Travel Log, Day 3, Finger Lakes, NY

It's the end of a long but good day, and I'm tired. We're back to our home base, and it's only 8 pm - too early to go to bed, so I'll see what I can remember about our day today.

Several years ago, we came to Ithaca to tour Cornell University with Wally, and as part of that trip, we visited Cornell's Botanical Gardens. I remembered them as the best botanical gardens I had ever visited, so I wanted to see them again. That was our destination for the morning. This time, as well as exploring the botanical gardens, we visited the adjacent arboretum. We had a pleasant few hours wandering around both of them. 

Soon enough, lunch was calling, and after a few misses with recommended places, we ended up at Purity Ice Cream for burgers and fries, which were pretty good. Purity had been recommended for the ice cream, so we planned to come back for it after another hike. 

Next, we visited Taughannock State Park (Thanks, Janet Wood, for the recommendation.) to see the 215' Taughannock Falls. The hike through the gorge was on a wide trail with a steep hill on one side and a wide flat stream bed on the other. Quite a pleasant 1.5-mile walk, especially since the weather continued to cooperate with temperatures around 60 F.

The other side of the park ran along Lake Cayuga, and we took a walk along the shore after we saw the falls. It was not quite as windy and cold as our walk along Seneca Lake yesterday, but windy all the same. Just windy enough to work up an appetite for ice cream, so back we went to Purity Ice Cream.

Purity Ice Cream has been in business since 1936 and was on almost everyone's list of places to go to in the area. During our visit this time, Wally had a huge milkshake, and the rest of us had hot fudge brownie sundaes of various kinds. Purity did an excellent job in living up to its reputation.

Then it was back to our cabin in the woods for a catch as catch can supper with the various things we had in the fridge. No one went hungry, and some were still not hungry after their ice cream treat.

And here we are once again back at the beginning of the post. As it turns out, the TV where we're staying has several streaming services we don't get, so we're enjoying some shows as we relax from our busy days. So I think that's where I'm headed now.

Below are some pictures from the day. 

The Botanical Gardens

Not surprisingly, these are called waterlily crocus.

I'm always inspired by the layering and variety of textures I see in gardens. But, of course, It never looks quite the same when I try it.

A possible idea for another way to do our split rail fence.

These naranjilla leaves had spikes on both the top and bottom of the leaves. 

Ward and Theo examining the allium sculpture.

The Arboretum:

Maple trees

We could hear frogs in this pond.

Theo at Newman's Overlook

Birch trees

Taughannock State Park:

There were other falls along the way to the tall ones.

Where the stream was shallow, there were expanses of rock exposed.

Taughannock Falls

Lake Cayuga

Purity Ice Cream:

Travel Log to the Finger Lakes, Day 1, 2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finger_Lakes

It's dark now, and we're enjoying a quiet evening here in our cabin in the woods. Wally has taken the car to meet friends, and Ward, Theo, and I are working puzzles and eating pizza. We are on a short vacation together in the Finger Lakes region of New York. A rare treat because coordinating the schedules of four adults is not easy.

We left Friday morning with Theo in charge of the day. He drove, and our first stop was in Harrisburg, PA, to visit the State Museum of PA. We were lucky to time our stop between two school visits, so we practically had the whole place to ourselves. We have gone to many museums, and this was definitely one of the better ones. After lunch at a nearby hamburger place, we continued on our way.

The next stop was the Tioga Reservoir along the PA and NY border. Unfortunately, we didn't see any of the advertised bald eagles, but we enjoyed the stop anyway. Then we continued onto our final destination outside of Ithaca, NY,  arriving at dinner time. When people heard we were coming to this area, they all had a recommendation for where we had to eat. But we were tired and hungry, and the restaurants were crowded, so we found our own place--a tasty Mexican restaurant.

Then on to our VRBO cabin in the woods, which is about 10 miles out of town. It is a nice cabin that the owner vacated for us to rent. It feels strange to be staying in the middle of all of her stuff without her being here, but I guess that's how business is done these days. 

