3 GOOD REASONS TO BOTANIZE IN TURKEY

Just about the most fun I can ever have when I travel is hiking off the beaten path and looking for plants. I remember each of those plants' faces far more than most of the people I met along the way. Ultimately, whether I'm picking my way across mountains in eastern Oregon or jungles in Costa Rica in tune with every leaf and rock around me, I am never more alive.

In truth, I may never be able to top my greatest botanical adventure when even the garbage dumps of South Africa's Cape Floral Kingdom were in hypnotically full bloom. But I have longed and longed to botanize in Turkey and as you may know, I'm finally going and taking a bunch of friends along for the April 26th trip (yes, you can still come!). As I indulge myself in books and conversations about what I might find there, I am on fire to walk in the ancient places where so many snowdrop, crocus, tulip and iris evolved.

So what's with the picture? I thought it captured three good reasons to botanize in Turkey (in this case, eastern Turkey near Yuksekova) - the plants, the landscape, and the chance to get on your knees in wonder. It's Iris iberica subsp. lycotus and the photo is courtesy of Latvian plantsman Janis Ruksans, whose book Buried Treasures published by Timber Press is this botanizing girl's dream.

PORTUGUESE WATER DOGS AND BAGS OF BEAGLES

With all due respect to my old friend Carole Ottesen, who began writing first class garden books in the 80's and was always ahead of the pack, her Portuguese water dog Nando was scary. In retrospect, interacting with him was a crap shoot; not a dog with which you'd want to be eye-to-eye. I remember being at a lovely party Carole gave and sitting outside on a bench with Nando beside me. I recall a rather tense moment when Nando either growled, snarled or actually nipped.

Now it's entirely likely I didn't read what was going on with him in the moments before it happened so for God's sakes don't get on me for bashing all PWG's or even the sadly over-sensitive Nando. But it is true I've never been attracted to any of the exuberant frothy-haired breeds, despite my own humping wavy-haired labradoodle comme l'enfant sauvage.

My partnership with this dark-haired beauty came as a decided change in physical type for me. Myself I'm a Ridgeback girl and my heart still races when I see one. I was in a big park in Berkeley decades ago when I spied my first one, a sleek creature with great bones standing big-chested on top of a knoll. Queen of the Veldt.

I had a doe-eyed Ridgeback named Lucy Mae, as gentle as they come. I'm going to have to scan some pix so I can show her to you. On the To Do list.

But moving on with this doggishness, should anyone recall my thrilling posts weeks ago about my little Starlet and her incontinence (now under control, thank you), you may recall that she is a beagle. As such, she is capable of great mischief, singularity of purpose and some stupidity. I leave you with a few recent moments of proof.

IF BLOGS COULD TALK...

This one would say, WTF? This post is getting old! Are you around or what?

And I would answer, yeah yeah stop making me feel badly about creating and abandoning you. But a blog is not always an easy thing to fit into the day when most of your energy is going into recreating your life.

And the Blog would answer, Well so maybe I can help you, ya know, do things you can't do, can't achieve. Like connect you with people over at my place who aren't in your orbit.

And I would say, that's great Blog so could you conjur me up a few rabble-rousing folks to bring their appetite for adventure on my botanical tour of Turkey April 26th, just two months away? There's a bunch of us jonesing to go.

And then I'd say, while you're at it Blog can you hook me up with the communications director of the White House or the DNC because I have a brilliant idea for a social media site and traveling road show called American Moxie and if they've got the money I've got the time?

Come to think of it, Blog, can you get me trained on some new software so I can do what I used to do best, take field-recorded sound and interviews and weave them together into delicious audio stories? Because I've got a fabulous nighttime snake tour I recorded last month in Costa Rica and I'd love to get it produced, as well as a gallery of vivid moments among the Osa Peninsula's fauna and flora.

And just now it occurs to me to ask you, Blog -- I can't thank you enough for asking! -- can you post the festivities from last week's Seattle Flower and Garden Show? They're burning a hole in my computer. And if you can find it, Blog, I'd be thrilled if you'd pull images from my camera of the mossy rocks and torential waterfalls I just snapped during that gorgeous hike up and behind Multnomah Falls.

And as I would turn to look at the Blog, so recently bereft of content and whining for attention, there it would be right in the middle of a There But For The Grace Of God moment, understanding there is a lot to be said for a Blog with nothing to say.

NORTHWEST FLOWER & GARDEN SHOW!

On my way to Seattle for what will be THE LAST of this astonishing, once precedent-setting flower show. If you're in the region, come! If you're not, stay tuned for pictures. Hope to see you there...

PLUS, THEY'RE PLEASANTLY PHALLIC

I cringed some months back watching Steven Colbert interview vertical-farming visionary Dickson Despommier (Says Colbert, "You want traditional farms to fail so they have to turn to you with your crazy farm tower!") but of course that's part of Colbert's genius. Bottom line, he provided the Columbia U scientist with unprecedented exposure.
The image above from Blake Kurasek's project, "The Living Skyscraper: Farming the Urban Skyline" offers a glimpse into Despommier's future vertical world of hydroponic food structures built within city limits.

To read substantive material over your head, check out the website Vertical Farm; to get the point while laughing, start with the Colbert interview.

Special thanks to HortIdeas and the wonderful blog, The Rathaus.

TURKISH DELIGHTS

We interrupt this on-going lovefest of all things Costa Rican to bring you this breaking botanical news:
Yesterday I saw snowdrops blooming on a parking strip here in Portland and suddenly realized I may soon see them blossom in the very soil where they first evolved....because...

MY DREAM TOUR TO TURKEY IS COMING TRUE.

I'm taking @a dozen folks with me to scout out ancient bulbs among ancient ruins and we blast off from Istanbul on April 26th.

Wanna come? Contact my buddy Holly!

Stay tuned for more flower pix from Turkey, and thank you al+su for this stunning, inspiring view:

COSTA RICA - A MOTHER'S LOVE

I'm going to let the strong-armed embrace of this ancient elder from the Cabo Matapalo jungle speak for herself.

COSTA RICA - A MOONLIT MOMENT

The colors were otherworldly, the texture was like glass. Care to take a guess?