Travels with George and Marta – Page 23 – Journeys in the Botanical World

Photohunt: Cage

Posted on March 26, 2011 by martaMarch 26, 2011

Pileated Woodpecker snacking on a caged suet cake

This week’s Photohunt theme is Cage(d). Photohunt is brought to you by TnChick – home of the original photohunt.

This was actually not too hard since I just took a picture of a pileated woodpecker eating at our suet cage. We put our suet into a cage and hang it at the end of a pole so the squirrels don’t get to it. The squirrels are very resourceful and can leap or tightrope walk out to the suet. We have this hanging with segments of PVC pipe that roll. It is pretty unsteady so it keeps the squirrel off most of the time. But the bigger birds like the woodpecker, flicker and crows have a very hard time hanging on to the swinging cage but they are able to sink their large claws into the frame and hang on while it swings around. We get lots of different birds – and it brings a lot of fun to us in the winter. We were about to take these down when the Pileated Woodpecker came in this week. They are probably getting ready to nest so maybe we’ll keep these high-energy feeders out for another couple of weeks.

Here are a few pictures of the different birds and squirrel that comes to the cage. Have a great weekend everyone.

Pileated Woodpecker – largest woodpecker in NA hanging on to the small cage

Look at that wingspan!

The smaller downy woodpecker – one of the smallest

Bush tits – they come in by the flock

The squirrel are such acrobats – some determined ones can make it on – but most do not

March at the Ballard Farmers Market

Posted on March 21, 2011 by martaNovember 2, 2014

Root crops and cabbage from Nash Organics

Seattle has great Farmers Markets. Typically I like to do most of my farmers market shopping on Saturday so I usually go to the University Farmers Market or my local Edmonds Garden Market. But most are closed in the winter including the Edmonds Garden Market. It will be reopening soon – May 7th.

Sunday is another good day with two other great markets; West Seattle and Ballard Farmers Market. The Ballard Market is one of the best – if not the best Farmers Market in Seattle. It has a wonderful selection of vendors selling produce, fish, meat, eggs, wine, cider, cheese, soaps, jam – everything you would want and a good selection of street food.

But we always seems to have something else to do on Sunday since it is now the one day we have off together (sigh… the life of being employed again). I had to work a late shift this Sunday to cover for my co-worker in Australia. It was not raining so I thought lets go check out the Ballard Market. I’ve been wanting to see what is being sold right now and it would be an easy morning trip.

Wow – was it cold. We didn’t expect the strong cold biting March wind – but the sun was out. There were lots of vendor with an interesting mix of items. Produce – not a lot of variety. It was mainly root crops, cabbage and kale. I almost bought some different types of turnips and rutabagas but G wasn’t too interested. Lots of families and activity. It was definitely a fun visit and good winter market.

On the drive back home, we decided to go along the water and stopped at Golden Gardens Park. The water on the Sound was covered with whitecaps from the blustery wind but the cold did not stop the kite surfers. They were out in numbers sailing back and forth along the shore. It was fun to see them flip and do arials to turn and tack in the wind. We did not want to get out of the car so we only did a short walk along the path but we were able to observe a flock of Brandt Geese coming ashore along the rocks. They are such cool geese in their black coats and neck rings.

Overall a fun but cold almost Spring morning.

Cape Cleare Fishery – they bring their fish to market by bike – see the bike trailer to carry the frozen fish

Sea Breeze Farm on Vashon – hand butchered pigs. Very Euro

Growing Things Farm – Carnation

Full Circle Farm

Street scene at the Ballard Farmers Market

Buskers at the Ballard Farmers Market

Along the shore at Golden Garden – just north of Shilshole Marina

Great beach and picnic area at Golden Gardens

Even the Brandt Geese love the beach

But it is especially favorite of the kite board surfers – one of the best places for Kite and Wind surfers

Kite surfer off Golden Gardens on the Puget Sound

Photohunt: Machine(s)

Posted on March 12, 2011 by martaMarch 12, 2011

This week’s Photohunt theme is Machine(s). Photohunt is brought to you by TnChick – home of the original photohunt.

