Some Table TLC

Here it seems that if you see something old that you like you have to jump in and get it as soon as possible! Senol saw some gorgeous old chairs a few days ago in a nearby front yard and wanted to ask the owner if they would sell them. But he was too slow! A few days later they had been put in the rubbish and taken away.

So when we spied this table in the old shed at the back of our apartments we pounced. The landlord was happy to give it to us.

It took some major cleaning, getting rid of spiders (luckily no scorpions!) and washing off years (probably decades) of dust.

I love it! I think it could fit right in some of the photos I posted when I was searching for apartment furniture inspiration. I just had a look at the photos from that post and it so similar to the blue table -I hadn't even realised! I was going to use it for a sewing table, but I am loving the top too much to cover up with all that junk.

So instead it now looks like this:

Little red jewels

So many of the plants here are amazing! They must love the climate or the soil or something. I think I mentioned before that this whole area was covered in quince trees, until the 1960's when most of the people who live here now built their homes. Now there are climbing roses three storeys high and trees so heavy with sour green plums that they should just collapse on the ground from sheer exhaustion!

But what is really tempting me at the moment is the cherries! Hanging off the trees like little jewels, cherry trees are everywhere here! This is the tree in our front garden. The cherries are not quite ripe yet, but there's the promise of delicious things to come.

Instead we buy them from our local Friday market at the moment. So so cheap, about 2YTL a kilo (that's close enough to $2). It's no wonder you can buy cherry juice everywhere here. What a luxury.

And what better to go with cherries...

Crowded markets

The weekend started with an early morning ferry ride. It was surprisingly chilly, despite the forecast being for 26 degrees. Oh well, I thought, the sun is sure to come out soon. A hot drink on the ferry warmed us up on way. 'Oralet' is sort of like hot orange flavoured cordial, very sweet!

A big day was planned...breakfast in Sultanahmet, buy a sewing machine, then head to the fabric 'market' in Sultanhamam. Things didn't quite go as planned.

We made it to Sultanahmet, but the chefs at three of the cafes we went to hadn't turned up yet! Things were getting desperate and the coffee cravings were starting to kick in. Senol made a few calls and suddenly omelettes appeared from a chefless kitchen, followed by one of Senol's cousins bringing some tasty borek from the local 'borekci' and then another cousin arrived with a huge coffee for each of us. I love a big Turkish family!

We bought the sewing machine, and hauled it and the pram through crowded markets, and down winding cobblestone alleys. We finally got there, exhausted. The area to buy fabric seemed to be in and around a particular building that was like a rabbit warren. The passages were lined with small shoe box sized stores with fabric piled up to the roof and little kiosks selling buttons and threads. The passages seemed to get narrower and narrower, until we couldn't go any further with the pram. We had had enough! We gave up and made our way back through the crowds in search of a taxi.

And we were glad we found one when we did, because apparently sometimes the weather forecast can be wrong!

It was a long, but cosy taxi ride home.

A photo for a rainy day

Here is a very recent photo of Yashar! Taken this morning (very early!) while we waited for the ferry. To me this photo conveys our day well - up early, a rainy day, fresh air, spending the first hour on clear blue water as we made our way over to Eminonu and of course Yashar was his usual peaceful self.

Interview with expatinterviews.com

I am excited to say that the people over at expatinterviews.com recently came across my blog and asked if they could interview me for their website. The site is run by Victor Volder, who lives in the Netherlands and Lizza Capucion, a freelance writer who lives in the Philippines.

They interview expats and are particularly interested in "what motivated people to live in another part of the world, how they generate their income, how they manage to live there, and what they’ve learned from their experiences in a land that's become their new home."

To check out the interview, including some of my thoughts and tips on moving to Turkey, click here!

And a big thank you to Victor and Lizza.

Yogurt fresh from the farm

Some of the fresh produce available here is delicious! We are particularly lucky here in Yenikoy because at our local market (pazar) there is a guy selling lots of yummy cheeses, sucuk (garlic sausage/salami type thing) and cured meats. He also sells this yoghurt we decided to try. It is water buffalo yoghurt! It comes in a beautiful terracotta pot which is a bonus. I might even get around to buying a plant to put in it once we finish to put on the windowsill in the kitchen.

The flavour was gorgeous! How to describe it? Hmmm...thick, full bodied, home made, even a little bit of a cheese flavour to it. We had ours with Yesil Fasulye, but I could easily imagine having it with a cheese plate - Camemberts, quince paste, fresh peaches and freshly toasted bread pieces rubbed with garlic. Mmmm, I wish I was having that right now!












*Ooh, I forgot to mention my yoghurt hot tip...the cheese/yoghurt guy said that you should always use a wooden spoon, never metal, to stop the yoghurt from getting watery *

Cheeky boy

Here is another photo of the little cutie pie! I loved the captions for last weeks photo - thank you! Keep them coming! My entry for this week is 'no, really, Mummy, that's enough with the photo taking!'

It's getting hot in here...

It's heating up here so, inspired by Lindsay Lohan, (just kidding!) I decided I was in desperate need of some jean shorts.

So I took a pair of old favourites...

and sacrificed them for the greater good!

Decided they were in need of some pimping up so added a few stitches, ok maybe not pimping up but at least a little tszuj in the spirit of Carson from Queer Eye.

The finished product! Am loving them so much I could hardly bear to take them off to photograph them - seriously!

ps. the Lindsay photo is from Celbridiot.com where you can find many more Lindsay jean-short photos...if that's what you're in to.

A swim in the Bosphorus?

The Bosphorus looked so inviting on the weekend. The weather was just a little sticky, the water glistened. We didn't venture in though. Apparently the currents can be strong and although we saw others swimming I'm not so sure about how clean it is.

Thousands of ships sail along the Bosphorus every year carrying cargo, petrol and gas. Although it is beautiful to watch the huge ships sailing past, they bring with them the risk of accidents because of the heavy water traffic and pose a hazard for the gorgeous and historic yalis and mosques that line the shores.

These dogs didn't seem to mind though!

Yashar Weekly Photo

After many insistent requests (demands!) from family and friends for Yashar updates I have decided to post a weekly photo of Yashar! Plus he is just such a cutie! He is is definitely my favourite subject to photograph and so coming up with a weekly photo is no problem at all - it's more a case of which one! He loves bath time, but this is a more serious moment I think...so many possible captions! It would be so super cool if you left some possible captions in the comments section - next week I will pick a favourite and add it to this post.

And the winner is...'hmmm...shall I leave the jacuzzi and hit the big pool?' !!!!
Loved the comments!!! Thank you! It was very hard to decide on the winner (ended up having to have a vote here).