Raja ki jai*

While I was searching online for green zinnia seeds (or any green flowers which don’t mind heat) I came across this bright orange variety of calendula. The name first struck me since “we don’t do kings here” especially not of the over-applied orange fake tan variety, is very much in the news headlines these days. After years of saving seeds and resowing, my calendula have become a uniform yellow. I thought “Why not try a blooming king as antidote to a blooming king” and added a packet of Orange King to my order. Invoking, thereby, the homeopathic Law of Similars: like cures like.

Continuing the floral nomenclature conversation and to make a point I couldn’t resist, I also sowed some seed of this wickedly named Cosmos sulphureus Mexican native alongside the Orange Kings.

Fortunately a pair swallows (probably Barn swallows) have started building their nest on my front porch, ensuring good luck (according to most cultures) to offset any trouble I might be stirring with my choice of annuals. It is fascinating to watch the slow construction progress, mud pellet by mud pellet. (Terrible pictures were the best I could do through a dusty window pane with subject deeply shadowed under a dark eave.)

Because their process is so arduous and because I am pleased that they have chosen my porch, I am reluctant to go in and out the front porch door too much when the swallows are on site, which seems to be overnight with much construction happening through the sunrise hours. Cafe Paradiso outback provides a great alternative sunrise seating area, even if it doesn’t have a mountain or far horizon view.

The first rays of sun are currently catching the vivid pink of an oleander in full bloom.

After digging a few garlic bulbs I decide the garlic is giving mixed harvest readiness messages, and maybe needs another week. I’m impatient with it because, hoping to catch some predicted thundery weather which is always good for seed germination (it’s science - has to do with ion charged air) I want to plant Hopi blue corn in the area where garlic is currently dawdling. Ahhhh….patience.

A few hours after sunrise, after garlic conversations, scurrilous seed sowing, dividing and relocating some Iris germanica and a few other garden tasks, when I am ready for breakfast, there is still shade enough in Cafe Paradiso where I can enjoy the blooming marvel of a vision that is the Garden of Earthly Delight outback. The secret is regular watering. I pay for it in elevated utility bills. It is already way too hot by 9 am, to want to breakfast in the sun.

Inspired by the green chile cheese muffin I enjoyed a week or so ago at Tranquil Buzz coffee shop in Silver City, I defrosted my last jar of chopped green chile to make a batch of my own green chile muffins to have with morning coffee. They turned out rather well even if I over filled the cups a bit. Don’t you wish you were here?

Of course it’s safe to use up the stored stash of green chile as this season’s crop will be ready soon, if the swelling fruit in my garden is anything to go by.

On the topic of swelling fruit, I spent a bit of time this week attempting to save some apricots from the birds.

I used a combination of careful netting (without low hanging draped nets which catch/kill the wrong birds) and scarecrow tactics of clothing hung around the tree.

Every day I move the clothing around in the tree so the birds don’t get too used to their presence.

Wind helps by making the improv scarecrows sway and dance.

Meanwhile saved seed from a 2021 crop of Madhu Ras honey melons has way exceeded my germination expectations. The second leaves are appearing.

They are all over the garden since I thought the seed was old and might not be viable so planted way too many. Of course because I am in an urban area, I don’t know what other melons the bees visited that year. Everyone was backyard gardening back then. There is no knowing whether these plants will produce true, until there is fruit. Patience, again, the garden teaching me patience.

Yellow bulbine are in full bloom now, snaking their starry inflorescences in amongst ethereal silver blue Eringium. This bouquet is for you, Last Emperor. Without your input the Garden of Earthly Delight would be way less interesting, way less eloquent.

Another of my mail order brides of last year, a purple Santa Rosa opuntia which came as a single pad in a box from Tucson, is settling into a corner of the Cafe Paradiso rockery where volunteer Hopi Red Dye amaranth is popping up everywhere. This purple spinach substitute is going to feature heavily in my salads and stir fries this summer. Yum.

It’s too hot to lunch outback now, but that’s okay. I am so happy with the way Cafe Paradiso, my outdoor lounge, is evolving. With double glazed windows, and stone and adobe walls, the house stays cool and comfortable until the roaring monster which breathes refrigerated air kicks in by late afternoon. In the heat of the day, I retreat inside to read Paul Theroux’ latest offering, Burma Sahib, (2024) a fictionalized account of George Orwell’s years as a colonial police officer in Burma (now Myanmar). I wasn’t sure about this novel at first, being more a fan of this author’s non-fiction, but a quarter of the way in, I’m hooked. He is a great storyteller.

*”Glory/Victory to the king - a rallying cry of the Indian army regiments who fought with the British and allied troops in the first World War.