July 9, 2023- high season and some more Colorado

The garden is part of Iowa City's Open Gardens this weekend. This is a display put on by Project Green, a local garden club that has been around for so long they do not mention it on their website. (I think it is about 50 years.) The idea is to get certain local gardens to open up to the public for certain times one weekend during the garden season. This weekend is chosen since it is the time for lilies. 

This year there are 25 such gardens, in the Iowa City and Coralville area. The gardeners have agreed to open up for 4 hours each, on Saturday or Sunday. It is 4-8 on Saturday and 10-2 on Sunday.

It is a rather humorous idea to me to open for 4 hours each day, as our garden is always open. But I agree to participate each year as there are some people who need a written invitation.

Preparing for the event takes some work. People with a garden of manageable size weed the entire thing. I choose to weed when time allows. (I am not sure what is the alternative.) It has helped that there was some rain in the last few weeks. Officially we are still about 1/3 low for the year. (We have received 12 inches out of a normal 18.) The scuffle hoe has been used a lot. It would be used more if I did not have little spring bulbs just 1-3 inches below the surface in many areas.

There is much to write about this week. So as with any good term paper, or legal brief, let me start by telling you what I am going to do, and then do it.

I want to write about the garden this weekend. That includes showing you the better pictures even if I wish I could show you the smells. The lilium at the moment send out smells all over the garden.

I want to write about  a new display, that just went up yesterday.

I want to also write more about Colorado, as technology was limited last week.

The garden this week:

First let me tell you about the Pennants- Here they are. I have thought about pennants for years. Pat and Stewart, in Florida, made them for us this year. (On rather short notice as well.) They, and the pennants, are wonderful. 

Our new tree guy, Jason Macartney, helped with attachments. He had just the correct ladder and knows all the best knots.

I will find a good video for next week, when the wind creates the full effect.

5 best pictures from the week of July 2-8

I have put in the poll so you can vote if you wish.

#1 One last Shirley poppy.

This picture is a little different as I got the flower with a yellow hosta in the background.

#2 Orientpet Time Zone

This is Orientpet "Time Zone". It was planted in the front parkway in 2021. It stands up tall in its second full season. An Orientpet is a cross between an Oriental lily and a trumpet lily.

I got it from a compnay in Washington called B & D Lilies. I have gotten many lilies from them over the years. It is closing as the people there are retiring. Actually they have been pursuaded to stay open one more year. Retirement decisions are sometimes difficult. The conca d'or lily was also from them.

#3 Orange conflowers

The Coneflowers have been good this year. They are tall and there are different varieties. This orange kind is in the front parkway.

#4 Conca d'or Orientpet lily

I planted a number of new lilium in the front parkway in the fall of 2021. They have grown well in their second season. Imagin what they would have done with adequate moisture.

#5 Daylily Double Daffy

Daylilies come in many forms. This is a double, located in the front yard.

Other pictures from the garden this week

Colorado

Let me start out with videos, including the one from last Sunday that did not work. On our first Sunday in Colorado Christopher had his chance after the service to try the organ.

This was Lily Lake, on Monday. As were several lakes we visited, it  was about 9000 feet up. We adjusted to the altitude after about 24 hours.

Spinning around seems to be one constant with small children.

This was Sprague Lake. At 9000 feet, it was on the way to Bear Lake.

On Friday we took our most ambitious hike, with the children, ages  2 (almost 3) and 6. Round trip, we got in about 2 miles. It was  only during the last 15 minutes that there were repeated requests to be carried.

Hummingbirds are a fixture at Estes Park. Sometimes your cabin comes with hummingbird feeders on the porch. This time we had to buy them. This little one was particularly fun as you could set it down right next to where you were sitting. The little birds would just come drink, sometimes looking at you.

Other pictures

This was our cabin at the Y camp in Estes Park. It was named Peace.

During the week the children worked on this cairn near the driveway to the cabin.

Sometimes the rocks were as interesting and as colorful as the flowers. 

This next picture is from a place called the "alluvial fan" in Rocky Mountain National Park. An earthen dam broke upstreat in 1982 causing a great rockslide and flood. We have seen the regrowth of the area over our visits. The new pine trees were 9 years older than our last visit.

Magna-tiles are so engaging. And they are easily packed.

This was up at Bear Lake, perhaps the most popular part of RMNP. You get to the snow line there, where the flowers that bloom in the snow runoff can be found. These are mostly marsh marigolds.

One of the orchids we find at RMNP is this little cyprepedium called a Brownie Lady Slipper. We remembered where at Bear Lake we had found it in the past. Sure enough it was still there. We saw if nowhere else on the trip.

We took this hike through a place that had burned in 2020 or 2021. It was coming back to life. 

The last full day in Estes it hailed. That was our only precipation for the trip which was good. The sun did later come out.

