Came across this thread and read of fires, plants, hot chocolate, cold weather and books.
I would first have to agree that Texas is the only place to live, even with it's yoyo weather. We got down to 26° (thanks Linda for that tip on how to make the degree symbol) last night and just reached our high of 34 at 6pm. Actually the freeze line is moving north and we are supposed to warm up from now til next week. All my plants have done remarkably. The ones in the GH are of course fine. Maybe a little crowded, wanting to come out and stretch. I will give them that opportunity tomorrow.
I have had my wood stove going for two days. It sits in my sunroom and keeps it toasty. We got one with a cook surface so if we lost power due to an ice storm we could have heat and eat.
Our birds are eating like crazy. The goldfinches have eaten all my thistle. That stuff has gone up in price. The cardinals, chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, eat the sunflower seeds as do the finches. The chirping sparrows like the millet. I make a peanut butter and corn meal with raisins suet that the siskins and wrens love. The Brewers blackbirds have arrived by the hundreds and make such a racket. They will cover a whole yard, buzzing through the acorns and fly off altogether like a big black cloud.
I have enjoyed reading your posts. Thanks for letting me put my two cents worth in.
Fireside chat... please join us!
LouC ~ you must have given up on your book if you are shopping the bookshelves ~ LOL I wish we had put gas logs in our bedroom fireplace for convenience. Sounds like the next call at your house will be to an electrician.
Texasgrower ~ glad you shared your two cents. Please hang around. Not only do we have a fire, hot chocolate and good company to visit with, I just made a Crazy cake with frosting and will get a loaf of lemon bread out in a minute. I have the lemon glaze ready to go. DH loves the crazy cake as it is pure D chocolate. I am a lemon fiend and the bread is a recipe from Kathy_Ann a MidSouth DGr.
It is amazing to watch the birds this time of year. I find myself at the window just daydreaming while they eat.
I stuck my head and camera out long enought this morning to capture the Red Bellied WP that keeps sneaking around. I am keeping the birds fed as well but not as many as you are getting in Palestine. Do love to watch them.
Hey there, YOO HOO! Can I join in on the fireside chat? Just found this thread tonight and have enjoyed it so.....
Podster, here is my "famous" recipe for Lemon Cake, try it you'll love it! I also make my own homemade marshmallows to go with our cocoa...If you haven't tried a homemade marshmallow you just haven't lived. they are NOTHING like store bought....I can share the easy recipe if anyone would like to try it. I am an AVID reader also, but since I got an iPod last Christmas I have discovered the pure joy of audio books, and I love them. Never thought I would.
Jeanne, can you share what measurements you use for your suet? Do you add any lard to yours, and how do you present it to the birds, in blocks, or just "plops"?
LEMON POUND CAKE
1 (16-oz.) box Betty Crocker or Pillsbury lemon or yellow cake mix
1 (3-oz.) box instant lemon pudding
4 large eggs
1 cup sour cream
2 tsp. lemon extract (optional) 1 lemon, juice of
1 lemon, zest of or 1 tsp. lemon zest spice
1/2 cup oil
Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 T. milk
1 T. butter, melted
1 tsp. lemon extract or juice of 1 lemon
Preheat oven to 350°. Mix all ingredients and bake for 35-40 minutes in a greased and floured bundt or tube pan. Prepare glaze and pour over hot cake. These cakes can be frozen for 30 days and still taste like you just baked them!
Karen HI! Pull up a chair ~ lol The lemon pound cake sounds terrific. I've got a birthday coming up soon and that one may keep me happy. 8 ) I usually make a lemon cake mix bundt cake ~ nothing special but the icing. I double the recipe and everyone loses their manners and scrapes it off the cake plate.
So I am amazed, it is warmer at 5 am than it was when I went to bed last night. What is going on??!?
Let me tell on myself. Last night when making the icing, I reached in the butter compartment and found seeds I was looking for to send a DGr in a trade. Thought I had lost my mind when I couldn't find them. The package says prechill 2-4 weeks before planting. That had to have been this past spring. Oh well, it made me organize my seed stash while I was looking for them. Now, after doing some baking, my resolution for the coming year is... cleaning and organizing the pantry!
