Wooden Spoons

A trip to the Sunday market in Mumcular is now a firm fixture on the itinerary when friends visit. The shopping list usually looks like this: Baggy trousers for lounging about at home. Mixed dried vegetables for spicing up soups and pastas. Linen and cotton shirts. Turkish delight. Turkish saffron. Humane mouse trap (this isn't often on the list but we have some unwanted visitors as well as our wanted ones).

Wooden spoons are also a great buy and Hasan Usta and his wife Fatma are our first port of call. He and I go back a long time; in 1991 he was the carpenter 7 metres up the scaffolding, guiding our complicated roof beams into place while his young son, Musa, balanced on the top of the outer stone walls making sure the right beam was in the right place.

Hasan's present post-retirement occupation of spoon carving should be a much safer job but a slip of one tool or another resulted in a broken arm and a stay in hospital to get it fixed. This didn't stop him manning his stall today and Felicity bought a perforated wooden spoon; so much more attractive than the usual metal or plastic ones.

I'm typing this under the wooden roof beams that Hasan and Musa so expertly fitted 33 years ago. I've seen them shake and shimmy in several earthquakes but so far, they have always settled back in their allotted places. I have my fingers crossed for the next 33 years.

Mistakes aren't wasted.

Yesterday I posted a reel on Bodrum Art Collective's Instagram page (please follow if you haven't already) showing an acrylic print that didn't work. I haven't painted anything for a month and getting started again is always difficult. I find it best to just 'go for it' and see what happens. Obviously I waste a lot of paper and paint doing this, but never my time as the next paintings always benefit from the unbridled mistakes of past pictures. I hate to throw anything away so I've found a use for my discarded work. On 5th May this year I held a Greek Easter/Hırdırellez party. (The former you know, the latter celebrates the arrival of Spring and wishes are tied to trees.) I combined both by cutting out egg shapes and having friends write something on them. I made so many that later visitors have also been asked to 'write something on an egg'. I now have a guest book blowing in the breeze. Before the winter rains, I'll collect up the eggs and save them for next year.

This, by the way, is the discarded picture. It will look good as an egg.

Back Lane Biking

You've got to be mad to ride a bike around Bodrum; drivers with 4 wheels under them pay little heed to those on two, but off the peninsula on the Karaova plain, there is a network of small lanes between villages which are ideal for walking or rough cycling. Generally you can travel a kilometer at a time only meeting a shepherd, a cow ...

or a villager taking a nap.

In the winter I walk these lanes with the dog but a few years ago I decided to get out my sit up and beg Raleigh Pioneer, which is ideal for pottering around English villages whilst pretending to be Miss Marple, but was too exhausting to use over a rocky unpaved surface. So one day not long ago, on a trip to a supermarket to buy some wine, electric bikes were purchased. They were chosen for their chunky tyres which looked ideal for a bit of off-roading. If you haven't tried an electric bike yet, I urge you to give it a go. You still have to peddle so it feels like you're getting some exercise but the minute the going gets tough, you can up the power and breeze up the hill. I'm not brave (or crazy) enough to use them on a main road, but for pastoral peddling, an electric bike is a dream.

Old friends

One minute Dave was chatting, beer in hand, the next his bottom was on the gravel and his legs in the air. The deckchair had given way with a loud rip. When Kath and Dave last visited me, this deckchair was a bright red, comfy and secure. Dave chose to sit in it on the day it gave up hope and surrended to old age.

Their 2013 visit was in June and five of us travelled around in their camper van recreating our Famous Five archaeological trips of the last century. This time, August was too hot to venture very far and of the original five, there are only 3 of us left so a copy-cat trip would have been tinged with sadness but Finley hopped into their new van for a photo before they left.

It's lovely having old friends to stay, especially these two who I worked with for 6 years in the 80s. Our friendship has spanned almost from first jobs to retirement. We had lots to reminisce about and we fitted in a quick visit to Yali boatyard which is one of the few places that hasn't changed much in 40 years, even if everything around it is hard to recognise. A bit like us - no longer sun-bleached yachties. A bit like my deckchair. But its message is still clear and shall be heeded.

You don't have to be a millionaire

If you believe all you read on Facebook and in glossy magazines, Bodrum is: 1.Overcrowded 2.Empty 3.Awash with beautiful young influencers drinking gold flecked cocktails 4.TOO EXPENSIVE 5.Only visited by tourists who never venture out of their All Inclusive hotels. I'll give you "Crowded", but what holiday resort isn't in high season. "Empty" - really? If a restaurant is empty there is usually a good reason why. I can't comment on the cocktaileratti as I don't have the clothes (or the figure) to mix in those circles but I can address the last two points. On Sunday I had supper at the Dinç Hotel on the Kumbahçe beachfront in Central Bodrum. A football shirt gave an excuse to start chatting to the family of 4 on the next table as Liverpool had just trounced Manchester United and I felt congratulations were in order. These Liverpool supporters were staying in an All Inclusive hotel about 10 kms outside Bodrum. They had picked the hotel for its child friendly facilities but prefered to eat in Bodrum because they liked food more varied than the hotel buffet and they didn't think it was expensive to eat out. Similar meals in Stoke on Trent, their home town, would be twice the price and they cetainly wouldn't be dining on a beach with a golden sun sinking behind a Crusader castle. Our own meal of a starter, two substantial main courses and fruit with 2 lemon sodas came in at 1,150 TL or 26 Pounds/32 Euros. No alcohol as Guinness had been drunk earlier at 190 or 4.30 pounds for 50 cl. This amount is more than we would have paid last year and is a challenge when living on a fixed TL income but it should not discourage visitors who would be hard pressed to find these prices for a similar venue in their home country. Our new friends said that they would be back again next year and I got up from the table encouraged that Bodrum is still an affordable holiday option for young families despite Facebook warriors telling me that tourists have or will abandon us.

BacktoBodrum Back Again

 

I wrote a blog about returning to Bodrum after 12 years away. I stopped blogging and now 12 years after I created BacktoBodrum, I'm going to start again.   I've missed writing about Bodrum and have got a bit upset reading articles about my hometown which bear no relation to the place I live. A recent Times article claimed that everyone who lives here has a boat, (I wish) and the rest imply that you can't holiday here without spending 1,000 Euros a day.  Time to resurrect the tale of everyday folk in Bodrum.  

Etrim - photo by Kath Davis

This photo gives you an idea what's been going on in the past few years. I squatted down to take a photo and my subject asked me if I needed her stick to get up - my hips aren't as supple as they used to be, but when we compared birthdays, she was impressed that I'd got down there at all.   My phone is full of pictures of lovely village ladies to use as inspiration for my art work. When I gave up this blog, I was painting pictures of fruit and veg, inspired by my day job as a travelling cook. Covid put pay to that occupation but gave me lots of time to practice brushwork, and a photo of my neighbour by the pond started me on a series of working-women images. 

So here's to BacktoBodrum mark 2 - a general mishmash of what life is like living  in a busy holiday resort some days and a quiet village on the edge of a forest other days.  I hope you'll join me. 

Annie's art work can be viewed at Bodrum Art Collective