Week 2 of the playoffs- March 6, 2022

 

Welcome to Week 2 of the playoffs

Spring is only a couple of weeks away. Actually it is 15 days away. That is not so far off. Some days it seems it is right around the corner. We have hardly any snow left. Sprouts are coming up all over. Trees are budding.

Snowdrops are up and blooming.

I have tried to do a little yard work each morning. It seems like there is so much to do. 

I really did clean up the garden last fall. Where did all that plant material come from over the winter?

By the way, in this picture you can see that there are sprouts everywhere. 

Do you recognize those plants next to the snowdrops with leaves? Those are baby hellebores.

Some of the early aconite are up, waiting for the sun to come out to open their little yellow globes.

The sun was out for a while yesterday, so the aconite opened up.

But March can be fickle. While it was 65 yesterday, those darn single digits are back in the forecast, for next weekend. Tomorrow will have a high of 44. Monday goes down another 10 degrees and there is a chance of snow.

Did I mention daylight savings? It is just next weekend folks. Much of that early morning light will then be gone. I know it will just be moved to the end of the day. But by then I am tired. I am a very early morning person. I am fresh and full of plans at that point. By 3-4 o'clock, I really begin to run out of energy. I am just not sure I will go out after dinner and rake garden debris.

This week's magic was provided by migrating Canadian geese. 

On Wednesday morning a large flock of  geese passed above Iowa City. These were not of the many geese that live around here. They will fly around in the morning and evening all winter. They are never really very high in the sky.

Every few springs I catch the professional geese going somewhere.  This first picture was the front of the line. 

This next picture really needs enlarging. I think if you are on a computer and do a full screen view you can almost appreciate how long was the line. It really does go from the left side of the picture to all the way to the right. How many birds were there? How how up were they? I suppose someone could guess. Suffice to say that there were lots of geese, and they were very high.

Here is that same picture, having been cropped to just show the right side.

Last week in the contest

The winner was the pink dancing poppy

The full vote was

The first entry into the finals is in the books. 

This week

#1 Paphiopedilum Macabre Venus

 January 23, 2021

This orchid bloomed on the plant stand in the room where Christopher (my grandson) stayed last winter. It bloomed for a long time.  I am not good with this kind of orchid. I got it when it already had a bud. It bloomed but did not make it back for a second season.

It was well worth the cost, for the beauty it displayed.

Maybe next time I can get it to rebloom. 

#2 Brilliant Pansy May 21, 2021

I really should try to find some pansies early this spring. They can take a frost and will bloom until the heat of the summer does them in.

#3 Beauty of Livermore Poppy 

May 30, 2021

If the one color flowers had a competition I think this would win. I have a hard time thinking of another really brilliant color. Of course the previous pictured pansy was rather a dazzler as I think about it.

I could have cropped the picture to put more of the flower into the picture. I left it this way to show the bud beside the flower.

#4 White Shirley poppy 

June 6, 2021

What a remarkable picture with a remarkable center. The seed head is surrounded by all that crepe paper.

Shirley poppies need no external cheering section. 

I am getting their seedlings ready for the outside exposure.

#5 Blackberry lily which is really an iris

 July 7, 2021

Just when you think the iris season is over, along comes the blackberry lily.

What a joyful addition to the late summer garden.

Bonus Section

Here are different versions of the two poppies in the contest this week. What do you think about the cropping choices?

Right now

We have eaten our own lettuce this last week. Now I am ready to try different varieties.

I am bumping up the Iceland and Shirley poppy seedlings into bigger pots. They were started two months ago. They probably cannot go outside until mid April. At some point flats of potted poppies  move outside as long as the weather is warm. Then they retreat into the garage when the temperature gets below freezing.

Yesterday I planted more seeds. Columbine, coleus, arugula, and regular lettuce. Today I will plant some more.

More and more, what is "right now" is what is outside. Here are two kinds of snowdrops. First is the tall variety. 

I love how little sprouts appear everywhere. Often the tiny ones are the wonderful scilla or squill that make a blue carpet in late April.

This type of snowdrop stays low to the ground and is very busy inside that flower.

The clivia opened up this week, presenting a wonderful orange.

