T Stands for This and That

Hello to the T Group with our hostess Bleubeard and Elizabeth,

     I thought I would pop in to visit at least once a month going forward. Larry is getting a bit better every week now. Looks like Medicare will probably only pay for in home physical therapy for three more weeks. Hoping they can extend that. One of the oversearer was out last week and said their goal is to get Larry walking up the steps at the end of three weeks. That would be awesome but I don't see that happening in that time frame at all. Larry tires out super fast now with his heart condtion so I really can't visualize that just yet-but will pray on it.

 

   We did get a blast of winter over this weekend, ice first and  then several inches of snow on top.(photos previous post)  We still have low temperatures but with full sun I am surprised how much has melted off over the weekend. Saturday most of the hill was melted off.

  For my drink share for T  I grabbed one of my Yellowstone water bottles-that I love-and filled with water to use in the house. Makes me happy-smiles. I also wanted to try out a decaf freeze dried coffee that I found on Amazon. If I make up a pot of coffee for me it lasts over a week sometimes-so if I just want one cup I thought this sounded perfect. This coffee has excellent deep flavor-I love it. Not at all like just a instant coffee. My coffee cup is handmade pottery.

After I drank most of my coffee and I had more light for a nicer photo-I also grabbed apples from the refrigerator to make up an apple crisp.I made that Sunday morning with fresh blueberries

 I wanted to share my vintage postcards, stickers amd ATC from Bleubeard and Elizabeth. The cards and stickers were so thoughtful and chosen just for me  thank you so much

  With the very cold weather starting on  Friday I decided perfect to wear my new slippers-cozy and warm

  Sunday morning-surprise! The new amarylis bulb I purchased around November had bloomed but had no leaves. This looked like a very young bulb. However, when I watered my older bulb and this one today, I discovered a leaf growing and also another flower stem-what a wonderful surprise! The flowers will be red and white.

      Sunday morning's sunrise was very very bright, so did not capture a good photo to share

  Not sure anyone reading this will be nterested but I wanted to share a family owned company I love. They send out very interesting newsletters too that I have always learned something new.

    The Buffalo Wool Company   They process buffalo fibers, I love their socks-sooo warm and comfy.I try to support USA home business's when possible. I have been eyeing their buffalo fibers for soil amendment. for awhile  now. It's rather expensive but their site has a big sale going along with free shipping when you spend a certain amount. Alot of items are sold out already. I bought another pair of their ankle size socks and  I decided to buy some of this fiber to see how coarse it is and if it could be spun or not along with using it for gardening.  When I searched online about adding fiber like this to soils everything was positive about it.   Have any of you tried a fiber in your gardens?

     I want to get the big plastic tubs we have that held food for ranchers that we still have at the woods home-up here to the lake.  These are very large and perfect for growing things in.  I have organic cotton seeds coming in the mail soon that I want to grow in these tubs along with flowers. Vegetables are difficult as the chipmunks and squirrels eat everything they find. It can get very hot here in this area of Missouri in the late summer months-so I think plants will do better in these tubs.

  As I am writing this  my apple-blueberry crisp just came out of the oven

I did make a couple batches of roll out sugar cookies wheat and gluten free-turned out really delicious-good thing a froze them in small bags haha

I shared photos on my Instagram page here

Happy T

T Stands for Tuesday & Tea Page

   Good morning and first T of 2024.

     This morning was the first time I have done anything creative in my craft room-since Larry's accident. The last that I had spent any time here was to ,work on the Christmas cards and letters in November.

    I had saved a few tea bags and cut out a few of the tea boxes-so decided to make a page in my German cookbook now mixed media book-which I had started in 2021

   I had fun making this page, and was soooo good to do something creative-since early October Simple but fun This is my  "ticket" for T

 

  

   In my paper stash I found a snowy mountain picture, the snowflakes are from a Christmas card envelope and I grabbed one of my now favorite teas-part of the box, a dried tea bag, a couple stamps

Happy T and thank you to our hostess Elizabeth-link here

T Stands for Tuesday-A Little Christmas

 Good Morning Friends and Happy T,

   Thought I would pop in to say hi and visit The T group, as we approach the end of 2023. This year has been an up and down interesting one for sure.

  I wanted to share two lovely handmade Christmas cards that I received. I really love these.

  This one is from Iris. She knows I love wolves so she painted this card for me. It is really amazing.

 I need to look for a little frame for this one. Thank you so much Iris.

  and surprise I received this gorgeous card from Deb, that I later learned was her prototype so of course I felt special. Thank you Deb

  This is such a pretty card I will display this one on the mantel again next Christmas

 I did not make my usual Christmas candies this year, and I only made just a few batches of cookies for the two of us. The chestnut cookies turned out really delicious  will make them again.

