House of Henry is getting ready to open...

Hello there dear hearts.. 

Another Monday has rolled around so quickly.. It just seems as though it was last Monday and I was doing a post..  

This day, though, I am not home but at our cottage.. 

I guess you could say we are here for the duration of the Summer.. 

It has certainly been sunny days since we came.. 

My Mom was telling me that it was very hot at home today.. 

It was just right here.. A nice breeze is usually blowing off of the Bay and it is so fresh and lovely... 

I am working away at my shop.. 

Trying to get it all reorganized.. This morning I felt like perhaps I had bit off more than I could chew..(Isn't that a dumb saying)  smile.. 

Anyway, I made quite a bit of headway so tonight I feel a bit better about it all.. 

I had my first biggish sale... 

There was an old antique fainting couch, a parlor chair and footstool all refinished to match and it sold before I even opened.. 

That is great as now I have room for an old prim cupboard that we picked up over the Winter... 

I will show you that later.. 

For now.... 

Here are a few quick pics that I took around the mess that I have going on there... grin... 

I'm sorry the quality of pics aren't up to normal but I was in a hurry to get back here to the cottage.. 

I was tired, dirty and hungry.. grin.. 

Terry and I worked on the herb beds and I got my feet in the dirt.. 

Just like a kid..

The bubble bath felt wonderful and we had a nice supper.. 

Nothing fancy but Terry was in the mood for meat and potatoes..

The dishes are done and now I am chatting with you sweet ladies and having my lovely cup of tea... 

And making my perpetual lists... 

A few things I have to try and make before Thursday which I hope will be an unofficial opening day are... 

1.  old mason jars filled with potpourri

2.  wrap my homemade soaps.. 

3.  bottle up and tag some foot powders..

4.. make some thyme bath bags

5.  homemade deodorants

6.  fill some old containers with herb plants

7.  do up a few teacup pincushions

8.  paint a couple of old jars with stars and crows

9.  finish a couple of dolls that are almost finished.  

10.. tag and price everything..

Oh.. forget it.. smile.. 

I just need to get opened and work away at my list while I wait for you all to show up... grin... 

Thanks for dropping by lovies..

And thank you Lord for giving me such a dear wee shop and lovely dear friends who come by when they can.. 

Oh, don't forget to let me know you were here.. 

Love love your notes.. 

Sweet sweet blessings sent to you all..

Back at the Cottage....

Good Morning, my dears..

Just a short post this morning to let you know that we are now back at our cottage in St. Martins for the Summer season... 

The header picture at the top is of the cottage... smile...

(For you new followers.. 

Most of you have been here before, eh?)

This picture is of the Bay of Fundy at the end of our street yesterday...

Last night we could hear the waves from our bedroom window.. One of the little things that I enjoy the most about this place.. 

Our cottage is old and tattered and torn... honest... 

But this morning as I sit here chatting with you the wind is blowing the sea air from the Bay and the sun is shining... 

Lovely day... Thank you, Lord..

Anyway... 

We are working away trying to get the shop ready to open... 

                                                                                                 

I have decided to rearrange everything... 

Oh, to be a person who does not need change must be heavenly.. 

Grin... 

Oh well, it will be nice when it is finished... 

The question is WHEN???  smile.... 

There is also gardening that is not done...

Herb beds and containers and such.. 

All in good time.. 

Here are a line of old quilts and wool blankets on the line this morning... 

Getting a good airing out... smile.. 

We have not been this late arriving here before but some things  can't be helped.. 

Hopefully, the shop will be open next weekend ...

I am not going to be open on Sundays this Summer... 

So thankful for that..

We did not have Internet for the first couple of days we were here.. 

The lines had to be replaced so I am sorry I have not been around.. 

Hope you all missed me... smile... 

As for Sammi and I .....

We are just going to sit here in the living room and have our morning coffee.. 

Eh, Sam????   smile...

Love the water here at this old cottage.. 

Pure spring water and it makes yummy coffee... 

One of the good things from God... 

Planning on taking a few pics today of the shop perhaps.. 

First, though we are going to a Brunch for Terry for Fathers Day.. 

He loves their country brunches that they have in Fairfield every month... 

I love it because I get to see a lot of my cousins.. 

That is what St. Martins is all about to me... smile.. 

Thanks for the sweet visit... 

Praying for you .... 

A lovely Monday...

Good Evening my dears.. 

Hope you all had a great weekend..

It turned into a lovely Monday here in New Brunswick.. 

