Sunday, December 15, 2024

Hoar Frost

          Hoar frost is a type of frost that forms when water vapor in the air comes into contact with surfaces that are below freezing. This causes the water vapor to directly change into ice crystals without becoming liquid first. Hoar frost creates beautiful, feathery patterns on surfaces like trees, grass, and other objects.

I knew when I looked out my kitchen window this morning that the sparkling landscape was a result of hoar frost. I went out and took pictures for my snowbirds.








“Peg, what’s that last one a picture of?” you ask.

It’s an old toothbrush. I used it to clean the tar off my sneakers, then I tossed it up on my snow board until the gas I was using was sufficiently dissipated before I took into the house and threw it away.

I guess it’s been laying there long enough.

The trees sparkle and the birds are puffed up. By puffing their feathers, they create air pockets that provide insulation against the cold.


We did venture out one day this week. I saw a spike buck at the edge of the neighbor’s pond. He was with two does.


We had a lot of rain. There’s barely a bump where the beaver dam is.



I thought the clouds were interesting but the picture doesn’t quite capture it.


 The birds are hitting the feeders hard. A woodpecker managed to get a large piece of homemade suet.


 Mike and I were playing cards when Tiger jumped up on the table and insinuated himself in the game. I wonder what he's trying to say.


I made a different kind of bread this week. You mix three cups self-rising flour with one can or bottle of beer, line your slow cooker, or crockpot, with parchment paper, dump it in, and cook on high for three hours. Mike’s brother Cork really likes this bread so we had to try it.

I shared the recipe with one of my Facebook peeps. She’s into homemade stuff.

“I’ve made beer bread before but never in a slow cooker. I think I’ll add some cheese, garlic, and dillweed to the recipe,” she told me. Once it was done, she said they liked it and ate the whole loaf.

Here in Pennsylvania, you can’t get beer at the Walmart like you could in Missouri. It took me weeks to remember to stop and get beer, but we remembered this week and stopped at the package store. Walking in, all I saw were stacks of case beer.

“I’m going to make beer bread and I need a six pack,” I told Tom, the man behind the counter. I want to say he’s one of the owners but I don’t really know that he is. I looked around and didn’t see any six-packs.

Tom told us that you can buy six-packs from the bar but he didn’t sell them. “Just a minute,” he said and went in the backroom.  “Is four enough?” he asked coming back out and handing me a bag.

“Sure! I didn’t even know I could get just four.” I’m thinking he gave us four from a case he was working on. Well, he didn’t give give it to us, he sold them to us.

I mixed the batter the way it was given to me. It didn’t really brown in the slow cooker but I sent a picture to Cork and he said it looked right to him.


It smelled good as it was baking and I couldn’t wait to try it.

Sigh.

I didn’t care for it. I even ate two pieces just to make sure! Silly, right?! I think it was the flavor of the beer that Mike and I didn’t like. I was told you can make the recipe with any sparkling drink, like Sprite. But I was thinking that the beer was an integral part of the recipe so that’s what I used.

Maybe it’ll taste better toasted, I thought and sliced off two more pieces before packing up the rest and shipping it off to the Kipps. “If you don’t like it, toss it out in the weeds for the birds,” I said when I gave it to Miss Rosie.

A little while later Miss Rosie called. “I’m not a fan,” she said.

“I’m not either! Am I a bad friend for giving you stuff we don’t like?”

“Not at all. We’re happy to be your taste testers. Lamar didn’t think it was too bad so he’ll eat the rest of it.”

The next morning, I toasted the beer bread, smeared it with butter, peanut butter, and jelly! It helped hide the flavor and even though I ate it, I didn’t really enjoy it.

I think that for Cork and Dee, besides liking the flavor, making just one loaf of bread is ideal for them since they live in an RV. And I’m grateful that they cared enough about us to share the recipe. But for me, making three loaves at a time is a better use of my hot oven space and it gives me enough to share. 

I didn’t paint much this week. I did a couple of the dice birds and I did a Zentangle, but it came out ugly so I’m not going to show it to you.

