September 9, 2018- It has been raining

Rain.
We have had rain.
Every day.
Over 5 inches just for this past week. That was on top of 5 inches in the previous two weeks.
We had no storms this week. There had been one with much wind the previous week.
On Wednesday it just rained all day.  There was 3.28 by an official measurement. That was consistent with all my buckets.
That was the day I had to drive to Waverly. (North of here, about 100 miles each way.) There were warnings of flash flooding, which I am happy to say I did not encounter. They have had even more too-much-rain in that area.

When it rains it is particularly dark in the morning. In the dark the enthusiasm for gardening just is not there.

But change in the weather has arrived I think. Maybe it will be dry today. (Saturday)(It was dry even though there was not much sun). There are lots of little suns on the 7 day forecast. That will start tomorrow I believe. (Sunday)

But change also brings cooler weather. I got a cardigan sweater out of the closest last night, for the first time in months.

Cooler weather and shorter days does means fall is coming.
Fall can be nice.
The farmer's market is at its peak.
Windows can be open.
The garden can be cleaned up, made to look all tidy.
In fact one of the garden cleanup projects is to fix the borders of the different beds.
Having a nice clean edge really makes everything look better.
The leaves have started to fall. We have all these big trees. In sequence they will drop their leaves for the next 3 months. The buckeye tree has started. It also drops buckeyes.

We noticed the first neighborhood boy in the backyard yesterday. He was collecting buckeyes.

There were pictures this week, even if there was not much sunshine.
The smaller night blooming cereus bloomed this week. There were maybe 7 flowers on 3 plants over 4 nights/mornings. On all but one of those mornings it rained. That kind of messed up the flowers. This was somewhat disappointing.

But on the first morning they bloomed,  there was a sun break and I got this wonderful picture.

The older NBC is growing more buds. I count about 9 of them again. While we missed the last display when we were in Maine, I think this next show will be in about 2 weeks.

The Zinnias continue to put on a show. I should tell you however that they were somewhat beaten down by the rain from ten days ago.

Here was that one sunny moment when I took the picture of the NBC. The flower practically glowed.

I have mentioned at some point that during this time of year there are wonderful seedpods. Here are the seedpods from the tree peonies that I grew from seed.



Don't they look like Jester's hats?

Well, as the cool weather arrived late in the week, this happened to every one of those 4 plants. I discovered it Saturday morning.




These seedpods deserve a big picture.

I remember reading about planting these seeds. I wrote about it as it was so amazing. Apparently if you plant them immediately, and do not let them dry out, they should germinate the first year. If you let them dry out, just sitting around in some jar, they might take 2 year to germinate.
I will try it.
If any of you would like some seed, write me and I will send you some.
I do not intend to let them dry out.
I also will collect them all for distribution.

There was another piece of amazement in the garden today.
I have this globe of air plants. I was given this maybe 2 years ago. In the winter it lives over our kitchen sink. I remember now that it bloomed in the fall, when the cooler air arrived.

I noticed in the last few weeks that it was turning red in certain places. They were growing.
This is from Friday.

This was from Saturday.

How about a close up shot.

One of the morning glories produced a very nice flower.

Julia's recipe

Bread Pudding

I like puddings for dessert, both stove-top and baked, and I like to use up things from the refrigerator. Bread pudding scores on both tastiness and thriftiness. It does require the oven, but as the days get cooler, that is okay. This recipe is derived from Joy of Cooking and Cook's Illustrated, seeking to arrive at a happy medium between not enough and too much oomph.

Here are the players, or most of them at least, along with the competing cookbooks on the right side of the picture and a couple of sheets of freshly made granola on the left.

You'll need: 7 cups of white bread cubes (more about bread later), 2-1/2 cups of milk (don't use skim), 2 cups of half and half, 4 eggs, 3/4 cup of white sugar, vanilla, nutmeg, salt and cinnamon sugar.

I started by cutting the bread into cubes that were about 1" on all sides. A little smaller is okay. No bigger.

A word about bread: I used a combination of hot dog buns and French bread from the New Pioneer Co-op. Stale grocery store buns are fine; in fact the pudding made with all French bread would have been a bit crusty and chewy. A mixture of soft bread and crusty bread is good. Don't use rye bread or only whole wheat (although some whole wheat and some white would be fine) or corn bread or sourdough or bread with things in it like jalapeno cheddar or walnut cranberry (both artisanal breads which occasionally are available at the Co-op and very tasty). I think seeded bread (sesame or poppy) would be okay.

I mixed the milk (2 1/2 cups), the half and half (2 cups), the sugar (3/4 cup) and the eggs (4) in a big bowl with a whisk. I whisked in 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1/4 teaspoon salt (regular, not kosher, so it would dissolve).

I added the bread cubes to the milk-egg mixture, stirred them in and let the mixture sit for 20 minutes.

While it was sitting, I turned on the oven to 350 degrees and lubed up an oval shaped Pyrex baking dish. You could also use a 9"x13" baking pan. I used no-stick spray. You could also use butter. 

After 20 minutes, I gave the bread cubes a stir and mixed in 3/4 teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg. I do not grind my own spices, but I do grate nutmeg. I like how the look of nutmegs for one thing, and they are easy to grate with a micro plane or the smallest hole side of a box grater.

Then I poured to stuff into the baking dish.

The last step before the oven was to sprinkle the top generously with cinnamon sugar.

It is good to have a shaker of cinnamon sugar on hand. It is great on buttered toast, for one thing. Mix 1 teaspoon of cinnamon with about 1/4 cup of white sugar - voila, cinnamon sugar.

I put it in the oven, and set the timer for 45 minutes. At that point, it was still way wiggly in the middle so I baked it for another 15 minutes. I think in a 9"x13" pan it would be done in 45 minutes. My baking dish is deeper.

Here it is. Soft custard with soft bread bits, and crunchy cinnamony cubes on top.

I have not made this with gluten-free bread. I think it should work, as the bread cubes' only job is to get soft and soak up the dairy/egg mixture. The only problem I can see is if the gluten-free bread has an odd aftertaste (sometimes there is soy flour which does have an odd aftertaste).

Leftovers? Good for breakfast!

Odds and ends

All that rain means that weeds pull up easily. Actually the volunteer trees come up easily.

I discovered yesterday that Lowe's has pansies. I got a dozen. They really can be a nice splash of color in the fall.
After I plant the pansies I got yesterday,  I may have to go back for some more.

With all that rain everything is growing.

Remarkably sometimes you need to water plants even when you have much rain.

I find it interesting how different a picture feels depending on how it is cropped.

Look at this picture.

Then look at this picture.
I find reasons to like each one.










Tonight, according to the forecast, it is suppose to get down to 46 degrees.
It might be time to find that extra blanket.
Enjoy your sunshine.

Philip