Chamonix Alpines

Some Alpine plants below Plan de Aiguille (2317M/7601feet) seen on our walk down to the Refuge du Plan de l'Aiguille (2233M/7326feet) for lunch.  It was mid-June and we had to traverse some snowy patches on the trail. The middle station for the trip to the top of the Aiguille du Midi is at Plan de Aiguille. From the top of Aiguille du Midi you can take a cable car over glaciers to Italy or get some photos of Mont Blanc if it is clear.

Bridge of Death at Aiguille du Midi

Refuge du Plan de l'Aiguille - refreshments and beds for the night

We had lunch at the Refuge, two of us each had a large wooden platter with cured meats, cheeses, potatoes and a salad in the center, the youngest had a large salad. We also had good beer, good bread and excellent views of Chamonix.

Wheat beer with spices, excellent

Earlier in the day as we were heading towards the top of Aiguille du Midi, we saw the Refuge receiving supplies by helicopter.

Potentilla aurea - Golden Cinquefoil

Silene acaulis - Moss Campion

Alpines on the way down to/ up from the Mer de Glace (glacier). They carve out a tunnel in the glacier each year, you can see the tunnels from previous years downstream.

 

Alpine Moon Daisy - Leucanthemopsis alpina

Field Mouse-ear - Cerastium arvense

Alpines above the Glacier Exhibit at Montenvers (1913M/6276 feet). The Glacier exhibit was included with the price of the Montenvers Cog Railway train and was very interesting, worth seeing.

Alpines at Le Brevent (2525M/8284feet), 2 cable cars are required to get there. All the mountain transportation was included in the 2 day Multipass, it was a good deal and all Chamonix Valley bus and train (if there is no strike) travel is free with the card you receive from the hotel.

View from top of Brevent cable car

Gentiana

Primula

Alpine Catchfly - Lychnis alpina

Duck Duck Duck Duck Duck Duck Ham

Made Duck Ham(brined and smoked duck breasts) this weekend.
Started Thursday evening, made the brine for the breasts as below. Recipe from Charcuterie by Michael Ruhlman & Brian Polcyn.

Brine ingredients:
0.7 liters of water
60 grams of kosher salt
16 grams sugar
7 grams pink salt (6.25% nitrite)
40 grams maple sugar
a few sprigs of thyme
1 bay leaf
3 grams dried juniper berries

simmer all ingredients over medium heat to dissolve the salt and sugars, when cool place in the fridge.

Friday morning, put the breasts into a 1 gallon zip-top bag along with the brine and sat that bag in a container in the fridge till the evening.

Friday evening, rinsed off the breasts and patted them dry and placed them on a rack in the fridge overnight.

Saturday morning, smoked the breasts at just above 200 degrees Fahrenheit. I used alder wood chips that had been soaking overnight, it took about 2.5 hours to get the internal temperature of the duck to 160 degrees Fahrenheit. I also smoked the leg/thigh pieces along with the breasts. The breasts when done were pink inside like ham and a bit of thigh meat I had to test was white, both were great. The nitrite in the pink salt keeps the meat pink.

 I had bought a whole duck which weighed just under 5 lbs. and got 2 duck breasts, 2 leg/thigh pieces, a jar of rendered duck fat and I should have some duck stock from the carcass and wings sometime this weekend.

Harvested the garlic today, last year we had to wait till the end of June, Yeah for global climate change. The total was 59 heads, with about 14 still in the garden. This should last us awhile. Last year we almost made the whole year without buying garlic.

Pulled the garlic and then planted tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers and some basil.

May Flowers

Snug Harbor Cultural Center had a plant sale this weekend. Picked up a phlox, a veronica speedwell and a periVincle, all for a good cause. It was misty all Saturday morning, but I still took a stroll around the place. A large part of the cultural center is the Botanical Garden, which has a Chinese Scholars garden, a white garden, a Peony garden (most had gone to seed), a herb garden, a secret garden, a rose garden, a Tuscan Garden and a greenhouse, but no Rock Garden. This is the Neptune Fountain, Snug Harbor used to be a old age home for old sailors till the 1960s when they were shipped off to North Carolina.

 

This is some plant from the White Garden.

 

This is the Allee of pleached Hornbeams, I can imagine it being scary if it was foggy.

Meanwhile back home.

 

'Japonica senanense', a dwarf sedum, in a fake stone bowl with a mica flaked quartz mountain and lava pebbles flown in special from Hawaii. A new purchase, but not from Snug Harbor.