Most of my time this week was spent on making a Christmas gift for my patron. I’ve got it all put together, I put copper patina on it, and while doing the next step, polishing it, the foil came off the tail.


Sigh.

I can fix it, and I will. But fixing the foil isn’t the final step in this gift. I’m going to add flowers and beads and crazy, twisted, wires to the piece, too.

I’m making my own flowers. I went looking for the thin wire I needed, both to make the flowers and to attach them and the beads to the frame. I couldn’t find exactly the gauge I was looking for, so I settled on something a little larger. It was in some old cloth encased wire — and I do mean old. Cloth-insulated electrical wiring was commonly used until the 1960s. By the 1970s, plastic or nonmetallic insulation became the standard due to its improved safety, durability, and ease of use. That’s more than fifty years ago! I cut the cloth; it broke apart and left my fingers stained as I stripped the wire. The thin wire that I wanted was twisted around two other, larger, pieces of cloth-clad wires.

Mike was in the kitchen with me at the time. He was transferring eggs from the seven-and-a-half dozen box to one dozen cartons.

“Why did they twist the thin wire around like that?” I asked.


“I don’t know,” Mike answered.

“Look at that!” he exclaimed.

I turned to look. The tray of eggs he pulled from the box was missing an egg.

“I’d rather have a missing one than a broken one,” he said.


We’re not going to miss one egg, but if you short ninety people one egg, you get an extra box of eggs to sell.

I know! I know! I’m a bit of skeptic at times.

Speaking of which...

Laying on my craft counter was a receipt from our last shopping trip. I glanced at it and noticed a charge I didn’t recognize.


“Did we buy something called Meatball-Meatloaf?” I asked Mike.

“I don’t think so.”

I’m going to guess that’s just the way the computer has something labeled that we did buy — but I don’t know what it was.

“Did we buy the cashier’s lunch?” Skeptic me asked.

“Peg! Three containers of parmesan cheese!? Really!?” you say.

I know, right! I use a couple of tablespoons over my air-popped popcorn every night and I don’t want to run out. It’s what makes air-popped popcorn palatable — that and a sprinkle of cheddar cheese popcorn seasoning. We use parmesan on or in a few other dishes as well.

I never cut myself when I’m stripping wire. Maybe I can’t say that anymore. Two on the left hand where the blade slipped, and the cut on the right index finger is because some dummy had her finger on the sharp part of straight blade.

Sigh.

I took the Band Aids off too soon and my cuts started bleeding again. I bandaged them again and left them on all the rest of the day and night. After spending the afternoon twisting wires, several hand washings, and a night of sleep, this is the sad shape they were in the next day. After I took the picture, I peeled the old nasty things off and threw them away, So far, I haven’t broken them open again.


It was a bit of a challenge twisting wire with sore fingers and these are the flowers I was making.


 I experimented with different gauge wire and different sizes.

Then something happened.

I missed securing a loop and ended up with this.


That’s kinda cool, I thought and wondered what would happen if I missed every other loop on purpose. 

Then I wondered what would happen if I missed every other loop and added more loops!


It's funny how ideas and inspiration happen because of a mistake. 

It was a fun way to spend an afternoon. Next step is to glue a little tissue or toilet paper on and paint.

I suppose on Monday I’ll have to go back and re-wash, re-foil, re-solder, re-patina, and re-polish the bird tail. Then I can get creative adding the flowers and beads. Then I can get it in the mail and hopefully she’ll get it before Valentine’s Day. 

I did try using my watercolors as the front for the traditional bi-fold card. But I was right. It was time consuming and I’m out of time. Those cards need to be in the mail like yesterday! I stuffed ‘em, address ‘em, stamped ‘em, and posted ‘em as just a simple Christmas card. I hope y’all love me enough to overlook any perceived slight by my taking the easiest and fastest way to getting these cards in the mail. You know I love you all.


Let’s call this one done!

Done!

1 comment:

  1. Received my Christmas card from you , I love it. Thank you Rosemary

    ReplyDelete