I have to admit this was very difficult. It was much more difficult that I thought but I guess I don’t take pictures of very many machines – mostly nature. I remember pictures that I took of my late brother-in-law’s road machines – Harley Davidson motorcycles. We do not ride but my sister-in-law and her family loves it. Their love of the bikes and how I saw it brought their family together gave me a whole different attitude and outlook on these famous motorcycles. You can tell from the care how much my brother-in-law loved these machines. Ride on!

Have a great weekend everyone – don’t forget to turn your clocks forward if you live in the US.

Fort Worden

Posted on March 9, 2011 by martaOctober 14, 2014

After our tasty lunch and sightseeing in downtown Port Townsend, we headed to Fort Worden State Park. Located at the tip of the Peninsula and the entry to the Puget Sound, Fort Worden was built in 1902 as part of a trio of forts to protect the entrance to the sound and Seattle. We visited one of the other two forts – Fort Casey on our trip to Whidbey Island last May.

Fort Worden is a beautiful part with lovely vistas across Admiralty Inlet. But the old bunkers and officer quarters are the most fun. Do you remember the movie “The Officer and a Gentleman”? Remember the barracks and army grounds where Richard Gere trained? This was filmed on Fort Worden. Today the officer quarters, houses and dormitories are used as a conference grounds. Many classes and major music events are held throughout the year. But it is available for everyone to tour and roam along the beach, dunes and army bunkers.

We noticed that there were a lot of Volkswagen cars coming and going on the grounds. I think it was the group taking pictures of their cars that caught my eye and clued me into something going on. It also matched up with why we saw so many cars in Pt Townsend and why it was so crowded. It was the Port Townsend Cruise for European automobiles – a local car rally. There were over 400 cars participating in the rally and gathering in Port Townsend. That explained why it was so busy in early March!

But the sun came out late in the afternoon and we enjoyed a few moments of rays before returning home. And it satisfied our need for a bit of beach time.

Army building around the center plaza

Officer housing now available for rent

Remnants of the gun bunkers

View from within the bunkers

Soldiers walked these paths in the early 1900’s

All that remains are the concrete walls

The Beach

The Birds

The dunes

The trees and ruins

Port Townsend

Posted on March 8, 2011 by martaJuly 14, 2014

Jefferson County Courthouse in Victorian Port Townsend, Washington

It has been ages since we went to the Olympic Peninsula. I have a love-hate relationship with the trip. It always start out great with a ferry ride to Kingston from Edmonds. The traffic can be congested but it is good to get you to slow down and enjoy the ride. But I always end up hating the trip back especially on Sundays. There never seems to be an easy way to catch the ferry back. It is one boat or in the prime summer season – over 2 hour wait to catch the return ferry. And it ain’t cheap – $32 roundtrip in winter.

But it can be a glorious time while on the peninsula. We headed out on Sunday and easily caught the ferry after a short wait. I do love the vistas and it was great to look back at the area where I do many of my walks. Edmonds slowly disappeared in the distance and we moved forward to catch views of Whidbey Island and approaching Kingston shore.

We headed towards Sequim, passing scenic Port Gamble – a restored 1800’s mill town, crossing the Hood Canal Bridge and joining up with Highway 101. The sky darkened and rain started as we got closer to Sequim. So much for a walk at Dungeness Spit. It was miserable looking so we turned around and headed back with our backup plan of a day shopping in Pt. Townsend.

Port Townsend is a small Victorian seaport town on the tip of the Olympic Peninsula. It was a major port in the late 1800’s. Many large Victorian buildings and homes were built in this time. But the town slowly died when the major rail line was never extended from Olympia up to city. A paper mill opened in the 1920’s but it remained small. Because there never was another major industry, the town retained its Victorian qualities and quaintness. In 1970’s, the historic district was declared a National Historic Landmark.

The main district is along the sound and it has a series of interesting shops ranging from art galleries to the typical NW souvenir shop. We enjoy spending a leisurely time in the bookstores and kitchen shops. There are several good places to eat. We choose Sirens, a hip bar with the young crowd serving good food and an excellent selection of beers and cocktails. It is located up a long flight of stairs in restored historic building overlooking the port. It was crowded so we sat at the bar which gave us a good view of the action. We both had a local Pt Townsend IPA which was very tasty – a little more citrus than herbal hops but good. The place was very crowded and have to say it was slow getting our food. The service was good – it was just very busy and the kitchen was pretty small. We did enjoy watching the bartender make one of their specialty drinks – Spanish Coffee, 151 Rum flaming with Kahlua, Cointreau and coffee. The sprinkling of cinnamon sparks was awesome. They also got points for having a bottle of St Germaine behind the bar.

