Turkey.....
Usually when we travel I have a little notebook to record the order of the day so I can match facts to photos. hohohoho. We were moving every minute of the day, evening and sometimes overnight. All I can say is that this was our first mosque. The women and children sit behind this screen, the men in front. Men can come through to the back and after prayers, women can go up to the front. I think the big dividing line is really children. The kiddies can fool around all they want in this back area and no one worries about it. When they are ready to join in, they do, and if they don't, they don't. Isn't the light sublime?
In front are our two guides. In the floral dress is Isel, in the red is Sumeyra. These women are terrific. They fielded endless questions, complaints, moved all of us through complicated travel itineraries, helped with endless diet and water concerns, toilet panics and did it all with grace and kindness. I can't speak highly enough about them.
Luckily for me, one of the places we were supposed to go to was closed and I suggested the botanical garden near where we were staying. In the world of botanical gardens, this wasn't the best one. I thought perhaps it would be more reflective the ancient plants from which so many Western plants have derived. For instance the tulip comes out of Turkey and is a small red plant. Nope. I also thought there might be a section on grains for the same reason. Nope. I guess I need to send something to their suggestion box.
But there were a couple of great views.
The view from our gazebo is the main reason we stayed away from the city so long. That yellowish bit in the background is a salt marsh. The far distance is the flood plane for the Medway river. The only noise was birds, crickets, winds through the leaves, and that terrible squirrel who tortured Cleo Belle every time she settled down for a rest.
You can see most of our modern conveniences. Red cooler for a fridge, Blue containers for water, new green and white plastic table cloth for a counter, green Coleman stove and the best of all, the brand new green rocking chair. It was sweet to sit and rock and read or knit.
How's our local food project going, you ask? We managed to keep up with it all. Broccolli, tomatoes, corn, red peppers, peas, green beans and today, cauliflower are all processed and ready for winter. Steve made strawberry jam and a small batch of peach jam that is being stolen right and left by visitors.
Of all the veg that we preserve, these are my favourite. What a lot of yum they add to winter dishes.
Finally, here is a rather poor photo of what I am currently working on. It is part of Karen Ruane's ongoing online classes for stitching. The two pillowcases have been cut and turned to make the beginnings of a table cloth for a small round table in my studio. The patches are from the kids toddler clothes, the yellow from a shirt so worn by Steve at that time that it is very frail. That's how poor we were, we wore our clothes to shreds before replacing things. Better photos to come. Have a good week.
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