Travels with George and Marta – Page 6 – Journeys in the Botanical World

Mt Finlayson

Posted on November 16, 2014 by martaNovember 16, 2014

Cattle Point

Sunday dawned sunny and a bit chilly. We could see some clouds in the distance and knew it would probably be off and on sun. We wanted to hike Mt. Finlayson in the American Camp section of the San Juan Island National Historical Park. We made a sandwich and headed out after our breakfast.

We drove into Friday Harbor to pick up some sauce for dinner. The drive to American Camp area was about 20 minutes. The trail head is at the turnoff for Jackle’s Lagoon. There are two options, to the right which crosses the grassy hill side paralleling the Cattle Point Road with vistas across the strait to the Olympics. The left went through the forest to Jackle’s Lagoon and then up to the summit. Since it was sunny, we took the right.

The vistas grew as we walked along the edge of the forest on one side and the water on the other side. The grade was gentle. I kept turning around to watch the vista over South Beach.

It is a short 1.3 miles to the summit and a junction to the left to Third lagoon. We went a bit farther to see the views over Cattle Point.

The trail dropped sharply in the dense forest shadow. It is a short .25 miles until you reach the other trail and a spur off to Third lagoon. The trail loops back to the parking lot. It splits off into two trail – one down to Jackle’s Lagoon and the other up and down through the forest. We chose the option to Jackle’s Lagoon although it is more of a marshy cove.

It was a short way further back to the car. We decided to eat lunch at South Beach. But first we had to stop and watch the rabbits and foxes running and playing on the prairie along Pickett’s Lane. The foxes were beautiful – both red and black but all with distinctive white tipped tails.

After lunch, we drove to Cattle Point to see the lighthouse although we didn’t walk the short trail. We returned back to the visitor’s center before returning back to the cottage.

Along the Mt. Finlayson Trail

Cattle Point form Mt. Finlayson

Through the forest from the summit down to Third Lagoon

Third Lagoon

Jackle’s Lagoon

Fox we saw just as we left Jackle’s Lagoon parking lot

Fox on the prairie near South Beach

South Beach

San Juan Island

Posted on November 15, 2014 by martaNovember 15, 2014

View from Lime Kilm Park

We traveled to the San Juan Islands a couple of times when we first moved to the Pacific Northwest way back in the seventies. We had a memorable camping trip to Orcas and took our bicycles to Lopez in the nineties. But we haven’t been back.

You can only get to the islands by ferry. In the summer, the lines are long and the cost is high. But for some reason, we had not considered going over off-season until this year. I had a couple of extra vacation days so I took two off – November 10 and 11th and started planning.

I wanted to have an easy ferry commute so we decided to go on Saturday and return on Monday. This way we would miss the lines on Sunday. Current cost is about $56.00 for a car and passenger round trip.

Next to find a place to stay. At first, I thought about staying in Friday Harbor. There were several interesting hotels close to the ferry and one or two rentals downtown. I was all for staying there until someone mentioned the noise from the ferry and the ferry traffic. Hmmm… let’s look elsewhere.

I love a good sunset and I had found a great place on the westside but it was really too big for just a couple. I found Windance Cottage which looked perfect. It is cottage built on a large west side property. The owners were great to work with and we booked it.

The weather in November is always variable. We watched the forecast and 10 days out it was looking pretty good. Friday was beautiful and sunny but Saturday dawned foggy. Oh well… at least there was no rain in the forecast.

You are a slave to the ferry schedule. There were two in the morning and then nothing until later in the day. I wanted to make use of our Saturday so we agreed to get up early and leave by 7am for the hour and half drive to the dock in Anacortes. It was actually a bit less and not a lot in line so we could have left a little later. We were at the dock by 8:30 – plenty time for the 9:30 sailing.

It was still overcast which created a very atmospheric sailing. By time we reached Friday Harbor the sun was trying to break out. We arrived by about 10:45. We decided to drive up to Roche Harbor. It only takes about 15 minutes but it was sunny. There is a great garden at the Hotel de Haro. Salvia, Edgeworthia, Fuchsias, beautiful ginkos in brilliant yellow. We walked around the dock and then headed back to Friday Harbor for lunch. We decided to eat at the Cask and Schooner which was recommend by our rental. It was very yummy. I had a lamb burger and G had fish and chips. They had 60 minute IPA by Dogfish on tap which G had and I had a fresh hopped IPA from Brickyard Brewery in Woodinville.

