Saturday, April 25, 2009

5 new trees from Denver Digs Trees!

The Denver Digs Trees program is the flagship program of The Park People. The program provides trees for planting on both public and private property. Street trees (trees that are planted in the public right of way) are available at a low cost to all residents of Denver and are free to residents in our 21 target neighborhoods. Dan and his dad planted our five trees this weekend.

1 Gingko Biloba
Ginkgos are very large trees, normally reaching a height of 20–35 m (66-115 feet), with some specimens in China being over 50 m (164 feet). The tree has an angular crown and long, somewhat erratic branches, and is usually deep rooted and resistant to wind and snow damage. Young trees are often tall and slender, and sparsely branched; the crown becomes broader as the tree ages. During autumn, the leaves turn a bright yellow, then fall, sometimes within a short space of time (1–15 days). A combination of resistance to disease, insect-resistant wood and the ability to form aerial roots and sprouts makes ginkgos very long-lived, with some specimens claimed to be more than 2,500 years old

2 Green Maples
Some of the larger maple species have valuable timber, particularly Sugar Maple in North America, and Sycamore Maple in Europe. Sugar Maple wood, often known as "hard maple", is the wood of choice for bowling pins, bowling alley lanes, pool cue shafts, and butcher's blocks. Maple wood is also used for the production of wooden baseball bats, though less often than ash or hickory due to the tendency of maple bats to shatter when broken.
Some maple wood has a highly decorative wood grain, known as flame maple and quilt maple. This condition occurs randomly in individual trees of several species, and often cannot be detected until the wood has been sawn, though it is sometimes visible in the standing tree as a rippled pattern in the bark. Birdseye maple is another distinctive grain pattern.



2 Zelkova Serratas also known as "Green Vase" or Japanese Zelkova

'Green Vase'- This popular form is a fast grower to 70' tall with a width of 35' to 40'. It maintains a vase-shape with upright arching branches. It is taller and less broad than 'Village Green' at maturity, plus it grows more quickly. The fall color is bronze-red. It is widely considered the best selection.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Lemon Pancakes with Raspberry Sauce

We bought lemons at Sam's Club recently. Nuff said.

Editor's note - this recipe leaves you with a zested lemon full of juice. I used the lemon juice to make a marinade for grilled chicken.

Pancake Ingredients
1 large egg
1 tablespoon lemon zest, grated
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons brown sugar, packed
2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
3/4 cup all-purpose flour, plus
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
In a medium bowl, whisk together egg, lemon zest, buttermilk, brown sugar, and butter. Set aside. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Stir until just combined. Cook the pancakes as you normally would. This recipe made about 8 medium pancakes - just barely enough for 4 adults. I would suggest doubling it.

Raspberry Sauce Ingredients
Frozen Raspberries (small package 16 oz?)
1/4 - 1/2 c sugar (to taste)
cornstarch
Put the frozen raspberries in a sauce pan with a little water, the sugar and cornstarch. Simmer until raspberries are broken down. Bring to a boil and reduce heat.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Sorry I've been gone so long...

I can't really say much is happening here that's been keeping me too busy to blog so I'll just chalk it up to general malaise. We are going to England, Ireland and Wales next month. I got an email from United advertising great fares to lots of spots and London was calling my name. So, I convinced Dan we had to go on another adventure with Globus (actually Cosmos this time). So we and 30 of our closest strangers will soon be tooling around the UK on a motorcoach with a lovely tour director named Nigel or Fiona or something Britishy like that. Dan's never been to the UK and I've never been to Ireland so we each get to explore something new. We both have been doing genealogical research lately and we both have British roots. Dan's mother's father's family can trace their ancester back to the early 1600s. My father's mother's family were Quakers and came over to Pennsylvania (now Delaware) with William Penn in the late 1600s.