Away from Bodrum

I spent most of yesterday travelling away from Bodrum. Not far, just to Hydra on the other side of the Aegean.  Unfortunately to go West, I have to first fly North. I  keep meeting Greeks who have really enjoyed holidaying in Turkey and Turks who have loved visiting Greece and I'm hoping that one day this will encourage airlines to put on direct Athens-Bodrum flights.  Until this happens, I leave home at 7:30 am and, via two planes, a lot of sitting around and a hydrofoil, get to Hydra at 9pm. I haven't picked my dates well this time. My tiny Bodrum garden is belatedly bursting into flower and I'm missing the first canna lilies, blooming honeysuckle and the delight of sitting beside a newly flowering jasmine on a warm evening. When I get back it will be time to move to the country so only the site's feral cat population will enjoy the scented sun-trap.  I also hadn't anticipated how important May 1st is in Greece; I am travelling at one of the busiest times of the year. I  risked being stranded on the island as all the ferries have been booked  for weeks but was lucky to be in the right place at the right time last night to book a seat out next week. 

I am also missing a very busy week-end in Bodrum. There is the  Global Run around the centre of Bodrum, (click here to read about last year's run. 2014 Bodrum Global Run), a Black Sea Festival on one side of the town and a folk celebration at Pedasa on the other, not forgetting the last cake sale before summer in Gumbet.   

I'm not expecting much sympathy as I'm on one of the most picturesque islands of Greece and, having just joined Instagram, I am finding a suitable photo opportunity around every corner, but as I'm cutting back on internet access I'm rationing myself to just one a day.  You'll have to click on the instagram logo on the right to see what today's is.

Time to think about moving. Turn off the WWW.

The sun has finally come out and temperatures are rising. The streets of Bodrum are getting busier and it's time to think about moving out to the country. But before we can up sticks and abandon urban sophistication for bucolic pleasures, we have to get the house ready. A particularly damp winter has left its mark on the North and East facing interior walls so the annual scrape and paint season has opened.  You'd think after 24 years that we'd have sorted the damp problem but whatever we've tried and however much money we've thrown at the problem, a wet winter always seeps through.  We've now accepted that damp will find its way in and we live with it.  We spent the week-end out in the village and got lots of small and large jobs done. If I want to analyse why we were so much more productive than usual, the answer is a simple two words; 'no internet'.  As long as we don't connect the house up to the addictive World Wide Web, we are busy bees.  A good resolution for the summer would be to have at least two internet-free days a week.  This means no news, no emails, no Skype, no Twitter, no Instagram, no T.V.  and no funny cats. This is a stratagem that is obviously not going to work during Wimbledon, but that apart, if successful, we may even run out of jobs to do.  I have not mentioned this idea to my other half yet, he'll be reading it on the blog like you are.

Whatever is happening indoors, outside is always wonderful. 

23rd April 2015, A date to remember.

I think I said all I wanted to say about 23rd April in 2012, and anything I missed out I added in 2013. In  2014 I was in Greece on 23/4 and this is where I took these two photos of a flag showing St. George about to slaughter a dragon next to St George's red cross pennant flying from the roof of a church in Hydra.  I was sure that there was something deeply meaningful to say about the flag that was once a symbol of everything great in England but is now an emblem we are embarrassed to acknowledge lest we be thought racist  (How did that happen!).   About  the flag of a saint born in what is now central Turkey, hoisted above a Greek orthodox church.  But as you can see from the previous two sentences, this notion is not easy to articulate. So 2014's 23rd April post was left unwritten and having got this far, you are probably wishing that I'd left 2015's in the draft box too.

So why should this Thursday be a date to remember? Because I exchanged 100 pounds today and received 400 Turkish Lira. This is the first time the Lira has dropped so low and broken the 4 Lira barrier.  The general feeling now is that the only way from here is down.  On that depressing note here is a happy picture of a tree prettily decorated for Children's Day.

A Party

It has been generally agreed that the party for the 5th anniversary of  H3A went very well and that a great time was had by all.  Speeches were kept short and sweet, which is almost a miracle in Turkey and the concert given by Mutlu Torun was a revelation. I didn't think I liked listening to the ud, a lute look-a-like instrument, and almost didn't stay for the recital, but he strayed way off the usual classical Turkish repertoire and I enjoyed every minute.  An impromptu concert by the H3A singing group in the beautiful gardens of the Karia Princess Hotel was a perfect end to the evening.  Now to the two photographs above.  What are these 4 doing on the roof of the Turkish Bath? It wasn't another spontaneous entertainment, in fact nobody seemed to notice them.  They are all members of the photography workshop and our homework this week is to photograph shadows (or shade and shadows as both these words are the same in Turkish) so they were taking advantage of the sunny evening and the hamam's stark white roof.  Mary in blue is not only an ace photographer but also a fellow blogger.  After a year's break she is back at the keyboard and you can check out some of her beautiful photographs on The Adventures of a Cilgin Kiz

Wednesday wonders

The farmer's market on Wednesday is proving to be a good source of Instagram photos. Last week, organic vegetable shopping was enhanced by a couple dancing the tango between the stalls, this week two ladies were making karabaş macun,   French Lavender paste.   They picked all the flowers off the stalks (which are saved to make tea), then steeped the flowers in boiling water for a couple of minutes. 

The strained flowers were added to pekmez, molasses and boiled until jam consistency was reached and then ground and toasted sesame and walnuts were stirred in.  Allowed to cool and bottled, this blend is marketed as a cure for just about everything but especially migraines. Recent research suggests that fiercely boiled molasses is not as good for us as we thought so I'd be inclined to mix the strained flowers  into raw honey rather than this traditional recipe. 

