March 5, 2023- It is time for aconite

                        Welcome to the second week of the playoffs. 

I do think I can welcome you also to Spring, in Iowa.  We are having some of those magical days which you would like to go on for a long time.

Of course it is Spring that can take a big step back when the late in the season snow comes. Fortunately that is not in the forecast. (Portland, Maine however had another 10 inches of snow the last few days. Christopher is not able to see anything coming up at the moment.)

It is the time of year when everything is new, and there is something new almost every day.

I look forward to coming home from work each day, or even twice a day since we come home for lunch.

I have been able to get outside and do yard work for at least 30 minutes before work. Sometimes raking those last leaves begins to take on some urgency. I hate it when some poor daffodil is trying to come up through that mat of leaves. Sometimes people can just let their bulbs come up through the leaves. We have a Sycamore tree in the backyard. It has big leaves that do not fall until late in the year. (That means they do not get raked up in October. ) They do create mats of leaves that are hard to penetrate.

The star of the spring at the moment has to be the aconte. It is called winter aconite for a reason. While it is somewhat accompanied by snowdrops, the aconite are all over the place. Notice the bees.

The snowdrops are present too.

On Wednesday, March 1, there was even the first crocus.

I need to remember that aconite and snowdrops do not taste good. I think most crocuses do get clipped from time to time.

Last Week in the contest

The winner, in the first week of the playoffs, was the  purple crocus group. I do not remember ever having such a one sided vote.

 Here was the full vote.

This Week- Week #2 of the playoffs

#1 Little dwarf Iris- Lyonesse May 10, 2022

Here is the overall second seeded picture. It was a runaway winner in Week #1. The little bearded iris are special. They are starting to grow in the garden. I would predict a strong showing come the middle of April.

#2 Daffodil April 25, 2022

This was the winner way back in Week #2 of the contest. That was way back in 2022. Daffodils are already popping up in the warmer places in the garden. We are further along than we were one year ago. On March 7 and again on March 12 of last year we had snow. That does set the process back.

On the otherhand  the snow does insullate the ground from a winter blast. We may have just that coming up next weekend. 

#3 Tulip April 30, 2022

Tulips are certainly one of the spring bulbs that does taste good. The deer are out there. I have fresh deer tracks at least every other day. Remarkably they seem mostly to stay on the paths.

I am suppose to get a fresh batch of woodchips one of these days. We will see how the deer like that.

This spring there will be another great display of tulips in the front parkway. I planted 20. I suppose I should think about 50 for next year.

#4 Orchid Cactus June 18, 2022

The orchid cactus will remain in the house until almost May. They need to avoid the frost. More importantly they need to avoid the direct sun. We have a good share of shade trees. The Walnut and the Sycamore trees are very late in putting out their leaves.

The orchid cactus do start to grow inside in March and April. The Night Blooming Cereus put out straight branches that go up and bump into the ceiling. Sometimes they will even start to bud inside.

#5 Lantana August 6, 2022

The lantana had a strong following as it easily won Week 13. We shall see how that following continues with this strong competition.

I had my first lantana sprout. I am enjoying that little life form. 

There you have the 5 contestants for week #2.

Last week 49 people voted. That was the most since 49 voted in Week #1. Find a friend and have that person vote. Let us try to get to 50. 

The Bonus Section this week is the Right Now section.

It was a good garden week. On Wendesday we renewed our sunny garden plot in Chadek Park. I cannot wait. This year there will be a new water source within 30 feet of our plot. I look forward to growing lots of amaryllis, and maybe a few sunflowers. With water right there maybe I can grow some eggplants better than these last few years.

Wednesday was also a beauty of a day, with lots of sun and the temperature getting well into the 50's. That is when the bees came out. The word spread that the aconite was blooming, So they came from all over. There was even a group from eastern Nebraska. (not really) 

Saturday (yesterday) was cool, with a little drizzle, then sun to close the day. But temperatures stayed above freezing. I worked all day in the garden. Actually I work in the garden in shifts, or repetitions. I will rake for 30-60 minutes and then take a break. (I do not wear a watch, so the shift ends when I finish something.) Well, I had four different repetitions. As I finish writing this Saturday night I am really tired. Bob and I had our three big recycle cans full by noon. Those are the big yellow cans the city trucks can pick up with their mechanical attachments. We only get 3 from the city. When those are full we start on bags. I think we filled up about 12-13 bags and there will be Sunday.  It really does feel like there is no end. 

I brought the lettuce plants out for the day yesterday. The flat of lupines too. I would have left them out overnight. Then I remembered the deer. I bet the deer like lettuce, even without dressing and croutons. The plants are back in the garage for the night. 

Orchid prize

I got this orchid at the local orchid society Christmas party in 2014. It is called Stenorrhychos speciosum. Steno for short. Sometimes I send an orchid to an Orchid Show. I have gotten an occasional ribbon, perhaps reflecting that they give out a lot of ribbons. (When our children were in kindergarden, the wonderful teacher had everyone bring a stuffed animal from home. Awards were given to every child for every animal. One of our children had the prize for the most musical bear. If you shook it a bell would ring.)

This  year my Steno went to a show last weekend, in Batavia,  Wisconsin.

