arrival in Turkey (from Europe to Asia)

Friday 21.03 We set off to drive to Brussels from where we were going to be flying to Turkey. Bad weather had been forecast for the Easter weekend in the shape of snow for most of northern Europe which has not seen snow since 1975 and Easter this year was the earliest for 95 years. We hit blizzard conditions driving through the Ardennes and the drive took twice as long as it normally would have done. After eating dinner in a local Chinese restaurant we went to bed early as we had ordered a taxi to take us to the airport for 2.30am. The taxi arrived early and we had only just got out of bed! It was only a very short drive to the airport from my friend’s house where we had been staying and where we had left our car. We duly checked in luggage and went through the security controls.

Our flight was due to leave at 4.40am but they were late boarding all the passengers and then there was a further delay, totalling almost an hour, while they waited for all the snow on the wings of the aircraft to melt.

We landed at Bodrum airport, in south eastern Turkey, at 9.30am on a lovely sunny morning. It was so nice not to be wearing a coat of any sort. Not many people got off the flight as most of them were continuing on to Izmir so we were quickly though the customs formalities and P now has another visa stamp in her passport. Billy (brother in law) drove us to our house after stopping for a quick lunch en route. P has been enjoying looking at a very different landscape and style of architecture from what she is used to and is hoping to help me take lots more photos.

The weather is much warmer than it was at home and there are masses of wild flowers growing on the hillsides. P has remarked that the wild fennel plants are as tall as I am.

There are lots of bright red poppies,

yellow broom and other plants that I cannot yet identify. For the rest of the year it will never be as green as it is now – later on the landscape becomes a desiccated brown with little colour to relieve the aridity everywhere. A new housing complex is being built next to ours where once eagles soared – such a shame and the landscape is fast becoming a concrete jungle. The reason that so many people wanted to visit here is rapidly disappearing. The following are views from the house – looking to the left, straight ahead and to the right.

We went for a walk in the late afternoon. From the top of the hill behind the house you can see across to the bay of Gundogan on the other side.

an experiment

Back at home, while we were getting ourselves organised for our departure to Turkey, I introduced Pris to my library and she set about reading a book I had recently finished myself, called The Sensualist by Barbara Hodgson. I also own two other books by this same author: The Tattooed Hand and The Lives of Shadows. All her books fascinate me as they are described as illustrated novels. The illustrations in the Sensualist would appeal particularly to AMM as they are of a medical nature. It’s a thriller about a woman who sets off in search of her missing journalist husband who is investigating forged medical artwork. On a train journey she meets a number of weird characters and is given a book/box containing some very original artwork. Inspired by what she read in the book P decided we should try making a simple bookplate for AMM.

crystals-St Patricks-UK again

We were invited to lunch with our neighbours. All the family are passionately interested in crystals which they use for healing purposes as well as enjoying the sheer pleasure of collecting and owning them. Since our last visit they had acquired some more which they were happy to show us. P was fascinated by the sheer size and diversity of some of them and insisted on being photographed with some of them.

Lunch was of the cook-your-own variety using a raclette machine. Actually this is something of a misnomer as a “raclette” is the name given to the little scraper used for removing stubborn traces of cheese at the end of the meal. It consists of a hot plate over a grill. Each person has their own miniature tray into which they place a slice of cheese. This is placed under the grill and the resulting melted cheese is poured over potatoes which have been cooked in their skins. The potatoes are usually served with raw/cooked/smoked ham and a variety of pickles. The hotplate above the grill can be used for cooking raw meat, seafood or vegetables. As our neighbours are British and Chinese today we had a sort of fusion meal with Chinese sauces into which we dipped the mushrooms, seafood and cooked beef. In typically British fashion we had baked apples for dessert. All in all a delicious lunch.

Later that afternoon we went to Luxembourg city. This weekend the Irish community were celebrating St Patrick’s Day. There is a large Irish community here and they always make the most of any excuse to celebrate. This year a huge marquee had been erected in the main square and decorated with masses of orange, green and white balloons (the colours of the Irish flag). Ireland was due to play England as part of the 6 nation’s rugby cup which was being shown on a huge TV screen inside the marquee. Several young ladies were kitted out in green clothing and a couple, like the two in the picture, had co-ordinated head gear and agreed to be photographed with Priscilla.

16.03 It was pouring with rain when we set off to drive to the UK again, this time in a borrowed car that was large enough to accommodate the chest of drawers we were going to be bringing back with us. The car was a Land rover Discoverer and we all felt as if we were travelling in luxury although the various safety features and all-electric functions eventually drove us bonkers.

We took a different route to get to Boulogne from where we would be making our crossing to the UK. This time we were going via Reims, through the famous Champagne region where fields and vineyards stretched as far as the eye could see over a still wintry landscape of brown ploughed earth fields edged with bare trees. We passed the battlegrounds of the two world wars with their small military cemeteries a stark reminder of how many died, the serried ranks of crosses bearing a sad testimony to the bloodshed.

In the UK in the two weeks since our previous visit the greening of spring was more obvious although at times it was hard to see anything except the sheeting rain. The winter has been so damp that most of the trees were covered in a second skin of green of green lichen. The hedgerows were a mass of colour – yellow broom, pink Judas trees whose heart shaped leaves will only appear once the flowers fade, and masses of pale yellow primroses. However, on a more sombre note, the recent rains had left many areas under water. In the town where Milly lives the water had overflowed the riverbanks and was heading for the local supermarket car park. The evening sunlight shafting down through banks of grey clouds produced a very interestingly lit landscape.