Winter Sanity-Savers...

After an extended delay, my Amaryllis has arrived (seen here, singin' show-tunes in my window). I like its (her) sense of timing after all; she's doing a fine job of chasing away the End-of-January Bleak-Monster.

That bouquet of flowering-currant twigs I mentioned in the last post is also flushing into bloom...with just a flush of pink. Not quite the rose-pink I was hoping for, but I am nevertheless impressed. The buds were fairly tight when I salvaged the branches, yet they produced a full drop-down blossom just sitting in a vase of water for 12 days. That's a lot of stored energy. There is absolutely no innuendo intended in the above paragraph.
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I have decided to amuse myself this year by experimenting with the "cut-flower-bouquet"-potential of whatever flower/branch/stalk/stem-bits I happen to haul home. The first test for prospective florals, of course, will be surviving wind-force on the back of a scooter. So I'm not promising fine florals. A bit more rustic perhaps.
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Bouquets sure do liven up a space. I suppose people have known that for years. Late bloomer here, ha ah.
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In the meantime, my keen observation skills and quick camera reflexes captured this image for BGC readers... (compliments of recent West Coast fusion curry/crab/sushi feast at Chiaki and Geoff's!)


I think the Red Racer Pale Ale logo is awesome, if unlikely. Reminds me of the B:C:Clettes--the Vancouver-based all-girl bicycle-show-dancing revue. Definitely worth a Google.

Winter Twiggery

Here's a Burning Bush/"Winged" Euonymous alatus in winter, so you can see the flat corky "wings" on the branches, which apparently look divine holding new snow. Besides this aesthetic function, I have no idea why this bush evolved to have what I think look more like fins. Finned Euonymous.

Now's the time to keep an eye out for flower buds forming on early-spring-blooming shrubbery, and to whip out your pruners to snip a few branches to "force" indoors. Room temperature will fool their little buds into action and you'll get a spring advance. Most Forsythia, Prunus blireiana (the February-blooming plum with pink flowers before dark bronze leaves), and Chaenomeles (flowering quince), are generally of scrambly habit and won't miss a branch or five.

Below, I have a bundle of the flowering currant, Ribes sanguineum, on my desk because I was winter-pruning an overgrown schmozzle of shrubberies and had to give it a chop. I may be delusional, thinking I'll get a batch of those early carmine-pink blossoms, because this is a tad early. I can hope though. I'll know shortly.

In the meantime, I used a few Ribes switches to prop up my extremely reluctant Christmas Amaryllis bulb. At this rate, it will be a Valentines Amaryllis. I totally planned that :]

There is some colour out there and this Witchhazel cultivar, Hamamelis 'Jelena', down in the parking lot by the Beans at Park & Tilford, looks fluorescently spectacular in this photo, but people don't generally like it as well as the traditional yellow Witchhazel.

However, the yellow Witchazel (below) in the neighbouring P&T Gardens looks a soggy mess with its tenacious dead leaves so 'Jelena' is my pick of the day. I do appreciate the lacework branches of the hawthorne behind though. For all the grey of winter, 'tis the season of silhouettes and subtleties.

Here's a poem by Macrina Wiederkehr to remind us there's a season for everything....

The Sacrament of Waiting

Slowly

She celebrated the sacrament of letting go

First she surrendered her green

then the orange, yellow and red

Finally she let go of her brown

shedding her last leaf

she stood empty and silent, stripped bare.

leaning against the winter sky she began her vigil of trust.

Shedding her last leaf

she watches its journey to the ground

She stood in silence

wearing the colour of emptiness,

her branches wondering

How do you give shade with so much gone?

And then,

the sacrament of waiting began.

The sunrise and sunset watched with tenderness.

Clothing her with silhouettes,

they kept her hope alive.

They helped her understand that

her vulnerability

her dependence and need

her emptiness

her readiness to receive

were giving her a new kind of beauty.

Plant ID-ing my food

I know. Super nerdy. But what's an off-season gardener to do??

Everything on the cutting board there belongs to the plant family Apiaceae, which is the same family as our dearly beloved carrot. The reason I care, or know, or either/both, is because I have become recently acquainted with celery root/celeriac (the brown knobby-looking thing, and the white peeled-looking thing) due to a recent foray into Indian vegetarian cooking.

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Indian vegetarian cooking requires more celery root than I've ever required in my life (that would be "none") so I'm happy to discover celeriac is just a variety of celery with a knobby edible root, commonly available in the produce section of most grocery stores. Who knew. So far, I've stir-fried it in curry and am about to pound it into koftas in curry.

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I do love curry, which is why I've also become acquainted with coriander--the two spice bottles (seeds and ground seeds) on the right and the green bundle of cilantro, a sneaky Spanish name for coriander leaves--all the same plant.

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And the last Apiaceae items on the cutting board are the white Florence fennel stalk next to a bottle of fennel seeds--both a lovely refreshing licorice flavour and by fluke, in my current food collection and related (like cousins) to knobby old celeriac. They all have edible roots (even coriander), highly fragrant leaves (even carrots), and tall umbrella-like flowers that produce flavourful seeds (even celery).

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This was brought to you by the Super Nerdy Horticulinary Network. You know you love it.

Prayer Flag(ging) the Raspberry Canes

Had a lovely white Christmas up in the Shuswap--here's a neighbour's raspberry patch, looking decorous against the snow. Not sure if all that flagging tape is a visual aid for party-crashing deer, or if it's just what he had on hand to tie in the canes... (This concludes the mandatory botanical content in this posting.)

Spent much time tramping back and forth through the snow en route to various cozy kitchens/wood stoves/good company, and skiing at Larch Hills and Sun Peaks (below) with the extended family...

Also learned how to ice skate with a hockey stick, make curry and mix White Russians. Happy New Year. My topmost resolution is not to pay any(more) library fines this year. The rest of the list is personal, so there blogo-wiki-leaky-sphere. Bless. One love and prosper.