spit-roast lamb vs stuffed peppers

We are nearly at the end of August and though the heat shows no signs of letting up during the day, the mornings when I walk the dog are cooler and the shadows longer.  The month of fasting – Ramazan – finished last week with a three-day holiday so there have been quite a few Turkish people on holiday again. 

One of our guests who has been staying since she was a student (about 6 years ago?) had driven her family from Ankara to Kuşadası – 650 km but approximately 10 hours of driving.  When she arrived she didn’t like the hotel or the place and piled them all (including ageing mum and dad) back in the car and drove to Poppy – which would have been another 300 km and 5 hours or so of driving except that she took a wrong turn and added about 2 hours onto the journey!  Needless-to-say they were all a bit frazzled when they arrived, but it’s nice to know people will go to such lengths to stay with us!

Kaan messing around with new friend Conor

 I have just realized that of 17 rooms currently occupied, 13 of them are returning guests, some on their second holiday this year!  It was very good last week to welcome Steven and his family to Poppy for the first time.  They should have stayed last year but the demise of holidays4u meant they lost their flights just a short time before they were due to come.  Hopefully it will be their first but not last stay with us.

We have also had family down from Ankara.  I do like to see them but it means I often come to the hotel at 8am and don’t manage to get home until 10 or 11 at night.   At bayram (the holiday) Cem’s cousin had bought a whole lamb (for eating – not as a pet).  Cem decided they would spit roast it – in the garden.  This involved digging a big hole for the fire – and burning my cannas during the cooking.  Anyway it fed the masses and they seemed to enjoy it.  As a veggie I stayed well away – stripping the bones for the dog was hard enough and I hope she appreciates how much I must love her to do it!

the lamb being served

Happily for me, there is lots of lovely fresh fruit and veg around at the moment and  I keep being given produce from people’s gardens.  I came back from a friend’s the other day with a water melon, a yellow melon, several kilos of assorted peppers and aubergine and several jars of interesting things they have made out of their produce (pickles and chutneys).  Here are the stuffed peppers I made yesterday….much prettier than the picture above!

stuffed peppers

It reminded me of the first time I visited Turkey.  My friend Kate and I hired a very small scooter and went off exploring on it – and got lost.  When we stopped to ask the way to a man working in his fields, he took us to his house so his daughter who spoke some English could talk to us.  We were then taken into the house for tea and cake and when we left we were presented with not one but THREE water melons which I put in my little back pack.  Sadly, we had to dump two of them just up the road as I was in danger of falling off the back of the scooter with the extra weight pulling me down.  But we enjoyed the one that was left and as my first experience of Turkish hospitality it has stuck in my memory ever since!  

Holidaying at home

I feel as though I have been on holiday again – in Çalış, Fethiye.  My lovely friend has been out here with her two beautiful daughters.  We have known each other since we were 18 (just a short time ago!) and though we only see each other these days for a few days a year – sometimes not even that – we have managed to stay close.

playing with my new camera! - panoramic shot of POPPY

 Last time they came out here was about 10 years ago and the girls were still quite young. Now they are 18 and nearly 17 so it has been nice to show them around properly and for them, like discovering a whole new place. 

We went diving last week.  They hadn’t really been planning it but when I suggested it they were keen and they turned out to be naturals!  The girls both did their skills so they can add to that and do their PADI open water diver course if they want to.  It was a lovely lazy day with about 10 beginners on the boat and a couple of people doing courses – so different from last year when the ‘experienced’ divers on the boat drove me demented with their non-stop-and-very-loud stories about ‘When I was diving in Sharm….blah blah blah!’

Morning talk on European Diving Centre boat as we head out to dive sites

 We also spent a day at the Surf Café in Çalış.  For those who want a sandy beach this is better than the main bit of the beach as there is sand – and sunbeds, umbrellas and a man to bring drinks and food!  It is also nice to watch people kite-surfing, sailing and generally being active.   The most active we got was late in the afternoon when we moved to the bar area and lay on large cushions with some cocktails!