   I like to dip into dark chocolate-so I did a variety of soft candies, candy cane sticks, dried apricots, and glazed fruits. My friend that lives near us on the lake loves chocolate too-so I made a container for her and for us.

  One of our last years of deer camp at our woods home, I needed a large slow cooker as we were having extra people that year. I bought one at Sam's club and this little mini crockpot came in the box free. It is perfect for melting chocolate.

I did not make any chocolate barks this year-which are fun to do. Thinking February could be good time to make some.

I don't have a photo that I took myself, but this past week I have been drinking a very small glass of eggnog with liquor in it. I picked up a couple bottles of different brands that I had not tried before along with the Evan Williams brand which is my favorite.

  I found this photo online which is my beverage share for T

  The bottle on the left I tried first-that one had too much booze in it for me. The Evan Williams brand is really good, and I used to buy their peppermint eggnog but haven't seen that one again for years. These others I haven't seen in the stores near me. There really is a huge variety of these egg nogs during Christmas time in the liquor departments.

 If you make your own homemade eggnog-which I have not made in years-or if you buy a store brand from the dairy case and would like to add a bit of liquor to it-I found this post for 11 best spirits for your egg nogs. (photo below from this site)

Happy T and thank you Elizabeth for hosting Link for T Here

New Teas in the Mail & Baking Begins & T

 I ordered some new teas for the winter-and beyond, some are showing up in my  mail now.

   Yesterday I got in some of the new teas I had ordered. 

   I usually do not drink decaf black teas I prefer mostly herbal and the green and white teas. I found a cinnamon decaf black tea that sounded interesting and  perfect for December. Surprised me how good this tea is. It had a few other spices in it too. I also ordered two different brands of decaf black teas as well. Thought if the cinnamon was really strong I would add a plain black tea bag to it.

 After this photo, I did end up using one of the plain decaf black tea bags in my mug-sooo delicious which really surprised me The cinnamon tea bags were the clear triangle type tea bags and it came in a nice tin

I picked up the coffee mug at the animal shelter's thrift store late summer when I was shopping for clothes

The Bromley also has orange pekoe with the decaf black tea Amazon has a huge assortment of teas-I am shopping more online these days-so much easier, usually less expensive, and I don't have to drive anywhere.

Last night while listening to the Voice I mixed up the wheat and gluten free gingerbread cut out cookie doughs. I usually mix with my hand mixer, but since I had my stand mixer where I can get to it easily-just plug it in-I mixed in that instead. Really is nicer to use-now that I don't have to carry it over to use it-way too heavy for me to do that anymore.

 Over the weekend Larry asked for my Grandma's Yellow Angle Food Cake. I hadn't made that in awhile. I usually bake up two cakes-one wheat and one gluten free. I just made his cake this time as I will have baked cookies soon to eat.

   I had lost 10 pounds the first 6 weeks taking care of Larry from his accident-which was a good thing, but I wasn't eating much or sleeping well either. Now that he is off the every 4 hours of pain medicines I am catching up on sleep and sigh-snacking more-I have a bad habit of snacking in the evenings. I have gained back 3 pounds and want to lost that again so I can eat Christmas cookies and goodies-smiles  I will be making chocolate popcorn, dipped chocolates, chocolate barks, and chex mix. 

  Speaking of the Voice do any of you watch that show? I have watched every show from when it first started. What has kept this show interesting for me is the judges are always changing and they change the way the show works too with different rules etc. This year the music talent was exceptional but I don't care for the new rules and how they are eliminating people. Last night was the first of this season we could vote favorites to stay in the show. Usually we vote from the whole cast last night we could only vote one person through-not sure I like that set up. Perhaps that eliminates voting more for the judge than the talent-which they say some voters do.

   Since it's Tuesday, I think I will check in with the T group this week. Link Up Here  My cup of tea is my "ticket" in Happy Tuesday

Wood Ducks, Gardening and Spinning for T

    I was not going to hook up with T 'til the 10th anniversary, but since I am caught up a bit with outdoor work for now and  that we are back to the high 90's F  again I will have time to visit.

   We had a few days of much cooler weather-finally-but still not a drop of rain. The grass is all burnt up here except for what splashes on from the lake.  Good thing though is no mowing for me smiles.

   Find link up for T with Bleubeard and Elizabeth in my side panel, you are welcome to join in just post a drink related photo.

