Here and There

Now that I live down in Central NJ, the Presby Memorial Iris Gardens (now blooming like mad, go see!), aren't just down the street. However, my friends Tanya and Ken live up in Montclair, so I have two very special reasons to go to Monclair in May.

At the time I took these photos (last Saturday), there weren't many blooms open, but now if you go, you will be delighted by the display of color.

It's no wonder people travel from around the globe to visit the irises and paint them.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Garden Update on Location: Mom's Garden

Last weekend, I visited my mom and Dave and greatly admired their gorgeous spring garden. I took a load of photos both outside and inside the greenhouse. Please let me know which you think is the best!

Under their showcase dogwood in the back, they keep lots of chairs and a teak table that stands on a leveled berm they installed a few years ago. The flattened area is covered with quartz stones and framed in landscape ties. It's a wonderful setting for a picnic.

There are several ways to enter the garden. This is the view from the entry to the right of the house (as the house faces the road). It's also the view after you exit the Florida room and come down the deck stairs looking to your left. Right now, the azaleas are vibrant in hues of fushcia and peach.

Mom is especially proud of her matching bleeding heart shrubs by the kitchen door. They also butt up against one of the very pink azealas.

Mom's probably cringing because right after I took that photo she cleaned the bird bath. I should have taken an "after" photo.

Usually, my plants bloom before Mom's do, but in this case, her irises bloom earlier. Mine are just beginning, so I'll be taking photos this week. Speaking of irises, today I'll be visiting the Presby Iris Gardens with two of my Montclair friends, Ken and Tanya. Go see the irises now, it's prime time!

That was probably my favorite photo.

Not a great photo, but the colors are true. You could probably see Mom's plants from space.

On this plant, Mom said that she had thinned it out like a bonsai tree. I think it looks interesting -- more than the pink one.

This view is from the other side of the azealas, up toward the back of the property, near the swing. You can see the pink dogwood that helps frame the garage side of the house when cars enter the driveway.

Deep purple irises, nearly black in appearance.

I really enjoy the hellebores. I've seen them in other colors, but not often like the ones here.

Mom and Dave have red and yellow trilliums. They always make me think of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Yes, that's exactly what kind of nerd I am.

Now, we move into the greenhouse for a show of what's in bloom at this moment:

Rather spectacular, isn't it?

I suggested that Mom should start her own orchid/garden blog when she retires to keep up her writing every day. I hope she does it.

An off-season Christmas cactus.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Free on Saturday Mornings -- The New York Botanical Gardens

From NYBG

One of the best free things to do in New York is visit the New York Botanical Garden on a Saturday morning, especially now while all kinds of spectacular things are in bloom.

That building above is the Mertz Library. I'd gone on a few tours of the library (because that's what library science students do) last month and took a few photos of the gardens while I had the time. I'm sorry that I didn't take any interior photos of the library or its exhibitions, but I encourage you to go see them. They have a really interesting rare books room as well.

From NYBG

One of the lovely displays in the garden was the Auricula Theater.

From NYBG

It's essentially a stylized display for auricula primroses.

From NYBG

Also displayed around the garden were thousands of gorgeous daffodils.

From NYBG

These were probably the most vibrant of the showy blooms. They reminded me of eggs over easy.

If you love dogwoods and irises like I do, you'll definitely want to go before the end of this month. I might just have to get my butt out to the Bronx again myself!

Sunday, May 03, 2009

Joe's Yummy Potato and Greens Torta

I wish Joe was my neighbor. He makes the best things, has the most gorgeous dogs, and just seems like a wonderful person. Plus, every recipe I've ever made from his site has turned out beautifully, even when I've made significant changes!

That was the story with this incredible Potato and Greens Torta. I made all kinds of changes:

1. Used 3/4 cup chopped green onion instead of garlic.
2. Used 2 cups chopped fresh parsley instead of the spinach.
3. Used 3/4 cup chopped fresh basil instead of the arugula (not that I don't love arugula, but I had fresh basil on hand).
4. Used packaged cheese blends (Italian pizza style) instead of the fontina.
5. Used Parmigiano Reggiano for the Asiago cheese.
6. Used a food processor to chop up the wilted greens.
7. I don't have a potato ricer, so I also put the potatoes into the food processor with the greens after they were cooked.
8. Mixed the cheeses in with everything else prior to seasoning.
9. Forgot to dust the baking dish with the bread crumbs, instead loading them on the top.
10. Used the leftover breadcrumbs I'd frozen from St. Joseph's Day at Pete's because they were really garlicky.
11. Didn't put any cheese on top.

