Chickens Love blueberries

Today I found out my chickens love blueberries.  And since the first time I brought them blueberries in a dixie cup.  Now if I have a dixie cup in my hand they mob me.  I mean they totally surround me and run all over me.  So I just throw them on the ground.  At first they didn't know what they were. They pecked them to death.  Now they fight over them and eat them right away.

Had company for a week.  Granddaughter and son Robert.  Robert likes to do things when he visits so we went to the Tallulah State Park in Tallulah Georgia which is near Clayton Ga. and not too far from Franklin where we live.  There are about three Water Falls there. But I only viewed the one that was easy to get to. Robert went down over a thousand steps to see the others and walk on the suspension
bridge. I don't particularly care for heights or bridges.  The one time I went to Niagara Falls I felt faint.  Niagara has very little guard rails.  If you go to the edge you feel this feeling that you might fall over into the water.  Or at least I did.

We also viewed the Gorge at the Tallulah state park.  Back in the 1800's the Falls and the Gorge drew
thousands of people in the South as before they dammed part of the Falls and diverted the Falls it was
more magnificent than Niagara Falls.  I think there should be a law outlawing messing with Mother
Nature.  I mean those Falls were that way for maybe hundreds of thousands of years.  And man altered  them for his own purposes.  The Native American Indians knew better than to do that.

I have not been writing or updating my blog.  I don't know why. But I apologize.  I will try and do better.  My friend in England who was diagnosed with terminal melanoma is doing better.  She is going to get a second opinion.  I believe in second opinions.  Any doctor who doesn't encourage

you to get one is not any good.  And tests can sometimes be wrong.  A few pictures.  From our visit to the Falls.

Hummingbirds Lillies Chickens Oh My

I don't really have a lot to write about.  Had a little setback.  I think I am on the mend. I must start wearing garden gloves and long pants when in the yard as I can't afford all these scratches and thorn
punctures.  Today I cut all the vetch vines off from around the beautiful hydrangea on the cliff. I call it the cliff. Its just our property line on the side which the new school is being built.  My husband and I were curious so we went online and found property plots for our land, the county board of education (where the new school is built next to us)  and our neighbor on our left who is always away working construction or engineering on some new power plant. His last job was in Melbourne Australia and now he is working in Alaska.  They hardly live here at all.  I think I've seen them twice in the last 9 months. And even then only for two or three weeks.  This time they packed up a lot of belongings and took their two dogs (before that their dogs lived up the hill with their mother) because this new job they can drive
to and don't need a passport.  And they can take the dogs.  I'm glad for the dogs because they were always coming over to their empty house looking for them and it made me sad. 

Anyway, my husband and I found out the house next door was last sold in 2010 for 230,000 dollars.
Fancy them getting that price today.  I doubt it.  It is much bigger than our house. It has 3,000 square
feet and a full basement.  But we have the better view.  The owner mowed our backyard before he left for Alaska. He mad me kind of mad because he just drove his zero mower over here, and said. I'm going to mow your yard.  No asking. Just said it as if we had no choice. And then he had the nerve to ask us if we would sell him our backyard.  Really, sell him my backyard.  And I had a natural wild refuge in
the back. I had giant thistles and flowering. He mowed them all down.  My husband is just a wuss. He
was out there when he drove around to our back gate. I would have said, Get out. We don't want it mowed.  I hope he stays in Alaska a long long time.

So by looking at our plots online. we realize we own some of the woods behind us.  It was hard to
realize that because the old dairy cow barbed wire fence is still across our back. And it makes it seem
as if our land stops at the fence and does not go into the woods. I think we will have our entire backyard
re fenced so it's obvious which property is ours.  And keep that nasty neighbor off of it. I am thinking of
getting pigs or goats and plopping them near his property line. I have the right.  Totally unrestricted
here. I can do what I like.  He can't do a thing.  Do I sound vicious.  Oh well. Don't mess with me

and my wild backyard then.  Hope everyone is well.  This last photo is our yard all weedy and just over the fence his nicely manicured yard.  Where you see his barn.  Too bad Dusty. When you come back its going to be all weedy again and I dare you to try that again. 

My Soul is Sad this Week

This week I was told a very dear friend who lives in England has melanoma which has spread and is currently not treatable.  And she is going to be put in trials for a new chemo that looks very promising. I am looking into Reiki healing for her.  I signed her up for Reiki healing.  Sense it does no harm and the medical field has nothing to offer currently for her in the UK.

Hilary and I met through an ancestry web site. We both had great grandmothers with the same last name.
Eventually we could not find a connection between our two great grandmothers, mine in Dorset and her's
in the Kent area.  In 2008 we flew over to London (our second time over) and Hilary took the train up
to London and we had lunch.  At that time she was in remission from a small melanoma.  Since then she passed the five year mark. And we thought all was well.  Then, it came back.  Or maybe it has been microscopically there all along.  And not detected.