Sheila that is a cool picture. You must have a great camera to get that close. We have a ladderback woodpecker that is a regular visitor but he is way too shy for the camera.
Warmer today, so enjoy it! If you have to get out, stay safe. I will be off to work so someone else will have to keep the fire going while I'm out of here. pod
My DH has some good cameras and I luck out when using them occassionally. He keeps trying to tell me what setting, lens, exposure etc to use for this or that. I just can't get it ....so I just pick it up turn it on and shoot. Then if the pic isn't good, then start flipping buttons! lol!
It does seem warmer out today than the last couple of days. I wouldn't mind getting some rain today, just keep the temps going up.
We have to get out later to get a few things from the grocery store and pick up some last minute things. I have to do a lunch for my son and wife on Christmas Day then my sister will have the big family thing so I have it easy this year. She is the one with two grandkids so she wins over me for Christmas.
I did get the family to come up for the Botanic Gardens Bird's Christmas Tree this year. The kids had a blast jumping in a huge pile of leaves more than anything. They had loads of costumed characters around plus Santa and Mrs Claus. Then everyone placed ornaments with birdseed or cereals, nuts, and fruit on the trees in the grove before leaving. I don't think I will have any trouble getting them to do it again next year!
That sounds like a very enjoyable activity Sheila, I just wish it wasn't so cold.
I wanted to rake the leaves off the front yard yesterday but just couldn't bring myself to do it, and today doesn't look any better, we may end up having a leafy Christmas.
Josephine.
Morning All!
I Woke up this morning to wet & warm weather outside..It is supposed to dry out later on today. ...believe I'll stay in for an extra cup coffee.
All this talk about lemon chocolate desserts is making me hungry. yummy! D-Mail me for my address. LOL
That little woodpecker sure is a cutie.
darkmoondreamer, if you enjoy the audio books, you may find interest in free old-time radio programs that you can listen to on your PC. I like the old mysteries, so I just Google "free radio mysteries". Here is one of the sites that comes up http://www.mysteryshows.com/. The home page can be slow to load especially if you use ad blockers and IE phishing filters.
I also enjoy some of the Lone Ranger programes and Hoppy Along Cassidy ones, too.
Later
Sheila, I love your woodpecker photo! I was looking outside yesterday and to my amazement I had one of those too. I don't think I ever saw a single one this last summer.
We also had a yard full of purple finches and juncos. Don't ever see those except during the winter. Wish the goldfinches would join them.
I was going to talk about books, but y'all have already named all my favorite authors. Tess Gerritsen, Greg Iles, Lee Child. It's been awhile since the paperback rack has had anything we wanted, so I just finished re-reading all my Jean Plaidy books. Wish I had more of them.
I usually try not to read books, because when I start one I can't put it down and don't get anything done all day, so I read articles, gardening books and the like, something that can be read in half an hour, or something that is not too gripping, so I can put it down.
darkmoondreamer, I NEED that marshmallow recipe, please!!!
Mike prepared the sopapilla cream cheese cake yesterday with added crushed pineapple. First time we have had it but sure not the last. Since I copied and pasted the recipe to MS Word I can't find where or who posted it. It was on a really long thread. If it came from any of you, we sure appreciated it. Cold and dreary today and I still have lots of things to do.
Merry Christmas to all.
Christi
Enjoy reading this thread. Copied down the recipe for the Lemon cake. Cold here and no fire place to snuggle up to.
Go get you one of those radiator heaters they aren't bad. We got a couple for the shop where the plants and cats are for the winter and the cats snuggle up next to them. There isn't a flame so they are safe.
Hope you make it to Arlington this spring RU Ted.
I am planning on being there. I have three of those heaters for different locations keeping my plants alive. At 55 degrees setting they are not good enough to snuggle up to. LOL
Pod, you can never have too many rocking chairs! I cannot stand sitting for long in a chair that isn't a rocker. My mother used to tell me when I was a child that I looked blind or handicapped because I always rocked, even if I wasn't in a rocker. It used to drive her nuts/ (Probably why I continued :) I bet I've put a thousand miles on my current rocker with grandbaby "riding shotgun". I've got my "nest" fixed in the den, right next to the fireplace and a window overlooking the back yard and bird feeder. Give me my chair, a cold day, a stack of unread books and I'm in hog heaven!
