November 4, 2018 Welcome to the spooky time

It is November.

The garden is quiet.
It is quite dark out there.
Even after they give you back an hour.

It can be scary out there.

Particularly this coming Tuesday.

It is as if Scary decided to hang out with Hope.

And we all play right along, thinking about both of them.

But on a lighter note

in the darkness as November approached there was...

Halloween.

How fortunate to have an occasion 

where we can carve pumpkins and other people can dress up.

One technological improvement is battery powered votive candles. Someone told us about them and there they were, at the store. They do not blow out when you take them outside. They are particularly useful with tiny pumpkins.
The lights lasted into the evening, as we greeted the children. The visitors ranged from perhaps age 15 down to someone who might have been 3 months old. I think the baby might have been dressed as a football, but I was not sure. I should have asked.



And those of you know who have followed the blog for years, sometimes the pumpkins will hang in the trees. We have those rope that are used for the plants. What do you do with them in the winter? I know what I do.



This really is not the time to seriously hang pumpkins. At this point the several that at swinging at the moment will surely rot as the temperature bounces up and down this next month.
The time to seriously hang pumpkins is in December, when it freezes and stays below freezing. With any luck the pumpkins will then freeze dry by spring.

Then you have wonderful shrunken head pumpkins.
They then will last for years.
Here was the lineup a few years ago.

The one on the left is the perfect one. It hasn't really aged in years. At this point it is probably 8 years ago, maybe.

As mentioned, around Halloween there sometimes is an election. Sometimes pumpkins and the election meets up.
Here were some pumpkins in 2003.
Remember 2003?

What about the garden?
I actually worked for several hours outside yesterday, when daylight arrived. Some of the muscles used are reminding me of how little they have been used in the last month.
I planted the last of the lily bulbs I ordered this fall. There was one really nice one that will be black.
I was using the clippers to cut down the dead zinnia foliage.
I got a fall load of city compost. yesterday.  It is now all in containers in the back garage, waiting for use this fall to top dress certain garden beds. I also use it to make my own potting mix.
It was dry most of yesterday, as we slip back into a wet weather pattern. It is suppose to rain the next few days. But the forecast does have a nice little sun for Wednesday, the day after the election. But then there is this this crystal shaped icon right after that we have not seen this year. I think we all know what that is.



The colors are now mostly inside. This great red hibiscus is in the living room. Sometimes the hibiscus will come inside covered with buds. They then want a lot of attention before they go live in some side room for the duration.

This little cactus also  blooms when it comes inside.




And of course there are pansies. They will survive a freeze and show off their pretty faces perhaps until Thanksgiving.

There still is plenty of work in the garden. There are perennials to cut down, even though some will remain green until the very end. Those green ones would be the hellebores and the pulmonaria and even the daylily foliage.
Actually we have remained above freezing this past week, so some plants that had huddled in the garages have enjoyed a few more days of outside.

We have several days coming this next week below 25. That is the final inside time for sure. I am even under pressure to get the plants moved into the inside locations so the car can come into the garage.

Julia's recipe

Potato Curry

Mostly I make vegetable curries, because I first learned about curry from Anna Thomas's cookbook, Vegetarian Epicure. Note the title. Anyway, one of our favorites is potato curry, and this recipe is largely from Anna Thomas's cookbook. One notable deviation: she adds peas to this curry. I do not like peas, and one of the joys of reaching adulthood was realizing I would never again have to eat a pea. (There were Rules at the dinner table of my childhood.) This curry is mild and creamy and flavorful. And filling.

Here are the ingredients: russet potatoes (not red or white or Yukon gold, but rather russets sometimes known as baking potatoes. It's a texture thing.), butter, yogurt, salt, mustard seed, cumin seed, ground coriander, turmeric and cayenne. And water. That's it.

I started by peeling and dicing the potatoes. I ended up with about 4 cups of potato bits.

A word about the potatoes. Russets are softer than the others. Curry made with red or white or yellow potatoes will be more liquid-y than one made with russets. Really.

Next, I measured the spices into a little bowl: 1 teaspoon of salt (any kind - kosher or table or pickling), 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds, 1 teaspoon of mustard seeds, 1 teaspoon of turmeric, 1 teaspoon of ground coriander, and 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne.

You could use ground cumin and ground mustard if that's what you have.

I melted 3 tablespoons of butter in a big skillet and added the spices. I cooked the spices in the butter over medium-high heat until they became fragrant. Sometimes so fragrant that they make me sneeze - a sure sign that it's good.

Next, I added all the potato pieces and cooked the potatoes in the butter and spice mix for about 5 minutes, until the potato bits were all coated in the butter/spice. It got a bit sizzly, but I kept stirring.

Next, I added 1 cup of water, scraped the cooked-on bits up from the bottom of the pan and brought the mixture to a boil. Then I covered it and turned down the heat so I had a nice simmer. I cooked the potatoes for about 20 minutes until one of the potato bits could be easily pierced with a knife.

At that point, I took the pan off the heat and added a generous cup of plain yogurt. I used whole milk yogurt because I like whole milk yogurt. I think reduced fat or non-fat would work too.

I stirred the yogurt in gently so as not to break up the potato bits, and it was all done and ready to eat.

And here it is. We served the curry with basmati rice, but other rice would be just fine. And also another curry (cauliflower) and peach chutney and banana raita. It was a lovely dinner. Philip, as usual, ate the leftovers cold for breakfast.

Odds and Ends

It is time for me to think about the winter picture contest. I can report I have almost got the poll function working. Blogger, the blog host for 12 years, last spring, after the contest was over, mysteriously decided to stop having the poll widget.
So I think I have found a substitute. I believe by the end of the month it should be up and functioning.

So now it is time to launch this post again. It is six o'clock by some accounting. I tried to stay in bed a little longer, to try to adjust to the time change. Does that mean I have already used up that extra hour?
So far, I can report, there is no daylight. As I reminded myself yesterday, when sunrise was so late, the mornings this last week have been about as dark as they get. The solstice sunrise will be about the same as yesterday. Oh well.
But there are only 137 days until the beginning of spring.
There will be crocuses and daffodils.

Stay safe, and vote.
Philip