Week #1 of the playoffs- March 2, 2025

Welcome to March. Here in Iowa it is back to being cold. Sunny, but cold. The snowdrops are coming up. It was warm enough during the week that I went out for 20 minutes each morning before work and did some garden cleanup. It has been a long and sedentary winter.  Spring training baseball has started. I have my own spring training in the garden. I am using muscles that have been dormant for some time. Think about the muscles used in raking. Those don't get used any other time.

In the midst of the otherwise week of shame, Julia spotted this little flower, growing under the heat vent.

Here is that aforementioned vent. If you were not looking it would have been easy to miss.

Let me talk about the picture contest which is gearing up for the finals. It gears up and at the same time winds down.

Last Week was Week 13, the last week to pick the pictures for the playoffs. The winner was the lupine picture, which edged out the iris with one vote on Saturday.

Here was that final vote.

The Playoffs

Here are the participants at this point, with their respective percentages. There were 13 clear winners, and two weeks with a two picture tie.

There are now three weeks with five pictures each week.  The six pictures with more than 40% are seeded:

Week 3 Pink Dogwood 75

Week 7 Cactus 53

Week 5  violet 49

Week 6 tree peony 44

Week 10  Blue Iris 43

Week 4 Poppy 41

Week 9  white orchid 37

Week 1 violet 37

Week 12 cypripedium 35

Week 13 lupines everywhere 35

Week 11 English Bluebell 34

Week 2  Ruby Spider and woodpecker 27

Week 8  tulips and bartzella 26

Week #1 playoffs

#1 Pink Dogwood

April 28, 2024

This picture, from week #3, is the number 1 seed. It garnered 75% in that week. We have not ever seen that kind of dominance. Will it last?

#2 Pileated Woodpecker

March 25, 2024

We had never seen this bird in our yard in over 40 years of living here. It was there for several days a year ago, trying to find good things to eat in the walnut tree. We did not see it again.

This picture tied Ruby Spider in Week 2. It was the only non plant in the contest this year.

#3 Fancy tulips 

April 24, 2024

These tulips were also in a tie in week 8. I tried to get more Monsellas this past fall, without success.

It was kind of a discouraging fall. It marked the beginning of a long discouraging time.

#4 English Bluebells

 April 29, 2024

I always like it when new flowers are in the contest. These English bluebells were from Week 11.

#5 Pink Shirley poppy 

June 14, 2024

The Shirley poppies are represented by just this one picture this year. Their presence was limited due to deer. 

Poppies have hairy stems. There must be a name for that condition. I found it. The hair is calleed trichomes. I love being able to learn new things.

Bonus Section

Critters in the contest, over the years

How many of you remember this picture? It was in the contest in 2007-8.

The best spider web

These were the professional geese, one spring morning. They still migrate. It really was an awe inspiring sight.

Ducks have from time to time menaced the pond.

The dogwood is no  stranger to the contest.

Here are pictures from the contest in past years.

Julia's recipe

Creamy pasta and spinach and cheese

I got this recipe from the NYT. It's simple and pretty fast and vegetarian, one of those one-pot recipes where the pasta cooks in a limited amount of liquid releasing all of its starch into the pot to make the sauce.  We had it as a main dish for a meatless meal, but it could also be a side to simply roasted salmon or chicken or pork.

The ingredients:

1 pkg. Israeli cous cous (mine was 14 oz.);

about 1-1/2 teaspoon smushed garlic;

about 1/3 cup chopped onion;

2 tablespoons butter;

5 cups (!) whole milk;

1/2 big bag chopped spinach;

several big strips lemon peel;

1/2 cup or so  grated parmesan; and some salt and pepper.

A couple of notes: the recipe called for 10 oz. of big cous cous or orzo or ditalini. I had a 14 oz. package of big cous cous. I used the whole thing. It was fine. I was not interested in converting weight to volume of tiny pasta. The recipe also called for 10 oz. frozen spinach. That's on rectangular block box. I don't buy spinach that way. Rather, I buy it in big bags. I used a little more than 1/2 bag. The recipe called for whole milk, and I think that matters. My guess is that the sauce needs the fat from the whole milk to mix with the starch from the pasta. Not sure it would work with reduced fat or skim milk. 

First, I prepped the onion and the garlic.

I melted the butter in a Dutch oven and added the onion and garlic. I cooked the vegetables over medium heat for a few minutes - until the onions started to look a bit softened. 

Then I added the strips of lemon peel...

followed by the milk...

and the lumps of frozen spinach. 

It took about 8 or 9 minutes for the spinach to melt and the milk to begin to simmer. I kept the heat on medium for this period of time.  

Then I added the cous cous to the simmering milk.

It took about 20 minutes for the cous cous to cook through. I stayed near the stove to stir the pot every minute or two. This kept the pasta from sticking and, apparently, made the creaminess happen by mixing the pasta starch thoroughly into the milk mixture.  

When the pasta was done (which I knew by tasting it after about 20 minutes), I fished the lemon peel out of the pot and stirred in the parmesan. Supper was ready. 

We had it with green salad (using out own salad greens from the lettuce crop growing under lights in the basement) and blueberries with yogurt. 

Simple, satisfying, about 1-1/2 quarts of leftovers to enjoy for lunch during the next few days. 

Odds and Ends

This had to be the odd fact from the week. Imagin so many rubber ducks, loose on the high seas.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1041125271388781&set=a.604053748429271

Of course it was a terrible week.

There was the Iowa legislature making national news for taking away the rights of all trans people.

I do not even know how to begin describing trunpfs treatment of the President of the Ukrane. We are siding with Putin? Really?  It was a week where you felt shame. Shame to be from this country. Shame to be from Iowa. 

It was the week for bad events that you would have thought were from the Onion.

There was trumpf announcing a plan for immigrants to be able to buy the equivalent of a green card for $5 million.

Then on Friday just days after the legislature ended civil right protection for trans people our governor, Kim Reynolds, declared Friday to be the fifth annual Day of Kindness. I hate those people.

I need to just play in the dirt. I need to find the aconite, which so far are not appearing. 

Pray for the world. There is no kindness.

When I was young and Vietnam was on our minds, I would not stand for the national anthem. 

I would not stand today.

Enjoy the pictures. Say hello from time to time. I do so appreciate hearing from you.

Philip