We had noticed a lot of cars and young guys in town. We did not figure out exactly what was up until our next stop – Fort Worden which I’ll talk about in the next post. Meanwhile, here are some of the sights of the trip to Port Townsend.

Looking back on the Edmonds Waterfront – my favorite place for a walk

On board the Puyallup Ferry

Kingston on the horizon

You’ll never see the ferry this empty in the summery

Typical Victorian buildings in Port Townsend historical downtown

Great sidewalk shopping

Looking up from the Wharf towards the bell tower

Interesting Virginia Creeper covered building

The striking Jefferson County Courthouse

Photohunt: Self-Portrait

Posted on March 5, 2011 by martaMarch 5, 2011

Our Condo in Maui

This week’s Photohunt theme is Self Portrait. There are several ways of doing a self portrait – Mirror, tripod or other support, or just holding the camera at arm’s length. I hunted around and actually found samples of each of three methods. None are very creative but I found all of them interesting.

The first one is posted at the beginning of this post. This was taken in our studio condo in Maui in November. I love this picture because there is so much going on if you just look – husband sneaking off to the side, the mirrors on the right repeating and repeating… I did really appreciate the mirrors in the studio since it was rather narrow. It gave us a feeling of a bit more space.

The second picture is one that I hand held in December in Time Square New York. There is a set of steps leading up above the discount box office. It gives you a great view of the activity. And it is a perfect place to take a self portrait.

The third picture is one taken while camping. It was dinner time and set up the camera on the table and angled it up. I love the perspective and all the red.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Time Square in New York

Camping in the Entiat

Dreaming of Spring

Posted on February 26, 2011 by martaMarch 1, 2015

Sky Nursery

This is the Northwest Flower Show week. Time to start thinking of Spring and our garden. We have had cold icy snowy weather this week also. But Friday dawned sunny. It was deceptive – from the house it looked warm but the minute you stepped out of the house the icy windy chilled you to the bone. Our friend J from Spokane is visiting. G and J went on Friday but I stayed home and worked.

Today it was snowy but that didn’t stop us. It was time to go nursery shopping. We headed north first to My Garden Nursery in Mill Creek. G used to work there over 30 years ago when it was Wileywood Nursery. We loved the bright displays with the wonderful garden statues and cheerful colors. Next up Sky Nursery where G works. They were busy in the new greenhouses. They were full of colorful potted bulbs, wonderful winter garden plants such as hellebore and sarcococca. I went out to check out the nursery which was full of still-asleep roses waiting to go to new homes. Last up was Swansons where we met up with J’s sister for an excellent lunch in the greenhouse cafe.

We shopped the seeds, early vegetables and lovely potted plants and dreamed of Spring. It will be here soon.

Alice in Wonderland display at PNW Flower Show

Weird display with a high heel

Colorful Primrose display at My Garden Nursery

Love the Chartreuse Green chairs – My Garden Nursery

Fun and whimsical statues – love the fat squirrels – My Garden Nursery

Lovely spring bulbs – soon to be in bloom – Sky Nursery

Hellebores on display – Sky Nursery

Hellebore

Roses waiting under a light blanket of snow – Sky Nursery

Love the lavender – Sky Nursery

Photohunt: Mostly Black

Posted on February 26, 2011 by martaFebruary 26, 2011

This week’s Photohunt theme is Mostly Black. This was hard – especially hard to come up at the last minute. But my husband suggested an animal picture and I found these mostly black penguins. They are African penguins at Boulders Beach near Simon’s Town in the Western Cape region of South Africa. It is one of the few places you can get up close to penguins. As you can see below – it is a favorite of the tourists.

Have a great weekend.