  Today and Yesterday, I raked out the smaller stones and added 8 large bags of garden soil to part of the area. I will need to add more for sure but at least I got these bags on the ground. I collect my zinnia, marigold, and other seeds so I spread a bunch over this area-to keep weeds from growing and the butterflies will love the flowers too. It is way too hot, and with no rain, not a good idea to be transplanting perennials to this area right now.

  By the front door are the steps to the top-and then to either side is the rock wall with a curved area on both sides. I have a bird bath on the other side, so I added this large metal leaf for drinking water to this left side that we are working on. The rock came from the woods property I am thinking this is a drink reference as the butterflies and little birds love this for a drink of water.

Larry has been scraping off the dead grass with his skid steer on the left side of this area-we will be placing landscape fabric and adding stone to that area very soon.

   Doing that he found this large heart rock-so I brought it up to this corner area At the woods home, some of you may remember my rock shower project-sadly we never got to use that, but in the process of gathering rocks I found many many small and medium size heart rocks-never one this large-I love it.

The bags of soil were so heavy that I worked from both ends-ran out there in the middle-oh well, I need lots more soil before fall. I need Larry to decide about that hill in the back area-would need allot of garden soil added to level a bit. To the right is the pallet of brick for the outdoor cooking area.

We learned that our duck visitors are a family of wood ducks, that have been breeding in the area for many years-according to one of our neighbors. The hen discovered our bird seed early mornings and sometimes her youngsters come too. She had 6 survivors out of 10 or 12 little ones.

     I am realizing I spin better with less processed wools. I have found a couple sellers on Etsy that I really love, including the Icelandic wool. I was inspired to search out this wool from Erika's Iceland trip, learning that many of the sheep are not penned in-love that.  It spins like a dream I love it, feel like I know what I am doing even haha. I had bought a variegated roving with black, white and dark grey.

  Ready to spin

  This is very soft yarn, I am in love with this one-and ordered a little bit more of this one and the dark grey.

     I am still spinning thick and thin but it is not over spun which is a good thing. I love the textures of that in weaving. I am still spinning singles opposed to a finer yarn that is then plied together with two or three-right now I don't need to strive for that as I am not a knitter or do crochet-weaving is more forgiving I think depending on the garment being made.

    We have been enjoying root beer floats during these hot humid days. I shared one in my last post but I did make us another one last night.

   I make them with my own homemade vanilla ice cream-yum summer for me is a root beer float.

  This is a photo of me layering the ice cream and the root beer.

Happy T

T Stands for Tuesday-Photos

   Joining T over at Bleubeard and Elizabeath's-just share a drink related photo to join in, link in my sidebar.

   I am sharing a few photos this week.

 Some  of you may remember from last year a visit from  the "deck duck"  I had just been wondering if she/he would visit us again and the duck arrived the next day. Larry thinks this is the same duck just more mature.

   This was taken early morning, full sun with steam from the lake. We are dropping into the low 50's and high 40's F at night for several days now. By 11 am it warms up to the high 70's and low 80's F during the day so really perfect weather for this long weekend.

 

 Friday I baked up yellow angel food cakes for the both of us to go with the lovely fresh strawberries and blackberries I had picked up at the grocery store. They came out so good even the gluten free version. 

     The first photo is the wheat cake and the second is the gluten free version. I had extra egg whites after separating the eggs so added them to the gluten free cake-gave it the extra volume it needed.

   These rose so much this time I had a bit of difficulty getting them out of the pans.

Gluten free cake below. I froze most of mine in single servings, as gf baked goods will dry out faster than the wheat cakes do.

 Of course the lake was totally bonkers with many many  boats of all sizes. I am writing this up early Sunday evening and the lake is still full of boats going every which way.  I only got a couple photos, as I pretty much "hid" in the house with all the commotion. lol  I did get to enjoy fireworks from the neighbors Saturday evening. Am hoping the one straight across from us will display more fireworks again tonight-he is a professional so the show is amazing. I have such an amazing indoor view of his fireworks show.

This photo below is taken looking to the right of the deck-where the lake really opens up for a bit and where lots of boats come in at. It is fun to see all the different types of boats-all sizes and some very very expensive ones too.

   We had friends that came up to go fishing for a bit Sunday morning off our dock-In a couple hours they caught a large bucket full of crappie, bass, and catfish-good eats. The grandfather lives in Colorado and he loves to fish when he visits his family (our friends)

   I forgot to take photos but I did finish up the limincello recipe on Wednesday. I divided it into two gallon water bottles and stored them in the freezer. Each bottle was about half full-for expansion. Will be better tasting in another month or so.

