April 16, 2023- nice weather for June

The weather people describe this last week in glowing terms. Lovely. Wonderful. Every day there was blue skies with temperatures getting into the 80's. Spring is going fast forward. Forsythia came out along with tulip trees and then the Bradford Pears. Daffodils are in full bloom, with the early ones being finished. With the almost hot weather came the dry weather. I have not gotten out the sprinkler but I have thought about it. We have had less than a quarter of an inch of rain in April,

My ideal weather, as a gardener, would be to have off and on light rain, and overcast. It could be in the 50's.

Update: Sunday morning. The front came through. It rained. Now there are snowflakes in the forecast. Fortunately this did not happen until last night. I put in one of those 10 hour days in the garden, pacing myself somewhat. 

I thought I saw my first species tulips the other day. Then I looked and they were everywhere. 

This picture gives you some idea how small species tulips can be.

How about some pictures.

Voting?
Last week people liked this amaryllis.

The full vote was

Here are 6 pictures from this week. There were too many pictures to just do 5. What do you think?

#1 Another amaryllis

#2 Species tulips-tarda

 I planted 50 of these tulips 2 years ago. They all began to bloom Wednesday, in all the different places in the garden. 

#3 Twin Leaf

This is an early sping wildflower, sometimes mistaken for bloodroot. It lasted just 2 days in the heat.

#4 Tiny trillum

#5 Windflowers- anemone blanda

#6 Larger trillium

I have a special section below with just daffodil pictures. 

Have fun with this vote.

More pictures from this week

Daffodils- I will give them names or numbers if you have one you like.

#1

#2

Thalia

This was my mother's favortie.

#4

More of #4

#5

#6

Tahiti

Double ones come later. It is a short season this year. I do think we will slow down at this point.

#8

Modern Art

So much to tell. So much to show.

The bluebells have started, blooming in order of the micro climates in the garden. The first ones to bloom are on the south side of the house.

The tree peonies should bloom soon.

The double bloodroot are wonderful. 

Here you can see the why the plant was named "twin leaf."

The white trilliums often fade to pink.

This is a smaller cattleya orchid that blooms in April. It gives you an idea why orange can be a favorite color.

Crown imperial frittillarias do not reliably come back, even for a second year. This one did.

Julia's recipe

Salmon with white beans and spinach

As I have said, we get salmon (and sometimes cod or halibut or other white fish) from Alaska meaning we eat more fish than we would otherwise, which I know is good for us. This is an adaptation of a recipe from the Sitka Salmon people. Katie had just given us some fancy heirloom dried beans from a fancy heirloom dried bean place in California. So this recipe seemed perfectly timed - salmon and beans!

The ingredients:

1 piece of salmon - we had about 3/4 lb. for 2 people;

1/3 cup sliced carrot;

1 cup diced onion;

1 teaspoon smushed garlic;

1-1/2 cup of white beans (or 1 15 oz. can);

1-1/2 cups chicken stock (or bouillon);

1 cup diced tomatoes;

2 cups of so baby spinach;

3 tablespoons olive oil;

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes; 

1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary;

some salt and pepper.

I started by peeling and slicing the carrot and cleaning and dicing the onion and cleaning and smushing the garlic. And I turned the oven on to 400 degrees.

When the veggies were ready, I heated olive oil in a big skillet and added the carrots and onion when the oil was warm. I added a little salt and pepper (maybe 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper). Medium heat to soften but not brown. When the onion was beginning to look translucent, I added the garlic, red pepper flakes and rosemary. 

I happened to have dried rosemary, but I don't think it is critical. The red pepper flakes are critical. 

When I could smell the garlic, I added the beans and the broth. Actually, I added about 1 teaspoon of chicken bouillon (Better than Bouillon paste) to the pan and stirred it in before adding the beans.

If you are using canned beans, drain them and add the entire 1-1/2 cup of stock. I was using facy beans that I had cooked myself so I used the bean water as part of the stock.

Next I added the diced tomatoes with their juice. This was not on the original receipe ingredient list but I had about 1 cup of diced tomatoes in the refrigerator so I added them. I thought tomatoes would add some flavor to the beans, and I was right. 

I turned the heat down and simmered the beans for about 10 or 15 minutes. 

While the beans were simmering, I deboned the salmon, cut it into 2 pieces and put it in a baking dish with a bit of oil in the bottom. I sprinkled the fish with salt and pepper. 

As soon as the oven was hot, I baked the salmon for 10 minutes, I think. 

The recipe called for frying the salmon on the stove. I did not like that idea so I baked the fish. 

After the fish had been in the oven for a few minutes, I gave the beans a stir and added the spinach - about 2 cups.

A skillet of beans topped with spinach. You will see a pan of rice on the back burner, which featured in the plating stage.  

When the salmon was done, it was time to plate. I put a small dollop of rice in the bottom of each bowl, then added a generous scoop of the bean mixture. Actually, I divided the whole bean mixture between the two of us. 

Last, I put the fish on top. I am not a fan of fish skin so I peeled it off the salmon pieces, which is pretty easy to do when the salmon is cooked and when it does not have any sauce on top to slide off in a puddle. 

Dinner in a bowl. With green salad and berries with yogurt. No leftovers. 

Odds and Ends

The heat is back on this morning (Sunday). It might get to 40 degrees today. 

Katie and family arrive on Tuesday. Our life will be a little different for 10 days.

Some plants are going outside or finding a porch or garage to make room for more people.

I just got 60 wonderful little dwarf iris yesterday from Diane. I potted them all, except for a few examples for the garden. One question will be whether the recently divided plants will bloom this year. The backyard sale is picking up, even if it will slow down with the cooler weather. I even took some little jade plants outside, finding one of the few shady places. It could be 31 tonight. I think they will find the garage.

Maybe a new feature? Other people's pictures.

My sister send this picture. This is the parent of my white tree peonies I grew from seed. It is Phoeniz White and is in my sister Ellen's yard in Maryland. She lost an apple tree recently so it gets much more sun. Sun matters. She counted 57 buds.

Here were some of the flowers.

Katie and Christopher have been growing lettuce all winter. They do not have deer in Portland, Maine so the plants are now going out into raised beds. They had to wait for dirt for the raised beds. They had to wait on dirt for the dirt to thaw.

Here are two pictures from Pat in Florida. They can grow things in Florida that do not grow here.

This first picture is a Vanda orchid.

This is a bonsai bougainvillea.

If you have pictures that people might like to see, send them along. Maybe this could become a regular feature.

The garden plot opened yesterday. I will need to get it tilled before I can plant anything.

Sorry for the late post. I slept late, getting up a 5. (Yesterday was rediculous. I got up at four and was outside around 6.) 

Pray for peace. Pray for reconciliation. So many of those crazies on the right are really just afraid of so many things. 

Give thanks for rain, and perhaps for cooler weather. 

Enjoy the spring.

Philip