January 12, 2020 Week 7

Winter is here, finally.
I say that with mixed feelings.

There were a few good parts from the last month.
It was nice not being cold.
We went for lovely walks on both Christmas and New Year's.
I expect our heating bill was much lower for December than it will be for the immediate future.
I did not develop winter traveler's anxiety. (That is about the worst. I  can deal with just cold.)
When I came home for lunch I would go look at the snowdrops coming up.
You would glimpse that wonderful time of the year - still down the road - when the long dark cold season is ending.

For an objective measure of December 2019  see the screen shot of the month's temperature in the Odds and Ends section.

But it is, after all, January.
It is supposed to be cold.
The 9 day forecast is now mostly below freezing.
There are lows in the single digits.
There are even a few snowflakes expected.

There is something comforting about the cold.
It seems so much more natural.
We actually need the cold (even though I do not quite remember why.)
There was sort of the first winter storm for our area Friday into Saturday.
At least that was what one local weather person wrote on Friday.
Maybe it had a name.
Naming winter storms is amusing.
We expect it with hurricanes. We grew up remembering Hurricane Camille. Then there was Katrina and Sandy.

So on Friday the storm was coming.
The radar showed that ice was coming.
Ice is bad. Ice is scary. I guess it is scary because it just takes a little bit to fall down or have a car accident.
We closed the office early and headed to the grocery store.
It was busy. It was busy the way it always is when a winter weather event is coming.

Saturday a.m. update.
The trees are all shiny, which means there is a little ice.
Not much snow, nor is there apt to be.




This was the big dogwood tree Saturday morning. It was bent down a little, but not in a way that worries me.
One of the little newer dogwoods was also bent down. That is a concern.
It is suppose to get to 37 maybe Tuesday so maybe it will melt.

Last Week in the contest:

There was another tie.

The poppy got one Saturday vote to bring it to a tie with the Annual delights.
Both pictures will advance.




The full voting was
Hardy orchid 1
Poppy 13
Daylily 6
Candy lily 5
Annual delight 13

Week 7

#1 Japanese Anemone 

(September 28, 2019)

I like this picture. Sometimes it is difficult to take a picture of one among many. I even like how the pollen has stained the petal.
This variety is Honorine Jobert.
It is a Japanese Anemone.
This variety was the 2017 Perennial plant of the year.

At this time I grow 3 varieties of Japanese Anemones.
This white one is the showiest.
It grows in part sun, right by the street.
It gets a little floppy after a while. That probably means it would prefer a little more sun.
It is established, which means I have grown it for at least 10 years.
I also do not have to do anything to it.
It does bloom for a long time.
The pink variety, starts in August and lasts for at least  a month.
This white one blooms later, and can last into October.


Here is information about Japanese Anemones.
https://www.gardenia.net/plant-variety/japanese-anemones


They are deer resistant. I appreciate this characteristic more after 2019.

#2 Purple/Pink Zinnia 

 (September 7, 2019)

So what is that color? Purple or Pink? It does not seem to be either. I am sure a box of crayons would tell us.
What is mauve? I guess it is a pale purple. Can you have a bright mauve?

This particular flower also bloomed on my birthday. I like having a picture from my birthday.
I was 70 years old on that day.
It was not a big event.
The next day was the same as the previous day.
I worked. I gardened. There were some nice flowers.

Zinnias are good. They do give a color spectrum. Since I really started growing them they have been well represented in the picture contests.
I grew them for the first time 4-5 years ago. I discovered two things at that point.
(1) I learned where zinnias could grow in the garden.
I have such a mixed yard in terms of sun. Most of it is part sun and high shade.
One patch of zinnias grows in a particular place under the elm tree in the front yard, along the sidewalk.
If gets a 4-5 hours of sun in the morning and then filtered light the rest of the day.
That is sufficient.
I like to grow them where people can see them.

