Seasonal perfection

It is such a wonderful time of the year.  The morning mists hanging over our village briefly turn us into a magical kingdom. 

I wish I could make myself get up this early every morning just to watch the transformation. 

Walking the dog through the scent of newly-damp baked earth, pine resin and wood smoke is bliss.  If we could capture this fragrance in a  bottle it would spread happiness wherever sprinkled. 

(tomatoes have come down in price too - hurrah!)

Bayram Best Wishes

The Muslim world is celebrating the first day of Eid and the majority of families in our village are settling down with their roast or braised lamb or goat with their nearest and dearest.  We are relaxing with a G&T and wondering what to cook for dinner. My daughter is not with us as she works in the tourist industry so today is just an ordinary working day for her. We do however have my Mum staying so we can at least say that we have had a "family day".   I went to the market on Sunday with the intention of filling up the fridge to last us through the holiday period but after my first couple of purchases, I was so incensed at the prices that I  ended up buying only half of my list.  Tomatoes were 1.5 TL a kilo last week but 4 TL this week.  My usual bunch of flowers had gone up 100%. When I questioned my lack of change from a 10TL note , the trader smilingly told me that it was a religious festival so of course the prices rise. I know religion has been blamed for most things but I haven't heard it used as a reason to fleece the general public.

While on the subject of fleeces, we passed a trailer load of sacrificial fleeces on our evening walk.  Animals can no longer be ritually slaughtered in gardens and public places which is good news as I hated the sight and smell of streets running with blood. Now each village or town has designated slaughter areas with a butcher on hand to dispatch the animal quickly and hygienically. Quite a queue had built up around ours and an enterprising neighbour had set up tables and chairs and was serving tea.  One tradition hasn't changed though; the fleeces in this area are still all donated to benefit the Turkish Aeronautical Association (Türk Hava Korumu) founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk  not just because the chief of staff of the Turkish Airforce is a local boy made good, but this is where fleeces have always been sent.

T H K

All Change in April 2014

Moving abroad is fraught with anxieties wherever you choose to settle and the bureaucracy involved in gaining and then maintaining a residency permit is high on the stress-inducing list. In Turkey, permission to stay is granted via local passport police and their "creative" interpretation of the rules is the source of much invective on the ex-pat forums. In some areas $500 a month is considered enough to support an application, recently in Bodrum $1000 a month has been required.  Some places accept proof of monthly pension payments, others require you to have the whole amount in the bank for the length of the permit, and so on with the other criteria. 

This situation will soon (hopefully)  just be a bad memory. A new Foreigners and International Protection Law was passed in April this year and The Directorate General of Managed Migration (DGMM) is responsible for implementing this law which comes into force in April 2014.  Mr Atalay Uslu from the DGMM has been touring the foreign embassies and consulates to find out about the foreign demographic living in Turkey and is open to suggestions on how the new laws can be formed to make life simpler for non-native residents.  He hopes to wipe out the discrepancies and anomalies in the present system and has already announced that Migration Management offices, run by the civil service with English speaking staff and a standardised rule book, will be set up all over Turkey and abroad. Offices are set to open in Aydın in  December 2013 and in Bodrum, Marmaris and Fethiye by April 2014.  These offices will also be offering Turkish language courses.  

This good news was imparted at a Consular meeting chaired by Ms Deniz Korkmaz, the Bodrum Pro Consul and Ms Joanne Pietsch, Consular Network Co-ordinator, based in the British Consulate in Istanbul.  The Bodrum Mayor, Mr Mehmet Kocadon, also made a cameo appearance to remind us what he looks like.  About 40 people attended to hear what's new and what's not but I won't bore you with the details here. If anyone is keen to know exactly what was discussed you can email backtobodrum@gmail.com and I'll give you a summary. 

If you have questions or suggestions you can contact Deniz Hanim at bhcbodrum@fco.gov.uk 

Now it's Time for Bikes - Şimdi Bisiklet Zaman

I arrived back safe and sound but chilled to the bone on Saturday.  Winter temperatures were blowing down from the North sweeping away all remnants of summer and leaving us shivering.  I avoided seasickness  by copious consumption of dried ginger from Hydra to Piraeus, keeping completely horizontal from Piraeus to Kos and completely vertical from Kos to Bodrum.  It seems I can control by nausea  as long as I don't bend in the middle.

                    

Our village house is not suited to the cold so we decamped to Bodrum on Sunday where I had planned to take part in a bike ride from the town centre to Gümbet. The event was advertised on Facebook calling riders to meet in the centre of Bodrum to  remind the local authority that despite plenty of bikes in Bodrum we don't have cycle lanes. 

Or if we have a cycle lane, it is used as a parking lot for pizza delivery scooters. 

