Travels with George and Marta – Page 21 – Journeys in the Botanical World

Western Aegean and What is the price of gas?

Posted on October 5, 2011 by martaOctober 5, 2011

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Ephesus – zoom in (+) to see the ruins

We have gotten more into the nitty and gritty of our itinerary. We have been looking at our time in the along the Aegean Sea in Western Turkey. We will have a car and we plan to explore the ruins in the area. The main attraction is Ephesus. But we also want to explore some of the small ruins of Didyma, Priene, Miletus and farther inland Aphrodisias. The drive to Aphrodisias will be a long. Most of the estimates say it is between 3 and 3 1/2 hours. But the ruins look stunning. We looked over the route in Google and it is mostly along a valley floor. We also want to do some plant exploring although we probably won’t have time but if we do we’ll try a few of the roads up from Nazilli. We have been looking at the photos in this album and got some ideas. It will just be if we have time (or can get up early).

We wondered about the price of gas and got a rude awaking. According to Wikipedia, it is one of the most expensive places in Europe. It is more expensive than Italy and UK and only the Netherlands come close. We have heard that there are not a lot of cars on the road – no wonder with the price of gas around 2.64 per liter. That makes it $10.00/gallon!!! It may cost $25 in gas to get to Aphrodisias one way according to Via Michelin. Yazzaa!

Anniversary Hike – Naches Peak Loop

Posted on October 2, 2011 by martaOctober 14, 2014

September 3, 2011

I’ve finally gotten around to processing the photos from our anniversary hike last month. We had to go a couple days early this year because I had to work Labor Day. But it turned out to be a great day.

We decided to do Naches Peak Loop which we also did in 2009. Everything is late this year so the trail was still very green with lots of flowers blooming. Even a little snow. It was Saturday and very crowded. After completing the loop, we had our picnic dinner and then watched the sun go down over Tipsoo Lake. Wonderful day.

Start of the trail

Mosquitoes were out in force

Gorgeous wildflowers

The group was almost like the Sound of Music

Coming around the Peak – Mt Rainier

Sunset over Tipsoo

Istanbul Food

Posted on October 1, 2011 by martaOctober 1, 2011

I am excited to explore Turkish Food. Typically in the past I have been able to get a handle on typical food served and what to expect on a menu. Of course, it helps knowing a bit of the Latin languages. I’ve been able to navigate my way around French, Spanish and Italian menus just knowing a few words and having cooked typical dishes. I also was able to eventually manage a Dutch menu knowing a few typical words for meats, vegetables and styles of cooking. But I’m struggling Turkish dishes.

Another challenge is to get to know typical meat dishes for G since he doesn’t eat meat. There will be many options but a few might trip us up like some of the stuff (dolmas). The breads will be very interesting from the sesame or nigella seed simit and the flat lavaş. Wonderful cold and hot mezes. If it turns cool, we will enjoy soups including red lentil soup. I will want to try the meats especially the lamb.

Some sites that have been very useful:

Wikipedia Turkish Cuisine
Istanbul Eats – Local expert who highlights many of the smaller home style cooking
My Istanbul from Parla Food
Istanbul archives from Eating Asia
Deciphering what is on the menu
Istanbul Food

I’m also looking forward to trying several of the sweets. The ice cream, dondurma, is thick like taffy. It is thickened with the root of an orchid sahlep. Turkish Delight is a gelled candy similar to Aplets and Cotlets. And of course lots of Baklava. I’m going to search out branches of Güllüoglu. I’m also hoping to try baked quinces which is a fall specialty.

Turkey – Departure in one week

Posted on September 30, 2011 by martaSeptember 19, 2021

Well it is down to just a week before we leave for Turkey. It has been a long wait – a bit longer than we typically do for a trip. We are not the type that start planning as soon as we return or a year or more in advance. But with my new job, I needed to stake out a specific time for vacation so we started looking back in January. We started searching first for flights. Most of the flights were through Chicago or multiple stops. I think the most unusual was Seattle to Pittsburgh to Warsaw to Istanbul. But G stumbled upon a low cost ($900) fare via Los Angeles. Turkish Airlines had just introduced non-stops from LA to Istanbul on Boeing 777. We snagged it.

