September 2, 2018 We are home

We are home.
We got home last Sunday afternoon, after a week in Maine.
It was back to work the next day.
There are people with problems.

It is now Saturday morning, as I start to write down a few things, on my familiar computer.
It is 6 o'clock and almost pitch dark.
It is also raining. It is going to rain all day. (It didn't rain all day, but we did get 1.3 inches before it was done.)
The weather forecast says that "rounds of thunderstorms, some with heavy rain, are ahead."
Another phrase I enjoyed on the local weather page was " a series of disturbances will pass through the midwest, bring scattered rain and thunderstorms over the next week."

Maine was sunny. (All but one day) We were also at the far eastern part of the eastern time zone. That meant that when we all got up with my grandson Christopher, at 5:30, it was light out.
Iowa is not in the eastern part of any time zone.
It did not help with that dark in the morning thing that for much of the week it was overcast.
For those who like numbers, sunrise now in Iowa City is at 6:32. (I checked and sunrise in Portland, Maine was 6:05.)
It seems like it was only yesterday that I was able to start gardening on Saturday morning by 6.

We have had a lot of rain in Iowa City.
Since August 20 there has been almost 6 inches. (And that was before the additional 1.3 inches  Saturday early morning.) There was 2.4 inches on Wednesday night, most of which came down in about an hour around supper time. Winds were over 70 mph with that storm. One gust was officially measured at 82 mph across the river.
There is a big branch from the Sycamore tree in the backyard that finally came down yesterday afternoon. It had broken during the storm and was hanging in the tree until then. Fortunately it did not land on any of the plant stands in the backyard, from which the orchids are hanging. (See the pictures in the Odds and Ends section down below.)

But how is the garden?

To start with, the dogwood tree we planted in mid August has not needed to be watered much since it was planted.

Neither have most of the potted plants around the yard.
That includes the two large bougainvillea. I noticed the first of the flowers on the big red one yesterday. I suspect that in another 2-3 weeks it will be putting on quite the show.

The crotons are really colorful. I  missed the opportunity to take a picture in the sunshine in those rare moments earlier this week, when the sun came out.

There are some "lasts". Here is the last lilium. It has been blooming with a group of its friends for the last 3 weeks.

Here is perhaps the last daylily. It is reliably the last lily. Its name is Sandra Elizabeth.
What I liked was that Katie has one of these late bloomers in her garden in Maine. It was blooming  while we were there.












What else is going on?

The ghost pepper plant is really starting to turn out the peppers.
Peppers really like the fall. They are doing so wonderfully just when a frost arrives.

It seems like we are decades away from a frost. But as you would expect in Iowa nothing lasts (except maybe the rain this coming week.) The first two days we got back were miserably hot and humid. Then after that storm we had 2 nights when it got down to 54 degrees. We were able to sleep with the windows open, and no box fans or air conditioning.
But now it is a furnace again. Down came the windows and on went the airconditioning.

I really liked this picture showing the peppers at various stages. When they turn orange they can be used, if you are careful.

The plant should be covered in a month.
This plant is over two years old. I brought it in both of the last two winters.

The white japanese anemones have started to bloom.

Here is the first toad lily. It should bloom around the garden for the next month.

I guess there are some "lasts" in the garden and some "firsts".

This picture shows why they are called blackberry lilies. They get their name from their seed. I wonder if there are other plants/flowers that are like that?
Actually this is also the time when I should collect some seed.

This is this very nice cymbidium orchid. I have had it for 8-9 years at this point. I thought it mostly bloomed in the late fall.
Well last year it started to bloom in the summer.
This year it bloomed with a few spikes a month ago. Two spikes are blooming now and there are three more coming.

Hint- orchids like this weather. Hot and wet.

Here is another view.

The fall blooming crocus are coming up at this point. I actually transplanted some around the garden in the last year.
That seemed to work just fine. I dug some over the summer, after the foliage had died back in the spring.

Explanation- some of these crocuses have their leaves, but no flower in the spring. Then they bloom with leaves in the fall.

Julia's recipe

Simple Potato Salad

Here is the link to the other blog with all for Julia's recipes.
https://mearskitchen.wordpress.com/

I like German potato salad, and I make it from time to time. I am not very fond of what I think of as American potato salad with mayonnaise, although maybe I have not had a good version. I do like this recipe, which I call simple potato salad and Anna Thomas, in the Vegetarian Epicure, called Potato Salad Vinaigrette, which is certainly accurate. My recipe is a simpler version of hers. 

First the players: you will need some small red potatoes (I had 8), some thinnish scallions (I had 7 or 8), 2 cloves of garlic, white wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Use red potatoes. They are referred to as waxy, and they hold their shape when cooked. The other end of the potato spectrum is russet potatoes which do not hold their shape when cooked and are used in recipes like mashed potatoes and potato soup. Don't use russets. I think Yukon Gold are on the red potato end of the spectrum and should work.

I washed the potatoes and put them in a pot of water with 1/2 teaspoon of salt. After the pot came to a boil, I cooked the potatoes for about 10 minutes. Your time will vary with the size of your potatoes and your textural preference. I like potato salad to be slightly al dente. If you have larger potatoes or like your potato salad to be softer, cook the potatoes a little longer. When you pierce a potato with a paring knife to test for doneness, the blade should slip in easily. If not, the potato is still raw in the middle and needs a bit more cooking time.

I drained the potatoes, and I cooled them under running cool water. Then I peeled 4 of them with my fingers - the peels come off in strips. (I left half of the potatoes unpeeled because I like how the resulting salad looks.) I cut both the peeled and unpeeled into either quarters or eighths depending on size, and I ended up with about 3 cups of potato pieces.

I put the potato pieces in a small bowl with about 3 tablespoons of cider vinegar and stirred gently. I let the potato bits sit in the vinegar for about 20 minutes, gently stirring a couple of times. I learned this from Alton Brown - the potatoes will absorb some of the vinegar which is a good thing.

While the potatoes were sitting, I cleaned and sliced up the scallions, ending up with about 1/3 cup. And I smushed the 2 garlic cloves, ending up with about 1/2 teaspoon.

I drained the potatoes, saving the vinegar. About 1 tablespoon of the vinegar had been absorbed. I used the rest of the vinegar to make a simple vinaigrette dressing by adding 4 tablespoons of olive oil and a scant 1/2 teaspoon of table salt (not kosher which does not dissolve well in cold liquids) and 1/4 teaspoon of ground black pepper.

I added the scallions and garlic to the potatoes, mixed it up, added the dressing (not quite all of it. Judge for yourself how much dressing your salad needs). Then I mixed again, and it was ready.

Here it is, ready to be a side dish for summer food like hamburgers or hot dogs or grilled stuff. This recipe worked for 2 of us with one serving available for lunch the next day.

The recipe is easy to expand if you're expecting a crowd.

Odds and Ends

Here is that large branch that fell during the week. This was the picture early yesterday, before I cleaned it up.
I actually like getting out the clippers and clearing away down branches. You get a real sense of accomplishment. (It does help if no real damage was done to the plants.)






Here you can see the area once I finished clipping. Bob helped me take the branch to the driveway for pickup.

I am going to close with this picture Katie sent me.




















Stay dry.
Philip