Another bonus was a stall selling large bunches of wild tulips. It's been many years since I've seen this many in one place so the odd winter weather which wasn't very conducive to human happiness must have been just right for these gorgeous wild flowers.

Euphorbia

Strange word 'Euphorbia' , sounds like something you should be either extremely happy about or frightened of. I toyed with the titles of 'Euphoric over Euphorbia' or 'Euphorbia phobias' but decided against.

Today, well into April,  I'm using a picture of this vivid green member of the Spurge family as a symbol of delight that we finally have a weather forecast that promises five days of sunshine in a row. Yipee! It's been a long winter and almost non existent Spring.  I'm still not sure if some of the frost-hit plants in the garden will make a full recovery, but the Euphorbia has been bursting forth for several weeks, proclaiming that winter is over, despite the rain, clouds and wind (and my reliance on an electric blanket).

Should you wish to bring any branches of this attractive plant indoors, be extremely cautious. The stems exude a milky sap which is extremely caustic. I can tell you from bitter experience that you don't want to get it anywhere near your eyes.  We were once invited to lunch by people we didn't know too well. I prepared a lovely bouquet of roses and euphoria, wrapped in very trendy raffia and tissue paper. I rinsed my hands in water and rubbed my eyes.  By the time we got to the lunch date, my eyes were half closed and tears were running down my swollen face.  We weren't invited back! 

Open Mind to Open Heart

Sitting in front of a computer for a lot of the day, trying to get words on to a page, my brain definitely rules my heart. I'm analytical by nature and can rightly be accused of over scrutinising and dissecting words, events and people.   I used to be sceptical about anything I couldn't explain but since I moved back to Bodrum I've been much more open to ideas on the edge of conventional thinking. Even so  I am probably the last person you'd expect to sign up for a day's workshop of 'Heart Math'.  Until a month ago I'd not even heard the phrase and when I did, in my pedantic way, immediately thought "where is the s?", why isn't it 'Heart Maths'.  But in a moment of improbable mental tolerance, I decided to throw my prejudices to the wind and go along and see what it was all about, and I'm so glad I did.  Under he expert guidance of Joyce McKay, we learnt a simple technique to use the power of one's heart to balance biological systems and stop stress and negative thoughts and actions in a few seconds.  I've been practicing since Saturday and the 3am anxiety-insomnia which has plagued me for years has all but gone.
You'll have to go along to one of these sessions yourself to find out what goes on as it's difficult to define the experience.  My fellow participants, all strong, sassy, funny, intelligent and thoughtful women, made the day even more rewarding. I can only really say I went into the Marina Go Hotel in the morning with an open mind and came out a few hours later with an open heart and a nice warm feeling of calm, control and purpose.   Thanks, Joyce!

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Back of the Net for Bodrum Spor

This VW looks very happy at Bodrum Spor's success

There's been much celebration in Bodrum this week-end as the local football team won their amateur league championship and secured their rise into the 3rd division.  They actually clinched the lead 2 matches ago but also won the last two games of the season to finish on a high note.   I live next to the stadium so was in the right place at the right time to catch the players atop this tour bus for a lap of honour around the town.   Apart from car horns they were accompanied by ticker tape, helium balloons, camera drones, sirens and firecrackers so no one could have been left in any doubt as to the outcome.

Jake and I sometimes come across the players as they leave practice matches and we're happy to report that they are very dog friendly and give him a stroke so I shall have to get Jake a green and white check scarf ready for next season's matches, because they don't seem to have a doggy mascot yet.

Books in Bodrum

I've always been an avid reader; from the age of seven I preferred reading to sleeping. I still do and when I first came to live in Bodrum all those years ago, my bag had more books than clothes. Finding something to read in the 1980s in Bodrum was often a struggle as my Turkish wasn't good enough to enjoy locally published novels.  I was lucky to work in the travel industry and guests were very generous with their finished books.  I would also collect old newspapers and magazines and save them for months to make sure I'd devoured every word.  The local English speaking community wasn't very large but we shared what books we had, making sure the diving archaeologists were the last to read any paperback as they'd take them underwater with them and read as they slowly made their way to the surface.   In the 1990s we had a book-swap in our travel agency which turned into a good way of meeting newly arrived English speakers on the peninsula and kept me in reading material if I wasn't too fussy.   If someone had told me then that in less than two decades I'd own a machine which would let me read the book I wanted within 5 seconds of pressing a button, I would have thought them delusional.
Despite electronic readers and the internet, most of us still enjoy the feel of a real book and in Bodrum we have the chance every few months to peruse long tables of reading matter and pick up a good read for a few lira.

Linda Bennett, smiling as usual. 

About 10 years ago, a group concerned at the sad state of the peninsula's stray cats and dogs decided to form a charity to help them. Their efforts were thwarted by bureaucracy, but they did start raising money by holding jumble sales.  It was soon noticed that the book stall run by Linda Bennett raised more than the rest of the stalls put together and thus the regular book sale was born.  

John Lloyd behind the counter.

Each year, over 5,000TL is raised and goes towards treating sick and wounded animals and neutering those living on the street.
The next sale is this Sunday, 5th April at Defne Restaurant in Bitez  from 11:00 to 13:00.  If you are in the Bodrum area, give your Kindles a rest and come along and reacquaint yourselves with the smell and feel of a real page turner.