Next we started looking for accommodations. We knew we wanted an apartment and wanted to stay about a week. The most I could take off was just about two weeks – bummer. We poured over the VRBO, searched the web but ended up deciding to stay at Istanbul Holiday Apartments. We decided on the Glorya Deluxe View. It is a little pricey but we really wanted a view and we love all the amenities and location. We debated between staying in Sultanahmet historic area or the newer area across the Golden horn in Beyoğlu. The Beyoğlu area appealed to us.

Next we debated over and over how to spend the remaining 6 days. I really wanted to go hunting for autumn flowers. Autumn crocuses are native to Turkey along with other fall bulbs and I really wanted to spend some time in the hills. But G really wanted to see Ephesus. So we finally decided to focus on the Western Aegean coast. We are staying three nights at Nişanyan Hotel in Şirince. We are staying in one cottages. We will spend a day exploring Ephesus and other near by ruins or Dilek National Park and a second day driving out to see the ruins at Aphrodisias. It will be an all day drive to Aphrodisias and back but we also hope to explore some of the hills nearby looking for fall blooming bulbs.

For the final two days we will move to Lake Bafa which will give us a bit of a nature escape. We will stay at the Agora Pension. We will visit Didyma on the way. The last day will be spend explore and relaxing at Lake Bafa. We will have one last night in Istanbul. We will spend it at Faros Hotel in Sultanahmet before the long slog home.

We can not wait!

Esmeralda Basin

Posted on August 15, 2011 by martaJune 22, 2014

August 7, 2011

It was time for another trip to the Teanaway area. Earlier in the year, we did the Teanaway Ridge on eastern side off of Blewett Pass but it was time to make another trip up the valley. We were hoping the wildflowers were still going strong at Esmeralda Basin. We did this hike in 2006 so it was time for another visit.

The road was in good condition. But it was sad to see the devastation from the Western Spruce bud worm. Much of the younger trees in the forest have turned rusty red and are dying. Six miles of the road is being logged to open up the forest to potentially save it from the pest. It is sad to see such a change but it may be its only hope. We worry every year that it will erupt in a forest fire from either a campfire or lightening. Let’s hope the selective logging will help save it.

The parking lot was packed – but my parking karma was working and I found a spot near the trail head. The flowers started immediately. Brilliant reds, deep blues and spattering of white and pink.

We meandered along looking for our favorites. It was too late for shooting stars but we could fine a few elephant head louseworts. We found 4 different penstemons. We found our native carnivorous butterwort along the mossy stream bed. But we were prepared for the rocky slopes covered with scarlet gilia. They looked like fireworks going off at our feet. We found a comfortable rock in the shade and watched the Rufus hummingbirds jousting for territory. They would fight beak-to-beak up in the air before flying away. The one would land on the tip of a small tree watching waiting before tearing off to get his rival out of his turf.

The trip back was quick. A cold soda at the car and we were off for home. Another lovely day botanizing.

Aconitum columbianum – Monkshood

Ipomopsis aggregata – Scarlet gilia

Pedicularis groenlandica – Elephant’s head lousewort

Penstemon serrulatus

Campanula rotundifolia – harebell

Western Spruce Bud worm

Damage from the spruce bud worm

Pinguicula vulgaris – butterwort

Vegetable Garden 2011 – #4

Posted on July 30, 2011 by martaOctober 14, 2014

I has been a month since I updated what is happenin’ in the vegetable garden. It is very interesting to see how the vegetables are reacting to the weather. We have had a lot more gray days but the night temps have been above 50 degrees.

