back and lit on the ground and ate birdseed with the others. When the others flew, so did he. When night time came, I worried, but he was right back in the yard the next morning.

So he made it through two days and two nights on his own, or was he on his own? Suddenly there were eleven doves in the yard, all around the baby. They didn't chase him away or bother him, but seemed concerned about him. 

Then late in the day on the third day, I watched out the kitchen window as the birds began leaving the yard, just before dark. I noticed that one dove stayed. She sat perfectly still watching the baby dove, almost like she was talking to him. I couldn't believe my eyes when the baby dove walked up to her and when they were within inches of each other, she flew and he flew with her, out across the cut-over. I haven't seen either one of them again, or at least haven't recognized either of them.

I have been at the point of tears every day since, but Poppy says I am worrying for no reason, that the baby dove is safe, and with his mother now.  I am trying hard to believe that. Do you think Poppy is right?

Trying to keep my mind off the baby dove I began scrubbing the back porch...

Who knew a baby bird could make such a mess. It took me a good four hours scrubbing the furniture and mopping the porch floor, but that's okay.

The dappled sunlight on the clean porch lifted my spirits, but didn't take the pain from my heart.

and while I'm at it, I might as well show you the whole porch...

this old cabinet, where egg cartons are stored, needs a coat of paint.

and along the wall above the wood pile hang antique bridles, bits, and other things I don't have names for. :)

sure looking forward some cold winter days and watching this wood burn in the fireplace. Is there anything cozier than sitting in front of a fire on a cold night.

So this is my post, such as it is. It's too long and way too much to read, so thank you for listening. Hope to be back soon and hope you will come back too. And now I have a lot of blog reading and catching up to do. 

Love,
Henny 

A thing or two...or maybe twelve or thirteen?

Ah, have you wondered about the baby Dove I rescued? Well, he has really grown. In fact, my plan was to release him this morning. 

you see, yesterday he refused to eat anything but bird seed. (Looks like enough seed to feed a flock). Twice, I mixed the usual wheat germ, cornmeal, and baby cereal with warm water and carried it to him. He has been eating from a large syringe, covered on one end with a finger cut from a rubber glove...

but he wanted nothing to do with me or the food. His home has been the screened-in back porch, where he has learned to fly from one end to the other. I brought in a dead tree limb...

that reaches from the cage he sleeps in to the porch railing. Anyhow, when I walked out on the porch this morning, he greeted me by lighting on top of my head. Glad I had his cereal mixed and warm...he ate like he was starving. So I'm thinking maybe he should stay with us another day or two. (the porch is needing a good scrubbing)!

I've surely neglected the teeny tiny garden lately. It's the heat and humidity! Gosh! It's so hot! This was yesterday's picking...

mostly Okra in the bottom. When it cools off a little I'm going in with a machete. :)

and there's rabbit news too...

Four hours I worked, cleaning two of the bunny condos. Oh, these digging rabbits! I pulled out everything and covered the ground with rabbit wire, then hauled dirt in from across the road. 

Got these two pet carriers from a lady on Craigslist. She was asking $25.00 for each, but said "yes" to $40.00 for both. So Poppy went with me to Wake Forest to pick them up.

Two more sections of the lot to clean and put down rabbit wire. Remember the two snow white rabbits...

Well, this is Lily, and you can barely see Ivy on the right. Can you believe how big they are now! When I finish their lots I will post an 'after' picture. 

and...

my two oldest bunbuns...Bun Bun and Fiona. These two never dig but I plan to re-do their lot too. Rabbit wire on the ground keeps little mice from visiting during the night.

You know, working on the "mushroom post" I thought, "now who would want to look at a bunch of mushrooms"? But goodness! Thank you for not only looking, but for leaving the nice comments. 

So thinking I'm done with the mushrooms, Poppy hollers , "Mel, where's your camera"? There's a mushroom down near the stepping stones the size of pie pan". So, here we go again, but I promise, just a few....

this is the one Poppy was yelling about. It was huge!

mention stepping stones and you see who is first out the door...

anyhow, you've got to see this really gross mushroom growing down by the bunny lot...

I mean, this thing looks like something that came up from the ocean floor.

and how about this nice suede one...

would make a nice table in our living room.

and Poppy thinks this one is cute...

and a scattering of teeny tiny baby orange ones...

and speaking of orange, this one toppled over but isn't it pretty...

okay, enough mushrooms!

Don't know if I should publish this or not :(  Well, here goes. Hope to be back soon.

Love,
Henny

Stick around for the last one

Dear friends,

Thank you for the nicest comments on my last post. I appreciate you all so much. 

Summer is on it's way out; we've just finished our last piece of cold watermelon. 

Remember how watermelons used to taste, many many years ago? Well...

We've found a farmer just up the road who grows and sells big ripe sweet watermelons, that have the taste and texture, watermelons had when I was a child...

We'll sure miss sitting on the porch in the late afternoon, eating a piece of watermelon.

and would you look...

yard-long beans, producing like crazy, again! Haven't found one a yard long yet, but there is one in the bunch, 29" long.

I have the cutest picture, one you may have seen already if you visit Betsy at thesimplelifeofaqueen.blogspot.com Betsy ordered two little clothespin dolls for her granddaughter, Piper...

and this is Piper's sweet little face when she opened the package from her grandma. Isn't she cute? Betsy says Piper has lots of babies that she loves and cares for. 

Betsy sent me the cutest picture and video of Piper opening her package, and I've lost them.  Can't imagine how, unless I accidentally deleted them. Sometimes I wonder how I've managed to keep a blog going. 

Thank you Betsy and Piper.

Remember back when the timber was cut from across the road and I said, "if any good thing can come from this, maybe my little pear trees will get enough light and sunshine to grow a few pears".

Well, lo and behold. We have pears!

some way up high too...

and a close-up! I am tickled to death!

and mushrooms! We have mushrooms growing everywhere! We've had lots of rain lately, maybe that's the reason. Anyhow, I've simply got to show you a few.

We have some leaning to the right...

and some leaning to the left...

This one reminds me of a cannister set from back in the 70's.  :)

there are groups of mushrooms...

and rows...

and some just plain scary mushrooms...

strange black mushrooms...

and one that looks icy on top...

and a dainty little sidewalk cafe table and stool, in lovely pastel colors...

and another icy looking one in an unusual color...

and this pair look like they are up to something illegal...

could this one be Chinese...

and one that looks like a snow ball...

tiny red ones hiding in the weeds...

Oh gosh, and this one! Don't know what it looks like; maybe a little space alien? What do you think...

an under-cooked pancake with nuts?

and just a nice sturdy looking little mushroom...

a lemon...

a crunchy topping......

And now! Hope you waited for the most unusual of all...

without the purple stem, this could be a pretty seashell.

Sure appreciate your stopping by. Hope to be back here real soon.

Love,
Henny