This afternoon I decided I needed to do a little herbal work.. 

My lovage is at least 4 feet high...

 

As you can see it has taken over half of this raised bed.. 

You can google all of the wonderful things about lovage.. 

All I know is that it is one of my favorite herbs.. 

I had made an experimental bottle of pickled lovage a few weeks ago and I must confess that I ate the whole bottle by myself.. 

Not something that Terry wanted to give his opinion on.. 

Oh well.. I loved them.. 

So different from most pickles...

All I did was to cut them up and wash them.. 

Then I made of brine of ... 

6 cups of water 

2 cups of white vinegar

1/3 cup of coarse salt.. 

* actually, I used lovage salt that I had made last Spring  and still had some left.. 

Bring to a boil ..

Add 1/2 tsp. of red peppercorns and 1 bay leaf to each bottle.... Cover with brine..

I ended up with this much... 

Then I tied the leaves up and will dry out and use for my soup herb bags that I made HERE

Once it is dried really well then I will stuff the leaves into a mason jar to use in salads and such.. 

It has a lovely celery and cardamon flavor.. 

You can also make vinegar like I made HERE..

The chives are all in bloom and ready to make vinegars and dressing like HERE...

I thought I would show you a neat wee thing I bought the other day.. 

A little battery light that goes in water in your vase of flowers.. 

Neat, eh?  

Thank you sweet ladies for your lovely visit.. 

We did not get to the cottage yet.. 

Several things came up but we do plan to get there this week.. 

Just leave me a note so I know you dropped by.. 

Love hearing from you... 

God bless...

LINKED TO....HOMESTEAD REVIVAL'S BARN HOP

Friday ....

Happy Friday, my dears. 

Welcome to the Blessed Hearth tonight.. 

I know that this is normally date night but I thought the best date that I could have would be right here at home.. smile.. 

Terry was away today doing wood errands and mowing the lawn up at the farm and I didn't go for once.. 

My paperwork has to be completely done by tomorrow night so I slaved away all day doing that.. 

Now the dear man is mowing the lawns here.. 

How did a workaholic like him match up with me is more than I can figure out.. smile.. 

Oh well... 42 years and counting.. 

I guess we must be used to each other by now.. 

I went to visit my Mom the day after I arrived back home.. 

On Wednesday, I guess..

 Terry and my step father split wood and we sat around and chatted..

 She likes showing me any new "old" dishes that she has picked up and I love looking through her MANY china cabinets.. 

Here are a couple of things I spied... grin..

Two dear little teapots... 

Aren't they sweet?  

She said I could have them if I would not sell them..

As if I would.. smile... 

She had a little cover for the first one but it did not fit.. 

I need to see if I can find one to for it... 

There are wee chickens picking for food on the left hand one..

I know it is hard to see.. Sorry.. 

Did you notice the jar of rooted plants?  

They are some of the violets that Terry had picked for me to do up salves.. 

I put them in the jar before I left and now they are all rooted.. 

I want to plant them and see if they come up next year... 

Here are some other little bird cups in a wee tea set that Mom gave me before...

I love old dishes with birds on them.. 

Are you dish lovers, too?.. 

I know my friend Suzanne is..

And so is my friend Pam.. 

Today is her birthday...Bless her heart.. 

Pam is like my sister...

She lives about an hour and a half from me and we talk most days.. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEAR ... 

One of the ladies who read my blog from Maine emailed me and let me know that my music was gone... 

Thank you, Donna...

As we live in Canada I had not realized that you girls could not hear it anymore, either.. 

Play list has completely stopped it all..

Anyway, I searched around and added a music widget  on 

my sidebar.. 

Just click on the ones you would like to hear.. 

I have not figured out yet how to get it to play all the time by itself but at least you can turn it on if you like.. 

I will add more music as I go...

Number 6 is my fave.. 

Oh, the joy of having the PEACE OF GOD..  

Hope you enjoy the music... 

Please let me know.. OK?

Well, I must go and try to catch up on my blogging.. 

I am way behind... 

I love reading the blogs.. 

They inspire and comfort me all at the same time.. 

I appreciate everyone...

Both bloggers and readers... 

You readers inspire me to write with your dear comments and I so look forward to them.. 

Have a blessed weekend.. 

Just being home....

Good Evening everyone.. 

Such a beautiful day here in New Brunswick..  

The maple leaves matured so much just in the week that I was away.. 

Terry went cutting wood today with his buddy so I sorted through my purchases.. 

Bought myself another prim doll...

Gotta love her.. 

