Succulents

The gardening bug hits me in January every year, and I feel restless that I cannot do anything about it until the threat of a last frost/freeze is over. This year, the winter has been so mild, and so warm, that I decided to get at least some succulents for my front porch.

I have always been fond of succulents, and have had several of them over the years.

One dear spiny cactus (Mammillaria species) that I have had for the last 5 years succumbed to the three day freeze we had earlier in January. I am not sure why I did not get it indoors during the freeze like I do every year. It did not survive and I will not enjoy its bright pink blooms in spring this year. Here is a photo of it from last year.

There were two Kalanchoes that I have had for the last 5-6 years. They did not survive the freeze either. Their blooms from last year-

I have had this Christmas cactus (Schlumbergera species) for the past several years. I had moved it from the porch out into the garden last year. It hasn't liked the new home and though it survived the freeze, I think I will bring it back to the covered porch soon.

Every December, it used to be full of these beautiful bright reddish pink flowers.

Aloe vera was doing very well in a planter and took a hit in the freeze, but it has survived and will bounce back soon hopefully. The gel from the leaves was a great help when I accidentally poured boiling milk over the back of my hand. It was very soothing when applied over the affected area, and there is no scar after healing.

Last spring, at the local plant swap, a kind lady let me have this cascading cactus. The swap was almost over, and this one was left behind. It was in a tiny little disposable cup with very little soil, and she was doubtful it will make it. I brought it home and put it in a small planter. Spring is the season when anything will grow, in my opinion. Soon, it was thriving, and it even survived the freeze! Sedum reflexum 'Blue Spruce' is its name.

Sedum adolphii 'carnicolor' has been on my porch for the past couple of years. It has grown nicely, and I thought was a little off color after the freeze. It looks better every day though. On a windy day two weeks ago, it fell and broke into 2-3 pieces. I have planted those pieces and hope they will grow as well.

I picked up these last three succulents from the nursery two weeks ago. This one is a Graptopetalum species.

I was excited about using these old bowls from my kitchen. My husband got a ceramic drill bit and drilled holes at the bottom of these bowls so I could use them. I need to learn to use that drill bit. It requires a lot of patience and you have to make sure the area is wet so the bowl will not crack. I will try doing it soon.
An Aeonium matches the green color of this bowl perfectly.

Another Aeonium completes my collection for now. I have another two bowls waiting and I hope to get some interesting additions to my collection soon.

Spicy experiments- and homegrown turmeric root

The bottle of Garam Masala that I use in my cooking almost everyday, was running out. I needed to make some more soon. I have been making my own garam masala for some time now. However, I used to do it mostly from memory of what my mother used to put together in her masala powder. Occasionally, I would look at recipes online and incorporate ingredients that I thought were interesting. There are scores of websites each with their own version of the spice mix. Sometimes, this resulted in fabulous masalas and sometimes, not so much.

Finally, I decided to look for the exact list of ingredients my mother used, and managed to get a copy of her recipe. When I saw it, I recalled her saying she did not use dry coconut that the traditional recipe calls for, because where we lived while I was growing up, in the tiny state of Goa, the weather was always very humid. That kind of climate leads to a lot of spoilage, and dry coconut tends to go rancid quickly. So she had developed her own mix leaving coconut out. 

I decided to add some coconut this time around. I guess it is okay to experiment with ingredients by leaving out some that you don't fancy very much and adding those that might be beneficial. 

I figured that when coconut is not used, it is called Garam Masala. When it is used, it is the traditional Maharashtrian Goda Masala. Other than the main ingredients, the composition can vary, Asafoetida is almost always used. I decided to leave out asafoetida. I am not too fond of the strong smell. 

Turmeric- as a powder, which is the most easily available form, is another ingredient. I read a note in the famous Maharashtrian recipe book Ruchira, that using turmeric root instead of the ready made powder, adds a nice aroma.
I had pulled out a small piece of turmeric root from the yard two weeks ago.

  It was quite dry now. I decided to use it. 

Here is a list of what I added to the aggregate-

Coriander seeds- 16 oz

Cumin seeds- 3.5 oz

Sesame seeds (brown)- 3.5 oz

Desiccated coconut- 3.5 oz

Caraway seeds (Shahjeera)- 1 oz

Cayenne pepper- 1 oz

Whole Cloves- 10-15

Cinnamon- 2-3 inch stick

Cardamom- 4-5 small

Star Anise- One and a half

Bay Leaf- 3-4 medium sized

Turmeric root- 1 inch

The first three seeds were dry roasted and the rest of the ingredients (except for the cayenne pepper) were roasted over a little oil. 

After letting them cool, all ingredients were ground to a fine powder.

Color in the yard

A three-day long hard freeze in South Texas earlier in January left a lot of plants in the yard either dead, or looking like they were dead. The dull browns and grays were everywhere. I picked up some Grape Hyacinth, Hyacinth and Iris bulbs from a local nursery and planted them to spruce things up a little! And did they deliver!

This was my first brush with any kind of hyacinth. I read that the flowers were fragrant but I wasn't expecting the sweet, heady scent that settled around the flower bed once the flowers bloomed!

The first one, the Grape Hyacinth (Muscari aucheri 'Blue magic'). It was a tiny inflorescence, the whole plant was not more than 5-6 inches tall. Maybe because it is still young. It can otherwise grow to about 12 inches.

