Hi everyone. Happy new week to you, and to those of you who join Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog for T, happy first T day for the new year.
Since last week's T Day we had a lot of cold weather, right up through this past weekend. To make it worse, the one day (early in the week) that the temperatures climbed above freezing, it rained and then the temperatures dropped again by nightfall, so we've not only had snow but a lot of ice. It's a good thing it was a lazy kind of week. Well started that way. My husband did something to his back, and his pain was severe enough that he couldn't walk. Along with some vomiting that came on, he ended up in the hospital for a night for pain management. That wasn't a bad thing because of the vomiting he couldn't keep down his immune suppression meds. For those of you who don't know, he had a kidney transplant back in 2017, and those meds are his lifeline to keep the transplanted kidney.
I wanted to clean off my art table to start the new year, and that didn't happen. But hopefully 🤞this week life will settle down a bit. I did get the Christmas decorations down except for our tree which needs to come down since it's a live one. Plus I did a lot of reading, watched a bit of TV and kept the woodstove going. We've already burned through one pallet of the sawdust bio-bricks we burn. That's 2,000 pounds/ 107 kg of sawdust. Just to compare that to last year all winter we just burned through 1 pallet.
Here's some cold and icy photos, which aren't very exciting.
And before the rain-to-ice storm arrived and before my husband threw out his back, he needed a big tarp so we headed off to the store. This time we went west, around the bottom of Lake Winnipesaukee or what we call the Big Lake. There's no place to pull over, but since the view was pretty and my husband was driving, I snapped these photos through the car window.
You can see it wasn't fully iced in yet, but with the very cold temperatures that followed the ice storm, I bet there's a lot more ice on the lake now.
For T day, I'm curious. If you are a tea drinker, do you heat your mug of water in the microwave or do you like a teapot? I like a teapot because when I heat my mug in the microwave the mug handle always gets too hot to handle. By the time it cools down, my tea water is getting too cool.
The one thing I wanted for Christmas was a new teapot. My other one, which was many years old, was very disgusting with rust on the bottom. When you poured water out of it you always had these little bits floating in it, which is not (in my opinion) a good thing. I couldn't clean it out either, so several months back I retired it.
I decided I wanted a nice stainless steel teapot that should last me longer than my last enamel teapot did. So my husband went out on a teapot hunt, and here's what he found.
It even whistles. 😀 With all these cold days I'm excited to be able to make a hot cup of tea. Before Christmas and after the retirement of my last tea pot, I was heating water in a kettle, but a teapot is a lot easier. And ha ha, you can't see my face but you can see me shooting a photo of this one with my phone. I do like the view of my kitchen in the teapot though.
That's all for me. Happy T Day, and have a great week ahead.
13 comments:
...a warm up is coming for us, I'll pass it on to you!
Erika, We have had light snow on an off the past few days and cold temps which have kept a lot of ice still on side streets and curbs. A warmup and rain is forecast for later this week so possible flooding comes next. Sorry to read about your husband injuring his back.
I boil water for my tea both in a teapot and also in the microwave depending on how impatient I am. Thankfully the handle doesn't get too hot on the mug I've been using in the microwave.
I make a cup of tea by boiling water in my electric kettle and dump the water into my mug which has a teabag in it. So saying am not really a tea drinker. -Christine cmlk79.blogspot.com
It has been snowing since yesterday...so pretty cold, but bearable. Enjoy some more hot tea :-))
Oh I get cold just looking at your ice photos! We are having a cold spell too and although it is slightly above freezing at the moment, they forecast some below-zero temperatures for the coming days.
Your teapost looks lovely and shiny. I think we have different concepts of what a teapot is. In the UK, a teapot is (usually ceramic) a pot you put tealeaves (or bag) in and then pour boiling water on it and let it steep, quite often with a 'tea-cosy' over it so the pot stays warm. What you have looks like a kettle, which is the vessel one boils the water in. In the UK most people have an electric kettle (I have too), so to make a cup of tea, I boil water in the (electric) kettle and then pour it directly in my mug in which I have put a tea-bag. I don't pre-heat the mug. And I don't use the microwave for tea making.
Because I live on my own, I have a small half a liter kettle. Most people's kettle is one liter. Here in Spain people just boil a pan of water on the stove to make a hot drink.
I find it fascinating how people have different ways of doing things. And also that although we speak the same language, sometimes there is confusion.
I hope your hubby's back improves soon.
Happy T-Day,
Lisca
Oh. We have some Hubbies, have we. But, in good times and in bad, we promised - and luckily there are good times, too.
Wow, that´s a lot of bricks (and thank you again for giving in kg, Erika, I´ll never learn pounds... too complicated).
Ohh, the lake!
We have a kettle to heat water. I will never put Rexi in the microwave.... Also yes. How to grab it out of the microwave. I once thought of re-heating it there. Thank you, will not, LOL.
Nice new one you have and yes, I thought, hey, whistles! But where is the difference to a kettle?
Well, with that photo you cannot join Nicole´s FFO ;-) Hugs, this was some post! I wish you both a good day! Here it even snowed again, yikes.
I know the nations across the world suffer heat and cold at different months of the year. But tomorrow and the rest of this week will be hotter in Melbourne than we have felt for years (42c). This is the same week you are facing ice storms!
Wonderful photos from the cold and you have a great teapot, well then, enjoy a nice cup of tea in this weather!
have a good day , hugs Elke
Your teapot look very spiffy. I am sure it will be used well and used often. I am not a big tea drinker, but we do have a cup of tea mid afternoon quite frequently. We have a white ceramic teapot from the thrift store, having broken the brown ceramic teapot that also came from the thrift store. Happy tea-times - David
I can feel the chill Erika, we not sure if I mentioned before that we also have snow, quite rare here these days but was exciting for new puppy and Rose who is four but not seen it before.
I guess our minus 6 is modest compared with Canada, trouble is over here we are never prepared and the Country comes to a standstill. We had a Vet trip for Fleur's jabs (she wasn't able to have them till she got stronger and bigger - some breeders should be locked away), only a ten mile trip which took close on an hour each way as the roads had not been gritted/salted so was all go slow.
Keep warm,
B x
Happy New Year Erika! I truly hope your hubby is okay. I am a kettle person. I don't like to heat up drinks in the microwave. I truly wish you all the best this year. Much hugs and peace. Maria
I wish you and your husband good health in the New Year from now ON!
I hope your husband is feeling better. A view of Winni! Makes me want to go back to Weirs Beach. I have an electric kettle which heats my water. I used to nuke it in the micro, but nuking created foamy, filmy tea which you don't get with water boiled in the electric kettle or on the stove. If the handle of your cup gets very hot, that cup isn't safe to use in the microwave. The handle of your cup should be warm from residual heat in the cup. It should never be hot. Check to see if the mug is cracked or chipped. If so, retire the cup from nuking duty. Happy T Day. Are you getting the sleet and freezing rain tonight?
Post a Comment