February 25, 2024 Week #1 of the playoffs

 

It is absolutely glorious in the garden. The aconite and snowdrops have been joined by the crocuses to create this wonderful swirl of color. I was outside for 4-5 hours yesterday. I am a little stiff and may have gotten some sun.

Remarkably, we are still in February. Everything that is up and blooming is tough. They survived the temperature drop of a week ago, when for two nights in a row it got to single digits. Here is a little clump of tommasinianius crocuses, before and after the very cold. It was very cold on February 17 and 18,

2-16-24

        

2-20-24

    

          We have had early aconite before. At the moment we have peaking aconite. You know it is full blown aconite season when the next generation appears, exponentially adding to the flowers to come in the future.

Then there are the crocuses. Many are the little tommies, the tommasinianus. They are early and they taste bad. So many, if not all of the plants, flowers, that are up now taste bad.

If you listen carefully to this video you can hear the bees buzzing.

Just look at this combination of colors.

There is so much happening outside. I do remember we have been having a picture contest. Let me get right to that.

Winter Picture Contest 2023-24

         We have a real milestone this week. The 13 weeks are over. You have seen 65 pictures. We are now down to 15. 

Last Week

It was one of the tightest vote we had all year. I know Week 7 ended in a tie. You can not  get any closer than that. But each picture that week got 29%. 

This past week there was another tie. The striped crocuse and the dogwood  finished dead even. Each picture got  36%. 

Both of the contestants advance to the playoffs.

Here is the full tally from Week 13.

The playoffs

We will have 3 weeks of playoffs, followed by the finals.

The seeding is based on the top percentages during the 13 weeks.

The seeds are (1) Kale from week 6 with 51%. (2) Purple Iris from Week 4 with 48% and (3) Gray Poppy from Week 1 with 47%.

Since there was a tie in Week 7, both of those pictures advance. That meant there  could be only 1 wild card.

Since there was a tie in Week 13, both of those pictures advance.

That fills the bracket with 15 pictures. There are no wild cards this year.

So... we have 3 weeks of playoffs and then the finals.

Week #1 of the playoffs

#1 Frosty Kale 

December 14, 2023

There have been 19 previous contests, I think. We started in 2005 and missed one year. That is over 1200 pictures. I really like it when something new makes its appearance. 

This frosty kale was partucularly special on a cold morning in December.

Most of the kale did survive the winter. I really do not know what they will look like in April.

#2 Dwarf Iris Blissfull 

May 5, 2023

Normally little iris start in late April. April 17 is about the earliest picture of a  little dwarf iris I find in the massive library.  Who knows what will happen this year. I have raked them off and the foliage looks good. 

I have taken the plant sale iris out of the garage where they spent a few months. 

#3 Pink Shirleys

 June 10, 2023

Shirley poppies are certainly all over the playoffs. You selected 4 to be in the playoffs, not counting the Oriental poppy in the next picture.

I picked this of all years to start my Shirleys inside. They are actually just getting their secondary leaves. 

If April is in February, what will April bring? I suspect this will be a theme for the next several months.

#4 Red Poppy

 May 25, 2023

Sometimes I think about having a contest just about color. We did that once, forming teams of pictures based on colors.

#5 Mermaid Kisses

 March 17, 2023

My interest in Violets has grown over the last 15 months. A big thank you goes to Jean, who sells them at the Winter Farmers Market out at the Fairgrounds in Iowa City. That market goes from November to April, the time when the regular downtown market shuts down for the season. 

With wicking as the method of watering, we have not killed them. That is the first step in developing an enthusiasm. Some of our plants are almost 15 months old at this point.

Violets are also inexpensive. They sell for $5 each, for a plant that blooms a very long time, and then reblooms. That is about the cost of a cup of coffee. (I must confess it has been a long time since I bought a cup of coffee.) 

I suppose the price is low because they are relatively easy to propogate. You take a leaf and set it in water for a month and then you have roots. You plant the rooted leaf and in 3 months you have a little plant. You can do the math. If you want you can have many plants after a year or so.

This is the second year when a violet was in the contest. Last year Birth of a Galaxy was in the contest. It made the playoffs, and advanced to the finals, finishing second.

Will a violet go all the way this time?

There you have it. You have seen these pictures before. But the choices get hard from this point on. Tell me what you thing. Grab someone else and have them vote.

Bonus Pictures

Violets

Amor Elite Standard

Birth of a Galaxy

Kale right now

I actually have been shaping them a little, cutting off some lower leaves that are not very crisp.

The color is so stricking when contrasted with the whites and yellows of the early spring garden.

Right Now

This is Snowdrop Wendy's Gold. It is special because it has a yellow cap. I planted this in 2022. It is starting to clump.

One or two more days, and it should bloom.

One of the hoyas in our bedroom has started to bloom. There are 4 more clusters coming on the same plant.

