June 30, 2024- back home

This is Iowa. 

Right after arriving home it was hot for a few days. Friday, with the temperatures getting to barely 75, I wore a sweater for a short time. 

We had a brutal 3 week stretch in early June where it did not rain and was hot. When we returned from the beach the rain had already started. 3 inches happened one day while we were gone. (That is from the neighbor's rain gauge.) Another inch came this past Friday. In northwest Iowa there is record flooding on the Des Moines River. There had been between 10-18 inches in some areas upstream. 

Iowa is partly a disaster area.

I could say that again, with a slightly different meaning.

On Friday the Iowa Supreme Court upheld one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country. The vote was 4-3. Two of the three dissenting votes came from Terry Branstad appointees who were appointed after 3 "liberals" were voted off the court in 2010. That was after the gay marriage decision. The Court is now so far right  that the old "right" is now at the liberal end of the spectrum.

Iowa unlike some other conservative states does not have the ability to put the measure on the ballot. 

But the state of the garden is better than the state of the state.

It was rather glorious yesterday. It was warm, maybe 85, particularly in the sun. In the shade is was pleasant, as there was a nice breeze.

There are so many great flowers at the moment. They call it high summer for a reason.

There are actually three types of flowers I want to feature.

Coneflowers

They are all over, and not just the old purple one. They would be better with more sun, but they are still good.

Look at these pictures.

Here is the good picture. We always want to help out the bees.

Now the bad picture- here is the first Japanese beatle of the season. It will actually eat the flower.

Then there are the daylilies.

This next is Ruby Spider, a special plant in the garden. It is right down by the house driveway, where it is on display for everyone going by. I will give it deer spray on a regular basis.

Daylily breaders have really worked on frilly edges.

This is Primal Scream, one of the plants in the all name group.

Then there were the lilium.

A few other pictures

This is pink larkspur. Larkspur is a volunteer in several places in the garden. It is mostly blue, but here is some pink.

I really think that next year I want more. I read somewhere that you sow the seed in the fall. OK. I will try it.

This is one of the cladium blooming. It looks like other indoor plants.  I like how the red comes up into the flower.

This voodoo lily has sideshoots. I will have to see how that goes. Should I try to separate them soon, or wait until fall?

In the world of really odd things, this sanservieria has a voodoo lily growing in the same pot. I have no idea how that happened. I do not believe there have been any voodoo lily seeds in the garden. 

The Jack in the Pulpet seed pods are forming.

The caladium are wonderful. I will keep most of them on the sale table. I will just plant them in the garden at some point. I got 100 jumbo bulbs in April. I have sold probably 70. 

Julia's recipe

Arroz Delicias (Simplified Paella)

I was looking at some recipes that had been kicking around (metaphorically speaking) in my recipe notebook. This one is from New Pioneer Co-op and is at least 25 years old. I don't know why I had never made it before. It's actually my kind of recipe - the ingredients are mostly pantry staples; it's a one pot main dish; it takes about 30 minutes.

The ingredients:

1-1/2 teaspoons smushed garlic;

1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika;

1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika;

2 tablespoons olive oil;

1/2 cup green pepper matchsticks;

1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes (drained with the juice reserved);

1 cup or so cooked chicken;

3/4 cup medium grain rice;

2-1/2 cups chicken stock (or 2+ teaspoons better than bouillon plus 2-1/2 cups water including the reserved tomato juice);

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme;

1/2 teaspoon saffron;

1 cup shrimp (fresh and cleaned or thawed pre-cleaned), cut in half; 

1/4 cup pimento stuffed olives; and

some salt and pepper.

As it happens, I always have some saffron in my cupboard. Although it is expensive, you never need much, and it makes a difference. Other than the saffron, the ingredients are not, to my mind, exotic.

As usual, I started by prepping the vegetables. Not much to it, just some garlic and green pepper. 

I heated the olive oil in a large skillet and added the garlic and both kinds of paprika. After about 1 minute on medium heat, I added ...

the green pepper and the drained tomatoes and the better than bouillon paste. I cooked this mixture for maybe 3 minutes, still on medium heat. 

Next I added the rice, and I stirred the rice around so it would be coated with the stuff already in the skillet. 

After that, I added the 2-1/2 cups of water/tomato juice, the thyme, the saffron and maybe 1/2 teaspoon of salt and maybe 1/4 teaspoon of pepper. I brought the mixture to a boil, turned down the heat and covered the skillet to cook the rice. It took about 15 minutes on low heat (after the boiling moment) for the rice to cook most of the way.

Then I added the chopped cooked chicken.

Then I added the shrimp and covered the skillet for maybe 5 minutes finish the rice, cook the shrimp and 

heat the chicken. 

After the rice and shrimp and chicken were all good, I added the pimento stuffed olives, cut in half, and stirred everything up. 

We served it in the skillet. With salad and berries on the side, as usual. 

It was good and it reheated nicely for lunch later in the week. 

Odds and Ends

Biological clocks

We are slowly adjusting our biological clocks to being back in Iowa. My clock is usually set to getting up about 5. For a while at the beach I slept until almost 6. Then I adjusted. This past week, being back in Iowa, I was waking at 4, which was 5 beach time.

I will say that getting up  before 5 in Iowa gives me a change to get into the garden before 6. I it never good to think you are behind in the schedule and it is before 7.

Yesterday was glorious in the garden. I changed shirts 3 times.

Here are the weather totals from Iowa City for the month of June:

More on the sad condition of the law in Iowa.

Justice Susan Christiansen wrote this at the start of her dissent:

"Today, our court’s majority strips Iowa women of their bodily autonomy by holding that there is no fundamental right to terminate a pregnancy under our state constitution. I cannot stand by this decision. The majority’s rigid approach relies heavily on the male-dominated history and traditions of the 1800s, all the while ignoring how far women’s rights have come since the Civil War era." 

I do not mean that this decision was a surprise. It wasn't.  All of the judges on the Iowa Supreme Court are now appointed by republicans. (We have had republican governors since 2011.)  If anything, the fact there were 3 who dissented was a surprise. 

This does not prevent it being sad. 

I understand the ornamental kale has germinated, off site, at a local greenhouse. We have a month to figure out what to do with cabbage moths/worms. How is that for a transition? 

Disaster and the  garden. 

Please let us not have a rerun of the demented idiot who supposedly is supported by a majority of Iowas. 

Pray for peace, and for wisdom, and for hope.

Be kind.

Find the breeze. 

Philip