We still had a little bit of time to kill before the sun started going down so we headed for Lime Kilm Park. It is a short walk to the sound where typically you can see Orcas but it is not season. But the lighthouse was very striking.

It was just a short drive to the cottage. It was everything we expected. We got the heater going and unloaded the car. I walked to the shore and watched the sun set before heading back to the cottage for dinner. We were not that hungry so we had soup which warmed us up before watching a video and heading for bed. It was so quiet and peaceful – the perfect getaway.

Loading the ferry at Anacortes

Misty foggy islands

Ferry heading back to Anacortes

Approaching Friday harbor

Roche Harbor

Hotel de Haro – Roche Harbor

Garden at Hotel de Haro

Hotel de Haro

Lime Kilm at Roche Harbor

Lime Kilm Park

Lighthouse at Lime Kilm Park

Windance Cottage

Sunset to end a wonderful day

Fade to black

Posted on November 13, 2014 by martaNovember 13, 2014

And quickly! Tuesday was sunny and breezy. The wind from the north foretold of the freeze coming but we were expecting 28, maybe 25 at most. But the cold dropped way down. We had bought propane and set up the heaters in the greenhouse but didn’t turn them on. Fortunately G woke around 4am and it was 22 degrees. He knows he needs to run the propane heaters when it gets below 25 so he did a quick dash out. It had gotten down to 48 in the tropical greenhouse and 33 in the cool hoophouse. Once the propane is running it gets up to normally 58 overnight in the tropical house. That is a little low for the nepenthes and orchids but they will take it. By 6am it dropped to 20 degrees outside.

We are always amazed at right after the freeze. The plants still look okay from a distance. After another freezing night, then you see the collapse. Wednesday night (last night) it got to 20 degrees again. Both days were crystal clear but not much wind after Tuesday. Even on Tuesday, we weren’t affected by the wind. Snohomish PUD cleared out a lot of the trees by the power lines in our area and we rarely lose power.

And today you can definitely see the damage. All the tender broad leaf plants are blackening up. The salvias look like they have had a blow torch taken to them. The backyard which is on the north side is almost fully in the shadow of the house and the ground is frozen hard. Driving around today in Edmonds, the one plant that was hardest hit were the hydrangeas.

Fortunately, we had gotten ready for the cold and last week G put all the tropical potted plants ‘to bed’ in the garage. We store our brugmansias, ginger, Abutilons and fuchsias in the garage. The garage is much drier than the cool hoop house and it is easier to control botrytis. We move them in and let them go dormant by not watering them. We keep the leaves cleaned up and run a fan. One year we kept them in the cool hoop house and the botrytis almost killed the brugmansias. Just too wet.

There will be some clean up in the next few weeks and maybe some mulching. Time now for the garden to sleep.

Some Before and After; Basjoo Banana, Erythrina bidwillii and Salvia guaranitica

Some further scenes from around the yard.

Melianthus major – It survived last winter – let’s see this year.

Shade hosta bed

Red Swiss Chard

Ice Crystals in the ground

Sleepy time in the garage for the tropical plants

Waiting for the cold blast

Posted on November 11, 2014 by martaNovember 15, 2014

It is the end of the garden season. I wanted to post my end-of-the-season blog post. I was reviewing last year’s post which I posted on the 17th. Waiting for the Frost 2013 We had gotten one or two mild freezes (around 32 degrees). Last night was our first frost at 30 degrees. But the forecast is for upper twenties tonight. It might not do much damage although there is a bit of wind. The high pressure over Canada is causing a the cold to seep down the Frasier River in Canada and over the passes. Winter is definitely coming.

Our banana did grow as high as last year since it died down all the way to the ground.

Milkweed seed pods

Floating all over the yard

Melianthus major Pseudocydonia sinensis (False Quince) in red, Miscanthus grass, Zauschneria and Calamagrostis × acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’

Miscanthus sinensis ‘Malepartus’ really took off this year

The prickly rock bed

We are trying our Agave parryi in the ground for winter. We built a cloche out of plastic to protect it from the rain. It should be able to tolerate the cold but the wet is the killer.