  For my drink share-a cup of white tea that I had picked up at the Amish food store

and I will close  with this surprise-This really nice bird feeder was gifted to us by our lake friends for Christmas. Told us it was squirrel proof. I had to laugh at that because I have yet to find a bird feeder that is squirrel proof or raccoon proof.  Over this busy weekend-the new squirrel youngsters have been a handful, that I have had to bring in the seed feeders so they don't destroy them Sometimes there 6-8 youngsters eating all the bird seed.

  Yep this squirrel managed to get through the cage area that is suppose to protect the seed feeder. I don't think an adult squirrel could get in though.

Happy T and new week

T Stands for Tuesday-Ice Cream

  Hello Friends,

This will be a short post this week. I am linking up with Bleubeard and Elizabeth's T for Tuesday where we also share a drink related photo in our post.

This past week I did get everything planted that came up from seed in my greenhouse bottles. I pushed to get it all in the garden with the forecast saying rain for several hours-We got missed-again sadly. A few sprinkles is all and then strong winds which pushed it all away from us-and no rain in the coming forecast. Typical Missouri though.

A few weeks ago we finished up the keto ice cream I had made back in the fall-that ice cream holds up really well in the freezer. The recipe I had been using is a long process. One makes a thick base first that takes 30 minutes of constant stirring, add the rest of the recipe. Cool for several hours,  and then put it in the ice cream maker. 

Today I decided to try a simple vanilla recipe that came with the ice cream maker and just substitute Splenda for the sugar. I almost thought of  using half Splenda and half keto powdered sweetener but decided to see how the Splenda would work out. Much faster for sure, just mix up the base and put it right into the machine. I churned it the full 25 minutes and it came out a bit over churned but tastes good.

     I did get my wool sock slippers mended with that little loom I shared. Sorry didn't get photos. The video I had shared was excellent for setting it up-I wanted to use wool threads for this to mend that large hole, but since the bottoms of the socks had little rubber alpacas that was hard to set up so the wool threads on the loom would seperate out to weave-so I gave up on that and used cotton weaving yarn instead-that worked out well. The one thing I did not care for, on the bottom of the patch are lots of loose strings from setting up the loom-when finished weaving the patch those all need to be brought to the back and then woven in. with the big hole in the socks that I was covering that was a challenge.   I don't wear shoes in the house, instead wear socks or I love these thick wool socks. Will see how long the mend lasts

   In the garden the bee balm started blooming Sunday morning

   This is my cup of tea Sunday morning while making the ice cream-my Ticket for T    I had picked up this large mug one year at the Fiber U event I used to attend classes at in July.

Here is one of those smaller ocean boats that are taking over the lake-too large for this lake but they allow it for some reason

Sunday morning early--we have dropped into the low 40's F this past week in the evenings-so quite chilly in the mornings

Happy T and new week

T Stands for Tuesday-Gardening

   It's time for T over at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's-find link in my sidebar to visit or join in with a drink related photo.

 I spent a 3-day weekend in the garden-weeding and planting. I bought way too many plants this year. I have decided except for the petunias I will grow annuals from seeds next year-which will give me a big savings in the end.

  Friday I spent most of the day adding more garden soil and planting ground cover thyme and a few flowers up on top of the hill. That ended up being quite the job-once it fills in will be nicer than the weeds that grew there

  Here is a look from the top down to a row of bushes-the lake is on the left-down hill and to the right is the driveway

  Saturday morning though I shopped around outside of Versailles, Mo visiting Amish greenhouses and stores. I had bought my plants last week Monday but our friend that comes over to visit and join Larry for a cup of coffee said him and his wife knew of several different nurseries. So his wife called and wanted to know if I wanted to go with her-Yes. Which is a big treat for me to get out of the house with someone else driving-smiles-I never enjoyed driving even when I had to commute to work

     I did not grab my camera as the Amish do not want their photo taken, so out of respect I didn't want to take any photos in the greenhouses either. I think after this trip I have it my mind finally how to find things without bringing along my GPS.

    We did start out at Zimmerman's greenhouse as my friend wanted several annuals. She thought the same as me, that the plants were not as nice as last year, and much more expensive than last year too.  I did find several nice herbs when I shopped before along with new to me mints. 

   The next stop was a huge nursery and greenhouse. I think I will visit this business first next year as they had lots of perennial plants and in nice size pots. I bought two lovely lavender plants and one columbine.

 

    These are the nicest lavender plants I have seen. The columbine was gorgeous too. Late Sunday after weeding and getting most things planted-here are a couple photos

I had planted fennel seed last year for the butterflies-nothing came up-but surprise here is one large plant from the seed-it is to the right of the daffodil plants and in the back by the stone wall-would you believe that is a huge plant of chocolate mint? I will need to pull some of this out as from two little plants it is everywhere now.

