Welcome to T Stands for Tuesday with our hostess Elizabeth here at Altered Book Lover
You are welcome to join in just visti Elizabeth's page and share your link for your post-You can share anything but you must tie in a photo of your beverage and cup-
This month of February will probably go down in the history books as the warmest ever in my area of the Ozarks. We have been here since the fall of 2003 and have seen warm Februarys before but nothing this warm.
This week we are definately feeling like spring has arrived as t storms and strong winds maybe hail will be coming in too tonight and tomorrow. Late this afternoon I grabbed my camera to share some of the "springing" plants
(click to enlarge photos)
redbud
Shallots from Israel from hubby's grandfather
Wild onions or garlic
Tansy
A couple days ago I decided to roast some bulk dandelion root and chicory root-turned out very mellow so made up a little jar full of it.
Happy T Day everyone
I will be getting back into baking in my big dutch oven in my outdoor "kitchen" area soon. Spring is not quite here yet to stay-it is February still after all lol-and we do have strong winds here this time of year as well-but soon.
So I thought I would share recipes and things on friday when I can. Please feel free to join in with recipes, tips and more if you enjoy this too.
I never did figure out how that linky works-I think one needs to pay the monthly fee to get it to work right and I don't want to do that-but I will provide a link to your post if you provide one in comments.
Last year I just decided I wanted to finally set up an area for over a wood fire cooking and also with coals and dutch ovens. We had brought down a heavy grate back when we retired and moved here and have been mowing around this grate all these years lol so last summer I decided I am doing this lol.
We had a big pile of sand-gravel mix not too far away that I could wheel barrel it into place-me and Mr Blue wheel barrel have gotten allot accomplished over the years.
I went in to town to Lowes and picked up blocks to set the heavy grate on and also red square tiles and red bricks to use as a fire break for the dutch ovens.
I searched on ebay for weeks til I found the French trivets I could afford-and I love them-they fit perfectly in the bottom of the large dutch oven and then I set the pie pan or baking pan on top to keep the bottom from burning. I have smaller trivets for the smaller ovens but needed a larger one.
I also splurged and bought a new 12 quart lodge dutch oven for pie baking and bread baking. My husband and I have collected allot of vintage cast iron over the years that I use allot of daily but had never run into a nice dutch oven-so I decided to buy this one new. and it is Heavy too.
Here are a few photos of my project:
The first baked pie photo is my gluten free pie and the last pie photo is a regular pie-I still have not perfected a gluten free pie crust but am getting better.
When baking pies I put a trivet down on the bottom and then a big piece of parchment paper and the pie. I place coals around the outside bottom of the dutch oven and the the coals on top. So far I have not gotten into counting how many briquettes I use. I keep charcoal going so I can replace where needed about half way through the baking process
I usually don't preheat my dutch oven-but I am thinking it would probably be a good idea to speed up the baking time.
I have not baked bread yet but that is on my list for this summer.
For a recipe I ran into this one by King Arthur Flour over on facebook about baking bread in a dutch oven. The are baking it in the house but information still can be applied for baking outdoors in your dutch ovens
Also on my pinterest page I have a board for cast iron, camp fire, wood stove cooking with lots of recipes and such.
Please feel free to share your recipes and tips with cast iron
I am not quilting as much as I was in the past so have not been participating in Val's archives, but when I saw the subject was reading and she was leaving the post up to link in til nest week, well I decided to join in the fun. Find her post here
When I was a kid living at home my Mom encouraged us to read. We went to the library every week for new books especially in the summer or on vacation weeks from school. So I always loved reading.
As I got older and was working full time I just didn't have the time to read, and with always so much to do I felt guilty spending the time to read when I could actually be accomplishing something.
About a year ago I decided I am retired and although I still have allot of things that need doing, I decided to treat myself to reading again-and I love it. Like my Mom I am back to reading about our American history, but for me my choice is mostly in the 1800s or earlier. Last year I also did a huge splurge for me and bought a voyage kindle with the feature for downloading books rural with no wifi. Have not looked back and spend many a night in to the wee hours reading.
I have shared this in my past blog so some of you may be familiar with my favorite book author now. Peggy Henderson has written quite a few books that many interlock but do stand alone of time travel-or not and set in 1800's and earlier Yellowstone-Teton era. She is such a good author that she remains my favorite still. She has a very fun and interactive author facebook page where most of the time if we are not talking about her books we are all sharing stories and photos of Yellowstone of today and the surrounding area or sometimes cowboys-lol She has several series going and I think each series she offers the first book of the series free. Here is a link to her Amazon page Her books are romance novels but they have depth to them and in the end they feel like family. she usually has one xx scene but mostly clean romance.
I was looking for a good photo to share of the book cover for Yellowstone Heart Song the first book and wow over on Goodreads I discovered she had several covers in the beginning so will link you there here. This book I have read numerous times and was the inspiration (as the rest of the series) for my first Yellowstone charm bracelet
I think I was drawn to Peggy's Yellowstone and also Teton series' as I had always had it in my mind I would love to live a life in that time period so I guess I am by reading her books.