This phalanopsis is good.

Julia's recipe

Fish and tomatoes

The link to the website with all of Julia's recipes is

https://mearskitchen.wordpress.com/

This is another fast, easy cook-it-on-a-rimmed-sheet-pan recipe. Elsewhere on this site, you will find a recipe for cod with a panko and lemon coating, roasted alongside mushrooms. It's great. I wonder why we didn't think of this before - cooking fish or chicken on a sheet pan with some or all of the rest of dinner cooking right alongside.  This recipe comes from the NYT, with a few tweaks. 

 

The ingredients:

about 1-1/2 pounds of thinnish white fish;

1 pint little tomatoes (more is better);

6 tablespoons butter;

about 1 tablespoon smushed garlic;

1 teaspoon lemon or lime zest;

2 -3 tablespoons lemon juice;

2-3 scallions;

2 teaspoons of spice mix - I used harissa;

                                                                                                        salt and pepper. 

First I turned the oven on to 450 degrees. I got out a sheet pan, and the silpat I use for savory roasting to prevent sticking. 

I cut the tomatoes in half and sprinkled them with maybe 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt and some pepper.

I had a regular sized tomato on the counter and I decided to cut it into small pieces and add the pieces to the sheet pan. More salting and peppering. 

Next time I will use two pints of cherry or grape tomatoes. The difference in types of tomato was not noticeable at all in the final dish. 

I roasted the tomatoes for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, I made spiced butter. 

I melted the butter in a little pan. Microwave would work too, of course. (I use salted butter. It's what I have on hand. If you use unsalted, add a pinch of salt.)

I poured the melted butter into a little bowl and added the garlic, harissa and lemon zest.

I then cleaned and sliced the scallions into thin pieces. I decided to put the white parts into the butter sauce. I had maybe 1/3 cup of whites and maybe 1/2 cup of greens. I set the green parts aside.  

Here are the tomatoes, out of the oven.

I cut the fish into smaller pieces (I had 2 big pieces) and positioned the pieces on top of the tomatoes. 

I had already turned rice on to cook as rice takes about 20 minutes.

Then I spooned the spiced butter all over the fish.

I put it back into the oven (still at 450 degrees) and roasted it for about 12 minutes. My pieces of fish were a bit thick. Sole or flounder would cook faster. 

I cleaned some asparagus when I put the fish in the oven and put it in a skillet to cook. I turned it on about halfway through the fish cooking time.

Here it is out of the oven.

And on the table. I sprinkled the green parts of the scallions on tope and then sprinkle/poured the lemon juice over it all. 

The rice soaked up the sauce. The asparagus made a pleasant contrast. The sauce was a bit spicy, but nothing mouth burning. 

A few notes: 1) I used rockfish because the Sitka Salmon people sent me rockfish. Thin, mild, skinless white fish fillets are the ticket. Sole, flounder, cod, halibut - all good choices. 2) I used harissa. You could use garam masala or Chinese 5 spice powder or a different middle eastern spice blend. Probably chili powder, for that matter. If you don't like much spice, use 1 teaspoon instead of 2. 3) Leftovers keep well for a few days and can be heated with some leftover rice for a nice lunch.   

Odds and Ends

I got some columbine seeds and some coleus seeds. They both come with instructions to put the seeds on the surface, and press into the potting mix. You do not cover them with dirt. This allows light to help with germination. I find that odd.

The Columbine seed instruction also says germination can take a month. That kind of delayed gratification is difficult. Lettuce comes up within a week. Lupines and poppies are the same.

The tree guy came by Friday. He cut down 2 of the 3 remaining pink crabapples along Fairview Street. They were quite dead. There were 5 trees when we moved in 40 years ago.

Here are pictures from 2008.

Change happens. 

There were no tree peonies along Fairview  in 2008. 

We were told that 50-60 years were all you could expect from a crabapple.  

We have been replacing them with dogwoods the last few years. (Including the mail order dogwood from last year.) 

I continue to worry about deer. While they will not eat the snowdrops or aconite, they can step on them. 

And of course

War continues. 

Think of the cold and the dark and the sound of bombs coming closer.

Think of the children, many too young to understand.

Pray for peace.  

Philip