T Stands for My New Mug, Birds, and Some Baking

    Hi everyone. Happy new week to you. And hello to everyone who visits for T Day over at  Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog .

   I've had a fairly quiet week this past week. Over this past weekend we had some light snow on both Saturday and also later on Sunday.

    Besides watching some football playoff games and knitting while I watched, I also spent some time on our snowy Saturday watching the birds. Actually I was "playing" with them a bit because the flock of starlings that last year was only 2 birds big is now up to 31 birds.

   I had just put some fresh bird food out, and although I am not trying to starve the starlings, when they swoop in it is hard for the other birds to eat. (And those starlings eat all the food; in fact they'd eat me out of bird food if I let them. But if you feed birds and deal with starlings you know that.) But the starlings won't swoop in if I stand in the doorway. They sit in the tree and chatter, and then one or two will fly to another tree and chatter. I can tell they are trying to  not only scope out the food situation but to see if I am still standing in the doorway.

 

    The other birds don't mind if I stand in the doorway, so they came in to eat. It's fun to watch them, although when Pete came over to see what I was looking at, he was disappointed it was only birds and no squirrels. 😏

    However later he got to see some squirrels, including this guy in the snow digging up bird seed.

   Birds brings me to my ticket for T this week. I have a new mug.  A few weeks back I went to the bird store to get a new seed tube. They always have fun bird "gifty things" too, especially right around the holidays.  When I went in they had some items including some bird mugs marked down 75%, and since I needed to spend $2  to get a 20% off coupon to work, I bought myself a new mug. (Which came out to be even less costly when the 20% got added to the already 75% off. What a deal-grin. Or maybe an eye roll if you're like my husband. 😉 )

    I even remembered to take a photo of it one afternoon when I was making myself a cup of tea. 

  I chose the nuthatch mug because they are such interesting little birds. It was either that or the cardinal,  and not that I don't like cardinals, but I also like the little less showy birds.  I think they need a little love also. 

   I've also done a bit of baking lately, as you can see in my T day photo. A couple of weeks ago I made some chocolate chip cookies because they're my husband's favorites, and with his back, I thought he'd appreciate something special.  (Of course I had to have a couple too.)

   This past Saturday, while it was snowing and in between feeding/watching the birds, I made a pan of sour-dough discard brownies. I have a sour dough starter that I've been feeding  for almost 10 years now, and every week or so I need to remove some of the starter and feed the rest of it. (I keep it refrigerated. If it's not refrigerated you need to feed it much more frequently.) I've made these brownies before and they are a bit cakie (rather than chewy) so I decided to make some peanut butter frosting to put on them. 

   I added peanuts to the brownies instead of walnuts or pecans, The peanuts tasted good, but I think I added a few too many.  Oh well still, they are yummy.

   That's it for me this week. I hope everyone has a super T day and week ahead.

     

   

T Stands for Going on an Owl Hunt

       Hi everyone. Happy new week to you. And here's a big hello to everyone who stops by for T this week over at   Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog .

     Thanks for all your teapot comments. I'd forgotten about electric teapots. I used to have one when I taught school  because I had a good place behind my desk to keep it. It was always tasty to have a cup of tea (or 2) during the day. The kids used it too, so by the time I retired, although it still worked, the teapot had definitely seen better days. 

    So what's up with me? As some of you have already read, in the  early part of last week my husband ended up in the hospital for a night with a herniated disc in his back. Even though he was more or less recuperating all week (and he still is as it could take 4 to 6 weeks to completely heal), by the end of the week his pain was getting a little bit under control and with physical therapy, he was getting a little more mobile. We had some nicer weather by the end of the week too, and I needed to get out of the house, so I kept my walking plans. One of those days my friend Deb and I headed down to the shore and went on a Snowy Owl hunt.

   We were very optimistic because when we left on our mini-roadtrip  we had both seen bald eagles. I saw one soaring along the roadside while driving to her house, and she saw one near her house. In fact, when we were out we saw 2 other bald eagles. But sadly, I never was able to get any photos of  eagles.

   However, the Northern Harrier that is commonly seen at Salisbury State Beach Reservation (where we went) in Massachusetts was having quite the hunting day, and we spotted her several times. Most of my photos aren't that great, but a few aren't too bad. It's not that easy to get photos of birds in flight.

This one is a little fuzzy but I still  like it.

   For those of you who are bigger bird watchers than me, you probably already know that harriers hunt by flying low over the ground. And if you don't know that, it's an interesting way to hunt. That's what she was doing in those above photos. Later on, when we left, she was sitting not too far off the roadside and had collected a lot of human admirers.

   I took these photos on a 400x lens and then did a bit of cropping. Everyone was being respectful of the bird and giving her her space.

   Besides the excitement of seeing the harrior, we also took a 3 mile/4.8 km walk, watched the seals, and saw a few other birds.  But no snowy owls. 😞

   Still, it was a beautiful day to be outside, and it recharged me to go  home and deal with my patient. (I don't want to sound like it's miserable at home, because it's not. But between my husband getting sick of resting and between his sore back,  at times it's a bit challenging.😇😈) Here's a few other wildlife photos I took that day that  I like.

 a ring billed gull (older juvenile I believe) and below, some crows

some either fluffed-up or well fed mallards

and some seals lounging on some rocks and a sand bar

   After a fun morning out, we stopped for lunch on our drive home, and that's where my T day drink is from. We stopped at Seacoast Soups in Hampton, New Hampshire, and here's my bowl of chicken noodle soup as well as the Diet Coke I picked up to drink. I also had a piece of their homemade cornbread, but it didn't make the photo. You can see Deb's in the background though. 

