Traveling Through: January 2010

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Bowed Psaltery

Look, Look!

We are welcoming another member to our folk instrument family.

This is my new bowed psaltery. It is relatively small, standing only about 18 inches tall. This particular psaltery is made by TK O'Brien's Folk Instruments right here in the US of A. This is a 24 string walnut psaltery with walnut back. I believe I shall call this my "psaltery."
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This would be a very good instrument to take with you if you were to say, go on a journey for about 3 months, and had a limited amount of space available, but wanted to be able to play an instrument while you were on your journey.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Tea Time Tuesday

Happy (almost) Tuesday!

Today I am going to share a gift I received this past month from my daughter who is living in Germany while her husband serves in the United States Air Force there.

This tea/coffee service is Kolibri 48 by Arzberg. This pattern was manufactured in Bavaria Germany, circa 1945.

Now, I don't know if you know what was happening in 1945, but some very important events transpired. A major happening was that Germany surrendered at Eisenhower's Headquarters in Reims, France, May 7, 1945.

Polish prisoners in Dachau toast their liberation from the camp.

Date: Apr 29, 1945 - May 1945
Locale: Dachau, [Bavaria] Germany
Credit: USHMM, courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration, College Park
Copyright: Public Domain

Kolibri means hummingbird in German.

I love this set, it is so pretty and has a little history to boot. HOW COOL IS THAT?! Thank you Kammi.

She also sent me a little easy listening music (I very much enjoy musicals).

Perfect gifts.

Anybody up for a little tea?

Happy (almost) Tuesday!

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Mammoth

This is where we live. I call it Mammoth. I will not bore you with the details of WHY we live here, just that we do. The 3 generations of gals.

It is huge and way too big. Mostly just documenting that we have lived here. It is the biggest house I have ever lived in at 3500 square feet.

When we leave it I will not be sad, it is a lot of work to maintain this size house and yard.

So I say,

a big thumbs up to all those who live in McMansions

and do it well!

Happy Thursday!

Monday, January 11, 2010

Tea Tuesday...

I have a confession to make.

I have never made scones.

I am not even sure I have ever tasted a scone.

Alas (audible sigh) ...

TIME TO MAKE THE SCONES!!!!!

Now, being well ... me... I was looking for a quick, easy scone fix, something I could whip up pretty quickly in the aromatherapy lab. I opted for the Quick Orange Bisquick Scone Recipe, knowing that Bisquick is pretty forgiving and I have never had anything go terribly wrong while using Bisquick.

Assembled the ingredients...

Isn't Bisquick great in that you don't have to sift just dump it all in together and stir it some.

Looking good so far, needed a 9-inch diameter, okay I'm a thinking about plate size right?

Now I added a little bit of flour and a tad more Bisquick to get it to stick together better, but this is Florida.

Okay, brush the egg on top, um hum, I don't have a brush for food, so I spooned it and kinda gooped it all over.

I like to clean as I go, then I race the clock and try to get the last clean up while everything is cooking, that's how I function.

Hum, should have used a little larger cookie sheet, but they turned out tasty and I did have all the clean up done, except for the cookie sheet of course, before they came out of the oven.

Ta Da... SCONES.

Think I'd have English Breakfast tea with these scones. Oh ya, talking the tea talk and walking the tea walk... with scones.

Quick Orange Bisquick Scone Recipe

3 cup Bisquick
1/2 cup orange marmalade
1/2 cup raisins (optional)
1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
1/4 tsp. Nutmeg
2 eggs
1 tbsp. orange juice
1 egg, beaten

Mix the Bisquick, marmalade, raisins, spices, 2 eggs and juice until moist. Turn the dough onto a floured board and sprinkle with flour.

Roll the dough into a 9 inch circle. Cut the circle into 12 wedges using floured knife. Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with sugar. Alternate wedges wide and narrow ends on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees 12-14 minutes.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Cold snap

Sit awhile and let me spin you my tale...

Now, I don't know if you all were with me last year about this time or not. I was in Minot, North Dakota, in a house where I felt I was a bit space challenged, and the temperatures were plunging down to 20 and 30 BELOW 0, and the blizzards kept a blizzarding, and the snow kept a coming...

And I was a' moaning and a' groaning about the weather, how cold it was...

and how the snow plows could not keep up... and ice dams... and frozen doors.

Then we moved to Tampa, Florida, a veritable tropical paradise. Well the temperature has dropped to what most of the country would probably consider a balmy 41 degrees (right now) and we are a' moaning and a' groaning about how cold it is again. Now isn't that something?

Seems you just can't please some folks!

Hoping you have a warm place to snuggle and happy memories to ponder!

Monday, January 4, 2010

Disneyworld collage

Now look what I'm learning to do. How fun is this!!!

This is the only one I have had any luck with so far and it has about a billion pictures, eh?!

I'll keep trying though and maybe I'll be able to scale it down somewhat next time!

Hope your year has started off well. Steve flies out tomorrow and that will be the end of the kids leaving and going back to wherever they are currently hanging their hats. There are some new plans in the works right now for 2010, should be very interesting!

Friday, January 1, 2010

Just blogging

Okay, so did you have your camera with you at all times this holiday season? Snapping pictures right and left, choosing which to blog with or about? One like this...

Wouldn't you like to be that little girl with those uncles? Okay now along with the oh so sugar and spice ones did you also snap ones you could put a caption on like...