(2) I learned that you could start zinnias from seed as late as the first of July.
When you start them that late in the season they are really fresh when it gets to be September. The trick in those late months is to have bright colors. Zinnias do the trick.

#3 Annual Asclepias called Silk Road 

(June 15, 2019)

This is an annual I have grown for several years. The mother plant is currently living in the basement under lights. The plant is now in its second winter.
It is probably Asclepias curassavicia, or tropical milkweed.
It is one of those plants that Monarch butterflies like.

This one is an annual.
I put a plant in a pot in the fall of 2018.
I still have that pot.
It grew all summer.
I hacked it down in October and brought it inside.
It has come back.
I have made a few cuttings, but the mother plant is doing well.
It is about ready to bloom under lights.

Here is a link.
https://nababutterfly.com/tropical-milkweed/

#4 Pink Tall Bearded Iris 

(May 26, 2019)

I have talked about the little Bearded Iris before.
Here is one of the Tall Bearded Iris in the garden.
It is in the right location. It gets almost full sun in the Spring since the Sycamore tree does not get its leaves until almost June.
It reliably blooms and does not need staking.
It is in an area by the pond that is all different pinks in May.

#5 White Waterlily 

(September 12, 2019)

The Waterlily needs no introduction.
What I particularly like about these pictures in out little pond is the back ground.
There are so many patterns with all those leaves.
Sometimes you will see a frog. Not in this picture.



There you have it.
Vote away.
By the way if you are looking at this on your phone I must tell you how you can vote. You must go all the way to the bottom of the post. There you will see a place where it says "web version". If you click on that, you can get to a version where you can enlarge the poll and vote.

Bonus Pictures

Let me show you what I did with the Beauty of Livermore picture.
Photos, which is where pictures are kept on my Mac, has an edit function.
You can crop a picture. I will do that on a number of pictures of contestants.
I can  change the amount of light in a picture. Sometimes cooking pictures need more light because the lighting in the kitchen is not bright.

I cannot do the fancy Photoshop stuff that is where political tricks are done. I cannot change the head in one picture for another. Some Congressman photo shopped a picture of Obama to make it seem that he was friends with someone bad.

But I discovered that I could take the equivalent of a magic marker and draw on a picture.
So this is what I did to that poppy picture.
I made the background black.


Look at that picture in full screen.

I chose not to show you this doctored image last week because I did not know what I thought about it.
I am not sure it is really a picture from the garden.
But it is rather nice.

I can take a picture with a black background sometimes.
Here are some of those pictures.
Let me say I can make a mostly background
I am not just talking about putting a black board behind the plant. There is something about focus and brightness that creates this effect sometimes. I can not really do it on demand.




So let me show you more fall blooming Anemones.



This is the single pink anemone that starts to bloom in August. This picture was taken August 7.
















I absolutely love the buds on the anemones.
I cannot think of another bud that looks so good.
















Here is the wild double pink anemone. It blooms much later. This was taken on September 9.
















This was on September 14, over a month after the first one bloomed.
















This was September 28.
You can see how these plants really do help carry the garden late in the year.

















This is the center of the white anemone. This wonderful image has been in the contest in past years.

Here is the annual asclepias with its perennial cousins.
Those would be the plant known as butterfly weed.

Julia's recipe
Shrimp-scallop scampi

Here is the link to all Julia's recipes that have appeared on the blog. Really- all of them since she started posting three years ago.
https://mearskitchen.wordpress.com/

The New York Times has a weekly cooking column which is available online and which Philip subscribes to. Sometimes their recipes are not appealing; sometimes they are, as is the way of things generally. This is a one pan version of shrimp scampi, which cooks with orzo and therefore is a main dish and side dish all in one. Except I don't particularly like big shrimp. Something about the texture, so I changed it up a bit.