Glad to hear everyone is doing well. I felt sorry for some of our "yankee friends" on the news last night; blizzard conditions and no power. Brrr. Thank goodness for Texas!
I love hot chocolate, well any kind of chocolate actually. My grandmother always made it with Hershey's cocoa and Carnation evaporated milk. It's so rich and yummy. That fake stuff in a packet mixed with water just isn't the same thing at all.
I'm really enjoying this thread.
Pbtxlady, if you like Lee Child and Tess Gerritsen, try Carol O'Connell. She's my favorite author of all time. Lee Child and Gerritsen come in close 2nds.
Stay warm.
ok I started a reply and my post went back to the home page. Yeesh, I must have hit something the wrong way.
Anyway, podster, thanks for the welcome. I love lemon too. My fav pie is lemon merangue(sp?). The temps started going back up here last night at about 6pm. We went from 34° to 37° by 11pm. The freeze line was being pushed north and east by the warmer southern air. Thank God. I took all of my plants out of the GH to get fresh air and to stretch. They like it better. It also gives the GH a chance to air out.
The electric oil heaters are great. I have a D'Longhi that has a timer. It heats my sunroom to toasty. It makes absolutely no noise because it is basically a radiator. I love it. I bought it originally to heat my GH but then decided to use propane out there instead. I recommend them. Do your research though. I did and found D'Longhi had the best customer rating.
I agree old fashioned cocoa is the best. Rocking chairs are a necessity as I can't be still. I have to rock. My recliner is a swivel rocker. I've had it since 1992. It fits me perfectly and is where I rock my grandbaby Maddie everyday.
Karen, I just make up a big bowl of the mixture and slap it into a suet feeder. Make it easy on yourself. We have juncos too. I love their little pink beaks. I enjoyed the pic of the woodpecker. We have several kinds here. I like the Flickers. They sound like a squeeky toy when they talk.
I'm tired of the wind. Can somebody close the door at the Oklahoma border?
My O My, All these authors and no Anne Rice. I don't know bout this group. (wink)
Sorry cannot close the back gate.
Just popping in to give Brigidlilly the marshmallow recipe :)
HOMEMADE MARSHMALLOWS
3 env. Knox Gelatin 1/2 cup cold water
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup corn syrup
1/2 cup water
1/4 tsp. salt
1 T. vanilla extract
Powdered sugar for dredging
In the bowl of an electric mixer, sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup cold water. Soak for 10 minutes. In a saucepan combine: sugar, corn syrup, water and salt. Stir to dissolve and then bring to a boil over medium high heat and cook until candy thermometer registers 240° (Hard Ball) Turn the mixer on speed 2 and very slowly pour the hot syrup into the gelatin mixture. Add: 1 Tablespoon vanilla. Increase speed to 10 and beat until mixture is very thick and white (8 minutes) Pour the beaten candy into a powdered sugar dusted 8X10 dish. Dust the top with more powdered sugar and leave out to sit, uncovered, over night. Cut into squares the second day and roll the candy in powdered sugar, toasted coconut or finely chopped almonds. You may also add food coloring for colored marshmallows.
Just finding this thread...and joining in. Taking time to breathe.......after getting ready for Holidays.
We finally have enough cold weather to justify turning on the gas logs. I love it! But I am tired of the dreary weather...need sunshine.
I have a post-a-note on my microwave that says "Xmas Tree!" Finally, someone asked why. It's because I need to flip the lights off on the living room tree before I use the microwave, or the circuit breaker trips. Took us a whole season to figure it out last year. Ahhhh...what we do for the Holidays! Still have to hit the grocery store, but have all the gifts bought and slipped into little cloth bags I've made and saved and regifted over the yrs. This has been an easy, breezy Christmas. Not so much for the adults....more focused on 3 yr old grandson. Went to San Antonio Wed. to have dinner on the River Walk and see the lights, and Thurs to Fredricksburg to shop, eat , and head to Stonewall to see their lights. The courthouse was impressive, but the Predenales Electric Utilitity building was unbeliveable! 'Thousands of lights covering the trees! Awesome!
