Three Weeks

A lot can change during 3 weeks away, especially if one leaves during a thunderstorm, wrapped up in wind-sheeter and polar necked jumper and arrives back to Spring sunshine, wild flowers and wide awake tortoises. The one above can move almost a quickly as Jake.

Before I left, I was beginning to wonder if my wisteria had died as it was showing no shoots at all, but it made up for its late start with a heady display.

Some changes are not so welcome. Driving to the village, I was surprised to see additions to the road; some of the corners had been bypassed to straighten the route. This made my heart sink as the only reason for this is to accommodate extremely long lorries.

And a couple of kilometres along, there they were. Wind turbines ready to go.  Locals have not been consulted in the siting of these leviathans and their installation threatens the eco-system of the forest. Pine trees need a certain amount of humidity to thrive, turbines reduce the humidity. Bees in the area rely on pine pollen to make honey so honey production - one of the original backbones of the Mumcular economy - suffers.  The last time I looked, there were 28 applications for wind turbine installations in our region - that's a lot of honey to lose.

Tilting at Windmills - Troubling Turbines

I seem to spend a lot of time going to protest meetings these days, which makes me appear a bit of a NIMBY - In the case of the 13 projected wind turbines between Yalıkavak and Geriş I think I'm the opposite; a WOENIMBY -  Why On Earth Not In MY Back Yard.  I'm not a great supporter of wind power but if these monsters have to be put somewhere, surely the empty high peaks between Mumcular and the Gulf of Gokova, a few hills back from our rural home would be a more sensible place than on the already crowded Bodrum peninsula. The proposed site near Yalikavak is on land that is, or was in the past, protected because of its archaeological and biological importance and encroaches on the villages of Geriş and Karakaya not to mention outlying pastures, houses and the five seismic fault lines that run around the 14,380,000 sq m plot.  (Yes I have checked the number of zeros).  Is wind power even the right way to go?  When do we need the most power? In the summer.  When do we get the most wind? In the winter.  Put solar power into the same equation and it seems a no brainer to me that we should be concentrating on sun energy.  Solar farms are not attractive either but at least they are quiet, don't kill so many birds and don't need obscene amounts of concrete to stop them falling over.  I came out of the meeting with a heavy heart.  Yet again a massive project has got underway without any consultation with the public, no environmental impact evaluation report and it feels to this woman in the street, a very tenuous adherence to the law of the land.

The meeting was well attended with, ladies from Çomakdağ village near Milas adding a dash of colour to the event.

This young lady seems to be echoing my feelings.