February 24, 2019- The month is almost over

February came be a difficult month.
It is Winter with a promise of Spring.
On some days, the sun comes out, and the snow and ice begin to melt.
This year there is enough snow that after such a small melt, you only see snow.

It is not as dark as December, which of course has Christmas, by way of festive compensation.
It is nice to have the extra daylight.
When we got home from work on Friday, it was six o'clock.
But it was not pitch dark.
(Why do they call it 'pitch' dark? Tell us Pat.)

The first Spring training baseball games was yesterday.
Unfortunately I think that just means that it is Spring somewhere else.

During the month the average high temperature goes from 31 degrees to 40 degrees.
The high temperature tomorrow is suppose to be 10 degrees.

Enough of this.
February is the shortest month.
It will be over soon.

We have pictures of warmer times.
We have completed 12 weeks.
There is one more group of contestants.
The three weeks run offs. Then the finals.
In those five weeks surely the cold will be done.

In Week 12 your winner was, the orchid.
Go orange.





The full vote was:




At this point there are 12 winners.
One will join them in the next round.
There will be three wild cards.
That starts next week.
Spring is suppose to be somewhere soon.

Week 13

This week all the pictures are wide screen shots. Sometimes in the past, I  worried about the types of pictures. In the first few years of the contest, only pictures of a single flower were permitted. Rules sometimes just go away. Nevertheless I sometimes think about equal playing fields and all that stuff.

This week to help with the winter blahs there are six pictures in the contest.

#1 Winter aconite and snowdrops (March 22, 2018)



Winter aconite and snow drops are just about the best, perhaps because they come first. Then there will be crocuses. Then the daffodils and tulips. Our hearts bloom with the colors of spring.

'Winter' aconite and 'snow' drops of course take their names from the fact they bloom very early.
On occasion they will even bloom in February.

The aconite have hit critical mass in certain parts of the garden. That means they are spreading like crazy.  In the bonus section I will give you a closeup picture that shows how you can actually see the generations of plants, including those that are too small to even bloom that year.



#2 Hellebore (May 1, 2018)



One Hellebore is called the Christmas Rose. Others are called the Lenten Rose. Why is that?Hint - they bloom early too.
Not long after you get the snow drops and winter aconite you will start to see hellebores.
The foliage will last the winter, even though it will be rather ratty looking by spring. That is when you cut it down. The buds will be right there, down by the base.

I particularly liked this picture as it shows the flower and the buds around it.

One problem with some of the flowers is that they mostly face down.

The fact this picture was taken on May 1 illustrates how late Spring was last year.
I should add that hellebores when they bloom will last a long time. That could be as much as a month or two.



#3 Orange lily (July 13, 2018)



I love how the orange stands out with the blurred background of blue, brown and green.






#4 Caladium Gingerland (August 9, 2018)



I think if I had to get one caladium it would be Gingerland.
Last year the caladium sat on the back driveway waiting to come up for ever. They will not germinate or grow unless the soil temperature is 70 degrees. Well that was June.
I still had pots that were waiting to be planted at the time of the garden walk last summer, at the end of June.

My enthusiasm for caladium has come down a notch.
As I look outside it is hard to imagine that Spring will be on time this year.
They really are a wonderful alternative to impatients in the shade garden. Splash them between your hosta and you have a wonderful image.

Caladium really are good for September. At the time when the garden is beginning to fade they are stay in good shape until the temperatures get below 40.



#5 White Hydrangea (August 13, 2018)

The name of the particular plant is Hydrangea Paniculata 'Unique'. I planted it in 2010. It is a bush. Mostly I do not do bushes. You have to draw the line somewhere.

We mostly know hydrangeas, if we know hydrangeas at all, as a snow ball bush. Well, there are these kinds that have far more interesting flowers.

This picture really grew on me. I know it is white. But the combination of the big flowers and the little flowers and the tiny buds was really nice.

Did you know that the spell check on this computer never remembers the word hosta? Or the word daylilies? But it has hydrangea. 

#6  Red Asiatic lily (June 2, 2018)

This extra picture #6 was something of an after thought. I was looking for pictures for this last week of contestants. The spacing of this picture was right.
I thought the color was also needed.
I have been getting adds on the computer for Asiatic lilies that can be planted in the early spring and will bloom this summer.

Bonus section

I started looking at pictures of snow drops and aconfindingite and I just kept adding pictures to share. I do so want them to get here. They are out there somewhere, waiting. I am waiting too.

February 28, 2018

March 1, 2018

March 12, 2018

They begin to look like tiny yellow light bulbs.
They do need sunshine to open up.
They mix with the snowdrops. You might also recognize some daffodil foliage.