No more parties to go to, just neighbors dropping in....and for New Year's Eve.....our crazy neighbors across the street have a tradition of banging pots at midnight NYC time...and again on Austin time. This'll be our 4th yr to join 'em. Rather strange year here. Neighbors on one side of us are in Peru for the holidays and other side....husband doesn't recognize religious holidays. And next house is Jewish. Across the street, neighbor's gone to visit relatives because his wife died recently. Going to be a quiet street this year....we're all getting older, I'm afraid.....
We have to take down the stockings to light the fireplace, so we'll do that later....and cozy up to the fire...
Merry Christmas to you all....and Good Night! Sandi
Ohhh, all this food! I am moaning as I'm stuffed like a tick! Aren't the holidays wonderful? DarkmoonDreamer ~ you could at least slow down long enough to say hello ~ LOL
Glad to see some of our other Texas Gardeners surfacing. Hello Ted... you said you didn't have a fireplace. You are welcome to share mine, pull a chair up close. I know it's colder up there where you are! That north wind must have passed thru your place before it headed down here. I agree with TexasGrower on the wind... please close that north door if you can! 8 )
Yes, to the lemon recipes. I will gladly add more to my recipe collection any day. This past summer I made Lemon Verbena jelly. It has a delicate lemon taste. I like it well enough I have only shared a jar with one other friend. I'm hoarding it!
Hi PBTxlady ~ glad you stopped in! I hate to break the news to you... think we went thru this last year. I got your finches. Tons of them. They are wiping out the birdfeed. A friend that does sheetmetal work made me a large feeder with a huge screened hopper. The little finches cover the hardware cloth screen so thickly that I can't even seen how empty it is. Amazing too that the squirrels haven't managed to tear that feeder up yet. They ate a hole in the roof of my other cedar feeder. They now can hang down in that hole and eat from the hopper unmolested while the birds still land on the platform to eat. Grrrr!
Sheila ~ the Birds Christmas tree event sounds like the best of entertainment, all the while teaching the young and old to appreciate nature. That is great fun and educational!
Crowelli ~ an interesting rocker tidbit. DH was hospitalized for an extended time. After being home for a week, he was sent back with blood clots in one leg. After they cleared up and we got home again, our old family doctor came by the shop to check on him. He told him to get a rocker. We asked why and the Dr said blood clots are formed from inactivity. A person just can't sit still in a rocking chair. It helps keep the blood moving and helps prevent it from clotting. I do have many, one in every room in the house, two in our bedroom. One on the back porch that I am stripping and will refinish and upholster some day. A front porch with them on it and one at work ~ by the fireplace of course. I just have trouble making time to sit in one. May have to get a laptop so I can rock while in Daves Garden.
It is warming up a bit... here's hoping it will make an easier trip for Santa and his reindeer.
This message was edited Dec 23, 2008 8:06 PM
Speaking of lemons, I just finished making a lemon cheesecake with a lemon curd topping. I used lemons from my meyers lemon tree. I have my relatives eating out of the palm of my hand when they know I'm bringing them a lemon cheesecake. I also made four pumpkin pies tonight. One year I started from a pumpkin but it wasn't worth the time or taste so I just use the canned pumpkin now.
darkmoondreamer..that marshmellow recipe looks good. I may have to try it.
Lis
Glad I found you all.. I read a lot of Clive Cussler.. those are fun. haven't used my fireplace since I got one of those oil filled heaters in my living room.. it warms it up so well. Hot chocolate in those packets isn't so bad if you add some of that vanilla creamer meant for coffee! (the liquid kind) Try it! Temps here in WEst Texas have been anywhere from 19 to 70! Crazy.. we went from 22 up to 67 today.. my pond was frozen over and thawed out today. The weather has been up and down like that for weeks.. driving me crazy and barely a few drops of moisture in months. I did see a few flakes of snow the day the rest of the state really got some as it passed overhead on its way to everyone else. I said hello to it as it passed by. The only birds I see around here are those black Grackles, noisy birds.