The tomatoes have been marching right along and our cool weather hybrids have paid off. We already have a couple of ripe tomatoes from the Stupice. It actually beat out the sun gold for ripening. They continue to put on more fruit and a couple of nice warm days may push more to the ripen. But the majority of the crop will be late as expected.

We moved the zucchini out front to get more heat and they have started producing like gang busters. I cut three off today and there are a couple more that could have come off. We can’t turn our backs on them now or else we’ll have zucchinis the size of baseball bats.

The peas in our new bed have done extremely well even with the late start. It is pretty strange to have tomatoes and zucchinis ripening at the same time as the peas. If it stays cool which it probably will we should have the peas for another good week or two.

The Swiss Chard has done really well. No leaf miners and the four plants have taken over the bed. I’ve given up trying to keep up but happy with the crop.

We’ve harvested one crop of lettuce and we have two more in. We’ll see how they do. We lost one batch of starts so we weren’t able to keep them coming.

The beans are way behind. We had a couple of sets that didn’t germinate and we finally have them coming up. The bush beans are starting to flower. I’m disappointed that we didn’t have any Maxibel left and we didn’t want to order any. G was able to get a similar variety called Nickels which we have grown in the past. We’ll see how they do. The two romano beans are climbing well and starting to blossom. I’m really surprised that the Blue Lakes are taking so long to get going. They are still pretty sparse on the trellis.

We also have beets and carrots coming along. The garden is ready for the dog days of summer.

Vegetable Garden 2010 #5 – July 13, 2010

Tomatoes coming along fine

Zucchini blossoms

Bean Trellises – notice they are kinda sparse

Blossoms on Nickels Bush Beans

Bumper crop of Sugar Snap Peas

These went into a Pesto Pasta Salad today

Beets and Carrots

The Chard that ate the garden.

Meeks Table

Posted on July 27, 2011 by martaJuly 27, 2011

It was still lightly sprinkling after we broke camp and headed East. We were uncertain if if it was going to continue to rain or if we were going to be lucky and the rain would stop. We quickly arrived at the detour around the landslide on Highway 410 and found Bethel Road/FS1500. This was our turnoff to Meeks Table. It quickly narrowed. I was a little nervous since it was Monday and I hoped that we wouldn’t meet any logging trucks. But I didn’t think there was any active logging on the road.

The canyon was drenched in clouds but the disappeared as we climbed. We passed Lake McDaniels and started looking for the turnoff which we easily found. It was just a short bumpy way until we got to the end of the road blocked by a couple of large boulders.

We grabbed our packs and headed up the logging road. Our directions were a little unclear and we made a couple of false attempts. We went further over a couple of berms and finally saw the cairns which marks one of the trails.

It went up hill through the forest before crossing over some rocks and coming to a cliff edge. The vistas widened and we could see several of the mountains in the areas such as Mount Aix and Nelsons Butte. We continued climbing and then dropped below the rocky ridge.

There it was! Frasera specious – The Giant Green Gentian – which was what we were looking for. We continued on and the trail dumped us out on the rocky lithos table top. Most of the flowers were pretty toasty from the hot sun but we could see that it was a lovely rock garden of Indian Paintbrush, wild onions and buckwheat.

Behind the rocky edge, is a grassy meadow dotted with Frasera speciosa. We walked through the wet ankle-high grass to inspect the plants. They had mostly gone to seed but we found one or two blossoms near the bottom of the stalks.

We explored the table top soaking in the vistas before heading back down. We were back at the car in a flash. We headed back to Seattle. We turned back on the highway and were watching the California Quails darting along the side of the road when I noticed something on the road. I thought it was just a dead animal until I saw the head pop-up. It was a turtle! What the heck was it doing on the road? I quickly turned around and G jumped out and moved it off the road. I don’t know what it was doing on the road. We don’t have turtles here in Washington. We saw a ranch with a pond and we suspected it escaped from the ranch pond.

The clouds darkened and thickened as we climbed to Chinook Pass. The fog decended about 1/2 mile from the Pass and I had to slow down to about 20 miles since I could barely see the road. Fortunately the traffic was light and there were no hikers along the pass. I am still amazed that there is still snow at the pass.

