Magical Night

Could it be? After the clouds and rain friday findings, that it is really going to happen soon?
These clouds give us hope! Atleast we enjoyed the magical night with a full moon and gorgeous clouds, the sky was like marble!

Marmaris looks magical!

And now hoping that the magical water drops will soon fall down...

Ramadan Column

(andykehoe)

It is again that time of the year, the month of Ramadan, when practicing Muslims fast from sunrise till sunset. No food, no water, no smoke and no medicine is allowed to pass their lips. When the sun sets, the believer implores Gods approval to break the fast and gives thank for the gifts of the Lord. The fasting during Ramadan is one of the five corner stones of the Muslim religion.

I have earlier written about this, here, what my thoughts are on the matter. I think it an unhealthy custom, what also disrupts every day life that already is not very organized here, at the best of times.

There are enough Turks, however, who take the issue with a pinch of salt. This week, a columnist of Milliyet, one of the mayor newspapers, had a Ramadan Column. Enjoy!

A declared atheist, was walking in the woods, admiring the wonders of nature, when all of a sudden an enormous bear appeared between the trees and started chasing the man.

(dsbrennan)

The guy runs for his life, but his foot gets caught in a tree root and the man fells. The bear jumps on the guy and lifts a paw.

And the professed atheist exclaims:
'Oh, my God! '

At that moment, time comes to a still stand. The bear froze, even the creek in the wood ceased to run. And from the sky a blinding light falls on the man’s face.

Coming from very deep, a divine voice, says to the man:

'All those years, you didn’t believe in Me; the creation was for you a cosmic accident. Now you call me. Can I count you from now on one of my servants? '

The man, not wanting to loose face (or life!) says:

'After all of those years it wouldn’t be fair to you to start to believe. But maybe you can make a believer of the bear? '

'So be it' – says the voice, and disappears.
The creek starts running again, every thing goes back to normal.

The bear lifts both fore paws to the sky and says:

'My Lord, with your approval, I break my fast; be praised for your gifts, my Lord…'

(nicholevb)

Friday Findings: Rain

Still hot here, soon we will start a 'Rain dance' but for now we are looking at pretties to get a little the feeling of rain.

ticklebean

sushipot

SoZeSoZe

ShadedMemories

seasprayblue

purplepotatoes

makeshiftmodern

Kecky

A little boat trip

A few days ago I had a lovely boat trip with one of my best friends.
As summer is still going strong, a day in the water was just perfect to relax and to swim.
We haven't been on vacation this year so this little escape was just perfect, here some shots taken that day.

Leaving Marmaris behind us, the empty spot between the boats was the 'parking space' of our boat.


As a lot of people making a living with boat trips here you see many more leaving at the same time, the trips start in the morning and you are back at 5p.m.

The boat stops at several places, bays to swim, caves and a place to feed the fish.

This looks quite interesting from the outside, the boat goes a little in it, but not much to see there, except some 'I love yous' and signatures of people whom visited the cave before.


The structure of the rocks is amazing though.


The best part is of course the sea, ahhhh jumping from the boat, acting like a kid again!

Happy me, a little tired of all the swimming and lazy day.

A Sweet Award

Dina was so kind to give us this award for our blog.

Here are the rules:
1. The winner can put the logo on their blog
2. Link the person you received your award from
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of those you nominated.


So here are of the many beautiful blogs, 7 that I nominate:
Ravenhill
Xue Originals
Cindy Dean
Bonzie
Inger Maaike
fancy picnic
French Landscapes

Mum decided to cook...

... okay this title may be something very normal for the most of the world, but when we are talking about my mum, it is a totally different story.
Mum decided to cook, to my surprise, I had the mixing feeling of happiness because I didn't have to cook, shock as she usually never decides it on her own but is forced by me once in a while, and scared as she usually either burns herself or the food or some other kind of disaster happens.
I'm sharing this with you because this time she surpassed herself with an incredible creation...
here some pictures, be prepared and please do NOT try this at home in sake of your and your home's safety!


You might be wondering what this is. As I was working in our workspace I came in the kitchen and saw mum struggling with some noodles and asked her how the croquettes where doing. 'I don't know!!!' she said, I have to mention that being in the kitchen is not doing any good to her temper. So I checked the frying pan and found out that the cheese of the croquettes where no longer where it should be...

Some better views to imagine how it was...

Of course some problems followed, as how to get them out of the pan as the cheese was 'quite' melted...

After some hammer and nail work I managed to get it out the pan and put it on the plates...

Okay I have to admit with the salad (which was a bit tasteless) and the noodles (which where a little too al dente) it looked a little better...

Then came the second problem, how to eat them....

I must say croquettes have never been so much fun!

Mum was still in shock and inspected her 'art piece' with a big ''Wow, how the hell did I manage this??''


At least she admitted that is was quite horrible...

And hey, you have to admit, this IS really a One Of A Kind creation!!!


After this you might be wondering a few things.

No, we didn't finish them as they where like rocks. Luckily we have 15 dogs and they eat everything.

This meal took her 45 minutes to prepair, and 2 hours to clean the kitchen afterwards.

No, I don't think she will be cooking again in the near future...
And yes, I do still love her very much :)

Friday Findings: Clouds

Althought clouds means often rain, and many do not like rain, I'm sure these clouds are to love. And as it is still 40 degrees (104 F) here, we are really longing for some lovely grey clouds.

Roadside-Cloud Climbing

AFancifulTwist-The Siren Finds Her Voice

Tanyamoniquejewelry-Double Swallows Enamel Necklace

lenabrowndesigns-Dreams

IgFrog-Rain Clouds

luciajohnson-Light Showers

carambatack-My red umbrella

alittleluster-Silver Lining Cloud Necklace

wonderthunder-Girls Complicated Cloud TShirt

A little peek in our home

We wanted to show you today a special piece of our kitchen, other ways a standard Ikea kitchen, but to camouflage the aspirator, we used an antique mantel piece.


This wooden mantel is much older than the house, at least fifty years, but it blends wonderfully in the local architecture of the house with all the blond pine wood.




It is scroll saw, with the Islamic five point star in the center and vines and leaves at the sides.

The ceramics on top are mostly from Kütahya (the florals) and Cappadocia (the small tan bowls).

It is a lovely piece of folks art, all done with hand tools.

These type of mantel pieces are meant to be placed lower on the wall, above the hearth. We couldn't find decent pictures on the net, only two quite blurred ones, included to give you an idea.

The traditional Turkish living room includes a hearth, where the woman cooks, sitting on her heels. Usually, in that kind of houses, that still can be found in many rural places, there is no kitchen or indoor pluming.

The room is multi functional, being sitting and dinner room during the day. Meals are eaten sitting cross legged on the floor, around a very large round tray. At night, bedding is pulled from under the settees and beds are made on the floor for the family.

Day and Night

These picture where taken from our garden, if you jump high you can see the sea, but for us the quickly grown buildings are all we can see.

But when the sun sets, it all changes with pretty colors. Sometimes the sky can be really amazing, and here you can see how the night changes everything, the moon like it is burning so red.

''In the day the sky has a fireball we call the sun
When stars come out you know night has begun.''
Elizabeth Hunt