Merry Christmas!
I finally got a message back from my daughter...they are visiting her in-laws in Canada. I hadn't been able to reach her for days and seeing on TV all the people stranded in airports and such....I wondered. But evidently they reached Canada before things got bad. Unfortunately I wasn't home when she called. It was her birthday today...wouldn't have liked to wish her a happy birthday. BTW, where is the sun?...that really warm Texas winter sun? We're having fog. Not rain....no, rain might help us because we're in this unbelievably horrid drought...no, just fog!
MY CHRISTMAS E-MAIL
I have a list of people I know, all logged in my computer,
and now at Christmas time I have gone to take a look
and that is when I realize that these names are a part,
not of the computer they're stored in, but of my heart.
For each name stands for someone who has crossed my path sometime,
and in that meeting they've become the rhythm in each rhyme
and while it sounds fantastic for me to make this claim,
I feel that I'm composed of each remembered name.
And while you may not be aware of any special link,
just meeting you has changed my life, a lot more than you think!
For when I do a Christmas E-mail that is addressed to you,
it's because you're on the list of people I'm indebted to.
And whether I have known you for many years or few,
in some way you have been a part of shaping things I do
and now that Christmas has come, I realize anew,
the best gift life can offer is meeting people like you.
A MERRY CHRISTMAS SEASON to you
AND HAVE A HAPPY, HEALTHY
AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR !
Christi as borrowed from Mibus2
Mornin' All!
Something strange is happening at my house this morning. there is this huge red orange ball in the eastern sky. LOL Today I will work out on fence, for sure. According to the forecast it's going to be nice for a few days.
Yesterday evening when I mosied over to the cabin, a heard of about 12 deer were standing around waiting for their daily handout of Creep pellets. Now, which one will go into the stew pot? yummy!
We still need a good all day slow soaking rain. It has been wet on and off for three days and there is barely a trace of water in the rain guage. I dunno.
Hey Folks, This is your last chance to be good for Santa this year, so make the best of it.
SEYA
Jerry
ps....I still haven received any Christmas Sweets that all you Gals out there are bakin'. LOL
This message was edited Dec 24, 2008 8:51 AM
THE SUN IS SHINING! Oh what an energy and mood elevator the sun is. If my plants had voices they'd be singing the Hallelujah chorus.
Stop with all the food talk. I'm gaining weight just reading about all the delectibles everyone is making.
The finches are hording all the feeders. The poor cardinals don't get to really eat until the evening. The finches retire early. They have already gone through my thistle and now are working their way through the sunflower seed. They are PIGS I tell you.
Merry Christmas to all here. Everybody be safe if your travelling, enjoy your family and friends. Maybe banf a pot or two on New Years for bigbubbles. :)
Txrockgarden, I am an Anne Rice fan. I've read all her books. Some I like a lot more than others. Have you read any of her sister's books? Her sister is a nurse and pen name is Alice Borchardt. They were quite good too. That must have been one unusual household those ladies grew up in to have the imaginations they have. If you like Anne Rice, you should also try Laurel K. Hamilton. Those are a bit far out for some people, but I love them. I like any book with a hero (or heroine) who kicks butts and doesn't bother to take names. That's why I love Lee Child and Carrol O'Connell too. Marvelous character developments from these three authors, In the sicence ficton/fantasy area, Jane Lindskold and Charles de Lint are two more I enjoy.
It's alternating between raining buckets full and just drizzle this morning here. I hope it lets up enough that I can walk my moose (Boxer with reindeer ears) this morning. It's almost impossible to live with her indoors if you don't run some of the energy off her.
Hope you all have a wonderful day.
That is beautiful Christi and Phyllis.
Josephine.
I am sorry your day is not sunny Crowellli, but the rain is a wonderful gift too.
The weather is sunny and warm here, we just finished raking the leaves in the front yard, looks nice, so we won't have a leafy Christmas after all.