   That's it for me this week. I hope everyone has a wonderful T day and week ahead.

  

    

T Stands for Wrapping Up 2025

    Hi everyone. Happy last Monday of 2025. I hope everyone who celebrated Christmas last week had a wonderful holiday. After a couple of days with my daughter and son-in-law visiting, my actual Christmas was quiet. Other than making my husband and myself  a nice dinner, I had to catch up on some shoveling out and writing some New Years cards. Some made it into the mail, but not all of them. 😞

    Since this is the last T day for 2025 over at  Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog ,I thought I would share some photos I took during the year with T day in mind, but that I never ended up sharing on my blog. Be prepared for a lot of drinks. It was fun looking back through the last 12 months of photos and all the happy moments it brought. ❤

We met my daughter and son-in-law in Manchester (about an hour away) for brunch one day last winter.

    There's a pizza place not far from my mother-in-law's nursing home where we like to grab lunch either before or after a visit with her. And occasionally after a visit we meet up with my sister-in-law (and sometimes her family) that don't live far away from the nursing home. 

   I can't remember what this pink drink was but I'm thinking some kind of hard cider. I do remember we tried this new restaurant called Evviva Trattoria, and that I had baked pasta with meatballs. I also remember it was delicious.

    The Framer's Kitchen is our local hole in the wall breakfast/lunch place. It's actually the best breakfast place in my area (or at least I think so). We went out for breakfast a few times during year.

   We'd lost power for quite a while one day last summer,  so my husband and I went to the only restaurant in my town for a burger and beer for dinner.

And here's some sugar water for the bees to drink.

    We had take out sandwiches for dinner one nice night on the dock at my mother-in-law's house.  (This picture makes me want it  to be summer again. 😏)

   And more thirsty bee photos. This time they're getting a big drink of water from the bird bath.

A couple of quick stop dinners, usually in the summer after a day in the boat.

More hungry and thirsty bees at  their sugar water. And yes, so far the hive has made it through the winter.  👍❤😀

  And here's a couple of photos from our Nova Scotia trip in September. First, an ice tea for me and lemonade for my husband at the restaurant in the Fortress of  Louisbourg. 

    And then some mini-Diet Coke bottles we picked up at a grocery store to have for our giant roadtrip. I wish they sold this size here in the US because they're smaller than our small 8 pack bottles and are really just enough when you feel like a soft drink.

A birthday celebration this past fall since my daughter's and my husband's birthdays are only 1 day apart.

And finally, last Tuesday, when we took our Christmas light walk in the snow. The farm that does the light show (Sandy Hill Farm in Maine) has a hot cocoa stand. Here my son-in-law, my daughter, myself and my husband toasting to everyone and wishing you a Happy 2026.

To a happy T day, a great rest of 2025, and a super start to 2026!

T Stands for Gingerbread

   Hi everyone. Happy new week to you. And hello to everyone who stops by for T over at  Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog.

   It's been another cold and windy week in my area. Especially today, Monday, the 15th. With wind chills our temperatures  felt like they are in the single digits (degrees F)  or somewhere in the negative teens (degrees C). Brrrr. Thankfully we are lucky to have a woodstove on the first floor that helps keep the house nice and toasty. 

   One day last week I went out with a friend. We ended up in downtown Portsmouth (New Hampshire) where the historical society was putting on a gingerbread house show. This show was open to anyone who wanted to join, and they had different categories you could enter. Those categories included youth (12 and under), teen (12-17), adult, business related, professional (for profession bakers) and multi-age. 

   Some of these houses were amazing, and some of them, although not houses, were creative gingerbread sculptures. I thought I'd share a few photos today. It was a great way to enjoy some holiday spirit.

First up, for those of you who like color.

   And here's one of several Grinch themed pieces.

The ski chalet,

 the garden house,

some Asian inspired  design,

  and I really wanted to break off a chocolate moose and eat him when I saw the next scene. (But of course I didn't. 😏)

  

   These next 2 photos show the winning creation  of the teen category with another Grinch scene. 

  This one is based on the Disney movie Encanto (which I haven't seen but this is a gorgeous gingerbread book.)

Then we had a gingerbread basket.

  I'm not sure if this is a village view or a church, but it's still a pretty winter scene.

    And lastly for this post, this one  built by a local candy store.

   I have a few more photos to share, but for the sake of not making this post too long, I'll save those for another day.

     After we left we needed lunch, so we checked out a newer restaurant downtown called Cheese Louise. They only serve grilled cheese sandwiches, plus some soup and other things to have with your sandwich.

   I had a traditional Vermont style grilled cheese (just cheese in my sandwich) meal, which came with a drink (I had ice tea) and a side. I went for their tomato soup. The photo  at the order counter showed the side as a small cup but mine came as a huge bowl. The other drink on the table is my friend's lemonade.  It made a delicious warm lunch on a chilly day.

   That's all for me this week. Stay warm if it's cold where you are. Wishing everyone a happy T day and week ahead.