Week #9- January 24, 2021- a new day

Welcome 

What a difference a week makes. 

We no longer have to anticipate what new awful thing will appear in the news. Sure, we still have problems. There is still work to be done and we do still live in Iowa.

But let us rejoice for our new day.

And speaking of changes,  we have immediate family news.

On Thursday Katie, Elisabeth, Christopher and Maisie completed their very careful 4 day trek across county, arriving in Iowa City. They are going to stay for a month. All of a sudden there are many changes. We have gone from having 2 people in our household, to having 6. And Christopher just turned 4 and Maisie is 5 months old.

We had never met Maisie. In fact,  talk about sheltered. She was born into this pandemic and has experienced nothing else. She has never been around people other than her parents (and an occasional doctor). I picked her up on Thursday and she started to cry. Actually it only took an overnight to make everyone comfortable, including me. Maisie discovered that I have much hair all over my head which she can pull.

And of course there are the plants.

Last Week in Week 9 of the contest

the runaway winner was the pastel Iceland poppy. It is a really good picture.

Here is that same picture with a black border.

With its dominant performance this wonderful picture will likely be the #1 seed in the playoffs. However at that point this picture will have to compete with at least two other Iceland poppies, which have already qualified for the playoffs. 

The full voting was:

This Week, which is week #9

there are great pictures with a great variety of colors.

I should add that as we approach the end of January, springtime is not that far away. As I was looking for bonus pictures I realized that outside flowers can begin in less than two months. Of course that will depend on whether the snow cover disappears. More snow is coming tomorrow. The other thing this means is that we do have to find a sled for Christopher.

#1 Magic Amethyst  daylily

July 14, 2020

This is one of the fanciest daylilles I have in the garden. Its frills have been there for 20 years. It never disappoints.

#2 Orange Coneflower 

August 10, 2020

Orange is such a such a great color. 

There are so many wonderful new coneflowers. You saw another new one a few weeks ago. Here is this new orange one. 

#3 Red Zinnia

 September 26, 2020

Red is good.

Zinnias are on my list for annuals to grow. I  grow them from seed, planting them as late as July 1. That way they are fresh in September and October. They last until frost which in Iowa can be anywhere from late September to Thanksgiving.

I have already put together a great set of seeds for the summer. 

#4 Blue anemone blandas 

April 19, 2020

One of my favorite spring flowers is anemone blanda. It is also called a Grecian windflower. Would you like to make a guess where it comes from?  They come in blue and pink and white. 

I think they are the first ray flower to bloom.

They have fern like foliage.

They will spread, forming nice clumps over time.

Blanda is the species.

The genus is anemonoides. That sounds like a name that should be sung by the muppets.

The internet does ask if these blandas are invasive. That is always a scary question. No one ever asks if tulips are invasive? I do not think so. Fortunately the answer to the anemone blanda question is no. There is the suggestion that Japanese anemones might be invasive. 

#5 Pink Waterlily

 June 17, 2020

It was a good year for waterlilies. This pink one was a star. 

Look at the bonus section for more pictures.

There you have your pictures for Week 9. Vote and then if you have time tell me which one(s) you like, or grow in your garden. I would add that there is no age qualification for who can vote. 

Bonus Pictures

I love these pictures of the two flowers peeking out. They are like constellations coming into conjunction.

As I have said before, waterlily pictures can be nice for the background. So many interesting things can be found in a pond.

More windflowers

Early in the spring.

Right Now

The paphiopedilum finally opened.

It is named Paph. Macabre 'Mother Mary' X Paph. venustum 'SVO'

Maybe I could just call it Macabre for short.

What an incredible combination of stripes and spots.

January 23, 2021

I got the plant through the local orchid club, the Eastern Iowa Orchid society. We made a large purchase from a supplier in October, which allowed for reduced prices.  This orchid came ready to bloom. Maybe I should get another one of these?

Here are some of the pictures as the bud grew for a long time.

December 19, 2020

January 16, 2021

Here is a closeup picture of Macabre.

Julia's recipe

Cod with a slightly spicy sauce

First an apology. Last week I posted a coconut milk salmon curry with miso and spinach. I did not realize it until Katie told me: I had made a variant on that recipe last summer. That time, I used white fish and frozen spinach. This time, salmon and fresh spinach. Pretty much the same. I chalk it up to a year in which neither long-term memory nor short-term memory was a useful tool: staying sane required living only in the moment.  

This week, more fish, this time with a pour-over sauce. The sauce cooks quickly on the stove, and the fish bakes pretty quickly in the oven the whole main course production takes maybe 15 minutes.  I am confident I have not posted this before: it comes from Parade magazine (that magazine in the weekend newspaper), and it is by Ayesha Curry, cookbook author and wife of Steph Curry the Golden State Warriors basketball player.  I changed up the proportions of the sauce ingredients to make it a bit spicier.

Here are the ingredients: a piece of thinnish white mild fish (I used about 3/4 lb. of cod: sole or haddock or halibut or tilapia would work); 2 tablespoons honey; 1 tablespoon soy sauce; 1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar; 1 tablespoon sambal oelek (or other kind of chili-garlic paste) and 1 teaspoon of cornstarch. Plus a little salt and pepper and cooking spray for the fish. And a few scallions for garnish. 

The first step would have been turning on the over; however, the oven was already on at 400 degrees, as I was roasting little red potatoes. I lubed up the baking dish.

I started by measuring all of the sauce ingredients (everything but the fish, salt and pepper and scallions) into a little saucepan. First all the liquid ingredients, followed by the cornstarch (next picture).

I whisked the cornstarch (the white stuff) in last. I cooked the sauce over medium-low heat until the sauce boiled (gently) then I turned it down to the lowest possible setting to keep warm.

I put the fish in the baking dish and salted and peppered it. I baked the fish for about 10 or 12 minutes. Suit yourself on fish doneness. 

I cleaned and sliced the scallions.  

 

When the fish came out of the oven, I poured the sauce over it and garnished it with the scallions. 

We served the fish with roasted little red potatoes and broccoli. We do eat a lot of broccoli. 

There was, as one might expect, extra sauce around the fish, which was good to dip roasted potatoes in. 

There were no leftovers. 

Odds and Ends

As perhaps anticipated here are some children pictures. 

Maisie is at the peek a boo stage.

Christopher is at the pageant stage, whether it is train layouts or farmyards.

Actually he had his fourth birthday party on the road on Monday. So yesterday was his birthday celebrated. He was bouncing off the walls. 

We had friends from Iowa City who moved to Hawaii. They posted on facebook that wild pigs had damaged their garden. It made me appreciate deer.  

The pumpkins are mostly on their hooks outside at this point. I have saved 2 for Christopher to carve.

Here are two of them.

With the warmer weather a little bit ago, this pumpkin thought about  falling. It is now frozen in this posture. 

That is it from snowy Iowa City.

It is a new day. 

Maybe we have held on to a few of the old problems.

But they do not seem as insurmountable.

Be safe. And remember we always like to hear from you.

Philip