Today we went to Watkins Glen State Park. It is at the southern end of Lake Seneca, one of the larger Finger Lakes. The Finger Lakes are a series of 11 long skinny lakes that were scoured out by glaciers and dammed up by glacial debris (terminal moraines) forming the lakes. Hiking the Watkins Glen gorge was the main impetus for this trip. It was something that Ward did with his family when he was little, and he wanted to do it again.

The gorge was formed from a hanging stream left from the glaciers. This hanging stream (Glen Creek) deeply eroded the area forming the gorge. The trail was narrow in places, and the crowds sometimes made it difficult to maneuver. However, the scenery and 19 waterfalls along the way made it worth it. We hiked the rim trail above the gorge on the way back. Fewer people chose this route, making the trek quite enjoyable.

Then we went in search of a better view of Seneca Lake. This lead us to accidentally find the US Salt mines and processing plant. Very interesting, but it was not open to the public, so we had to move on. Finally, we found the pier and docks of Lake Seneca in Watkins Glen and took a short walk along the shore. We contemplated taking a boat ride on the lake, but it was windy and cold, so the idea became much less appealing.

We were back in Ithaca for a late lunch at the Ithaca Bakery - one of the recommended places to eat, and it did not disappoint. Then, after a quick stop at Aldi's for supper fixings, we returned to our cabin in the woods. And I think this is where I started.

A few pictures.

The museum was next to the PA state capitol building.

The museum covered all parts of Pennsylvania's history, both natural and social. While Ward was studying Pennsylvania's early charters and constitutions, I was scoping out some things invented in PA, like the Slinky and the banana split.

The Tioga Reservoir was actually two lakes that were connected through this channel.

You could walk behind some of the waterfalls in the gorge.

Bridges were built across the stream in several places.

Glen Creek was eroding through mostly horizontal layers of shale and limestone.

The hardest part of the rim trail was all of the steps at the end, which were not kind to our knees.

Lake Seneca is one of the deepest lakes in the US, at 618' deep.

Ward and Theo were bracing against the wind on their walk along a jetty. While Theo had short sleeves, I had three layers, and we were both cold.

Until next time...

A Day Out

Last Saturday, Wally joined Ward and me when we went to the Mountain Heritage Arts and Crafts Fair in neighboring West Virginia. I have a long history with arts and crafts fairs in WV. Since 1963, there has been a huge fair in the area I grew up in every 4th of July. The event lasts four days and has hundreds of juried artisans, music, craft demonstrations, and many different kinds of food. The biggest food draw is the grilled chicken and corn dinner by the FFA (Future Farmers of America). I have spent many hot days visiting that fair. So when I found out that not far from here, there was a fall version of the festival in Jefferson County, WV, I was excited. 

The weather was pleasant, with temperatures in the 70s. Perfect for spending a day outside walking around. We wandered around from display to display (there were over 200 craftspeople), appreciating the amazing work some of these artisans were doing and taking notes from a few of them on things we might try in the future. My picture-taking was kind of random, but below are a few of the things we saw.

Everything in this booth was made from gourds.
I have some gourds that a friend grew that I could use like this.
I took note of some of the designs. 

There were many artists with many different painting styles, along with some stunning photography.

All of these candles were made from old bottles.

These shawls were made from alpaca wool sheared from the crafter's herd.

Chainsaw carving

There were many woodworkers. I liked these measuring cups and spoons.

These tables were made from old boxes and recycled parts. We have a couple of old wooden boxes that I am looking at differently now.

These stuffed animals and puppets were a lot of fun. The person at this display has been every year since the fair started 46 years ago. She makes the trip up from Alabama.

These leather workers have been in business since 1971, and I have gotten two purses from them over the years. I took advantage of my lifetime guarantee and took them one with a broken zipper to repair. I should get it back in a week. 

You may wonder if I bought anything. Well, yes, I did - a couple of Christmas presents. I don't think the recipients read here, but in case they do, I won't tell you what they are.

Now to get ready for our next adventure. Wally and Theo will be joining Ward and me for a little vacation to the Finger Lakes area of New York. It's been years since we've traveled together and I'm looking forward to it. I may report in during the trip or in a week or two when we get back.

Until next time...

Fall Has Come

 Fall officially arrived Thursday, and the weather coordinated with the calendar for once. A cold front came through on Thursday and brought blustery, rainy weather followed by a big temperature drop. Today is going to be sunny with a high of 70 F. Perfect. 