There was a serious amount of lycra on show and I realised that there was no way I'd keep up with these keen cyclists; I hadn't even remembered my bicycle clips, so I took a few photos and watched them set off in convoy following a cop on a motorbike.  My Raleigh "ladies'" bike only has 3 gears so I wouldn't have got half way up the hill but I wished them luck in their campaign and hopefully the mayor can get these scooters moved so that we at least have a few hundred yards to cycle safely in Bodrum. 

You can sign the petition here if you wish

P.S.  If you are heading for Bodrum, the temperatures are now racing back to normal. It should be 28 or 29 degrees C by the week-end. 

Stormy weather

I'm on a brief visit to Greece and managed to just miss the storms that hit Bodrum on Tuesday. I flew out early in the morning an hour before the thunder and lightning rolled in. I haven't escaped the stormy weather unfortunately and as I'm sitting in my hotel listening to the gusts of wind blast around Hydra, I'm anticipating a rough trip back to Bodrum tomorrow. I leave here at two on the flying dolphin and remember from trips to Kos that when it's very rough, these vessels can be really uncomfortable. Despite being introduced to sailing at the age of five and choosing to work as a cook on yachts, I get seasick easily so I'm not much looking forward to tomorrow, especially as I'm taking ferries to Kos and Bodrum rather than flying. The last time Teo and I took a ferry from Piraeus to Kos together, we left the harbour in the evening, retired to our cabin to get a good nights sleep, were at sea for  12 hours and woke up in the morning to find ourselves back in Piraeus. The ship had turned back to avoid a storm.  Fingers crossed it's not that rough tomorrow.

Breakfast with the Mayor of Konacık

Local elections are looming and in March 2014 the existing 11 municipalities in the Bodrum area will merge into one large Bodrum authority with the current total of 11 mayors being reduced to one.  There are six months left to woo the voters and the race is on.  Outlying villagers now have a vote that will count in electing the local government for the whole Bodrum area and are enjoying the benefits of this new situation. In our village the dirt roads are still sparkling with their new coat of tarmac and gravel thanks to the Social Democrats, whose candidate personally delivered wheelchairs to the needy. The next village has a new drinking water system from the Nationalists and I've lost track of who delivered 20 new rubbish bins. The Pınarlıbelen graveyard has acquired a much needed water supply and taps. You get my drift. 

With the above in mind, I attended a breakfast meeting for foreign residents with one of the front-runners in the election race, the present mayor of Konacik, Mr Mehmet Tosun a member of MHP, the right wing Nationalist Action Party.  Friends are probably falling off their chairs at this, but the prospect of a nationalist party holding a meeting for foreign residents could not be ignored.  There was a good turnout at the beautiful Dibekli Han Art Village and after much mingling; catching up with old friends and being introduced to new, a delicious breakfast was served.  Having lived in Turkey for over 30 years, just the initials MHP strike fear in my heart, but I resolved to put the person before the party and listen to what the guy had to say.  Mehmet Bey is a local chap who comes from a village just down the road from Mumcular,  he trained as a planning engineer and was voted mayor of Konacik in 2004.  One of the more dynamic leaders, he wins points in my book for sponsoring the archaeological digs at Gümüşlük and Pedasa and has turned the latter from an inaccessible site to a very enjoyable monument to visit. I asked him if relocating the ugly Bodrum industrial site and restoring the underlying stadium and hippodrome were on his agenda should he win and he confirmed it was. 

Photo from Debikli Han 

The main theme of the meeting was that although the majority of the room had no vote, they should have a say in the running of their municipality, an opinion which went down very well with his listeners.  As each guest briefly (in most cases) introduced themselves, it was noticeable what a diverse group the foreign element in the area has become and that only good would come from tapping their pool of combined experience.  

The elephant in the room was addressed in a very eloquent manner by Mr Asım Başaran,  Bodrum MHP party chairman, who stated that they were "Nationalist" by virtue of promoting the Nation's assets; nature and the environment and not race or ethnic differences.

First flowers

With the equinox behind us, summer is coming to an end and for the first time last night I could have done with a blanket in the early hours. Daytime temperatures are in the high 20s but the pool water is so cold that a deep breath for courage is needed before a swim. In the plant world,  the herald of autumn is the Urginea maritima or sea squill; a strange flower that seems to appear overnight from dry earth and is an unearthly pale pink.  It would look more at home on a Star Trek or Doctor Who set. 

The flower is the final stage in its annual appearance and only shoots up long after the leaves have died back and disappeared. I found one of the bulbs earlier in the year and it weighed in at nearly two kilos which explains how this plant flowers when the earth is at its driest and how it can continue to produce leaves and flowers when not even planted. This latter quality made the bulb a fertility and good luck symbol which is still sometimes hung outside Greek houses at New Year, although I've not seen this in Turkey.  Since ancient times, the medicinal qualities of the bulb have been appreciated, especially in the treatment of heart disease, coughs and chapped feet. Virgil gives it as an ingredient of sheep wash. In large quantities it is poisonous which keeps it safe from the wild boar which dig up most roots and bulbs around our house. 