A lot of ladies do not like prim but I do... smile.. 

She came from my fave shop... Potters Hill in New York state.. 

We did find one flee market and found these..

Vintage tablecloth, doilies and a lovely 60 inch vintage lace curtain.. Perfect for doll dresses and such.. 

A few boxes that were packed so well...

I can only give you a glimpse until they get unpacked at the shop.. 

Anyway... 

There was a lot to do ... 

See my lovage plants that Terry picked up for me..

I ordered them from the Co op and he picked them up while I was away... 

I want to plant one more here, one at the cottage and one at the farm.. 

It is such a useful herb that I want it where ever I may be.. smile.. 

A perfectly beautiful day to hang out lines of laundry.. 

A fair breeze and they dried quickly... 

My Mom told me that she and my step father had found 12 of his white handkerchiefs that were missing in old pants pockets yesterday.. 

So .. today she whitened them and hung them on the line.. 

She said she could watch them blow all day long.. grin.. 

That must be where I got that... hmmmm...

All the bushes are in bloom...

A snowball bush.. 

And higher above it a late blooming lilac.. 

A deep purple one.. 

Lots of forget me nots.. 

Blue ones.... 

Sammi was glad to have me back.. smile..

He follows me everywhere... 

How was your day, my friends?  

Just a catch up one for me.. 

Making supper for Terry and going to bed early... 

So thankful just to be home.. 

I expect to go to the cottage over the weekend... 

By the way... 

I guess my music is off of my blog now.. 

Only you girls from the U. S. could hear it as we Canadians could not.. Play list has taken it off altogether now.. 

Sorry about that.. I will try and get something else.. 

For tonight though I am including this song..

JUST CLICK HERE....

Hope you enjoy... 

God bless until next time.. 

Sending you all a hug... 

Home Sweet Home...

Well, hello there dear hearts.. 

I am back!!

Thank the Lord, I am home safe and sound.. 

As you know I visited the lovely Lancaster County in Pa. for 8 days... 

Many lovely experiences and a few very scary ones... 

I thought I would share a few pics with you tonight and then I will not go on about it.. 

The first of my photos were lost on my camera card by mistake so here are a few of the ones that I took after we arrived there last Thursday after 2 days of travelling... 

A few of the ones that I took of the dear Amish folks...

We visited several of the farms who were selling such things as quilts and fabrics, root beer and antiques, pickles and crafts.. 

That was one of my favorite things that we did.. 

We would pull into the farm yard and sweet little Amish children would come running to sell their wares.. 

They had names such as Jacob and Rachel... 

All Bible names and they would come with the little brothers or sisters in wagons.. 

They would sometimes be weeding a garden or one told us they were picking over tobacco plants.. 

Their sweet smiles were so dear... smile.. 

All along the way we noticed the plants growing in the ditches.. 

Aren't these lovely?

They are not clover but a wild pea... I think.. 

Probably my friends from Pa. know what they are.. 

We loved them anyway.. 

We were blessed to meet up with friends from Toronto who took a tour bus and we drove around with them for a day...

We attended the wonderful Sight and Sound production of

JONAH... 

It was my third production.. 

We had already seen IN THE BEGINNING and JOSEPH.. 

This one was awesome, also ...

We did a lot of shopping, of course.. 

I was blessed to find some lovely prims for my shop.. 

So much lavender growing.....

So beautiful.. 

Then, of course, the wonderful Amish farms on every side..

Every farm is in perfect order.. 

I could drive around for days just looking at them.. 

Then it was time to head for home..

We had a bit of sun but mostly cloudy or downright torrential rains.. 

We headed for the very foot of Mass. so that we could visit a former pastor's church.. 

It was so precious to visit with them and their church family. 

Then we headed for Maine and last minute shopping.. smile..

The Lord was so gracious and protected us even during a flash flood that scared me half out of my wits... Seriously...

And there were even tornado warnings.. Yikes.. 

Thank you, Lord for your divine protection.. 

It is so good to be HOME.. 

There is no place on earth quite like it.. 

Beautiful places to be sure but dear old New Brunswick is the place for this old girl.. grin.. 

I hope you enjoyed my little visit with you all. 

I missed you guys, too... 

We will be busy getting moved down to the cottage during the next week.. 

Terry is going to cut wood tomorrow but we plan on starting the move this weekend and hoping to get the shop opened by the next weekend.. 

Thank you, my dears for your sweet visit.. 

I hope you leave me a note.. I love hearing from you all.. 

God bless...