Fall is starting to show itself in other ways, too.

Sunrises seem to be more vivid this time of year, or at least they happen when I'm more likely to see them. This was at 6:30 this morning. (As always, the picture did not copy the splendor I saw.)

 I looked out yesterday and saw my neighbor's maple tree starting to change colors. This tree is always the first in the neighborhood to change. Also, notice the green grass. When the temperatures cool off, the grass is really happy and grows. And grows. We are back to cutting the grass 2x/week, like in the spring.

We got our first apples from a local orchard, and they taste heavenly. Unfortunately, our own apple tree is not doing so well. We had high hopes this year because the tree had more than a couple of apples on it. We have been waiting for them to ripen. However, when I checked yesterday, most of them had rotted on the tree while still green. So today, we plan to salvage what we can, ripe or not. 

The beautyberries are turning purple, waiting for the birds who love them.

The turnip and radishes are growing well. We should have some eating size in a few weeks. If you look closely at the picture, you can also see a cherry tomato that has revived with a bit of rain and cooler temps. It is doing what cherry tomatoes do best - try to take over everywhere.

The anemones are in full bloom. This year these bloomed about a month ahead of last year when they didn't start blooming until October.

And now we're off to another fun fall thing- an arts and crafts festival. If I remember to take pictures, I'll show you some of those next time.

Until next time...

More About Figs

As you know, our fig tree is finally producing this year, and I am slowly learning about them.

I got the fig tree five years ago from a customer who came into the library with figs for the staff along with several fig plants to give out. (BTW, it's nice living in a small community where people share things freely.) Someone said to me, "You like to grow things. Take this." I took one to be polite, but I wasn't that interested in figs. However, I took the seedling home and put it in a small pot. I watered it occasionally, not knowing what to expect. It got 3 leaves that first year which promptly fell off. I thought that might be from poor care but learned that figs are deciduous, so it was doing what came naturally. 

I entered figs in the community fair this year.

After spending a couple of years indoors, I moved it outside for the summer and took it back in for the winter. Each year, the plant grew a few more leaves and a branch or two. And then we finally got two figs. That was pretty exciting. After that, we repotted the tree into a big planter and left it outside all year. We placed it next to the house and it seemed to thrive. It grew a little bigger and increased its crop to 6 figs. This year, it finally came into its own. There are figs all over the plant, and now it's taller than our house. So we are beginning in earnest to learn about figs. We are experimenting and have eaten them fresh, made jam, and made fig bars. We haven't yet branched out to using the leaves although I know there are many uses for them.

Theo informed me the other day, that natural figs are pollinated by a fig wasp that crawls into the fig and lays eggs. When the larvae are born, they crawl out of that fig into another one pollinating along the way. In the meantime, the mother dies and is absorbed by the fig. However, cultivated figs have been developed that don't need this particular wasp to produce figs because it turns out that the figs are the flowers of the plant.  They bloom inwardly instead of outwardly. If you don't want seeds from the plant, pollination is not necessary. (BTW, Theo always seems to know a lot of trivia like that. Maybe he should be on Jeopardy someday.)

I did a quick check of Wikipedia and it seems that Theo was right. I also learned that figs were one of the first plants cultivated by humans. Eve used a fig leaf in the Bible so if you take that story literally, it says that figs have been around since the beginning of time. Also, figs have more naturally occurring varieties than any other tree crop. By looking at pictures, I determined that we have a Brown Turkey variety. It has a milder flavor than most figs and is not quite as sweet. I really wouldn't know because I've not tasted any other varieties except whatever they put in Fig Newtons. :)

I liked these better than Fig Newtons although
the recipe said they were like Fig Newtons.

Our tree has definitely outgrown its pot, and we plan to transplant it this fall. We have a place picked out that will not be as protected as where it is now, so I'm not sure how it is going to do. Figs are native to the Mediterranean and don't like cold weather. However, Brown Turkey is one of the hardier varieties. It should survive in our climate but may die back from freeze damage each year. There are several suggestions on ways to protect the plant during the winter, but we're leaving it alone so we'll see how it survives both the cold and the transplanting. 

Do you grow figs? Any tips?

Until next time...