From a distance this pale lanky bloom isn't very interesting, but close up the tiny flowers are very pretty and a magnet for honey bees in search of pollen.  If you are out and about, look around the edges of fields for them as the bulbs were often used to mark land boundaries. 

Quad Bikes - Fun for Some.

As I'm sure you've gathered by now, as the summer approaches, we withdraw from busy Bodrum and decamp to the countryside where we hope to avoid the crowds, traffic and the general hullaballoo that hundreds of thousands of humans on holiday create.  We have no sea view and are over 30 kms from Bodrum, so have for over 20 years managed to avoid acquiring any neighbours.  Google earth shows our house isolated from just about everything except trees and a pond.   We are not totally anti-social, friends do come and visit but the thing we love most about our hideaway is the sound of the wind rushing through the pine trees and the occasional hoopoe swooping over the garden.
We don't much appreciate revving engines and peeping horns which is why we've been a bit peeved this year.  Since May we have had the dubious pleasure of being on a Quad Bike Safari route.  Not once, not twice but three times a day, ten or so bikes roar past whipping up as much dust as possible by skidding sideways  and then proceed to pointlessly drive round and round the pond just below our garden wall.  If this isn't bad enough, as they approach the start of our garden,  the leaders encourage everyone to punch their horns for the whole length of our boundary.
We've put up with it or rather Teo has as I've been away for most of the summer but last week I was in a bolshy mood and decided enough was enough.  There is a whole forest to drive though with no houses and yet they choose the one path that borders my house. If I was to plan a safari, I certainly would steer clear of washing lines with M&S smalls hanging up and I definitely wouldn't deliberately cover them with dust three times a day.

I marched down to the pond in my "firm but reasonable" walk and confronted the leaders. I managed to stop myself telling them that they should be wearing helmets like their customers and that smoking in front of clients is not good for their company image and asked why they had to peep their horns. The answer "it's fun".  I then pointed out that by driving round and round the only natural water source in the area they were depriving the wildlife of water.  I was answered with a shrug.  I asked if they could dissuade their clients from throwing away their water bottles as they drove  - no they couldn't.  I wasn't getting very far but I did have a trump card up my sleeve.  I asked if they could change their route but was told they had permission to use all the forest roads.  Ah ha! "Were they aware that they were driving over private property on their way to the pond?"  No they weren't so they agreed to use the newly opened road which thankfully doesn't border our garden.   They are still peeping their horns but at least we've been saved from the dust.

Baskets galore

We had another visit from the Raşit the basket weaver. Again he was already well into production on our terrace when we woke up.

I really liked this shape mid-construction and thought it would be nice to have a large handle. 

His grandson came along this time to do the leaf stripping but wasn't a very willing apprentice. 

Raşit sells his wares in Bodrum at the Friday market so he works through the week to have 6 or 7 completed baskets ready to offer for sale. 

He's been branching (!) out with new designs this month but hasn't completely abandoned the traditional.  I've got my eye on this splendid olive pickers basket. 

What do you miss?

Yesterday lunch time I was on the bridge of RFA Mounts Bay which is docked in Bodrum for a week. The Royal Fleet Auxiliary is a civilian manned fleet owned by the British Ministry of Defence and the ships serve as supply vessels to the forces.  Anyone interested in the specifications should click  here to read the details

The crew and officers aboard were all very welcoming and as we tucked into the ample buffet and sipped our drinks in our ladylike "cocktail" dresses, the inevitable question was asked;  "What do you miss from the UK?"  I never know what to say to this as it seems churlish to admit to missing nothing and the usual "PG Tips and sausages" is no good as I dislike both.  "Marmite" is my only fallback answer.

After a while, I noticed that my fellow guests were taking photos and, as the crew were happily posing for shots, I realised how "Turkified" I had become.  In the centre of Bodrum there are big signs outside the Jandarma and the military holiday camp forbidding any photography. I had assumed that I would be  marched off to the brig if I started snapping.   I had managed to squeeze my camera in my dainty bag at the expense of car keys so at a very late stage did manage to take a few shots.

We were even given a guided tour of upper and lower decks. 

As I followed our eloquent guide, I wished someone would ask me the question again, because I do miss something from the UK and it's the easy openness and lack of suspicion with which we were welcomed on to the ship.  We wouldn't have got within 100 meters of a Turkish ship and would have probably had our cameras confiscated if we had taken any exterior shots.   A public relations event  wouldn't even be considered in Turkey. And it's not only the military. On archaeological sites, the interested spectator is viewed with distrust and kept as far away from the excavations as possible, with screens hiding the digging from view.   So in one word what do I miss - I think it is "fellowship", but I'm hoping you might come up with a better description.