The fog cleared and we thought we were on our way home only to see flashing lights at the turn off to Sunrise in Mt. Rainier. A tree had falled over the road and the estimated it would about 2 hours before the road was open. We had our choices – go around through Paradise which would probably take an extra 2 hours; detour up to Sunrise or wait. We knew there was still snow up as Sunrise so we decided to just wait. We got in line and pulled out the Backgammon board. We had just started the second game when the cars started. The road was clear and it only took 30 minutes.

We were on our way home after a fun weekend.

Misty road

Cairns along the trail

Up the rocky slope

And up

First Frasera speciosa right along the trail

Inspecting a Frasera speciosa plant

Flower of Frasera

Erigonum umbellatum

Geum triflorum seedpods

The rocky table top

Meeks Table from the road

Foggy Chinook Pass – Tipsoo Parking lot

Line up waiting for the road to open

Camping at Pleasant Valley – Chinook Pass

Posted on July 26, 2011 by martaJuly 26, 2011

We have been having a terrible cool summer. Some people love it and others are getting grumpy wanting heat. Traditionally the last two weeks in July are always sunny and hot. Chance of rain is really low so I asked for a Monday off last month and we planned on camping. We decided to increase our chances of heat and decided to go to the eastern side of the Cascades. We had not been in the Naches area between Mt. Rainier and Yakima in many years and there are lots of forest service camp grounds.

We left about 10am after G had finished watering. The road goes through Mt. Rainier where the tourists were jocking for views of the mountain. We continued on to Chinook Pass. This is where one of our favorite hikes is located – Naches Trail. The Ranger report said you needed an ice axe for the trail. We pulled over to the vista and the trail is definitely covered still in several feet of snow. So was Tipsoo lake.

We continued on. Pleasant Valley and Hells Crossing campgrounds were recommended. They are just a couple of miles apart. We pulled in and did a drive through on both before deciding on Pleasant Valley. We loved the open meadow besides the American River. We thought it would be perfect for relaxing. Everyone else was leaving since it was Sunday so we had our choice of the spots. We choose a site near but not right next to the meadow. We noticed that there were some ants in the camp and discovered a large ant hill between the site and the river. But we decided we could share it with them and they never bothered us. We set up camp, relaxed a bit and ate our lunch. The mosquitoes were out but a couple of Off wipes took care of them.

After lunch, we headed to check out Boulder Cave. We drove in and the parking lot was packed with cars parking on the side. The ranger checked our America the Beautiful Pass and wrote down our number. We circled the lot once and scored a parking place. The trail was packed with families including one or two pushing strollers on the trail. The actual cave was pretty short.

One the way back to the parking lot, we heard many sirens. It was kinda spooky just after the shooting in Norway. On our drive back to the camp, we detoured and drove up the Rimrock Lake Road. There were several aid cars coming out of Camp Fife. A bit further, we came across motorcycle accident and turned around not really wanting to see it.

Back at the camp, we relaxed a while and made dinner. I brought along pesto pasta and watermelon feta salad. We built a fire and I took a walk out along the river. It was warm so we decided to leave off the rain fly – mistake. I woke up about 2am and noticed the stars were no longer out. At 3am – it started to drizzle. I woke up G, pulled the rain fly on and went back to sleep to thunder. It was still drizzling when we woke up. We hung out for a while and then moved over to the picnic shelter to make a fire and have breakfast.

Meadow at the camp

Pumping Water at the camp

Interesting clouds above the meadow

Vanilla Leaf

The picnic shelter

Entrance to Boulder Cave

Prerequisite ‘scary’ flashlight photo in the cave

Bridge at the Boulder Cave Exit

Coffee and a fire on a drizzly morning

Iron Bear Creek – Teanaway Ridge

Posted on July 21, 2011 by martaJuly 21, 2011

June 27, 2011

I’m a little behind in my blog posting. I’ve been enjoying taking pictures but I just can’t seem to get them processed and posted. But I’ll try.

