April 30, 2023- High spring is here

The house is quiet. The children went home to Maine on Thursday. We have done the laundry and are getting back to our routines.

Frost no longer shows up in the forecast. Gardeners clamor to plant those tomato plants. It is still rather cool. It is still April. (But just barely.)

I am so busy. I must have potted 100 plants yesterday. That includes some that came during the day, in boxes, without descriptions. I cannot/will not pot everything. 

The little dwarf iris have started to put on a show, The first one to bloom was no more than 4 inches tall. It is called Boink. Its picture is in the top 5 pictures for the week. More iris opened yesterday, much of which I spend in the backyard. 

In last week's voting you liked

The best pictures from the week of April 23, 2023

This is a good time of the year for pictures. You may see many of these in the picture contest next winter.

#1 Miniature dwarf iris Boink

#2 Orchid Orange Bird

This cattleya like orchid regularly blooms in March. I do not know why a plant blooms at a particular time. It could have to do with where is originally came from.

#3 Monsella tulip

This has always been Julia's favorite. I got 20 of them this past fall. I sprayed them for deer when they were emerging. 

#4 Monsella and friends

Some of the orange tulips from last year came up with the monsellas. There are still bluebells all over the place.

#5 Dwarf iris Menehune 

(do you know what a menehune is?)

Menehune are the creatures in Hawaiian myth that were dark, short and lived in the forests. 

What do you think about this week's pictures?

Featured plants this week

Brunnera macrophylia

Someone brought 12  plants of Brunnera macrophylia to the backyard sale on Thursday. They were blooming. After I posted pictures on Facebook, my sole advertising for the sale, they all sold yesterday morning before 10 o'clock. 

I took a look to see if mine were blooming. There they were, so overlooked. 

They live under the white crabapple trees in the backyard. Someone on Facebook asked what they were. I decided to learn a few things. The genus is Brunnea and the species is...you guessed it...macrophylia. They are also known as Siberian bugloss or the "great forget me not". They are from the Caucasus. They can almost be a groundcover. They will spread in a non invasive way. As I sometimes say, they come back every year, and bring friends. They co-exist in my garden with hosta, epimedium, hellebores, and pulmonaria.

They are related to the much smaller forget me nots, which are actually in a different genus. I guess that makes them second cousins.

Dwarf Bearded Iris

They have started to bloom, perhaps encouraged by the one day this week that got to 70 degrees.

To start with there are "standard dwarf" iris and then there are "miniature dwarf" iris.

I know some of the names.

?

Blueberry Tart

This next picture is Boink, the first bloomer of the season.

Boink

?

This next one is Menehune, another really short one.

Menehune

This next one is Martian, another really short one.

Martian

This next one is Mr. Roberts.

Mr. Roberts

Kids pictures

We did a late Easter.

Lots of books were read.

Julia's recipe

Fish and bok choy with coconut milk and tamarind sauce 

I am always on the lookout for new fish receipes, as I have a lot of fish in my freezer. This recipe is from the NYT, with a few adaptations. It is essentially a one-pan main dish (we made rice on the side) that bakes in the oven. It is not yet summery here in Iowa, so a dish that takes about 20 minutes in a hot oven is not a problem. I like dishes with a coconut milk base - I did not experience such until fairly recently and I am impressed by both the tastiness and the ease of preparation. 

The ingredients:

about 1 lb. of white fish - I had cod;

1/2 cup of coconut milk;

1 heaping tablespoon of tamarind paste;

1 tablespoon molasses;

1 bunch of scallions;

2 bok choy heads;

3 tablespoons olive oil;

1 teaspoon grated ginger;

1 teaspoon smushed garlic;

salt and pepper; and

some chopped herb (optional) - I had parsley.

I grated the ginger, smushed the garlic and sliced up 1/4 cup of scallions (leaving the rest for later).

Then I put the veggies into a big bowl with the coconut milk, tamarind paste, molasses, 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and some salt and pepper (1/2 teaspoon or so of each).

I whisked it together. 

And then I added the fish. I set the fish aside to marinate. The recipe says that the fish marinates for 15 minutes up to 12 hours. Quite a range. I let it sit for somewhere between 15 and 30 minutes. 

Next I turned the oven on to 425 degrees.

I flipped the fish over so all sides were exposed to the marinade. 

While the fish was sitting, I cut the rest of the scallions into 1" pieces. And I cleaned the bok choy (sometimes there is grit at the core) and sliced it into 1" (or so) slices cross-wise. 

The NYT said to use broccolini. We do not like broccolini. Bok choy worked fine.

I put the greenery in another bowl, added 1 tablespoon of olive oil and maybe 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper and tossed it around. 

When the oven was hot and the marinating time had passed, I spread the vegetables in a big (12") no-stick skillet that can go in the oven. 

I took the fish pieces out of the marinade and nestled them on top of the bok choy mixture.

 

Then I poured the rest of the marinade all over the fish and greens, and the skillet went into the oven.

I baked the fish for about 10 minutes until it looked done-ish. Then I took the pan out of the oven for a minute while I turned the oven to broil. I put the pan back in the oven and broiled the fish for about 5 minutes.

The amount of time it takes to cook the fish will depend on the fish.Thick pieces of fish take longer. 

When the skillet came out of the oven, I drizzled the last tablespoon of olive oil over top and sprinkled the whole thing with chopped parsley (not shown).

We served the dish with rice and salad and raspberries with yogurt. It was good. And yes, there were leftovers which heated up nicely in a skillet. 

Odds and ends

We have a new canvas for the back garage.

We had a great walk at Ryerson Woods with the children on Wednesday. It was the one rather warm day. I just did not go back to work after lunch.

This was the start of our training for Colorado hikes. We are all going to Estes Park the last week of June. To say Julia and I need some training is an understatement. Maisie and Chrisopher are getting ready too.

Why do you walk in the woods. For me it is mostly to see the wildflowers. These are what we call merry-bells.

The children have shorter legs, but they were up to the task, at the beginning. 

Remember exploring?

The sun comes up at 6:04 this morning. I try to avoid the feeling of being late already, so early in the morning. 

I also try to avoid the news. I have mixed feelings about that. Doing nothing in the face of wickedness is just going to encourage it. I have to believe we can make it better. This is nothing new. There is no real answer. So you do what you can.

As I raise money to feed people, I am starting to include with the message that doing this is not a non partisan effort. The bad people really do not want to help those in need. 

Pray for peace, and reconciliation. Pray to get different people in power.

Katie got us a sign found in New Orleans.

It says "Be nice or Leave."

Have a good week.

Think about tiny iris.

Boink has to be on the all time best name list.

Philip