Turkish Red Lentil Soup

Posted on February 22, 2011 by martaFebruary 22, 2011

I found a wonderful cookbook at my local library – Turquoise A Chef’s Travels in Turkey by Greg and Lucy Malouf. I have thoroughly been enjoying the gorgeous photographs and the recipes all sound wonderful.

I thought I would start easily by making Red Lentil Soup – . It is a traditional soup that is served to brides. You can read the story of the soup at Soupsong. The weather has been freezing – we awoke to a light dusting of sleet and there has been snow flurries all day. A warm bowl of soup makes a wonderful dinner.

I had red lentils in the pantry but I needed to find fine bulgur. I found out that there are multiple grinds of bulgar – who knew! Central Market let me down – I could only find the standard grind of bulgur. It gave me the perfect reason for a trip to Goodies Mediterranean Market on Lake City in Seattle. They have an excellent selection of Middle Eastern food and brands. I was speaking with the owner and he said he recently has been bringing in more Turkish brands. It was so much fun exploring – so much to learn. And they had all the different grinds of bulgur.

I also had difficulty finding hot paprika. I suspect I needed to look for hot Hungarian paprika. I found the sweet paprika finally. The soup is very easy to make and tastes wonderful. I heated a couple of pitas and made a green salad with garbanzos, tomato and feta. A great introduction to food of Turkey.

Red Lentil Soup with mint butter – Ezo Gelin Çorbasi
Based on recipe from Turquoise
Serves 6-8

2 TBS Olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 tsp cumin
1 1/4 tsp sweet paprika
1/4 tsp chile pepper flakes
1 TBS tomato paste
1 cup red lentils
6 cup chicken broth (or water or vegetable broth for vegetarian version)
1/4 cup fine bulgar
1 tomato- seeded and finely diced
salt and pepper
1/2 tsp dried mint
2 TBS unsalted butter
1/2 tsp sweet paprika

Heat oil over low heat in large saucepan. Add onion and carrot and saute for 1-2 minutes. Add garlic, cumin, paprika, pepper flakes and saute for 5-8 minutes until vegetable soften.

Stir in tomato paste and cook for a minute. Add the lentils and stock and bring to a boil. cover the pan and cook over medium heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

When the lentils have broken down and become creamy, add the bulgur and diced tomato. Season with salt and pepper and simmer for 10 minutes.

When ready to serve, ladle the soup into serving bowls. Heat the butter until it foams and add the remaining sweet paprika and dried mint. Swirl into each brown and serve.

Bulgar – regular and fine

Salad

Broccoli Stir Fry

Posted on February 21, 2011 by martaFebruary 21, 2011

I’m always looking for new vegetarian dishes. I made this tonight. It is from the Feb/Mar 2010 issue of Fine Cooking. It has a great article on Flex Your Meals – dishes that can easily be made meatless. This one is for Broccoli and shiitake mushrooms stir-fried with a black bean garlic sauce. It is a great vegetarian meal but if you have a couple of meat eaters around – just add a 1/2 pound of thin sliced flank steak marinated in soy sauce.

But here is the meat-less version I made. I added a bit of sliced onions. I think you could add a few other veggies. Serves 2 people.

3 dried shiitake mushrooms, reconstituted in 1/2 cup boiling water for 20 minutes
2 TBS black bean garlic sauce (recommend Lee Kum Kee brand)
1 TBS dry sherry
1 1/2 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp Asian chile sauce or paste
1 TBS vegetable oil
2 tsp minced fresh ginger
1/4 large onion diced
1 lb. broccoli, crowns cut into florets, steams peeled and thinly sliced
1/4 cup toasted cashews

Drain the mushrooms, reserving 1/3 cup of soaking liquid. Discard the stems and thinly slice the caps. In a small bowl, combine the reserved mushroom soaking liquid and the black bean sauce, wine, cornstarch and chile sauce. Stir to dissolve the cornstarch and set aside.

Heat 1 TBS vegetable oil in a 12 inch skillet over medium-high heat. Stir fry the onion for a minute. Add the ginger and stir-fry until fragrant – about 30 seconds. Add the broccoli and 2 TBS water, cover and steam until the broccoli is just tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in the black bean sauce mixture and the mushrooms and cook until the sauce is thick and bubbly about 1 minute. Add the cashews and toss to combine.