The ingredients: 1/2 lb. small cooked, deveined shrimp; 1/3 - 1/2 lb. (I had 1/3 lb. 1/2 lb. would be good) small scallops; 1 cup uncooked orzo; 3 tablespoons olive oil; 1 tablespoon lemon zest; 1 tablespoon lemon juice; about 1 tablespoon smushed garlic; 2 tablespoons butter; 2 cups chicken stock or chicken bouillon or water; 1/2 cup white not sweet wine; 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes and some salt and pepper.




As I have said, I like shrimp but not jumbo shrimp. Also I have had my fill of cleaning and deveining shrimp. So I bought a 1 lb. bag of small peeled deveined cooked frozen shrimp - the shrimp are not in a block but individual so one can shake out what is needed and toss the rest back in the freezer. I used duct tape to seal the bag as I assumed it would not wimp out in the freezer. We'll see. We like scallops, and so I rounded up the recipe's call for a pound of jumbo shrimp with some small scallops. I had more like 3/4 lb. of seafood which was just fine.




I started by smushing the garlic and zesting the lemon. I put the seafood in the bowl at right. Then I put 1/2 tablespoon of the garlic in a little bowl for later, and I put the other 1/2 tablespoon in the bowl with the seafood along with all of the lemon zest; 1 tablespoon of olive oil; 1/2 teaspoon of salt (I used kosher); 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper and all of the red pepper flakes. I tossed the seafood around and set the bowl aside. I think it sat for maybe 20 minutes. Not a long marinating time.








Next I put the other 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a biggish skillet along with the butter and the rest of the garlic which I had set aside. I heated the skillet contents over medium heat until the butter was melted and started to bubble, stirring to keep the garlic from sticking or browning. This did not take more than a few minutes. Then I added the orzo and 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt to the skillet and stirred it around for 2 minutes until the orzo started to look at little tan around the edges Then I added the wine, stirring for about a minute or two until things had calmed down and the wine was mostly absorbed by the orzo or had evaporated.





Then I added the chicken stock, brought the mixture to a boil, reduced the heat to medium-low (to maintain a simmer) and put a lid on the skillet. I let that cook for about 15 minutes, checking in to make sure that the mixture was still simmering and not boiling like crazy or inert. At that point, the orzo was done and I turned off the skillet, just for a minute or two.






While the orzo was cooking, I pulled the tails off the shrimp. Why are cooked shrimp sold with their tails on? Handles? Esthetics? I did not need them and off they went.






Next, I arranged the seafood on top of the orzo, scattering shrimp and scallops alike in a single layer. I spooned the last of the marinade - not much as there was not much to begin with - in as well. (If you're worried about whether the marinade will be icky because of contact with raw scallops, discard it.)

Then I turned the heat on to medium low and covered the pan and let it cook for about 3 minutes, long enough to cook the scallops and heat up the shrimp.





Lastly, I sprinkled the 1 tablespoon of lemon juice over the pan after I turned off the heat. I think next time I will use 2 tablespoons of lemon juice.

The recipe called for sprinkling with finely chopped parsley as well. We are not parsley people, except on special occasions like tabouli salad. But feel free.










Our green things were asparagus. And here is the dish in a bowl with asparagus on the side. It was tasty. Good cold the next day too.

Odds and Ends

Here are temperature charts for 3 previous Decembers





2019
You can see the average temperature goes down almost ten degrees in December.
We were way above average most of the time.
You can see the 61 degree day at Christmas.












2018
There were warm moments.

2017
About Christmas we got one of those really cold spells.
The graph had to be bigger as the high, 66, was very far away from the low, minus 9.









Date countdown 
So as of today, January 12, 2020 what are some landmark dates, and how far away are they?

February 3, 2020- 22 days- the Iowa caucuses

March 21, 2020- 69 days- by some calculations this is the first day of Spring 160 days

November 3, 2020- 296 days- election day

Dates now past
December 21, 2019- 22 days- the winter solstice- this is now in our rear view mirror.

Stay safe.
Philip