Teanaway is area on the East side of the Cascades. I’ve blogged about it several times and it is our favorite place to hike. It is usually sunny and the trails are great. Plus it has lots of unique and abundant wildflowers due to serpentine soil.

There are two approaches. The traditional and most common is up the Teanaway Valley road just outside of Cle Elum. The road follows the Teanaway River up to the headwaters in Esmeralda Basin about 20 miles – 13 miles along dirt road. You can also approach it from Blewett Pass east of the river. This was the way we decided choosing to do the Iron Creek/Bear Creek Trail just off of Mineral Springs on Blewett.

Everything has been late this year due to the heavy snow fall and the cold spring. We done this hike as early as Memorial Day in the past but this year we had to wait until end of June. We called up our friend G and planned an early departure. We left at 8am arriving just after 10:00 and we were on the trail by 10:30.

The trail starts along the creek amidst the tall Ponderosa Pine trees soon opening along open rocky slopes fulled with wonderful rock plants; onion, gilia, penstemon, paintbrush dot the hillside along with showy yellow balsamroot daisies. You can see the ridge top which is our destination. It is a gentle climb up where you have an expansive view across the Teanaway Valley and on to Mt. Rainier.

We stopped for lunch before continuing up. The hill gets steeper climbing up to 5489′ high point. I told the guys to go ahead and I would meet them on the way down. I had intended on staying back but I meandered along and before I knew it – I was at the high point. Gorgeous vista across to the Stuart Range. And even better, a couple of precious little high altitude plants including the steer head bleeding heart.

It was a quick trip down the three miles. Unfortunately, we ran into Sunday traffic and spent about 30 minutes in stop and go traffic on the way up to Snoqualmie Pass. Who would have thought – a traffic jam in the wilderness.

Along the Trail

Ridge top and rocky garden

Arrow Leaf Balsamroot

I love the fuzzy leaves

The contrast of the gray and yellow blossoms

Scalloped Onion

Brilliant red of the Indian Paintbrush

Flower garden with Rainier in the distance

Mt Rainier from the Saddle

The clouds created such wonderful patterns on the dark blue skies

Craigy Mt Stuart and Enchantments in the distance

Bitterroot

Steer’s Head Bleeding Heart

On the way back at the saddle – the high point in the distance – Great day!

Roasted Strawberry Buttermilk Ice Cream

Posted on July 11, 2011 by martaJuly 11, 2011

I bought a Cuisinart Ice Cream maker last year and it is the best thing in the world. I have mainly been making sorbets. I love the refreshing taste of fresh fruit. I have been making a wide variety from Dragonfruit to Blood Orange. Berry or Citrus are our favorites.

I have tried one or two ice creams based upon a custard base. They are way too rich for me. I prefer ice creams made without eggs or “Philadelphia style”. I recently did a web search to see what options and stumbled upon recipes from Jeni Britton Bauer creator of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams in Columbus Ohio. The first recipe I made was the Vanilla Bean Ice Cream from this article in Food and Wine Magazine. It was exactly what I was looking for.

Strawberries are late this year with the cool weather and they have just started showing up in our local Farmers Markets. I couldn’t resist. I got two great pints from Jessie’s Berries. I decided to make Jeni’s Roasted Strawberry Buttermilk Ice Cream recipe from Tasting Table this weekend and it is absolutely divine. I highly recommend it. It is so smooth and creamy with out the added richness of eggs. Get the best milk you can get. I found some unpasteurized local milk from Twin Brooks Creamery in Lynden Washington. The local milk along with the roasted local strawberries were wonderful and soooo easy.

I also bought her new book on ice cream – Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream from Amazon. Lots of great tips on making home made ice cream. Some of the recipes are quite exotic but should be fun in the coming months. I love the Autumn recipe section.

Here are some photos to entice you….