Monday, October 4, 2010

The Beginning of Autumn / Sonbahar Geliyor

When I took off down the coast to Kuşadası and from there to Samos six days ago, it was definitely summer here, even if it was an Indian Summer. 80 degrees plus, humid, and everyone was asking when this damn heat would let up. When I got back yesterday morning at 6:30 a.m., it was below 60, and it had rained. In some parts of the world it's turning leaves that are the symbol of autumn, but here, like in Seattle, it's rain. In Seattle, where you'd sometimes not see the sun for a month and a half at a time and it was hard to tell sometimes if summer had come (or even would come), rain was something I appreciated in a resigned sort of way. But in Istanbul, after a hot summer like this one, the cool was like a mother's caress.

They tend to wilt a bit by day...
Some early mushrooms up in Belgrade Forest evidently felt it coming, as did my large pink Brugmansia. It was planted directly into the ground last year, and I thought I'd lost it in the snowstorm, but it came back fro the roots improved and this year, after flagging a bit in the heat of the summer, is giving me a great show. The fragrance in the evening comes all the way into the house.

Altı gün önce Kuşadası'na ve oradan Sisam Adası'na hareket ettiğimde yaz (pastırma yazı olsa da) kesinlikle hala hakim oluyordu. Sıcaklık ve nemde herkes "ya yeter ya bu sıcaklık ne zaman biter ya" diye şikayet edip duruyordu. Dün sabah saat 6.30ta döndüğümde sıcaklık 15 civarındaydı, yeni yağmur yağmıştı. Iowa'da sonbaharın simgesi rengi dönen yapraklar oluyordu fakat İsanbul'da, benim için, "sonbahar geldi" diye anons eden şey, yağmurdur kesin. Yazın bazı tam olarak gelmediği, güneşi bazen bir buçuk ay boyunca görmediğimiz Seattle'da yağmura katlanıyordum, alışmıştım, fakat böyle bir sıcak ve nemli yazın sonunda bu hava, bir annenin okşaması gibi geliyor. Belgrad Ormanı'nda bazı mantarlar değişimi sezip uyanmaya başlaıyor, ve yazı biraz rahatsız geçen Brugmansialar yeniden çiçek açmaya başladı. Geçen yıl direkt toprağa ektiğim bu Brugmansiayı, kar fırtınasında kaybettiğimi zanneetmeme rağmen ilbaharda köklerinden daha da güçlü olarak çıkınca bu yıl muhteşem bir şov yapıyor. Geceleri kokusu öyle yoğun ki evin içine bile ulaşıyor.

This one won't be going in any curries...
Of course fall is harvest time, and there was a garden full of winter squash out there. The best policy is often to leave the squash on the vine as long as possible and harvest when the vines shrivel. For most of them that's definitely true but I decided to go just a bit early for two reasons. 1) I lost two very ripe Bungkans to rot, and 2) the snails are out in force, and love to eat at the base of squash stems. Triamble stems seem especially attractive to them. And most of the vines, if not actively dying, are yellowing off anyway. So I decided to go for it.

Tabi ki kabaklarla dolu bir bahçe de var. Normalde bitkilerin tamamen sarardığına kadar bırakıyorum fakat bu yıl birazcık erken toplamaya karar verdim. Sebleri ikidir: 1) Çok olgunlaşan iki Bunkan kabağı çürüdü, ve 2) yağmurlarda bir ordu gibi çıkan salyangozlar, kabakların koçanlarını yemeyi seviyor. Özellikle Triamble'inki cezbediyor. Zaten kurumamış olan bitkilerin bile çoğu iyice sararmaya başlamış.

Here's the first batch. The orange ribbed futsus actually ripened quite a while ago, so I just put one in for variety. The slightly greenish-yellow, teardrop shaped Seminole was the first to be harvested,  its vine is still looking good and they're up out of snails' reach so I'm going to let them ripen to the end.

İlk partisi bu işte - turuncu boğumlu futsular aslında çok önce olmuştu, biraz çeşit adına dahil ettim. Sol tarafındaki "damla" şekli olan Seminole ise, bitkilerinde hala kalan 14 tanesinden bir tanesidir. Ağaca tırmandıkları için salyangozlar erişemiyor, o yüzden ya en azından ayın sonuna kadar, ya bitkileri tamamen kuruduğuna kadar bırakacağım.

The first batch.

Yesterday's harvest. The straight-necked Penn. Dutch was growing off the ground. The large gray one is a Turkish squash planted by...who knows?
Strangely enough, the most tropical of the group - the moschatas - are still in the best shape. Pennsylvania Dutch crookneck is still setting new fruits, and Bungkan has at least 7 more out there ripening, three of which are hanging up in a plum tree! Some will make it, some may not.

İşin acayıp tarafı, üç türün en tropikalı olan C. moschata cinsleri, hala en sağlam durumda. Pennsylvania Dutch Crookneck hala yeni meyveler oluşturuyor, ve olgunlaşan en azından yedi tane Bunkan var. Bazıları olacak, bazıları da olmayabilir. Hatta üç tanesi, Ağustos ayında tırmanmaya başladığı erik ağacının tepesinde!

Bungkan, the "Duracell" of squash...they just keep going, and going, and going, and going...

3 comments:

melharte said...

just found your blog and think it's great! The squash are impressive. Thanks for the 2009 piece on the botanic garden... Is there a website or a native plants society or somewhere I can go to get info on specific places (specific trails, etc.) to go find wildflowers, esp the orchids and neat endemics? I take diagnostic digital images of flowering plants, an would like to snag as many natives as possible there... I'll be in Istanbul in april 2010 to visit Turkey for a month w. birdwatcher hubby ... Tekin's book is out of print, which is why I'm looking for another source of info... any advice would be greatly appreciated!

melharte said...

BTW, if you'd like to see the wildflowers we have in the Colorado Rockies, you can go to my album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/melharte0/CBWildflowerFestivalAlbumHarte

mostly natives, one of which shows a neat rare endemic moth that only lives on that particular plant, esp the flower!

Sazji said...

Hi!

Thanks for the kind words. I hope you mean April 2011, otherwise we're definitely caught in some sort of time warp! ;) I don't know of a native plant group here, but if you write to the Botanic Garden you may find contacts there. The Karaca Arboretum in Yalova also puts out a quarterly that includes wild herbaceous plants. http://www.bitkihastanesi.com/content/view/1066/30/ There is a gallery down on the right of the page. I'll try and look at your photos soon; unfortunately Google services are a bit iffy here in Turkey and I can't always connect. I also have lots of plant photos on picasa: http://picasaweb.google.com/dolichos.