The delightful color and the beautiful inflorescence was a feast for the eyes. I should have gotten more bulbs of this kind.

As the flowers matured, they exhibited various shades of blue. Truly, it was a great addition to the yard.

Hyacinth- A spectrum of colors from white to deep purple emerged from the Hyacinth bulbs I planted. There was white, baby pink, mauve, lilac, magenta and purple, and the flowers were simply gorgeous! Additionally, the fragrance was such a bonus! I wonder why I had never noticed these beauties all these years!

The Iris bulbs started out with a bang, with a couple of flowers blooming as soon as the plant was about 4-5 inches tall. I hope to see a good amount of bright blue flowers for another two months.

A different color to balance out all the cool shades was a welcome change, and this burst of bright orange Violas did just that.

Some more dramatic colors of the Violas. 

The vegetable garden will soon be the focus of attention, but these colorful additions will hopefully be great companion plants!

Sandhill Cranes and some birds in the yard

This winter, I did not get a chance to go birding as often as I would've liked to. So this past weekend, I decided to give it a shot and check out on the Sandhill Cranes that call this area home for the winter. They are on the last leg of their stay here, before heading back, flying thousands of miles to get to their breeding grounds in Canada.
Some locations were shared by members on a Facebook birding group, so I had an idea where I might be able to find them. We decided to set out after lunch. After driving around for a bit, we saw a few cars parked by the side of the road. Sure enough, it was friends from the birding group. I had interacted with one before and it was a pleasure to meet four of them in person. We were all driven by the same passion, standing there in the sun on an unseasonably warm afternoon in February, the temperature breaking records.
There was much drama playing out on the other side of the fence that separated us from a vast field. Four of us bird-watchers were on terra firma and one was perched on top of her SUV. There were scores of Snow Geese, Sandhill Cranes, White-Fronted Geese, with Northern Harriers, Starlings and lots of small birds flying among them. The Starlings were doing their murmurations every now and then. They were very far out from where I stood, so the pictures are not great. Please click on them to get a better perspective.

It is interesting how these birds find spots where they are left alone. In the background, one can see the urban sprawl slowly closing in on all of the rice fields that were once abundant in this region. The area started out as prairies, which were then converted to rice fields. That attracted a lot of geese. Grains that provide more carbohydrates are preferred by these birds.
Numbers have dwindled in recent years as migrating geese have started frequenting newer pastures in Arkansas. Here is a report from 2014 in the Houston Chronicle, which explains why the numbers have been fewer lately.

White-fronted Geese flying over Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese.

After spending about an hour at this spot, I decided to look around some more. Driving down another country road led me to this small herd of Sandhill Cranes much closer to the roadside than they were in the earlier field.

Soon, they were aware that they were being watched, so I decided to leave them alone as they fed themselves.

Wishing them all a safe trip back home!

Other migratory birds continue to visit the backyard. Large flocks of Cedar Waxwings fly from tree to tree looking for berries. Here is one- they are such beautiful birds!

More Cedar Waxwings-

A few Yellow-rumped Warblers are always frequenting my backyard. They seem to be around all the time, and I used to think they were house sparrows. 

Blue jays and Cardinals are also regular visitors. This one always sits on the tree and sings while I work in my yard. It's great to have melodious company. 

January Headlines

The New Year was ushered in the company of friends and fine food. The weather was good, it had been a mild winter. A chance spotting of a news item by my husband about a castle in rural Texas got him all excited. Turned out it wasn't very far from where we lived, an hours drive on a route we have been on often. Featured in USA Today, and the local news, we were excited about this find and set out with the help of Google maps.

The directions led us to a small country road and after a couple of miles, we had arrived! It was a very impressive looking structure! As we walked towards the castle, I thought I saw a statue of a lion at the entrance on the moat! Lion statues at the Massachusetts castle we visited in September were still fresh in my memory. 

In reality, it was a big dog! It was sitting at the entrance, and when it saw us, it stood up and started walking towards us. At first, I was apprehensive because there seemed to be no one around. It was such a friendly dog, it checked us out and went back to its position at the entrance.
My husband kept saying there was a nice bakery near the castle but we found nothing, and no one. That's when we realized that in all the excitement of having found such a lovely castle so close to where we lived, we hadn't read the entire article. The bakery was in Bellville, TX and to visit the castle, one needed to make an appointment. We decided to do that on another day.

Adjacent to the castle was this pond with lots of lily pads. It must be a gorgeous sight when the lilies are in bloom.

It was a beautiful day so we did not mind the drive. A Greater Roadrunner crossed the road and hurried on among the bushes. Not before it provided a photo op for me. My first decent picture of a Roadrunner!

After that weekend, it was back to routine. 

Then the weather guys got busy because a particularly cold mass of air was diving towards Texas from the arctic and freeze warnings were in forecast.

Nothing had prepared me for what actually came our way. There wasn't any snow, but it got really cold, and for three nights in a row, there was a hard freeze. I had covered a lot of my plants and even gotten some indoors. The temperature was down to 20 degrees F on two nights, and it was the first time I got to see a bird bath that looked like this-

It warmed up soon after that. Seasonal temperatures, though a tad on the warmer side, set in. The damage was done though. A lot of my plants died or at least appear to be dead. I'll know their fate only around March when everything seems to spring back to life. 

The squirrels were in a amorous mood, and soon, we will probably see little ones jumping all over the yard.