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.

Friday, March 6, 2009

Cupcakes for All Seasons













These are my "spaghetti and meatballs" cupcakes. Remember the "Hello Cupcake" cookbook that Santa brought me? This recipe came from that book. The noodles are frosting, the spaghetti sauce is strawberry jelly, the meatballs are Ferrer Rocher chocolate/hazelnut candies and the parmesan cheese is grated white chocolate.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Vega$ Baby!


This is a view of the Strip from our room at the Mirage. The volcano out front is going off (as it does hourly) and you can see the Venetian and Bally's in the background. We got a great deal on a two night package and two tickets for Cirque du Soleil's The Beatles LOVE. We HIGHLY recommend it if you're in Vegas and even just like Beatles' music. Each song is a little vignette and the Cirque performers portray the characters from each song -- Eleanor Rigby or Mr. Kite or the Octopus in her garden, for example.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Crossroads of No and Where





Can you see the vast nothingness behind Dan? No kidding - that is the town of Vidal Junction, CA. From Phoenix, we rented a car to drive up to Las Vegas for two nights. On the way there, we decided to head west from Phoenix on I-10 and then turn north in California. This photo was taken during our lunch stop in Vidal Junction. Lunch, you understand, was rather loosely defined as a "ham" sandwich from the cooler, a bag of Cheetos and a diet Coke. I honestly think that the Cheetos were about the healthiest thing in the gas station.




This was our scenic view from the picnic table - the dumpster in the foreground and the abandoned cafe in the background.


Dan here--Have you ever heard it said "It's not the middle of nowhere, but you can see it from there"? Well, this is the place you see when you're in that place that's not the middle of nowhere, let me tell you. There's a bridge over from Arizona, so there's a produce inspection station, and there's the gas station. Period. It wouldn't be so god-awful if it at least had something more to look at than the chicken on top of the defunct cafe and the old wagon on top of the gas station! Phew! What was really funny though, was the folks pulling over in front of the 'cafe' and discussing whether or not to go back over to AZ for lunch, and if it was worth going through CA 'customs' again!

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Wild Blue Yonder



While we were in Phoenix we went to the model airplane airfield to watch my dad fly his radio controlled airplanes.
The airfield is in eastern Phoenix near Superstition Mountain.
He builds them himself and flew them very regularly when I was a little girl. He gave it up for 25 years or so (but kept all of his planes and radios) and then when he retired he started flying again. My parents live in Iowa from April to November and then winter in Arizona from December to April. My dad doesn't fly much in Iowa when he's there (he's busy with other hobbies) but he flies a couple times a week in Arizona. Here's Dad in the "hanger" at the airfield.

My parents reconnected with several of my dad's Air Force buddies in Arizona. Danny and his wife, Sylvia, came out to watch my dad fly while we were there. Here's my mom (on the left) with Sylvia.