Cornish Pasties

 It's been a long while since I indulged in making a batch of Cornish pasties.  I'm not even sure when I began making them.  In any event, my secret sauce is in truth, Worcestershire sauce and Pilsbury refrigerated pie crusts.  Full disclosure:  Caro has me add peas(!).

Either with or without peas, the results are sublime.  I don't know what it is about the simple ingredients, but the addition of  'Swede' (rutabaga) is critical.  From poor copper miner's fare to modern savory, it's an amazing evolution.  

In other news, the Hibsicus cv 'Midnight Marvel' has bloomed out its first flush.  Buds are quickly filling in behind, so expect your Occasional Daily Hibiscus updates in the next few days.  Meanwhile, the double peach one is sending out one bloom about every other day.  

Hot, Hot, Hot!

Forecast is for 102° at the airport.  Could hit 105° here in the North Valley.  I'll break out my infrared thermometer later to see how hot various surfaces are. 

Leaf temperature of Ginkgo

Meanwhile, it's a good day to stay indoors blogging, doing laundry, and baking bread.  Right now the baguette dough is on its third of four rises.  Should be coming out of the oven around 4:30.  

And indeed, at 4:34 we have fresh bagettes in the boulangerie!

August 1

White rabbit. White rabbit. White rabbit.  (Nailed it again!)

Still plenty of pond action at the Botanic Garden.  A number of lotus cultivars are blooming, both in the Camino de Colores pond and in the Lebanese Pond.  

It was forecast to be above 100°, so I got started early for label placement.  Still, I was out there until 1:00 and it was toasty warm.  I had 9 specimens in my target list.  

The Passiflora and the Rhus were easy to find.  Courtesy of another docent, I discovered a second passion flower in the Curandera on the right side of the bas relief.  In afternoon shade, it was not blooming.  

But that was it.  The other composites eluded me.  The Fallopia that I thought was blooming along the western service road was nowhere to be found.  The Cotinus was coggygria not obovatus.  

For something cooler to work on, I'll be mapping some of the late blooming roses in the High Desert Rose Garden based on the photos I took.  

July Update

It's been almost a month since my last post.  I must be getting lazy.  I've seen some great stuff, even as the summer draught and heat suck the vitality out of most things.  

On the way back from Nature's Notebook observations last week, we saw a blue darter on a lotus blossom.  It flew away, but I remembered what Jerry Goffe taught me:  dragonflies usually return to their favorite perch.  So I was not surprised when our blue friend came back after only a few minutes.  

 

Blessed are the Weak

Been reading Lia Fail -- the Earth always speaks.   One line near the end resonates with me:  "the insistence that the weak matter even when they are inconvenient."  It applies to the homeless, to wildlife, and to wilderness.  

Been down to the Garden for a Thursday afternoon presentation on Origami in the Garden, a display from some artists on the Turquoise Trail that promises to be spectacular.  October - March with a chance of a seasonal bonsai display to accompany the giant metal sculptures.  We'll see.

Datura

No evening tours this June.  In the past, it's just been too hot and, with the sun setting at 8:20, things are really just an uncomfortable late afternoon walk in the Garden.  

Post-Solstice

We're already past the solstice.  There have been hikes, phenology, baking and cooking, gardening, and photography.  It's about time I got back to blogging.  

Monday Sheila and I taught the first of this year's herbarium workshops.  I collected the dried sheets this morning and some were quite well done. 

Cynara cardunculus

 Last summer we collected a couple flowering artichokes.  The students managed to whack them in half and we pressed them.  This year, we mounted and labeled them.  For such a thick specimen, I'd say they came out well.  

A New Month

Things are lining up to be a busy month.  In a couple weeks we'll have our first Camp BioPark herbarium workshop.  Then later that same week, we'll have a Nature's Notebook brown bag.  

To that end, I was working on the pressed specimens in the herbarium getting an inventory pulled together so I can print labels.  We should have nearly 80 specimens to be mounted by the students.  Some have the potential to be works of art.  

Autumn crocus, Colchicum

Queen of the Night, Epiphyllum oxypetalum