Perry Creek – Autumn

Posted on October 8, 2014 by martaNovember 25, 2014

I had Tuesday off after working a 6 day week and we wanted to do a fall hike. I wanted it to be somewhere close but with good color. I remembered the large groves of maple at Perry Creek when we visited in the Spring. The Mountain Loop Road is also a great Fall drive.

The day was very foggy here near the Puget Sound. I checked a couple of web cams and felt it would be clear higher up. The fog was particularly heavy along the Snohomish River near Everett and even up along the Stillagumish near Granite Falls. But soon the skies cleared and it was a warm blue Fall day.

There were few cars along the way although we followed another car into the parking lot. It was very warm for an October day and short sleeves were enough. We started out through the fir forest but soon came to bright groves of yellow maples. It is a pretty rocky trail but the climb is gentle. The maples were magical although the trail was shaded being on the north side of Mt Dickerman.

We made it as far as we went previously and had lunch overlooking the creek and Big Four Mountain. We returned quickly to the car – over all the hike was about 5 miles RT and it took us about 3 hours with frequent stops for photos. It was just what I wanted to enjoy the Fall before the temps drop and rain starts.

Big Four Mountain

Mushrooms and leaf litter

Puff Ball Mushrooms

Stag’s horn clubmoss – Lycopodium clavatum

Large mushroom clump along the trail

The spots on the Big Leaf Maples are caused by the fungus Rhytisma acerinum – or tar spot

Ferns and Lichen

View down Perry Creek

Rock Trail – Chuckanut Mountain

Posted on October 7, 2014 by martaNovember 25, 2014

After touring the Skagit farms, we decided to skip visiting Taylor Shellfish. We really enjoyed it last year with the games, educational exhibits and samples but we decided to take advantage of the good warm weather and do a hike. I had looked around for a trail to try and same across a new trail – Rock Trail in Larrabee State Park. It is a series of stairs down to interesting rock walls and it was also short. It would also give us a chance to drive along Chuckanut Drive which is always gorgeous in the fall with all the big leaf Maples.

Cleator Road to the trail is a 4 mile dirt road. It was a little rough and pretty steep in places. The Hybrid had to use first gear for a large part. At the top is a good vista out over the San Juan Islands and Bellingham. The trail goes a short distance before the stairs start down. Another hiker told us there were 103 stairs – I didn’t count.

At the base were large rocks that are typically found nearer the coast. This page has a good write up on the geology of the trail. It was very dark and dense forest but very well built.

We continued to shortly past the bridge – almost the end before we decided to turn back. We knew we had to go back up the stairs. It took us about an hour roundtrip and it was a very good workout.

It was time for a beer and pizza so we returned to La Connor for a couple of good craft beers and pizzas. Over all a great day in the Skagit.

Cyrus Gates Overlook at the end of the Cleator Road in Larrabee State Park

Heading down the stairs

Sandstone rocks along the trail

Tafoni on the wall

It often felt like a magical forest with the shapes and light

Time to climb back up

Can you see G up between the two trees?

Skagit Farm Tour

Posted on October 6, 2014 by martaNovember 25, 2014

Last year we had a lot of fun at the Skagit Farm Tour – a weekend where several family farms open for visitors. We combined it with a stop in Edison and a drive up Chuckanut Drive.

We kept our plans open and ended up visiting a very different set from originally planned. Our first stop was at La Conner Flats. We really enjoyed the fresh apple juice from the press and the wide variety of different squashes. I picked up a Rouge d’Etampes and Buttercup for cooking.

I remembered that we were looking for some small species crocus for our window boxes and so we stopped at RoozenGaarde. So different from the crowds in the Spring. We found a couple of cute little bulbs including Crocus sieberi Tricolor, Tulipa tarda, Galanthus nivalis.

Several of the women at RoozenGaarde told us to visit Gordon Skagit Farms and specifically to visit the Blacksmith the back. I had not included Gordon but we changed our plans and stopped. We were very glad we did. We loved the displays and the Blacksmith was amazing. I completely forgot that my dad was a blacksmith early in his life. I barely remember visiting him at his shop when I was very young. He closed it and went to work for the city.