The resulting torta was nothing short of lovely. It came out of the baking dish perfectly. It tasted amazingly good. The texture was perfect. It was rich, but not overly. The greens were just right. I would definitely make this again in as many incarnations as I can. I'll make it with kale next time.

High marks to Joe, once again!

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Garden Updates and John's Magnificent, Organized Garage

Well, it's OUR garage, but he did an incredible job organizing the thing. See:

We, in keeping the economy alive, bought a carload of containers at The Container Store for the task. John also created labels on our Brother PTouch.

A couple of weeks ago, we also went to the storage shed and picked up all the plant-pot boxes. There were quite a few items in those boxes that are now on my local Freecycle.org page (old yarn plant hangers, old hanging baskets, etc.). All those pots will soon be filled with the little seedlings quickly growing in my office.

This is a great area for someone like John who winds up doing all kinds of projects requiring specific tools.

Remember the other custom pull-out cabinet John made for the kitchen? This one is very specific to the workshop in the garage. We bought magnetized jars and I labeled them while we sorted out their contents. Mind you, the sorting process took quite some time.

That's enough of the garage. Suffice to say, it looks great and helps make everything a lot easier to find and manage.

OK, now for the riot of color that is my garden. Because you probably know all these, I won't clutter them with words.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

A Hilariously Terrible Orchestra

Do you recognize the Scottish gentleman playing the Sousaphone (looks like a small tuba) in the lower center of the photo above? If you don't, he is Alexander McCall Smith, famed author of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency book series (as well as several other brilliant book series).

McCall Smith immortalized the wacky Really Terrible Orchestra in his Isabel Dahlousie books and joined them for a great night at Town Hall in New York. My mother and I were lucky enough to see their New York performance during Tartan Week (a couple of weeks ago). We had excellent seats in the balcony of Town Hall, with a very good view of the stage.

Later, during the audience participation portion of the evening, we discovered that we had even better seats than we originally thought. The people visiting from Scotland sitting in front of us were incredible singers, especially the woman directly in front of me. She definitely could have been a professional. I had to stop singing just to enjoy her performance as well as the orchestra's.

The musicians were hardly terrible, but very funny. You could hear the quality of the playing during the original song "Mma Ramotswe" as well as in the classic "Highland Cathedral" -- both done beautifully.

The playing was broken up by a pretty long interview with McCall Smith, but he and the interviewer said the orchestra needed a break. We learned a few things about him as well as the orchestra during the interview.

Finally, I'm really happy to have been able to experience this with my mother. She and I saw McCall Smith on a previous book tour (at the Cooper Union), but this was another, completely different, yet entertaining evening. She and I enjoy reading McCall Smith's novels and passing them back and forth. We always have plenty to talk about as it is, but this is like we have our own little book club.

Most of all, I'm grateful that I get to spend time with Mom. Many of my friends either no longer have their moms in their lives or they don't get along. Lucky for John and me that we have our moms and we very much enjoy spending time with them.

I hope that the Really Terrible Orchestra returns for another concert or takes their show on the road in the United States. I'll bet there will be many happy audiences.

Thursday, April 09, 2009

Garden Updates

I always forget how much I enjoy the primulae when they welcome spring in my front garden. It's not just the grape contrasted against the deep new green leaves, it's more of the waking up feeling I get when I lock the door and look to my left to see these wonderful flowers greeting me. And, it's always the purples first. Then come the reds and yellows, and finally the whites and pinks. The primulae last a long time, then die down during the hottest parts of the summer, only to resume blooming during the nasty cold rains of fall. A wee bright spot in the rough weather.

The other very exciting change to the gardens is due to my hero, John. He's systematically replacing the ugly plastic edging (which, by the way, I freecycled recently) with these lovely yellow cement borders. We were challenged by the slope of the property and the extremely rocky (read poor) soil. However, the biggest plot is now fancily outfitted with the cement borders while the smaller plots await our digging and malletting.

Thursday, April 02, 2009

Sprouting Seeds in My Home Office

That's how things looked on March 22, when I took the big plastic sweater containers I'd been keeping under the bed and filled them with peat pots, wet compost, and flower seeds. These containers are now sitting on John's cedar chest in my office by the very sunny, southwestern exposure window.

After a couple of weeks of keeping these guys pretty moist and warm, I now have sprouts!