Another view-in the back right is a new to me weed that grows crazy here-easy to pull out too-that's my next project-clear all that out-add some bags of garden soil and plant sweet woodruff from seed-as an aromatic ground cover there. More rocks need to be hauled up to these hills as well

These stone pots were here when we bought the lake house. I moved them here and usually plant geraniums in them

  I started from seeds German Chamomile which you can see in the middle, and I planted vinca with the pink flowers In front of this photo I planted red yarrow from seeds (in the bottles too) which is at the corner coming down the steps. That green patch in front is chocolate mint

I will take a photo to share next time of the columbine as I see it wasn't in these photos.

  Our last stop was at the very large Amish Dutch Country Store-which is on the same highway as the perennial nursery. In front of the store they had a small greenhouse full of plants -they were gorgeous and the best we had seen so far. I only bought a garlic chive plant as I spent my limit already.

  

 Sunday was pancake day-Larry has his breakfasts planned out now-pancakes-then omelet-and then yogurt & granola day haha  Here is my gluten free version with fresh blueberries in the pancakes, topped with fresh strawberries from the Amish grocery store-soooo delicious-and a little whipped cream for fun In the back is my decaf coffee

We still have had no rain, it keeps missing us here in our area of the lake. Saturday and Sunday we were in the 90's-ugh so not ready for the heat just yet. I think it is at least a month since we have had any rain.

   So please send us some rain if you have extra-smiles

Happy T and new week everyone Yes the lake was packed with boaters over the weekend-enjoying the first hot days of the year

T Stands for Windy & Bird Feeders

    It's time for T Stands for Tuesday-find link in my sidebar, anyone is welcome just share a drink related photo in your post.

  Since early Saturday evening it has been non stop strong winds here-my guess is over 25 miles an hour, and up to at least 50. I am typing this post up around 4:30 pm Sunday and the wind has not stopped. Driving me crazy and on edge for sure-I do not like wind like this.

  Not much happening here, except I am still spinning most every day-getting a more even yarn each time I spin now . I am still spinning the Nash Island Maine rare wool that I shared last time. These sheep live on an island mostly to themselves-until they need sheered and taken care of. I am up to 4 niddy  noddy's full now.

  I love the feel and texture of this wool.

We still have had no rain now for several weeks-I will need to get the garden hoses up out of the basement and hooked up so I can water the perennials and bulbs this week. I did get one side weeded on Saturday, and I planted my German Chamomile and red yarrow that I grew from seed in the bottles.

  This is the first blooming Iris

    Larry has been making us more bird feeder poles along with the one I just purchased.

   I am finding more items available at Wal Mart online-with free delivery as well-right to my door. It is where I found this stand, and on sale I also found a better quality bird seed at their online store too-and they carry it down the hill and steps for me-smile 😀

This was a nice tall stand and has these four decorative hangers. It also came with a little basket for seed or fruits-thinking oranges for the orioles, a bird bath plastic dish, a suet holder, and a small tube seed feeder. Some of these other parts Larry is making us new feeder poles along with some vintage parts. This is one of them-looking through our wall of windows that faces the lake-these windows go all the way to the sides of the this wall both left and right. So of course I fell in love with this view. We do get hammered with boat traffic in the summer though-but I tell myself its only 4 months out of the year  We need to replace this deck-as it is in bad shape.

I thought I had another photo of the other stand he made for me-but it is above this squirrel in the corner The squirrels and chipmunks are huge pests here as they have no predators at the lake-so we have to chase them off in the mornings when I first fill the feeders.

  I am still adjusting my new camera for zooming in, but we saw a sailboat over the weekend

     Sunday was a nice day for us. Our friend called to say he wanted to bring us lunch and for us to meet his new fiance. His wife passed a couple years ago from an operation on her lungs. She was my friend that drove me to Yellowstone Park back in 2017 because I wanted to see the park so badly. I have always been so grateful for that trip.  His  fiance was not at all what we were expecting, but we liked her allot and they seem very happy together. The lunch they brought was from a bbq smokehouse near us that was really really good-totally forgot to take photos. I made brownies in the morning to serve

   After they left I poured myself a small glass of this wine. I really like this brand and it is not very expensive and good tasting. I have open now the Pinoit Grigio-my go to wine is usually a white that is a little sweet to dry.

 It has been so cloudy here this past week that I have no new sunrise photos to share. One evening though the sky just before dark was pretty amazing.

      Same evening another photo

  Happy T