March 19, 2018

Here you can see the generations. All the flowers make seed. The seed grow into tiny bulbs. The bulbs get bigger and then bloom, probably in year 2 or 3.
If you look carefully in the lower left of the picture you can see a few little blue scilla buds.

March 19, 2018

Here you see the aconite begin to play with the early crocuses.

March 22, 2018

March 22, 2018

You saw this picture in week 1 of the contest.

March 25, 2018

March 30, 2018

The aconite do bloom for quite a while. That is even more so in our garden because of micro climates within the garden. The areas by the south side of the house are always 2-3 weeks ahead of the front yard for example.


Here is the hydrangea. I would like to make it into a tight standard. I am not sure it gets enough sun.

I sometimes forget how very busy the garden gets.


Here are more hellebores.
































The hellebores bloom at a time when the garden is getting quite busy.
I this picture you can see the squill along with many aconite plants after they have finished blooming.


















































This is a lovely yellow hellebore. To the right there is on of its seedlings.
Hellebores do grow lots of little seedlings all around the base of the parent plant. If takes maybe 3-4 years for them to bloom.












The only way to photograph this double hellebore it to hold it up.

Julia's recipe

Rice pudding (stovetop)

Here is  the link to the other blog with all for Julia's recipes.

https://mearskitchen.wordpress.com/

Rice pudding can be prepared on top of the stove with raw rice, or it can be made in the oven with cooked (a/k/a leftover) rice. Both are good, and we make both kinds. The baked version takes about the same amount of time from thought to table, but needs less attention. I think of the stovetop version as Greek rice pudding because it is the kind of rice pudding that is often on the menu in Greek restaurants, served with a generous amount of cinnamon sprinkled on top. Philip made the stovetop variety a couple of weeks ago, using a recipe from the Cook's Magazine cookbook.



Here are the ingredients: 2 cups uncooked medium grain rice (long grain rice would work. Don't use brown rice or green rice or purple rice, and I think the aromatic qualities of basmati or jasmine would be wasted here); 2-1/2 cups of half-and-half; 2-1/2 cups of whole milk; 2/3 cup of sugar; 1/4 teaspoon of salt; and 1-1/2 teaspoons of vanilla.

We did not have 2-1/2 cups of half-and-half and so used a bit more milk. Instead of half-and-half, you could use evaporated milk. Or you could use coconut milk instead of half-and-half. In eggnog season, you could swap in eggnog for all or part of the half-and-half. The idea is to have half of the liquid be straight-up milk and half of the liquid be something richer.


Philip started by bringing 2 cups of water to a boil in the saucier (a rounded sauce pan, well-suited to pudding-making as there are no corners) along with the bit of salt.

When the water came to a boil, he added the rice and brought the mixture back to a boil. When it boiled, he covered the pan and lowered the heat. He let it cook for about 15 minutes until the water was just about gone.






Then he added the milk and half-and-half and the long siege of stirring began. He had the heat on medium-high, and brought the mixture to a low boil. Then he turned the heat down so it simmered - a slight boil. The mixture did not need to be stirred constantly, but pretty frequently.

Philip patiently stood by, stirring frequently for about 30 minutes (he put on a timer as a form of self-encouragement).

When the mixture had begun to thicken (after about 30 minutes), he turned the heat down to low and continued to stand by, stirring every couple of minutes.



He kept at it until a wooden spoon could stand up (briefly at least) in the pan, as shown. This took about 15 minutes more of patience.

At that point, the pan came off the heat, and he stirred in the vanilla. If you add it earlier, the flavor sort of cooks away.










We dished it up into small bowls. I ate mine with a healthy sprinkling of cinnamon. Philip ate his plain. Good both ways - smooth and creamy and not too sweet.

Did you notice that there are no eggs in the recipe? All of the thickening comes from the starch in the rice!

Real Time

Here are several orchids that are blooming at the moment.








































You have seen this amaryllis in the last two weeks. Here was a lovely back lit picture early one morning.













This was a volunteer impatient that came in with another plant that did not make it. It actually grew from seed early during the inside time. It bloomed for the first time this past week. It should be quite large by the time it comes to go outside.

Odds and ends

It rained a lot yesterday in Iowa City. There would be flooding except that everything is going to freeze solid.  There are 50 mph winds coming in with the cold,  as the rain will turn to snow.
Mike Seidel from the weather station just arrived in Omaha. You never want him to be upwind as they say.

Why do we live here?
We live here because when Spring comes, it will be all the more glorious after having had a hard long winter.

Warmer times are coming.
There will be many wonderful flowers.
They are just around the corner.
Philip