 Our Peony Garden interspersed with Lilly of the Valley and Spanish Blue bells

 Clematis 'Nellie Moser', this year we have had the most blooms yet.

Erodium, this one actually made it through the winter.

Saxifrage - paniculata minutifolia 'Red Backed Spider' 

From the front garden we have some Coral Bells.

Common Comfrey - a good addition to a compost heap, it adds lots of nitrogen.

NYBG Rock Garden Study Day

Attended the Rock Garden Study Day April 21, at the New York Botanical Garden. The day was split into a presentation by Anton Reznicek (Curator of Vascular Plants at the University of Michigan) regarding the reclassification of plants based on DNA not just physical attributes, followed by a tour of the Rock Garden by curator Jody Payne and finally a demonstration of hypertuffa trough construction by NYBG gardeners Stefan Farage and Yukie Kurashina.
Their hypertuffa forms were 2" thick Styrofoam insulation held together with long nails and duct tape. Easy to cut and work with. They had molds for 4 different sizes and they had a collection of newly planted troughs at the entrance to the rock garden. The mixture they used was 1:1:1 perlite, peatmoss(screened), Portland cement, a hand full of poly fibers(for additional strength) and a 50/50 water/acrylic fortifying additive mix as the liquid.

The day was sunny and warm with a light breeze, a great day to be out. The azaleas were in full bloom and the new Azalea Garden was very interesting. (Next 3 photos)

Looking up to the overlook.

Photos from the Rock Garden.

I liked this contrast between the coral bell leaves and the English blue bell flowers.

After the hypertuffa demonstration we had a look in their Alpine house. The alpines are plunged into Turface (a soil conditioner), some use sand in their plunge beds to regulate moisture loss, which weighs more, but I didn't ask why they use Turface. I always wanted an Alpine House since we first visited Kew in 1993, at that time they had an older Alpine house which has since been replaced by a more modern looking structure. The largest greenhouse I could have without a permit is 120 sq feet and 7 foot tall max, which might get crowded real quick (what size wouldn't?), but then there is also the additional responsibility required both in winter and summer to keep the plants happy and the additional maintenance.

Some Saxifrages in real tuffa sitting on the surface of the Turface.

April Flowers

Our April Flowers this year.

Purple Periwinkle - my tribute to Beverley Nichols the Garden author.

Variegated Brunnera, similar to the Alaska State Flower the Alpine Forget-me-not (myosotis alpestris) both are in the same family Boraginaceae, just different genus. I would like to get an Alpine Forget-me-not since we did see them on our trip to Alaska.

One of our Coral Bells in the front garden.

A mauve periwinkle (Mr. Nichols again) amongst some creeping phlox.

Sweet Woodruff below the Lilacs, it smells great. There is some periwinkle in there as well.

English blue bells

Saxifrages in a trough, though it is more of a large pot. There once were 3, one is happy, one not so much and the other packed up and left. I'll have to get some replacements.

Ghost fern, we have some shady spots that already have other ferns, I though this would add some contrast to all the green.

And 10 makes 100

While I was at the NY Times Travel show back in March I saw even more places I would like to go and just living life a bit more I thought of more things I would like to do.

1. Cruise up the Norwegian coast on the Hurtigruten ships which visit small towns delivering goods and carrying passengers, Bergen to Kirkenes (7 days)
2. Ride the Bergen Railway, scenic Oslo to Bergen train excursion(7 hrs)
3. Search for Yeti in the Himalaya 
4. Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (on the way to search for Yeti)
5. Stop by the Cayman Islands to do some banking
6. Drive down Route 40 in Northern Argentina (offroading, thermal spas, mountains)
7. Visit the Azores (2 hours by plane west from Lisbon)
8. Travel in First Class on an airplane
9. See Der Ring des Nibelungen in Bayreuth
10. Fix up a BMW airhead motorcycle
11. Visit the end of the world - Isla de los Estados, Argentina (Staten Island)

The other 90 are here.

You remind me of a man

What man?
The man with the power.
What power?
The power of hoo-doo.
Hoo-doo?
You do!
Do what?
You remind me of a man!

No no one has ever said I reminded them of Cary Grant, seen here in The Bachelor and the Bobby-soxer

with Shirley Temple and Myrna Loy.

A very enjoyable movie by the way, he's one of my favorite actors.

So no, not Cary Grant, but here are some famous people I have been told I resemble. Usually in dimly-lit places.