Got to get ready, family coming at 2.00 for dinner.
Merry Christmas.
Josephine.
Oh...2 oclock, why didn't you tell me sooner Josephine! LOL!! Have fun and may you be blessed for Christmas!
Christi...You are a special friend that I can link to also. Take care, hope you and Mike have a wonderful Christmas!
As do I hope for all of you on the chat...we will all be busy and may not come together much in the next two days, but just know we do care.
Now, THIS is Christmas weather, nice and sunny and warm. I always wondered why the TV weatherpeople would say it's not Christmas weather when it's like this. To me, it is, because growing up in Texas, I always loved Christmas when I could go outside and play without a coat or anything! I never did wish for a cold, snowy holiday. Ugh! But I'll admit, any real rain would be welcome anytime no matter what, this drought is getting so old!
OK put the fire out. Just a couple of days ago we had a wind chill of 22, today we had a heat index of 80 today.
Well, today never got out of the 50s here so the fire is crackling and glowing. I won't complain tho as I talked to my Mom who said it was 9° in MN today. I said Brrrr and she said oh, it is warm today. Bless her heart, I could not stand it!
Sandy ~ I loved your stockings hung by the fire with care. Very pretty. Tell me, who got the large one on the right? Your charming grandbaby?
Christi ~ I loved the holiday sentiments, thank you and Phyllis for sharing that.
We were blessed here to have received 1 3/4" rain on Christmas eve day. The resurrection fern has sprouted beautifully again. I have decided we must be old. Most of our gifts were food ~ which was fine but things we shouldn't normally eat. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.
Podster....I never quite understood that saying, "Christmas is for kids". There was always room for others (me) until this year........the 3 yr old definitely changed that forever. Yes, that's his stocking. We had a house full of neighbors last night till 8, when everyone magically disappeared and Santa left gifts under our tree for Tyler. We opened 'em till 10. Had to stop and play with each toy. Brunch this morning at DH's house for more toys....and visit with their neighbors. Home to nap. Missed a perfectly good sunny day! But I found something that's been missing a while in Christmas...the awe in the face of a child who sincerely believes that a huge fat man can come in the middle of the night, down the chimney without setting off the alarm....prowl around and leaves presents without scaring the &8^% out of a 3 yr old. Was worth getting up Waaayyyy tooo early this morning.
Hope your Christmas was as blessed as ours....
Sandi
P.S....I missed the live Nativity scene at the church w/ family because of prepping for our open house, but DGS told me the animals ....and the shepherds were"cool."
bigbubbles....How true it is!! The two kids in the pic above are the first little ones in our family for 26 years; he turned 4 this year, and she is 3. We had all forgotten what fun Christmas could be!
Did you all see the Christmas Gift Dave gave us????
We now have a BirdFiles database to look up and identify birds!!! Now we need everyone to load their pictures on there!
How fun to see Christmas again thru the eyes of babes. Y'all are truly blessed.
Hooray for the BirdFiles ~ so sad I can't take good photos of them... but I will enjoy touring the photos anyway.
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Mine was spectacular with both my sons and all my grandbabies here. Only one missing was daughter in London. One of my grandsons actually robbed his piggy bank to put a dollar in my card. I was as happy as if it'd been thousands. For a 7 year old to give up his hard earned money meant I was really rating high! I got lots of baby hugs and kisses, what more could anyone ask for?
Ooooh, I'm thrilled about the bird files! I can't wait to see everyone's pics. I'm not very good at taking pics of birds. They will never cooperate and stay still long enough.
Newbie here, writing from SW of Ft. Worth. Listening to the wind howl, 'glad to be indoors.
Hubby is helping me plan a greenhouse -- it is on the floor of an out-bldg right now -- that'll tie in to the screened porch.
We're on 2 acres of orchard with the trees at least forty feet from my proposed site. The whole greenhouse will get sun this time of year 'round 9AM until sunset. About 20% will have a shadow from the house before 9AM.
I've got a propane line 15' from the site, thinking a 20K btu thermostat'd heater will be the ticket. Am I headed in the right direction?
PecanPlantation aka PP