Why do I like living in Bodrum? Because on the 15th January in what by any calendar is the middle of winter, Spring is in the air. For the past 3 days we have had glorious sunshine and temperatures around 16 degrees C. Heavy coats have been abandoned for sleeveless jackets and every roof has flapping laundry. The puddles left by the heavy rain on Friday night have almost dried up and the bedding plants that looked almost certainly frozen then drowned along the harbour front, might just survive. This is what I missed in my 12 winters in England - these little mini respites from the relentless winter weather. We've just taken an late walk around the town and the south
wind is blowing a pleasantly warm breeze landwards. This southerly
lodos is the harbinger of rain so we will probably say goodbye to the sun for a few days, but after the cold spell last week, it was lovely to have a mini summer for a few days.
Spring flowers are starting to appear. I brought a bunch of narcissus home from the market on Friday and they are still filling the room with their heady scent. One sniff of these delicate flowers takes me back to Bitez 30 odd years ago. In what is now an urban mass of hotels, houses, roads and shops, there were water logged fields that would fill with
nergis, narcissus in the winter. I wonder if any still appear in the gardens of the new houses and hotels. I'd like to think that a few bulbs survived the bulldozers.
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