Forced to harvest---Brrrrrrrrrrr, It's Cold

Hello and I hope you are warm, wherever you are! It is cold in South Florida and got down to 24 last night. So I decided to pick some of the oranges--don't know if they froze at all, but they must have, so I will juice them.

Tonight it is supposed to be below freezing again, so I will be covering things again and will see the damages on Wed.

Keep warm! Egretta

A Vegetable Appetizer

Hi everyone, I do hope you are keeping warm. Here in South Florida, it is turning very cold again and between 12:00 midnight and 8 a.m, we are to get below freezing temperatures! I have covered veggies and plants once again and weighted the covers down with various things, as the wind is ferocious!The wind chill is terrible right now at 5:45 p.m even though the temperature is just under 50 degrees. But we should be thankful, as many parts of the U.S. has deep snow AND cold.

There was a party with a group and the meat, a ham, was furnished, so everyone was to bring an appetizer or side dish. I made this yummy veggie appetizer. It is so colorful and delicious and even people who dislike veggies, love this! You just use crescent roll dough in the cans, press it onto a baking sheet and bake as package directs, making a large rectangle of golden brown pastry. Next beat together 1 large package of cream cheese with 1 package of dry ranch dressing seasoning added. Spread on the pastry. Then add any chopped raw veggies you like. I used green, red, and yellow peppers, green onions, broccoli florets and cauliflower plus I added some slices of stuffed olives. This is a great recipe! Simple and delicious! Try it!

Stay Warm! Egretta

Oh, Santa!

Christmas greetings from Ten Gables Cottage

Looking around the house, there are Santas galore! I did not realize how many Santas I have, so I decided to show you some of my favorites!

I love the Nesting Dolls from St. Petersburg, Russia that I bought at an outdoor market there. These are hand carved as well as hand painted. I suppose the lady is Mrs. Santa and maybe that is Santa, Jr. standing next to her. Love the snowman and tiny tree.

Next, is a tiny glass Santa from Stockholm, Sweden. I was there one September and exploring little shops in the old part of the city and found some beautiful tiny glass Santas and elves. He is just a little over an inch tall.

Here is a Santa made in Germany. I went to an indoor flea market there and found this vintage Santa. He is about 3 or 4 inches tall and I can tell he is very old, but in nice condition. His tree is shaped more like a rolling pin, but isn't he a cutie!

Here is another view of him on the kitchen counter to show you how tiny he is !

And this Santa is an Annalee figure, with handpainted features. They used to be made in the U.S. , I believe in New Hampshire, but now I see they are being made in China. Still, the details are nice. This one is ready for bedtime and has a hot water bottle in his hand!

An Annalee mouse dressed as a Santa. I love his painted face.

On the front porch of Ten Gables cottage, there is an old rickshaw!
I find it very hard to get anyone to volunteer to pull it! So, Santa has taken it over and is sitting there until a reindeer happens along to get him going on his way! This Santa is nylon and poor thing somehow has lost his belly!

I bought this pole Santa from a crafter at a local crafts show. He is handpainted and has a little hook for a wreath in front and he stands guard at the back porch steps.

Fair Weather at Ten Gables

Hi from Ten Gables,
Today is absolutely gorgeous! It has faired up and the sun is out---it will reach the high 70's today! So, happily, I have been in the garden tidying up, pulling up any dead things and have spread red mulch around. If we don't have a white Christmas, at least the red mulch is pretty and gives a festive look to the garden and the house decorations.
Click on photos for up close view.

Up the walk to Ten Gables. My grandsons will love the Christmas canes!

Even the two Leos that guard the front porch take on a friendly air with all the red bows and garlands, wreaths and poinsettias!

What a blue sky we have today with no clouds in sight! You can see the shadows from the two big oak trees in the front yard. Notice how sparse my garden is! I must plant a few more things, but will wait until cold weather is all gone. We have forecast next week of more cold. I do love the red mulch, though. It makes a bit of color and looks tidy, now.

Cookies and more cookies

Hi from Ten Gables,

I have been in the kitchen today baking cookies! At Christmas, I like to give special people a tin of cookies, so I thought I had better get started. One of my good friends is heading North to Tennessee for Christmas, so I took her a box of cookies today to munch along the way.

I made crisp sugar cookies, chocolate-peanut stovetop cookies, and orange cookies. I have lots of oranges from our fruit trees, so the orange cookies call for juice plus grated orange peel plus candied orange slices. They are sort of a cake-like cookies good with hot tea.

After all the baking, I went outside and it is a glorious day with bright sunshine and temperatures in the high sixties, so very nice. It is supposed to hit 80 this week end, so we have had extremes on both ends this week. I assessed the damages of the freeze and I lost the basil plants, tomatoes and marigolds. The cabbage is good, but I see a few pests are appearing, so I dusted the bottom leaves with Sevin. The broccoli still looks good and the radishes are getting big. The hibiscus, bougainvillea and other things look good, so it wasn't too bad. However, next week the forcast is for more cold. As the old song used to say, "What will be, will be"! Have a great day.

Felt "Gingerbread" Men

Hi from Ten Gables Cottage,

It is a cold rainy Thursday and a perfect day to stay inside and wrap packages, do some crafting and some painting. I am working on a portrait, off and on, when I am not "Christmasing".

These little felt gingerbread men are fun and easy to make and are cute ornaments or package ties. Make yourself a paper pattern, then cut out 2 pieces of brown or tan felt. Use 3 strands of embroidery thread to whip around the edges, leaving a place to stuff them with fiberfill before completely sewing them up. Use green thread to embroider eyes on and red for the mouth. You can glue on real buttons or embroider buttons with white thread. Hot glue on a bow at the neck and use rick rack to simulate icing on the arms and legs. These are very quick. Another idea is to just place a group of them in a little basket standing them up and use as a decoration on your kitchen counter. Plus, little kids love them!

Back to the painting. Stay warm and cozy! Egretta

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

Hello from Ten Gables Cottage,

The tree is all lit on the porch, but look what lurks in the garden!!









This is the "after" photo of what was once a beautiful plant ( see below) until it hit below freezing last night and stayed that way for several hours!

I have forgotten the name of this beautiful plant but this is the "before" photo.

Remember my post of the tomato cage that you could barely see because of the big green and healthy tomato plant? Well, here is the poor thing now! I have no idea if the tomatoes will now fall off or will they rot or will they ripen? Only time will tell. By the way, it is now sunny and warm and tonight won't be that cold, so havoc can really occur in only a night!

What in the world? Is it some monster left over from Halloween? No! It is the banana tree! I'm almost scared of it, poor thing. It once had lovely deep green fronds standing so tall and proud.

Well, here is the Good! I have still got pea plants and ONE pea!! If all the blooms fell off and I only have this One pea, then perhaps I should have it gilded and display it on the sideboard!

I thought I would take heart and made some of my mother's famous peanut butter roll candy today since it is non-humid. However, it turned out a total mess as well. Some days one should just give up and read a book!

Hope your day went well, Egretta