Here on Henny Penny Lane

 Saturday while I cleaned up the teeny tiny garden a bit, Poppy mowed...

and mowed...

and mowed...

There's okra on them thar spindly looking plants.

We had three beautiful sunny cool days last week; Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I mean cool like waking up to 57 degrees. Unbelievable in August in North Carolina. But, the heat has come back, and with a vengeance! 96 hot humid degrees today!!!

Anyhow, back to the garden. It was time to pull up the buggy bean vines, the squash, and the cucumber vines, and dig a spot for stir-fry broccoli and a few collard plants.

and that's exactly what we did; set out twelve broccoli and six collard plants.  If they do any good it will shock me. I've never been able to grow any kind of fall crop. This should give my sister and brother-in-law a hardy laugh. Seems like it was 254 collard plants they set out last fall. :( But that's okay.  I did say this is a teeny tiny garden.

and thank you!  I feel so much better about this plant...

For those of you who said this probably is not autumn joy sedum, thank you! Now I can enjoy the plant without feeling like it is struggling to live and stand tall. Poor thing. It has been threatened several times and dragged from place to place.

Oh, and did I tell you about the friendly spider who followed me home? 

This is his web on the back screen door. On one of those cool days last week I "finally" got the weeds pulled from the Iris bed at the bottom of the back steps.

This was the weedy mess in spring of 2017!

Anyhow, busy busy pulling weeds, I reached down and almost grabbed the spider and it's web which was spread between two or three Iris leaves. Carefully, I finished the weeding, leaving the web and the spider untouched. Well, the next morning, the spider and it's web had moved up the back steps, all seven of them, and up the screen door. I'm wondering if he tried to get inside but found the door locked.  Last summer we had two of these big spiders in the garden.

Thank you friends! Hope to be back soon.

Love,
Henny

Swinging again

Looks like we're in business again. The swing is up and running, or up and swinging...

a strong nylon rope this time...

Yes, a brand new swing and it's a high swinger too!

except I'm a little nervous and feel like I can't hold on tight enough. A fall will do that to you, you know! and give you big ugly bruises too.

Wouldn't it be wonderful to have no fear again, like when you were about eight years old? Of course, there were no worries back then of breaking a hip.

I remember the swings at Aberdeen Lake back in the 1950's. Mama would pack a picnic basket and we would spend the day.

Those swings were perfect. Oh, you could swing so high it would take your breath away. 

hey, that's us at the lake; Mama, my brother Jackie, and me. My sister Shelby was there too, some where?

it was quite a job getting the other half of that old rope down and even harder getting the new rope up and over that high limb. Poppy did good. 

and while we're outside let me show you a pot of flowers

Perennials grow kinda weird here, I suppose because of all the shade...

This is Sedum, Autumn Joy, and is supposed to be a tall variety with straight stems and large pinkish red flowers. 

It has been moved from place to place over the years and never would grow tall and straight. I put it in a pot and this is how it grew.

and the hummingbirds! we had to buy another feeder and hang it in Dumperoo's favorite window... 

and Dumperoo couldn't be happier, well, unless we opened the window.

Appreciate your visiting. Hope to be back soon.

Love,
Henny

A week's worth

How can it be! a week since my last post! Guess the days are going faster and I'm going slower.

We've had rain rain rain lately. Oh the sun comes out, but just long enough to make things really hot and humid, or trigger a thunderstorm. I can hardly wait for that first cool fall day when you can pull a sweater out from the back of the closet.

Aren't kitty cats funny?

 this is Smokey aka Mokey, Mokey Mae, and Moke Moke . He answers to them all.

and this is where he sits, just outside the front steps, looking real pitiful, like he can't jump over the rocks and monkey grass...

and all the while, I am calling to him. But then let me cross over to help him and he jumps.

Just before dark when I close the chickens up for the night and start back to the house, Smokey meets me and runs, weaving in and out of my steps all the way back to the house.  I've told him again and again that he is going to make me fall. Then I pick him up and we go inside together. He is such a sweetie.

 silly kitty

 Oh friends, the knobs and pulls arrived and we couldn't wait...

It is a good change from the white knobs, so I am content with the old honey oak stained cabinets for a while longer.

and the little red corner. Vic, if you're seeing this, I am still loving the red canisters!

and speaking of red...

We've been without an umbrella all summer. Poppy called me from work one day last week and asked, "do you still want an umbrella for the yard, Food Lion has reduced their's to $26.00...they have red, dark green, and white". How about the red one, I asked. 