I would like to fly over and visit Hilary again.  We found through old photographs that we looked
very similar when we were young girls.  And even at our meeting, though her hair has faded, we both
had the same color red hair and the same shaped face and same blue eyes.

I am hoping for a miracle.  If you feel so inclined please send Hilary all your energy, prayers and

light.  Thank you.  Here we are in London. Here is Hilary as a young girl.  I looked just like this at eighteen. My husband when he saw this photograph of Hilary, he thought it was me.

Bonnie Mae enters the Family

We were at an animal pet adoption fair in downtown Franklin, N.C.  We have been talking about a companion for Tiny for two  years or more. Ever since we lost our huge coon dog Girl.  My husband wanted to pick out the dog.  But he didn't see any girl dogs he liked.  Then I saw Bonnie staring at me with those,  Pick me eyes.  That was it.  She is part, mini pincher, part jack russell, part mini greyhound.  And she reminds us of Girl every day.  Can dogs come back to you after death.  I think they can.
If she gets tall enough, and lays her head on my knee one day, and looks up at me.  I'll know, Girl
is home.  She has those long deer like legs that Girl dog had.  She leaps in the air like Girl dog.  She
looks at me with those same sad eyes.  She grabs your hand sneakily when you try and get her toy to
throw.  She also waits for Tiny to get into the " I am going to poop" position and then she torpedoes him.
She has a bit of a wild side.  I love her so much.  Tiny, well, he is slowly coming around. The other day he sniffed her tail.  She adores him.  It's like the tables are reversed.  When Tiny came into our house
from the death of his owner.  Girl dog ignored him.  He was just not worth her time. But she was already

7 years old and past puppyhood.  I have hope for Bonnie and Tiny.  So, now it's karma time.  Bonnie is the newbie trying to woo Tiny.  A few pictures.  The first photograph is our old dog Girl.

ENT Visit and Stuff

I had my three year/six month Ear Nose and Throat checkup on Wednesday.  He did not address my latest problems as he just seems to deal with my throat. He said that looked normal. As normal as a throat can which has had seven weeks of radiation.  I have to get checkups every six months until my fifth year. And then once a year.  But, I needed medication to calm down my panic attacks. He did not help with that. And medication to get me through all the coming horrendous dental appointments and work coming up.  He didn't want to prescribe any.  He sent me to have blood work. I have lost about five pounds.  He said appetite is affected by taste buds being lost, and no saliva.  He said head and neck radiation is disastrous to the salivary glands and the teeth. I can see my teeth just crumbling. Pieces just fall off and they are all turning yellow.

So, I may need to see a nutritionist for my other concerns.  What ever happened to doctors who really listen to your concerns,  seem compassionate.  Not so clinical.  Where did those doctors go.

We have a new puppy.  Tiny is adjusting.  We got her at the Pet Fair. She was turned in to animal control. Her name is Bonnie.  She reminds us of our old coon dog, Girl.  So we call her Bonnie Girl.  She is only one years old.  Our back hill is getting so thick and high.  The Vet who came to give Bonnie her heartworm test said she knew a woman who was reducing her stock and could give us a sheep to eat
the back hill. I love this thistle that is growing in the back.  Now I have daylily blooming. There is always something in this yard. I wish I could have met Dave who planted and planned this entire yard. His wife

told me it looked like a paradise when he was living.  Oddly, David was an Ear, Nose and Throat doctor. He was only 59 when he passed away.  I think he may have been over weight and diabetic.  We lost some flowers on hydrangea due to the two late freezes.  So I will have to wait until next spring to see those.  A few photo's of Bonnie.  And the thistle.  Later.

New Chicken Coop

I totally forgot to post photographs of the chicken coop.  The chickens love their bigger pen. Soon they can go into the new coop out in the front garden.

Le Chen Coop

I think that Chen is French for Chicken.  If not, please correct me.  We have the chicken coop in place. The one month and one week old chickens are now in a bigger pen in our garage. They can go out into the big coop in three to four more weeks.  As soon as the man comes to build the chicken run.  They have all their feathers, but nothing on their heads.  I miss hearing them warble in the laundry room.  But Tiny is glad they are gone.  He was getting very jealous of the baby talk I would say to them.  Very jealous.

It has been very hot here for April/May.  Unseasonably hot.  We are breaking records.  At least up here
in Franklin we are even two degree's cooler than Asheville.  But still hotter than I like. I cannot tolerate
heat.  I have an appointment with my new ENT next week, May 9th.  I told them my heart has been racing, I am losing weight, have anxiety issues, panic attacks.  They must find out if my thyroid is unstable.  I had seven weeks of neck radiation and my thyroid will fail eventually.  Or so they say.
My son and his wife were here for a visit.  It was so nice to have some family.  I didn't realize I would miss my children in Florida so much living up here in the mountains.  Tiny is not enjoying this hot weather.  He has a luxurious fur coat now from winter living. And he likes the cold weather better.

Happy summer everyone.  Picture of my other flowers.  And my son and his wife and me.  And swallows in my bird house and an old WWII plane at our airport.