We had wanted to also visit Taylor Shellfish but we decided to go on a hike instead. More on the hike in a later post.

Here are some pictures from the farms.

Jack o’Lanterns at LaConner Flats

Fresh apple juice

Gordon Farms

Riot of fall colors

October garden

Posted on October 2, 2014 by martaJanuary 25, 2015

We are continuing to have an amazing weather year. Watch – I’ll jinx it now. We have had a bit more rain in September but the lows have been above normal. Plus several nice crisp blue fall days. Yesterday was one and I had a chance to look around the front garden. It has took a beating from the heat. We really do not water it a lot so many of the plants show a bit of stress and early dormancy from the drought. But there were several things of interest.

Some nice color from the oak leaf hydrangea, peony and the Hedgerow Gold’s dogwood in the back. Nicely offset by the chartreuse of the banana

Phyllis Fancy Salvia – always a winner in late September

Pineapple lilies slowly going down

Island bed with red banana, Red Banana and melianthus major, a couple of grasses and california fuschia

We’ll dig the banana in a couple of weeks but leave the Melianthus – it made it through the winter last year.

Calamagrostis “Karl Foerster”

Rudbeckia “Herbstsonne”

Miscanthus

The Asclepias (milkweeds) have such interesting and dramatic pods – this one is Asclepias tuberosa

And this one is Asclepias purpurascens. This one is really wild.

Large plumes of Cortaderia richardii

Our banana. It didn’t get as big as last year and no fruit. I think it is starting to be shadowed by the plants in the front so it doesn’t get a good start.

Fall cyclamen – Cyclamen hederifolium

Mahonia eurybracteata “Soft Caress” – Several of our Mahonias including ‘Charity’ are now in bloom. Seems a little early but the hummingbirds are enjoying them.

A couple of different California Fuschias (Epilobium canum). This one is “Chaparral Silver”. It has some great light gray silvery foliage

California Fuschia “Calistoga”. This one has greener foliage but large tubular flowers.

Some pricklies – Agave parryi pups. These made it through the winter last year

Opuntia humifusa – a friend brought it to us from Missouri and we have had it for over 20 years.

Coral Bean – Erythrina bidwillii along with Echivarias. I don’t know if the plans are to leave these out. We do have lots of Echivarias in the greenhouse so maybe we’ll see how these do.

The old window boxes now painted and temporarily installed in front of our windows. We filled them with small bulbs to enjoy in the spring and then we’ll take out the boxes.

Llandover Woods Greenspace

Posted on September 21, 2014 by martaNovember 13, 2014

We’ve driven by it many times. A parking lot just at the end of 3rd NW and 145th along the Seattle north city limit. This is the Llandover Wood Greenspace. We wanted to do another walk for our MAD training and it looked interesting. It is a small loop through a wonderful forest. It borders on The Highlands so it is still pretty secluded. No vistas at least not in the summer.

The walk takes you down hill to a junction. A few big leaf maples were starting to drop their leaves but probably due to drought instead of the start of Fall. It is the last day of summer and very warm. It will end up being in the mid-80’s which is very unusual for September.

We took the South loop and were surprised to see the local barred owl fly among the forest. We watched him as he watched us for a while. We walked to the end of the trail and then back up to get a little bit of elevation. Overall we did about a mile and a quarter and a 400 ft gain good work out. We then dropped by Richdmond Beach to do 188 stairs and another mile. Lovely end to summer.

Barred Owl

Golden Gardens – Reubens Brews

Posted on September 20, 2014 by martaSeptember 21, 2014

We are starting to train for our MAD trip. It is a year away but we need to get some local walks that will give us a work out. Saturday we went to Golden Gardens. There is a good stair walk with 272 stairs to the top. We did the climb up twice which give us about 1 mile and 544 stairs.

After, we went to Reuben’s Brews for a couple of excellent cold brews. G had the Crikey – a nice hoppy IPA and I had the Monty Anniversary IPA which was also tasty with lower alcohol (<5%). Good workout and one to keep in mind for winter.