Where is winter?
Hard to believe that on January 16 it is almost 70 degrees! I worked in my yard without a jacket. I fertilized and planted pansies, and finally got some spring blooming bulbs in the ground. I put some in pots and some in the ground. Many of my older bulbs are up and growing, but although my new bulbs were getting their chilling hours, only some of them had even started to sprout, since they weren’t in the ground. They may be a bit later in blooming. Rain and colder weather is predicted tonight and tomorrow, so it was a great chance to get some gardening done. I also did a little garden clean up and took some new pictures. We are in our full second month of blooms on the camellia sasanqua and it is still loaded with pink buds. My pineapple sage which was so slow to start blooming is still blooming. The mahonia is going to be open soon, but my new ‘Soft Caress’ does not look like it will have any flowers this year.
The paper white narcissus I planted last week are growing strong. I turn the pot several times a week to keep the stems growing straight. I added some decorative red beads on the top to add some weight to the pot and it should be an added touch of color for the white paper whites, once they start flowering. The amaryllis has greened up but is not growing as fast as the narcissus. They have their own schedule, but I am turning it also.
Friday night was the second Friday night art walk in downtown Little Rock. Probably due to the colder weather, there wasn’t a huge crowd. The beds around the Old State House were the first MG project in Arkansas and they continue to be a MG project. The pansies were blooming, and the daffodils were up and some even had buds showing. They have some great exhibits at the museums in downtown Little Rock, plus some great art. It is free to attend, and a great opportunity to see what downtown has to offer.
Saturday night we made sushi from my new sushi kit. Kyle and his room mate Toast came over to lead the demonstration–and to do most of the cooking! They are both chefs, so it was fun to watch and learn. I had fish flown in from California and we had all the sauces and rice and vinegar and mango and on and on. I think every pot, pan, dish and utensil I owned were dirty by the end of the evening, but we ate some great sushi. Sushi rice is a little harder to make than just regular rice. You have to steam it and it needs to be moist and sticky. You mix it with some sushi vinegar and then spred it on the Nori (seaweed sheets) then put whatever vegetables, fish and sauces you want. It is best to use a sushi mat to get a firm roll. The first one was a bit large and a bit heavy on the sirichi sauce–so spicy too. The soft shell crab was amazing, as was the Hawaiin shrimp and the spicy tuna and surprisingly the barbequed eel was fabulous. There wasn’t a bad roll in the bunch and the fish eggs on top were a huge hit. I made the last roll of the night and it turned out excellently! Probably not something we will do weekly, because it does take time and lots of knife skills and ingredients, but it was fun and tasty.
