What’s Blooming at the Center for Urban Horticulture?

It’s easy to be inspired by the early-summer blooming plants at the University of Washington’s Center for Urban Horticulture.  Here are a few things that caught my eye on a recent visit:

I love this particular shade of blue on Sea Holly.

Sea Holly

Going to Seed

Lily

This lily reminds me of a Japanese lantern.

Bird on the path

Wearing Red

Red poppy

Red poppy

“When in doubt wear red.”
     — Bill Blass

I pass these strikingly red poppies on my walk to the corner store for my morning coffee.  The way the furled, red petals emerge from their green seed-like cases reminds me of monarch butterflies emerging from cocoons.

Each green pod holds a tightly folded red poppy.

Poppy emerging from its green case, which it wears like a cap until it falls off.

New poppies attract honey bees.

Poppy

Red Berries

Red raspberries, some ripe for the picking

Succulent red strawberry

“Better than any argument is to rise at dawn and pick dew-wet red berries in a cup.”
     — Wendell Berry (whose name is very apt for this quote!) 

I wanted to serve fresh strawberries for dessert accompanied by some kind of lemon cake.  So I looked through my stash of yet-to-be-tried recipes and found this one from Cupcakes:  Luscious Bakeshop Favorites from Your Home Kitchen by Shelly Kaldunski: 

Lemon Poppy Seed Cupcakes 

1 c all-purpose flour
1-1/2 Tbsp poppy seeds
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 c sugar
1/2 c plus 2 Tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp freshly grated lemon zest
1/2 tsp lemon extract
1/4 c sour cream 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare a standard 12-cup muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray. (I used cupcake liners instead.) 

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, poppy seeds, baking powder, and salt.  In another bowl, using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat the sugar and butter together until light and fluffy, 2 – 3 minutes.  Add the eggs, lemon zest, and lemon extract, and beat until combined.  Add the flour mixture and beat on low speed until just combined, about 1 minute.  Add the sour cream and beat until just combined; scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. 

Divide the batter evenly among the 12 muffin cups, filling each about three-fourths full.  Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean, 18 – 20 minutes.  Let the cupcakes cool in the pan for 5 minutes.  Transfer the cupcakes to a wire rack and let cool completely, about 1 hour. 

If desired, spoon a lemon glaze over the cupcakes.  The glazed cupcakes can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 4 days; bring to room temperature before serving.

Lemon Poppy Seed Cupcake

 

Lemon Poppy Seed Cupcakes ready for glaze

Greenwood Car Show

Here are some photos from the 2010 Greenwood Car Show, which closed the street in front of the library where I worked yesterday. 

Lining up for the 2010 Greenwood Car Show

Last-minute detailing

A flaming beauty

Line up of raised hoods

Truck bed of old Chevy

Interior with leopard-skin seat covers

Neatly folded fire hose on vintage fire engine

White Foxglove

White foxglove in the morning light

Purple foxglove is more common here, but this year I am seeing white foxglove as well.  I like how the morning light edges these white bells in a soft glow.

I’ve read about the concept of keeping a daily gratitude journal.  I haven’t followed that path, but I do find this blog serves something of the same purpose for me.  If I can find and notice and appreciate just one thing in my day, then I feel fulfilled.

“White foxglove, by an angle in the wall,
Secluded, tall,
No vulgar bees
Consult you, wondering
If such a dainty thing
Can give them ease.”
     — T. E. Brown, from “White Foxglove”

Love What is Plentiful

Rocks, feathers and shells

 

Cardinal feathers, Sanibel Island shells, sea-smoothed rocks

 

We Alone
by Alice Walker 

We alone can devalue gold
by not caring
if it falls or rises
in the marketplace.
Wherever there is gold
there is a chain, you know,
and if your chain
is gold
so much the worse
for you. 

Feathers, shells
and sea-shaped stones
are all as rare. 

This could be our revolution:
to love what is plentiful
as much as
what’s scarce.

Winged Sweet Peas

Purple sweet peas growing in a parking strip

“Here are sweet-peas, on tip-toe for flight:
With wings of gentle flush o’er delicate white,
And taper fingers catching at all things,
To bind them all about with tiny rings.”
     — John Keats, from “I Stood Tiptoe Upon a Little Hill”

These purple sweet peas grow wild around here.  We even have some in our bushes.  They aren’t fragrant though.  The pink and white ones at the vendors’ stalls in the Pike Place Market perfume the air with their fragrance.

I found a lovely botanical print of sweet peas at http://www.botanicus.org/page/1267992.  Here it is:

Lathyrus odoratus

Flip-Flops

First day in flip-flops

One of the sounds of summer is the rhythmic slapping of flip-flops against my heels.  I dragged my flip-flops out of my closet today because I have a blister on my foot which my regular shoe rubs against.  I don’t generally wear flip-flops for long-distance walks, and they don’t provide much support at work where I am on my feet most of the day.  Still, I do see people wearing flip-flops on walks around Greenlake (3 miles).  Since I’ve lived in the Pacific NW, I’ve even seen people (rather clueless, I thought) wearing flimsy flip-flops on hiking trails.

I wore my flip-flops to the corner store for my morning cup of good coffee, a double-tall Americano (half-price if you get there before 8:00 a.m.)  I rather liked the regular snap of the flip-flops as I walked down the sidewalk, ready for a summer day in the city.

Simply Sitting

Our cat Jellybean sitting on the window sill

“Sitting is a most practical approach to simplifying our lives.”
     — Marietta McCarty, How Philosophy Can Save Your Life: 10 Ideas that Matter Most

I have to work hard at simply sitting in stillness.  I do think that the Zen Buddhist practice of zazen, or “just sitting,” is a good way to become more grounded and centered.  It’s a challenge to just watch your breath, in and out.  Too often I am living in my mind, not my body.  So simply sitting is something for me to work on.

Playing Tourist in Seattle: Volunteer Park Conservatory Revisited

Exotic bloom at the Volunteer Park Conservatory

A trip to the Volunteer Park Conservatory is always good for a rainy Seattle day.  The seasonal room still features fuchsia, but on this visit I also saw lots of salpiglossis in bloom.

Bi-color Salpiglossis

Salpiglossis, Volunteer Park Conservatory