Okay, I've hobbled back inside to finish this post. Remember my swing? Oh, I posted about it several times way back in 2013.

It was still pretty new here...

this was early last spring and the jute rope was beginning to show wear. Jute will rot over time.

Poppy swinging last summer.

Anyhow, after walking Eli, I sat down in the swing and said to Poppy, "you really don't think the rope will break if I swing". I do love a swing. No, it will not break, he said. So, I sat down in the swing, walked myself backwards, lifted my feet, and swung forward, feeling the cooling wind hit my face...but on the way back down, the rope on the left side broke, dumping me on the ground. Oh, it must have been a funny sight.

See the row of bricks there at Poppy's feet? That's where I landed. There will be bruises for sure, but I'm okay, nothing broken. :) Poppy has already been on line ordering thirty feet of nylon rope. 

Good grief, what a post! Seems like about one post a week is all I can manage, so there is much to talk about. Thank you for listening. Hope to be back real soon.

Love,
Henny

Thank you Sandra, for following my blog. I appreciate that so much!

Thank you!

I've simply got to write a little post to thank all of you who read and commented on my last post...you know, the one where I was so down and out. 

Well, the gold curtains, the CD, and the blizzard helped me out of my slump, but in no way did those things come anywhere close to what your comments have done to lift my spirits. Thank you!

Vic, you asked about "Rust Scat". I really know nothing about the product, but you should see the amazing job this lady did using "Rust Scat" to paint an old Linoleum floor...it's at www.1915house.com/how-to-paint-old-linoleum-kitchen-floors. The old Linoleum in our kitchen looks awful so I was searching for a cheap way to change it...something cheaper even than Linoleum. :)

Rian, glad you did put your"2 cents" in . I'm going to look into that fake stone. Thank you.

and most of you agreed that ice cream really  can lift your spirit.

oh, and most of you love Pavarotti too! For sure, I would be totally lost and out of place, but just once, would love to get all dressed up and attend an opera...see the drama, and the costumes, and hear the singing. Many years ago, I used to say to mama and daddy, "when I grow up, I want to be an opera singer". Those words really bothered my younger brother. He would give me a mean look and say, "well if you're an opera singer, don't tell anybody you've got a brother"!  Miss Vicki, that was your dad! :)

Linda,  somehow I'm going to get that children's book, "The Big Orange Splot" and read it. Sounds just like me.

and Red, do you think maybe I really have discovered a way to help women who are feeling down and out? Sounds like they already knew. :)

LEfting, oh my goodness, you must be so happy to have all those kitchen cabinets painted. I know the new white paint is beautiful! That was a lot of work!

I'm glad you all think the new "used" gold curtains look fine. I appreciate that. 

and it feels good to know that some of you, like me, get taken in by the beauty in those home decorating magazines. Think I'll take Linda's advice and remember how much I loved our little log home when we finally got it built and moved in. I could not have been happier. It was not easy getting a loan to build a little log cabin, back in the 1980's. 

Willie, my gosh! an Italian, well, Sicilian, following my blog! I thought to myself, wonder if he knows Pavarotti!! I am truly honored! and how do you make lemon tea? 

and, two new followers even, Peggy and Carol. Thank you so much!!

and Arlene, I bet your place is beautiful. I love anything "nature" too. 

Dianna and Laura, yes, God has been very good to me. 

Jenn, the little curtains in the kitchen are not new but some that had been folded away in my old cedar chest.

Well, I'm sure last Saturday won't be the last time I sit down early in the morning with my coffee and a new magazine...and go completely crazy. Thankfully, there is a Goodwill store within driving distance.

We are still waiting for the new knobs and pulls that Poppy ordered from Amazon to get here, and still haven't scrubbed those cabinets yet. 

Gosh, I've never done a post without pictures before. 

Hope it's okay to do a post like this...I thought you might not check back to see a reply to your comment and know how much I appreciate you...each and every one of you! Thank you!

Love,
Henny
















  

and I was feeling mighty down...

I'm sorry, but sometimes I get really down and out...just downright depressed, and this past Saturday was one of those days.

It all started when the Autumn issue of  "The Cottage Journal" came in the mail. Oh my goodness...beautiful homes and rich fall colors, which, by the way, are my favorite colors!!!

Anyhow, I got all bent out of shape because my kitchen will never look like this...

and this...

