April 13, 2025-a truly busy time with lots of good pictures

 

It was a busy week at the office. We had computer problems, inclulding having to get new versions of some of our programs. Where did those downloads go?

We had a freeze Monday night but nothing was really damaged. The main casualty were the tulip trees the completely turned brown over night. Oour star magnolia was not hurt. I covered the big clump of cypripedium orchids in the back yard. It probably was not neccesary.

For many reasons I did not have much time for the garden during the week.

I made up for it yesterday. It was probably a six hour garden day. For part of  part of that time I got out the chair from the back garage and just sat  and took it all in. It was mostly sunny and got up to close to 70 by the end of the day. The coat came off first. Then the sweatpants. 

I came up with a rotation. I raked sections of the garden that still needed it. I potted plants into bigger pots. I potted plants into pots for the sale. We passed the $500 today.

Julia came home from doing taxes at the office to spend a good 30 minutes picking up sticks. That did require a fair amount of bending which she will fell today.

But so much was/is going on. The bloodroot and the first windflowers opened. By the end of the day the yellow species tulips were opening for the first time. They were opening for the first time in various parts of the garden. 

I was potted up cyress spurge. It grows everywhere in a non invasive way. I consider something invasive if you cannot get rid of it. In amoungst the spurge were dozens of lupin seedlings. I let the lupine go to seed.  It then seeds all around where the old plants were. Mostly lupines are only reliable for 2-3 years at the most. So seedlings are required to maintain the lupine glory.

The daffodils are out. So are the hyacinths. I really should think about splashing hyacinths around the yard, particularly in the front parkway.

Last week

You liked these two  crocus pictures

The full vote was

A vote for this week

There was so much going on yesterday. I can make an entire set of great pictures just from that day.

For you voting pleasure

#1 Double Bloodroot

#2 Modern Art Daffodil

#3 Trillium

#4 Daffodil without name

#5 Fancy Hellebore  Sun Flare

I got this fancy hellebore from a Hellebore nursery 3 years ago. It was a small plant then. It is now big enough to bloom. The next step is to get to be a clump.

Other pictures from Right Now

This next picture shows deer footprints. They do tend to stay on the paths, until they go off the path to find a hosta or a daylily.

I am rethinking the use of hyacinths. That is in a good way.

I really want more primroses.

These are the first species tulips, that bloomed in 3-4 places yesterday for the first time.

This shows the results of some really good stick work.

These tasty morels will need some deer spray.

Julia's recipe

Portuguese cookies 

I ran across this recipe in the Iowa City Press-Citizen for Portuguese butter cookies called, I am told, Raivas de Aveiro. Not Michael Knock, the usual food guy. Just a random recipe. The dough is simple to make. It's the technique for forming the cookies that's unusual - not hard, just unusual. And a bit reminiscent of childhood.

The ingredients:

1/2 cup chilled butter;

10 tablespoons white sugar (aka 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons);

3 eggs;

3 cups flour;

1-1/4 teaspoon cinnamon; and

1/4 teaspoon salt.

I only used 1/4 teaspoon of salt because I used salted butter. If you use unsalted butter, use 1/2 teaspoon salt.

Interestingly, the butter in this recipe was to be cold. So I took a stick out of the refrigerator and cut it into little cubes.

I used my stand mixer because the recipe told me to. And because a stand mixer can actually successfully combine cold butter and sugar.

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I added the sugar. I mixed the ingredients on medium-low speed until they were combined. Not all the way to creamed (that is, not one homogeneous mass).

Then I added the eggs, one at a time, mixing each one in. 

Then I added the salt and cinnamon and flour. More mixing.

Here is the lump of dough.

I turned the oven on to 350 degrees, and I started the process of forming the cookies. 

I used this pastry mat to form the cookies. It's meant to be used to roll out pie dough. Hence the concentric circles for different size pies. 

I used it because I needed a big surface to roll out the dough.

I cut the dough in half and rolled each half into a log about a foot long. Then I cut each log into 12 more or less equal pieces. 

Then I rolled each of the 24 little lumps into a skinny snake about 20 inches long. Like play dough. 

This is why I used this mat. I sprinkled a little flour on the mat and rolled away. Snakes!

If one of your snakes breaks, just stick the pieces together - which I did on a couple of my snakes.

The recipe said it was easier to make if you own a pasta making machine. I don't. If you do, then feed bigger lumps of dough through the machine to make sheets. Then feed the sheets through the fettucine attachment and you have something like snakes. 

I twisted each snake into a shape. Random squiggles. Apparently sometimes called "awkward flowers."

I have some reusable baking sheets, and I used them. You could use parchment. The cookies are prone to stick. 

These are on their way into the oven. 

I made 24 cookies. I baked them for 13-15 minutes, flipping the cookie sheets, front to back and switching shelves top to bottom after 7 minutes.

Out of the oven. I let them cool on the cookie sheets for a few minutes. Then I moved them to cooling racks. 

They were crisp on the outside and kind of soft on the inside. A little bit sweet and a little bit cinnamon-y. And fun to make. 

Odds and ends

I saw this article about Trillium and the ants.

https://www.bleedingheartland.com/2022/08/31/iowa-wildflower-wednesday-the-ant-and-the-trillium/?fbclid=IwY2xjawJl2TBleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHj5Ca5nxhhwHGCJOvjwXMbx_3d5PDR0ZDeeZBr2G_8m-xg2pH1Vrp2YqZ_9l_aem_Uot4EQHfbvzZINUIhHgazA

As if I did not have enough to do, the Chadek Park garden plot just opened for business. I went and bought some beet seed. I need to go and see how the soil is, without a till. I really should get some of the early stuff planted.

The country is still in a mess. The garden is a good escape. 

Pray for peace in so many places. Wars get pushed from the headlines but people still are dying.

If you are in the neighborhood please come by. I promise to get the last of the leaves raked. 

Philip