The other author I am very fond of is also time travel and her books are very long-usually 500 or more pages and I love love that. Katherine Lowry Logan and her Celtic Brooch series. find her here Her characters are very in depth too and she puts them in different time situations, very complex. My favorite one of the series was in the civil war and she has another one on the Oregon Trail I think it was. She also has an interactive author page on facebook where she bounces off plot ideas for her books.
For historical books I am reading books on the Oregon trail books from actual diaries, civil war, and also revolutionary war time periods.
Of course I have a big collection of new spinning books too lol and too many quilt books still and lots of weaving books.
I no longer have the opinion that reading is a waste of time-most nights it is better than anything on the tv
I have been blogging since 2004 and here since 2008 til now.
Over the years blogging has really changed for me. These past few months I took a look at it again against Facebook discussed view points with my friends here and came to the conclusion I needed a fresh blogging start and I was able to put everything into better perspective for me.
I have never been a fan of facebook-but it has ended up having a place for me as all my oldest from the beginning blogging friends are all there now and not blogging. I was trying to get them here but have realized they are happy over there so I needed a presence there to stay in touch. I do also use facebook for allot of inspiration from my groups and they do have allot going on there for groups of any interests. So I use it for stimulation for my crafts and to keep in touch with friends.
However my favorite social media choice has always been blogging. Hence my new Hummingbird Woodland Studio blog that I started several months ago. A couple friends invited me to the linky group T Stands for Tuesdays so decided to join in and meet new friends. My first post will be a little introduction.
(just a note: in my profile you will find the link to my original blog Kathyinozarks Pages-I decided not to delete all those years of information-fun and photos. It is there for anyone to browse but I have shut down the comments and will no longer post-that is in my past and this is a new start for me-hoping to meet new friends.
I have also decided for this blog-and I took it down in the old one-not to set up the google friend connect that keeps track of friends-rather please if you wish to follow me by: visiting, blog list, bloglovin, email etc)
Here is a link to the hostess: click here also link in right sidebar
My drink of choice when I have a taste for a little coffee is roasted dandelion and or chicory root as I know there is absolutely no caffeine in my cup lol
and fresh baked upside down blueberry gluten free cake ready to slice and serve. whipped cream optional-lol
I retired in the fall of 2003 from the phone company, and my husband and I moved from Northern Illinois to the ozarks area in Missouri. We bought lots of woods to stay rural around us, enjoy the wildlife, hunt and fish.
I love creating with natural fibers-quilting, a bit of rug hooking, learning to spin, back to weaving, making paper from recycled papers, hand dyes, gardening, redoing our home here with textured walls and rock work-rocks I collected mostly from our property or nearby rivers.
The house needed a complete renovation so we have been working on it since we purchased in '98. When the economy tanked we needed to go back to work with a home business again.
This year we are back in earnest to complete the remaining rooms. Our bathroom has been a very long term project but I think I can see it finished by end of this year-I need to collect more rocks to finish the rock work. I am really excited about that finish.
I thought I would share a few photos-I have a little veggie garden and in the back and one side I have set up a couple of trellis's and an area for flowers to attract hummingbirds and butterflies. It was very pretty last year but I think this year will be even nicer.
I also love to cook in dutch ovens-so last year I built me a little area in front of the garden to do that-I make some awesome pies in those dutch ovens lol
I also have started a 3 mile fast walk every day to get back into shape and hopefully lose some weight and gain some muscles again. The one photo show our driveway going down to the highway
Enjoy the Photos and welcome to my new Hummingbird blog Since I posted allot of photos I kept them smaller-just click to enlarge I thought I would share some of the wildlife that stop by close to the house, and some of my crafts and such.
Miss Calico kitty she has been with us since 2004 when we rescued her
Last year do to getting older and hubby's health we no longer only heat with firewood-I hooked up the gas heat just last winter. We split this up for emergencies (this area is known for ice storms which can result in no electric) and for wood fire cooking.
Sun Painting by the pond
Natural Dyeing on Cotton recycled tops
One of my favorite crafts now is making handmaking papers and turning them into cards to send out to friends
Spinning adventures I am a newbie
Civil War hexagon quilt in progress
Rock work in the bathroom-a complete rock shower also a surround on bottom half of walls around claw foot tub. I found several rocks that we can use for towel hooks
You can see this textured wall better enlarged I used tissue papers and wallpaper paste to create the texture-sealed before and after with kilnz I will start to paint these walls soon with blue paints and stains.
I have collected many flannel prints to represent Yellowstone parks animals and landscape-and found this pattern online-I am going to enlarge it so it fits a queen.
Can't wait my neighbor friend and I are visiting the park this May I have also been putting together Yellowstone inspired bracelets-one for a book series I love by Peggy Henderson and the second one for the park. I am not a jewelry maker but I had so much fun hunting down the vintage charms and the vintage bracelets. The photo shows the one inspired the books time period 1800s.
Wild Turkeys stopping by for the corn I put out for the wildlife
The claw foot bathtub is to the left, and the rock shower is to the right of this photo
I was really thrilled with this piece and would love to make another one-I used a quilt pattern block. All the fabrics I had dyed, the bears are wool, and lots of needle felting with silk noil, cotton, wool for depth and textures I enjoy this piece in my living room behind my loom
This piece I gave away to a friend in the UK I used a technique I had read in a magazine using silk ties cut up on to silk fabric all from reclaimed clothing.
I hope I did not overdo the photos.