So here I was, up at 4:00 am Saturday morning studying the pages of the new magazine...trying to figure a way to change our 1989 cabinets and bar and counter tops and floor to look like those in the picture. What would it take? A twenty thousand dollar loan?? Should I start taking down cabinet doors and plug in a sander? and did you know that you can actually paint an old linoleum floor. I found the "how to" on line. It's done with a can of something called "Rust Scat"! Should I head off to Lowes and buy a can? My head was spinning!

Well, by 10:00 am, after counting my pocket money; a twenty, a five, and 2 one dollar bills, and announcing to Poppy that I had to get out of the house, was en route to Wake Forest. 

Wake Forest has two Goodwill stores. Two!! and a Dairy Queen!! and in the same shopping center as one of the Goodwill stores and the Dairy Queen, a huge "Habitat Restore". 

About to walk out of the first Goodwill store empty handed, the swinging doors of the "employees only" section burst open and out walked a clerk pushing a buggy stacked with household goods. Friends, the gold curtains she slung at the table where I stood, landed in my arms. Mine! I yelled!

My mood was beginning to change as I loaded the full length curtains in the car and headed across the parking lot to the "Restore".  This store was packed with nice used furniture and household items...but for a measly fifty cents I found the next big mood lifter...The perfect CD... Seriously, Pavarotti! Back in my working days in downtown Raleigh, I totally wore out a Pavarotti cassette tape. Pavarotti was performing in Raleigh not too long before his death, and I will never forgive myself for not going to see him. I cried when he died.

Okay, my car could have gone two miles on the gas I wasted sitting with the motor running in the parking listening to the tenors, and eating a Dairy Queen blizzard, the third and final big mood lifter.

I drove home a happy woman. Takes very little to make me happy. Here's my new stuff, and how things have been since...

 The new gold curtains. 

Poppy said, let's go to Lowes and get a nice new curtain rod. Okay!!


For weeks now, I have been tearing out and hauling off...

and my new look for the little kitchen window...no knick-knacks and no big white ruffled country curtains blocking the view. :) 

Poppy said pick out the kitchen cabinet hardware...knobs and pulls, that you want and we will order them. So, we did...like those in picture. :) I suppose, besides the new hardware, a bucket of hot soapy water and a scrub brush will be the update to the cabinets.

new dark bronze hardware for the cabinets will look much better, don't you think?

and my prize for driving to Wake Forest...

Be still my heart! as my daughter Lynn says.

Oh my gosh, I have two new followers! Thank you. You'll probably hate you stopped by after reading such a post. Sure hope not. Thank you Sandra and Breahn.

Love,
Henny

Cleaning and a little cooking

Two days ago my very words were, "if I don't do anything else today, I'm going to wash all the mirrors in the house, and clean that cabinet with the spice rack".  Would you believe I still haven't done that? Got other stuff done though!

Went out to feed the animals first thing this morning and whilst out there...

cleaned the little goat barn...really good, then added a thick layer of hay for them to sleep on. Hopefully, Rosie won't eat all their new bedding!  

It's the little section on the left side of the teeny tiny barn. Rosie and Heidi sleep there, and hide there during a thunderstorm. Sure looks better now with the clean hay. Had it not been so darn hot and humid, I would have climbed up in there with them.

Heidi says she would never act like a little pig, the way Rosie does.

Oh my gosh, friends, when I came back in the house, my clothes were literally stuck to me. It's miserable out there!

Anyhow, after cooling off and changing clothes, I pulled out a big pot and cut up everything we had picked in the garden yesterday...well, everything that would be good in vegetable soup...

Then fried out a little fat back grease...

to season the soup with, and put it on the stove to simmer.  That's the fat meat with the grease fried out, in case you were wondering. :) Reminds me of mama. She did make the very best vegetable soup. This pot of soup has tomatoes, okra, green beans, corn, lima beans, cabbage, onion, carrots, potatoes, and, I think that's it. Wish I could say ALL the vegetables came from our garden. 

Next, I grated a big old Zucchini (from our garden)...

and made zucchini bread. Sorry about the splatters baked onto the pan. I was messy pouring the batter. Does this look like zucchini bread? Can't wait to try it.

Soon, I will get around to that apron post. Actually, just wanted to show you a few that are going in my shop. Embarrasses me to call it a shop, but you know what I mean. 

Why not show you now?

So, that's it. Now, I've simply got to find the time to make more dolls. Shelby has learned of another really good craft event coming up in November. 

Started this post yesterday...Thank you for putting up with me.

Love,
Henny