November 6, 2022- being positive

Let me try to be positive. 

Today, after an extra hour of sleep, we get treated to more light in the morning. That will give me more time to clean up the garden before the other daily activities begin. I know that hour has to come from somewhere. At the same time I think I can make better use of it in the morning. 

In addition Iowa City finally had the big rain. We had officially over two inches since Friday afternoon. The weather channel said 2.6 inches. Yesterday afternoon the rain stopped and the sun came out. I raked some leaves and appreciated how nice it was.

While there are a lot of leaves everywhere, there are many green plants going strong at this point. This is helped by the fact it has been almost 3 weeks since the hard freeze and there really has not been a frost since then. Let me show you some of that color.

This is a very healthy boxwood we have had for a long time. It has a nice shape and smells the way Julia wants boxwood to smell. It has grown quite a bit. I think this might be the first time I ever took its picture.

Pulmonaria is nice, with all its spots.

This is an epimedium that is an "evergreen" type. The name is Domino. It is taller than most epimedium approaching 20 inches in height, It will keep its color well into the winter. In fact the texture of the stems holds up to a deep freeze. It will require clippers to trim it back when it finally loses its color.

Then there are the hellebores. They also keep their color and texture most of the winter. I usually will not cut back the old foliage until early in spring. It is then when the flowers appear on new growth. Actually I have sometimes had flowers at Thanksgiving. I suppose I should check.

This is a lupine. They made it through the hot summer and should be ready to do nicely in April. My lupines are mostly biennials. That means after maybe 2 years they are done. Fortunately they self seed.  I also start some from seed. Those seedlings grow and will replace the ones that do not come back.

Some green is unusual. This little hosta thought all this warm weather meant it should just put up some new growth. This will last about another week.

My fascination with ornamental kale continues. I stopped by Lowe's on the way home from the prison on Tuesday. (I do work with people who have done bad things.) I had heard Lowe's still had some kale. Just on Tuesday they had sliced their prices to $1 for most of the remaining annuals including kale and pansies. The sale was only for 3 days. Surprise. After those three days those sale plants all went away. As a gardening community it is important to know when plants are about to be thrown away.

So I loaded up the kale. I got all they had left. That was 15. I then offered them up for the sale to feed people. About half were taken. They rest I am planting. I really want to see how they hold up in December.

I have been thinking a lot this week about snowdrops. These are the very early spring flowers in the genus Galanthus. Not only are they the first flower we will see in late winter, but I was given a bunch of new varities from a garden friend last Sunday. I planted them that afternoon.  I had visited his garden in March, when snowdrops were the main attraction. He has many many varieties, almost all needing to be acquired from specialty nurseries.

Look at this wonderful plant from his garden. It is a variety called 'Green Tear.' 

He had given me this one in 2021. It bloomed for me this past March. This is 'Wendy's gold.'

I love how snowdrops, true to their name, do so well in the snow. They somehow manage to melt little circles around them. 

England is, of course, the home of snowdrop mania. They have church yards where snowdrops have been growing for a really long time.

I imagine they look a little like a neighbor's backyard looked. I got to see that yard for the first time in 2020, when a fence came down. The snowdrops must have been growing for decades.

Sadly the house was sold to someone this last year who is doing a major renovation. I think most of the snowdrops are gone. That happens. 

At least I got these images. 

Here are more pictures of kale from yesterday. 

These are the recent Lowe's purchases. I will plant the rest maybe today.

Julia's recipe

Fish with tomato and caper sauce plus feta

This recipe is an old favorite from More Sixty Minute Gourmet, by Pierre Franey, published in 1981. There are lots of good and quick recipes in both of the Sixty Minute Gourmet cookbooks, but we gravitated to the fish recipes. As lifelong midwesterners, we had limited experience cooking fish (store-bought breaded perch doesn't count), and for once Betty Crocker let us down. Philip usually makes this dish, and he made it in Maine. We looked on the blog for the recipe, and it wasn't there! Philip made it from memory, but I decided it should be posted.  

The ingredients:

1 lb. or so of mild white fish fillets;

2 tablespoons olive oil (not shown)'

1/4 cup finely diced onion;

1-1/2 or so cups canned diced tomatoes;

1-1/2 teaspoon smushed garlic;

2 tablespoons capers;

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano;

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes;

1/2 cup or so crumbled feta;

some salt and pepper (not shown); 

plus cooking spray (also not shown!).

First I turned the oven on to 425 degrees.

Then I diced the onion and smushed the garlic. I heated the olive oil in a big skillet and added the onion and garlic.  I cooked the onion/garlic over medium heat for a few minutes. The idea is to wilt the onions, not saute them. That is, no color. 

After the onions were soft, I added the tomatoes, red pepper flakes and oregano, stirred it around, and let the mixture cook for about 10 minutes.

While the sauce was cooking, I took the two fish filets out of their packaging, sprayed a smallish baking dish with no-stick spray and put the fish in the dish. 

After 10 minutes, the tomatoes had broken down and I added the capers and maybe 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper.

And here is the fish in the dish. Sounds a bit like Dr. Seuss. You wish. 

I poured the sauce (which is kind of thick) over the fish and spread it around with a spatula. 

I baked the fish for about 15 minutes. Then I took it out, sprinkled the feta all around and put it back in the oven for another 5 minutes.

Here it is, on the table. We had it with orzo. I was feeling ethnic, with the feta and all. Rice would be fine or, I suppose, polenta. 

We had salad and berries with yogurt. I did not have the energy for a green vegetable. This is a tough time of year for fresh vegetables. The farmers market is done in terms of most produce (although there are bi-monthly winter markets). I am not ready to go back to store-bought exclusively.

A few notes:  You can double the ingredients if you have 4 people's worth of fish. Or you can vary the proportions - more or less onion or garlic or tomatoes or feta or capers. I used 1/4 cup onion because I had what we call an "open" onion in the refrigerator. I used 1-1/2 cups of tomatoes, also because that's what was on hand. Use what you have: words to live by. 

In terms of varying proportions, beware ot increasing red pepper flakes and leaving everything else the same: red pepper flakes can be too much. And don't skip the capers or feta. They are important.  

Odds and ends

The sunrise in Iowa City yesterday was at 7:42. With the time change that is just about what it will be at the solstice, in 7 weeks.

It was ridiculously warm this week. I mean highs in the 60's and the 70's.

We parked the car in the garage Thursday night. This is signifiant as there were lots of plants still there until then. There are still a few (maybe 6-7) orchid cactus trying to find a winter landing place. Maybe that can be what I do with my extra hour of daylight this morning. Of course I will also need to figure out which clocks need changing. What time is it really? The answer of course is that it is really late, for a lot of things.

I have bulbs still to plant. With some of the beds I need to rake off the leaves before I can plant the bulbs.

When do you rake your leaves? So many people ask that. My answer consistantly is "when I get the time." No matter how much I rake in the fall there will be plenty to rake in the spring.

Of course the election is Tuesday. I will try to stay positive. Pray for good outcomes. Pray for the forgotten people and the forgotten children. Remember the DACA kids. Think about all the people in the Ukraine who will live in the cold and dark this winter. Think about what little things you can do that might help.

An old and dear friend called winter "the big dark." It is always good to hear from you as the big dark approaches.

Philip