Mailbox Monday: A Friendly Frosty

Bales and Bails

For those party animals--- and their animals:

Broccoli!

We cut our first broccoli on Christmas Eve. It was quite large and delicious! As this is a new crop for us to grow, we are very pleased.

A week later, we cut another-- and it was even larger and just as tasty.

We thought this more mature, blooming broccoli head (in our neighbor's garden) was beautiful and had to wonder how it would taste.

The New Library

There is a new public library in town and it is on our side of town, very near my school. It is designed to be reminiscent of the Spanish missions that were in the area. We like the look.

Fox Squirrel

We happened upon this fox squirrel up a tree in Jefferson County as we were taking a new-to-us back way to Monticello.

What a tail!! It just went on and on!

And then it took a flying leap!

We are participating in a survey of fox squirrels in Florida. So far, we have reported two and our son has reported some also. If you see one, you can report it at:

https://public.myfwc.com/hsc/foxsquirrel/GetLatLong.aspx

I Picked Antlers

When I was decorating the house for Christmas, a collection of deer antlers in the garage caught my eye. Three of them are from mule deer and are sizeable. I tied red cord around the ends and hung them with a large S-hook from my picking ladder that stands in our living room. It is from my home town and was used for many years to harvest citrus.  

I also took the antlers to school and the kids were very impressed!---as was a dad in a large pick-up truck who saw me taking them from my car. We read Imogene's Antlers, a fun story of a little girl who wakes up one morning to discover that she has grown antlers--big ones! caribou-sized! The kids enjoyed holding my antlers up to their heads and looking in the mirror.

Kitchen Tree

I decorated the house early in December, but I proposed to do things a little differently. Instead of buying a big, fresh tree as we have in the past few years, we decided we were happy with some simpler decorations. We put a tall, lit pencil tree on the screen porch just outside the glass doors, so we can see it from the living room. (Pencil trees, by the way, are those artificial trees that are tall and skinny and have a trunk with real bark on it.)  I put another, smaller pencil tree in the kitchen. All of the ornaments on this tree are food-related-- mostly gingerbread.

This little, ceramic  guy is made from Georgia red clay. Each year, I make them with my kindergartners. They cut the rolled clay with a cookie cutter, poking holes in the arms for the wire that will go in after they are fired in the school's kiln. Once cooled, acrylic puffy paint is the frosting and, sometimes, I have them use black sharpie pens for the black dot details. Oh, and to keep straight, whose is whose, each child puts their initials on the back by pressing alphabet macaroni letters into the wet clay. The macaoni burns up in the kiln but the impression of the initial is left in the clay.