It got wonderful ribbons, perhaps reflecting the fact that few people had ever seen one of these plants. It was in a category with other orchids that were not in a wellknown group. Sort of the odd ball group. 

 Look at these pictures over the years.

This is the plant I brought home in December, 2014. I liked it because it did not look anything like an orchid.

This is what the bloom was at that time. The red stalk grows for a month. Then it opens and has many little flowers, that do look like orchids.

This is from January, 2019. It grows there under those lights. I should add that the light stand has been around for going on 20 years. They really are durable.

The bloom stalks grow over several months.

Here is the plant having come back from the show last weekend.

Each stalk has many many flowers. While the plant looks nothing like an orchid, the tiny flowers are familiar in shape.

Julia's recipe

Spaghetti with lemon and shrimp

I continue to be interested in shrimp as part of a main dish. Not sure why, but I have used shrimp in soup like gumbo or cioppino or in sauces with pasta or rice noodles. Maybe because they are bite-sized and mild but distinct in flavor. Maybe because I buy them frozen, cleaned and deveined so they are easy to use. Enough speculation. This recipe is a slight adaptation of a recipe from the NYT called 

spaghetti al limone with shrimp. Fancy name.

The ingredients:

1 bag (12 oz.) of frozen, deveined, cleaned shrimp;

1 lb. spaghetti (although 1/2 or 3/4 lb. would do);

1/4 cup olive oil;

2 lemons, for about 1-1/2 tablespoons of zest and 1/4 cup of lemon juice;

some chopped herbage (I had parsley);

some greenery (I had bok choy);

1/2 cup white wine;

3 tablespoons cold butter; 

3/4 cup grated parmesan;

salt and pepper.

I started by zesting the lemons. I ended up with about 1-1/2 tablespoons. A bit more would be even better.

I also washed and sliced the bok choy crosswise and chopped up the parsley (a couple of tablespoons worth).

Next, I juiced the lemons. I wanted about 1/4 cup and I added the rest to the bottled lemon juice in the fridge. 

I put a big pot of water on for the spaghetti, adding about 1/2 tablespoon of salt to the water. 

When the water boiled, I plopped the spahetti in and set the timer for whatever the package siad was the al dente cooking time. 

More lemon juicing. Not sure why this needed two pictures. 

After this, I opened the shrimp, patted them dry, laid them out on a plate and sprinkled them with salt and pepper. 

While the spaghetti was cooking, I heated the oil over medium heat, and added most of the lemon zest and all of the parsley. I kept about 1 teaspoon of lemon zest for garnishing.

After just a minute or two, I added the shrimp in a single layer.

By the time I had added the last shrimp, it was time to flip the first ones. 

The video is shrimp sizzling in the skillet.

When the shrimp were done, I took them out of the skillet onto a different (clean) plate, leaving the oil in the skillet.

By this time, the spaghetti was done. I ladled 1 cup of pasta water into a cup and left the spaghetti in the colander for a few minutes. 

During those few minutes, I added the white wine and the lemon juice to the skillet. I cooked the stuff in the skillet until the liquid was reduced by about 1/2.  

Then I dumped the spaghetti into the skillet with maybe 1/2 cup of the pasta water. I stirred this around for 2 or 3 minutes until the liquid in the bottom of the skillet was reduced. 

Still on medium heat. Feel free to add more of the pasta water (at this point or later on) if the dish seems dry.

I 

I added the sliced up bok choy, followed by the 3 tablespoons of butter, cut into cubes.  

When the butter was melted (with some stirring), I added 1/2 cup of the parmesan.

Followed immediately by the shrimp. 

Then I turned the dish out into a serving piece.

And here it is. I sprinkled it with the rest of the parmesan and the rest of the lemon zest.

It is a nice light dish, lemony but not too lemony. 

Next time, I will use two bok choys to increase the green and use less spaghetti to change (improve) the proportion of pasta to non-pasta. 

And you should feel free to use "shape" pasta if your prefer - shells or farfalle or penne.

Odds and Ends

DNA- what did it mean that blackberry lilies became an iris? They are resolving in which genus group these years using DNA.  We watch Finding you Roots so see what wonders they can do with DNA. They can find who is related to whom.

Well in a discussion the other night a the orchid club, I heard it explained that DNA allowed you to look at whether there was a common ancester. The blackberry lily had more in common with the iris group than any other. It sort of made sense, in a very over simplified way.

Daylight savings time happens next weekend. Each year I read about proposals to eliminate it entirely. I have to admit I am ambilvalent. There are so many clocks that will need to be changed. I have about 4 different timers set around the house. I have a week to think about those times. If they turn the lights on at 5:15 what time will that be next Sunday? 

My personal proposal is that you could have daylight savings time be a personal preference. Whoever wants it can have it. Ok. Maybe not that proposal. How about phasing it in gradually, like over a month. I could handle 15 minutes every week. That would not be such a shock.

I like to garden in part to escape the world beyond College Street. News from. Des Moines where news from the red legislature is grim. They actually cultivate divisions between people, finding someone  to blame or to chase. I am not even going to mention some of the other things that appear in the newspaper. 

And of course the war in the Ukraine continues. It is old news at this point. But people are still dying. 

Pray for peace and reconcilliation.

Philip