False Spring and Baby Hats for Brazil

Dear friends.. we are in the middle of a "false Spring".  Here it is, late January and yesterday it got up to 63 degrees F. outside and it was so warm inside the house that we had to open the front door and kitchen window!  I grabbed my camera to get a photo of the Snowdrops that I had spied in early bloom lately.  

Soon there will be many more in bloom!  They have spread all over the farm yard.  These are under the apple tree.

The branches of the apple tree are covered with mosses and lichen.  I doubt that the tree likes this, but it sure makes for an interesting look.

Pretty greens, eh?

I said hello to the hens.. we finally got 3 aqua eggs after they went on strike for 6 months!  I've never had chickens go that long without laying eggs.  Next to the chicken yard there are some large rounds of the old maple tree that died and we had taken down a few years ago.  I was amazed to see it was covered with "Turkey Tail Mushrooms"!  (Thanks to Google for giving me the name of this!)  These are quite amazing looking.

This is a huge round of wood.. at least 3-4 feet across.  

Talk about natural colors.. cream, brown, greys.

Aren't these amazing?

The Daphne Odora buds is getting bigger.. I think they're afraid to open up.. it knows what happened last year.. after this false Spring weather we had a terrible snow and ice storm which ruined all my tulips that were halfway up.

Yesterday we relaxed all day inside which was really naughty of us.. not to get out in the sunshine more.. but Dayle was watching "Cleopatra" and it went on forever.  So, I kept him company and began making a baby hat for Taci's "hat project".  She is going to visit her family in Brazil and wants to take 200 baby hats for the poor women who don't have many clothes for their babies.  If you want to help, you can go to Taci's blog and leave a comment to get her address to send them to her.

I got a baby girl hat done in mauve with a purple flower (I'll add a button center today) and a denim blue boy hat.  2 hats in one day!  I used a simple "beanie" pattern but added my own spin to the design on both hats.

Chef Dayle made homemade teriyaki sauce and baked 5 lbs. of chicken wings in it for 3 hours yesterday. He also made homemade fried rice with veggies, scrambled eggs and sausage to serve with it.  We had a yummy dinner!

Teriyaki Chicken Wings

Heat oven to 300 degrees

1 cup soy sauce
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup vinegar
t tsp ginger
1 tsp minced garlic
5 lbs. of chicken wings 

In large baking pan, put ingredients above and heat to dissolve sugar, add the chicken wings, stir to coat wings with sauce, put into oven, turning wings occasionally.  Bake until caramelized, 3 hours.

I might want to make another baby hat!  What are you up to today?  ((hugs)), Teresa :-)