The Daily Rave

[catherine]

Beautiful iris! It is spooky--an Addams Family plant! I could see it working well in a Chihuly installation!

chihuly.jpg

[Tybee]

I grow black hollyhocks, so I get the attraction--they are so unexpected.

[iris lilies]

I grow black hollyhocks, so I get the attraction--they are so unexpected.

Oh black Hollyhocks! I had a few one year for my gothic garden!

The main thing I learned from that gothic garden experience was: there is an inherent conflict in what I want and vs. what I can grow. I wanted a shady, ferny area with black flowers, dark leaved plants, with bits of bright color for contrast. There are some wonderful near-black flowers out there.

What I learned was in order to develop that gorgeous rich dark color, these black flowers need full sun. That sunny environment is opposite of the shady, dark and quiet, spooky atmosphere I wanted.

[Tybee]

Like the black-ish tulips! A Goth garden would be really fun, but you are right--you need that sun.

My rave is that my husband's nephew came to visit, and we met his girlfriend, and she is a delight. We decided to cook up some fiddlehead ferns as an experiment and they were really good.

It was a great day, with really nice young people to share it with, with young people enthusiasms and optimisms, and we even went out to a restaurant to eat, though we decided to eat outside on the picnic tables, because it was too loud inside.

It's fun to see them grow up, when you remember them as little kids.

And oh, I got to offload 10 photos of the nephew as a little boy, including pictures from his second birthday party.

Score!

[Teacher Terry]

That sounds like fun Tybee.

[catherine]

My rave is that my husband's nephew came to visit, and we met his girlfriend, and she is a delight. We decided to cook up some fiddlehead ferns as an experiment and they were really good.

Sounds like a great day! We went to my son's house the other night and he has a LOT of fiddlehead ferns growing in his backyard. Can you share your recipe? He cooked them last year but I'm always open to suggestions.

[frugal-one]

Just put “seek” app on my iPad to identify flowers and, hopefully, birds. Tried it out on a few flowers in my yard and it worked well. Kinda cool.

[catherine]

Just put “seek” app on my iPad to identify flowers and, hopefully, birds. Tried it out on a few flowers in my yard and it worked well. Kinda cool.

My favorite plant ID app is Picture This. Let me know how Seek is!

[razz]

These apps are so amazing to hear about. Thanks for sharing. The dog and I will have more to explore now on our daily walks.
I found the 'picture this' app but not the 'seek' as yet. Is more info available?

[Tybee]

Oh, I will have to try Picture This for tree identification. We have no idea what some of these are, but I guess it would help if the leaves would open already.

Catherine, for the fiddleheads, we washed them by soaking in cold water several times, boiled them for about 5 minutes in salt water (not sure why you do this) and then sauteed them with butter, olive oil, and a minced clove of garlic. Then we just ate them, although I added shaved parmesan to mine.

We all decided they would be a good addition to fettucine alfredo.

They taste an awful lot like asparagus.