On Sunday we had a Turkish bath and massage, then a lovely meal at MOD in the marina in Fethiye but the major event on Sunday was the boat actually went back in the water – hooray!!  Even better, it floated and took in very little water;  there can be a problem with wooden boats when they have been out of the water for while – the wood shrinks and cracks open.  Anyway, the new improved SUNTRAP has now been refitted with its overhauled engine and is ready to take us out for a little trip this afternoon.

SUNTRAP just before it slid went into the water

 And on Monday we went to Ölüdeniz.  Whilst I agree that Ölü is a stunningly beautiful place, I am a little deterred by the crowds and the crush of sunbeds and umbrellas.  Still, when we got out on the lagoon in a pedallo (girls) and canoe (Kaan) the water was gorgeous and the ‘rock’ that I tried to steer to avoid turned out to be a turtle who swam round us for a while.

sunset at the beach last night

 Last night we had a meal at Şat – the restaurant situated on the point looking across to Fethiye.  Since it opened about 5 years ago is has been through several owners and various incarnations.  Finally, it seems that somebody has got it sorted and everything was very good from the menu to the service, the music to the food.  On evenings like that, watching the sun set over a silvery sea and the lights come on across the bay I remember why I fell in love with this place.  It’s so easy to forget how lovely it is but I don’t often get time to ‘holiday’ here any more!

Poyraz returns

Murat clearing leaves from the pool - look at the palm tree being blown about

The poyraz wind which comes at this time every year blowing hot air off the land (unlike our normal breeze which brings cooler air off the sea) started yesterday morning.  It is roasting – over 50 in the sun today – some of the lads were keen to try cooking an egg on the marble round the pool!  I feel especially sorry for anybody who is trying to fast for Ramazan; I am not usually very good at drinking water – I mean I can’t drink it very cold or very fast and I have to really push myself to make sure I drink the minimum requirements but in current conditions even I am drinking continuously.  Those fasting are not allowed to eat or drink (or smoke cigarettes – this being the hardest for many turks) from sunrise to sunset – approximately 16 hours at the moment.

visiting family members

It was Emre’s birthday last week – seventeen.  Scary to think that in the UK he could now be in charge of a car!  Luckily here the minimum age is 18.  We didn’t make a lot of his birthday.  I made a cake and iced it (at 7 o’clock one morning) but we didn’t even find time to cut it until the next day!  He wants to do his PADI advanced diving course so we are going to arrange this for his present.

He also decided last week not to make applications to uni this year but to have another go at the exam next year.  Hopefully he will find something he wants to do and be a bit more motivated to get the points necessary for it.  He won’t have the ‘distraction’ of school – funny as it sounds the university entrance exams happen here rather separate to school things.  He will be going again to a crammer college where they focus just on these exams.  At the moment he is busy trying to learn to juggle with five balls – he is good at 3 and 4 but finding 5 harder.  In London he wanted me to buy him a unicycle.  Perhaps we should just send him off to the circus?!

They had a few good nights in the bar last week.  This week is a little quieter but we also seem to have a lot of ‘youngsters’ around – some on their own some with families but after initially eyeing each other up they are now all getting along!  Yesterday evening they were delighted to learn that Burger King out here delivers…Emre had to order in for about ten of them (all the lovely Turkish food and I am enabling people to eat fast food rubbish – it hurts me!!)

OK - I know what the ones on the floor are doing but what are the other two twits up to?

 I have done very little work today – I admit it.  I expressed an interest in researching my family history a little to one of my guests last week and she very kindly showed me the site she has used and got me started.  And it’s addictive – I went on this morning and I haven’t quite managed to close it yet.  I know more about my father’s family – grandparents and great grandparents already than I ever did before (it should be stressed that I started from a VERY low level).  Being able to see the census information and the actual marriage register from the church brings it all alive – though it does make some things hard to read.  But I’m going to have to make myself leave it until winter time or I will be neglecting my duties….