A squill in February. Just this one so far. The place where they usually start is next to the house in the backyard. It is very dry there. I think I may get out the hose. In February? What does that say about April. There is no rain in the ten day forcast.

The hellebores are about to bloom. 

This is one of the baby tree peonies, perhaps in its third year. (It could be the forth.) It looks like it will bloom.

When I rake up the leaves it is particularly thrilling to find a big mature clump of lupines.

It should be a good year for lupines.

Julia's recipe

Shrimp and Spinach

Another quick supper with shrimp. This is from Madhur Jeffrey's Quick and Easy Indian Cooking, which is a very nice cookbook that I received some years ago from Katie. The author suggests making it with squid or scallops or shrimp. I am not a fan of squid, having spent my entire life in the great middle of the country. I would make it with scallops - using the little ones as is or the big ones cut in half. I had shrimp on hand, which are reliably available and familiar. The picture below shows a bunch of ingredients, but most of them are spices for the curry sauce. The dish can be on the table in about the same amount of time as it takes to cook the rice to serve it with. 

The ingredients:

1 5 oz. box of baby spinach;

1 lb. shrimp, thawed if frozen;

3/4 cup canned diced tomatoes; and

1/2 cup cream (or coconut milk).

For the sauce:

1/2 teaspoon cayenne;

1/2 teaspoon turmeric;

1 teaspoon ground cumin;

1 teaspoon ground coriander;

1 teaspoon salt;

some pepper;

1 teaspoon dijon mustard; and

2 tablespoons water.

Extra ingredients:

3 tablespoons regular oil;

1 teaspoon mustard seeds of any color;

1 teaspoon smushed garlic;

1 teaspoon grated ginger; and

about 1 cup of water.

First I put all of the sauce ingredients in a little bowl with the water and stirred it up. 

Then I grated the ginger (shown at the bottom of the picture) and smushed the garlic.

I heated the oil in the skillet. I put the mustard seeds in, which started popping almost immediately. Then I added the ginger and garlic and stirred it around.

I believe this is a video of stirring the ginger and garlic, until it was fragrant - not very long. . 

In short order, I added the tomatoes and the spice mixture in the little bowl and the spinach and about 1 cup of water. I simmered this mixture for about 10 minutes. 

Next I added the shrimp. My shrimp were deveined and shelled and cooked. They had been frozen, and I defrosted them. 

They had the tail shells on. Why? No idea. When I took the tails off, I noticed that some of the shrimp had been imperfectly deveined so I ended up cutting the last 1/4 inch or so off some of the shrimp. 

I placed the shrimp on top of the spinach- tomato-spice sauce just to warm up. Already cooked. 

Lastly, I added the 1/2 cup of whipping cream and once everything was warm, the dish was ready. 

Here is is on the table. We served it with rice (we used basmati, but any rice will be fine) and salad and raspberries. 

There are a lot of spices, but the result is very flavorful and as I said above, if you have cleaned and deveined shrimp (that are thawed), this meal can be on the table in less than 30 minutes. 

We had a little leftover, which was nice for lunch.  

Odds and ends

Baseball- You can officially call it spring once baseball starts. All the teams have reported to spring training. The first spring training games have been in the last two days. The first offical games are on March 20-21, in Korea.

I have been selling aconite for the foodbanks.  I have sold about 30 little strays. Those are the ones that come up in the paths or close to it. This weekend I will think about potting hellebores.

I assume we will hear next week about how February set all sorts of records for the warmest February. What we need to remember is that December was also quite warm. January was warm except for that 10 day period when it was cold. The ground never really froze.

The warm temperatures continue with highs in the 60's schduled for Monday, Tuesday, and then the weekend.

Wendesday the high will be 36. Of course that is about normal for this time of year.

Noxious Weeds

Do you know there is a law in Iowa? Here is a link and a list.

https://crops.extension.iastate.edu/encyclopedia/iowas-noxious-weed-law-chapter-317

Precipitation

With the gradual melting of the 15 inches of snow we had in January, most of the garden does not seem dry. Hoever there are parts of the yard that look dry. They are dry. Right next to the house on the south side is one place. WIth no rain coming this week, I do think I will get out the hose later today.

Overall here is the nation drought map for the moment. We are real close to the red part. Look at California.

Our local newspaper is not what it once was. Here was the front page one day this week.

I have spared you the article about the state's fish. I had hoped it was a story about the Republican party.

The republicans somehow became the party of the elephant. What if we start a movement to consider their animal to be the fish?

Now to end on a more serious note.

Please give a quiet moment to think about the Ukrane. They have been living in terror for over two years.

Now give a moment to resolve to get rid of all those who would abandon the Ukrane, and who would  kiss putin's ___.

As they say in New Orleans, be nice, or leave.

Philip