Our last evening at the cabin.

On our way from Estes to Denver on Saturday we stop a park in Peaceful Valley. There are always columbine and other flowers.

There were shooting stars. This was the only place we found them.

There was also this remarkable orchid, called a spotted coralroot. It appears not to have leaves. How can that be? It is just another plant mystery.

We went to a baseball game in Denver on Saturday night. We did not think a game with the Detroit Tigers would draw many people. It was a near sellout since there were fireworks after the game. We passed on the fireworks so were able to drive to our hotel without being stuck in traffic.

We did get to the rather hot Denver Botanic Gardens after church on Sunday.

This Dale Chahuly piece is one of the only pieces left from a full installation 10 years ago.

Waterlilies are a regular feature for these gardens.

Julia's Recipe

Stovetop chicken with rice and greenbeans

This dish is a variation of arroz con pollo (rice with chicken), which I have made for years in the oven - a casserole with left over cooked chicken and rice and bacon bits and ham or pork (if any is on hand) and onions and green peppers and tomatoes. And some spices. This version, from Better Homes and Gardens magazine, is faster and simpler and cooks on the stovetop. All good things. I still like the oven version, but this is an alternative. I did make a few tweaks, as I often do.

The ingredients:

4 chicken thighs (I used bone-in, boneless or skinless and boneless would be fine);

1-2 tablespoons regular oil;

1 cup chopped onion (I used red);

1-1/4 cup chopped red green pepper (I used red and green);

2 tablespoons smushed garlic;

2 teaspoons curry powder;

1 cup rice (I used medium grain);

1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes;

2 cups (or so) chicken stock or better than bouillon;

1 tablespoon sriracha or other hot sauce;

about 2 cups fresh green beans; and

salt and pepper.

I started by prepping the veggies: cleaned and chopped the onion; smushed the garlic; cut the ends off the green beans; cleaned the chopped the red and green pepper. 

Next, I added 1 or maybe 2 tablespoons of regular vegetable oil to a very big skillet (like 10" across the bottom), heated it up a bit, sprinkled some salt and pepper on the skin side of the chicken and put them skin side down into the pan. Then I sprinkled salt and pepper on the other, exposed side. 

I cooked the chicken on mediume-high heat about 5 minutes per side, enough to do some browning but not enough to get done. I then removed the chicken to a plate.

I added the onion and peppers to the same skillet and cooked them (still on medium-high), stirring now and then for about 4 or 5 minutes until they wilted some. 

Then I added the garlic and curry powder and cooked that for only about 30 seconds.  

Here is everything, cooking away.

Next I added the rice and a dollop of better than bouillon chicken-flavored. It really is easier to do this than to dissolve the bouillon paste in water. The paste sticks a little, but it all comes up when the liquid is added. 

I stirred the rice into the other ingredients for less than a minute.

Then, I added the diced tomatoes and the water and the sriracha and stirred it all around. 

Once the ingredients were stirred together, I added the chicken thighs back to the skillet, skin-side up. I covered the pan and reduced the heat to a simmer. 

I cooked the dish for about 15 minutes, then flipped the chicken pieces and added the green beans and cooked it for another 20 minutes. 

People may differ on cooking time. I like my chicken done done. No al dente chicken for me. The recipe said to cook until the chicken temped at 175 degrees. I went beyond that. Also I am not a fan of crisp cooked green beans. I don't want green bean mush, but I do want them to have given up.  

Here it is in the final stages of cooking. Rice nearly done; chicken pretty much done; green beans working past crisp-tender. 

On the table. It was a nice one-pot dinner. We had it with green salad and berries with yogurt, as usual. 

There was enough for lunch the next day which heated up nicely. 

Odds and Ends

The Saturday portion of the open gardens was a success. I am always amazed at the ability of people to look at the flowers and not see the weeds. Of course I was on my feet for 4 hours after a busy earlier time getting things ready. We have been blessed with cooler weather, which is carrying over into today.

Did I mention that I am tired?

Our trip to Colorado did expose just how our lives are dominated by technology. To control crowding at RMNP you have to get special passes to get into the park at all between certain times. You need a special pass to get to the Bear Lake portion of the park. You get the passes by going online at 5pm and try to get the pass along with 10000 other people. It was tense in the cabin as 2 computer and 3 phones tried to access the cite right at 5pm. We got it. I did have to wonder how people without the machines could get access.

Then when we got our tickets to the baseball game, we did not get those little paper tickets. We got an email with those little squares that can be scanned. Of course Boarding passes for the airplane came the same way. 

Did I mention that we are currently without television because the programming is so complicated. I just want a TV I can turn on and change the channels. 

I am looking forward to a rest period after the garden period later this morning.

Pray for peace.

It is always good to hear from you.

Philip