Our Pretty Garden

I love our garden in Datca. I can't take much credit for it as the gardener looks after it all year. Matt and I potter about a bit while we are there and quite enjoy a spot of pruning and sometimes planting something new. We have a little plot of our own and then there are communal areas.
So here are a few pictures of some of the pretty flowers.

Beyaz, not a flower but she decorates our garden when we are there. I think others feed her but she likes to hang around with us.

Early evening sun in Eski Datca

Today was a no wind day so no windsurfing. I had my weekly refloxology treatment this morning and a swim. We watched the boats coming and going for a while and then as it was slightly cooler today we decided to go for a stroll. First we stopped off at the newly built windmill which has opened as a winery and purchased a bottle of their finest red wine, we have heard some good reports. Then stopped off at Eski Datca for the stroll. Eski Datca is a very pretty village just a few Km's inland from our house. Most of the houses are stone and until the exchange in 1923 were mostly inhabited by Greeks. After they left it fell into disrepair until more recently the houses have been gradually bought and restored. In high season lots of little cafes open and very interesting shops. We wandered around a bit and found some more little streets that I don't think we have been along before. Then we had a drink in Nil Cafe and sampled some very delicious seftali pasta (peach cake).
Here are a selection of photos taken today.

The recently built windmill winery.

The winery garden

Ladies selling their craft work in Eski Datca.

Eski Datca main street.

So many interesting door ways.

Miaow

Yummy! Seftali pasta at the Cafe Nil.

The mosque

Another Saturday Market Day

It's Saturday again and that's the day of the big market in town. Traders come from far and wide to sell their wares and it's a social opportunity when you bump into friends. Sometimes in this very hot weather I just can't be bothered to go but today we set our alarm clocks and rose early (well early'ish), lathered ourselves in sunblock and Matt dropped us off before he went sailing again. This trip has proved quite good for wind.
After the market we headed to the Cafe Inn for coffee and very naughty cakes, then we went round the corner for soft drinks in the Sunrise Bar and as we were wandering along the harbour looking at the boats, Meral called us in for yet more drinks in the Beyaz Amca. It was very hot so all these drinks were very welcome but there was a breeze and I didn't expire.
Here are a selection of photos from our morning.

Hil bought some shoes to wear in the sea.

Plenty of shoes in the market.

My first purchases at the market were a couple of hamam towels.

You can even buy your undies here!

... and your dressing gowns.

Lovely smells and colours.

Matt once bought a leather wallet from this trader. We enjoyed the buying process as he was so funny but the wallet fell apart very quickly.

We love the pestemals. 10 lira is about 2.88 sterling and there is usually wiggle room if you buy a few! I bought the better quality 20 lira ones but got some discount for buying two.

The Datca peninsula is famous for honey, almonds and olive oil and the main street is full of shops selling them.

The view from our coffee stop.

11.00 am, coffee and cake time at the Cafe Inn.

The town beach was awarded the 2014 blue flag.

Our favourite bar - Sunrise.

Kittens at the Sunrise Bar.

You can see our house on the hill above the trees with the

pinky coloured roof.

A copy of the statue of Demeter found at Knidos and a modern sculpture of Badem the seal who visited Datca a few times.

I love the fabrics, this was just hanging by the road.

So beautiful

Our weather station ;)

Matt's overwhelming passion is very much dependent on the weather being just right. He tends to use Windguru quite a bit but hates Accuweather saying it is far from accurate apart from July and August when it is sunny and around 35C every day! So we have a weather station in our garden. It consists of three important parts.

The Weather Stone. No doubt many of you will already know about this. A simple piece of equipment. If it is warm and dry the weather is sunny. Cold and dry, the weather is cloudy. If it is wet, it's raining and if we can't see it, it's foggy.
We need further equipment for the wind. This is the Windmill. If the sails stop and start it is gusty and not much good for windsurfing. If they move slowly the wind probably isn't good enough and if they whizz round it's time to head off to the Surf camp. There is an additional piece of equipment called the Bell. We used this before we bought the windmill and it is fairly basic. If it rings it is windy and if it doesn't it's not  ;)

Oh and I almost forgot - another integral piece of equipment is the thermometer. As we usually only ever visit between April and October it mostly tells us it is quite hot, hot, very hot or flipping sweltering. It is situated in the shade away from the walls of the house so is pretty much accurate. Today it is 31C so that puts it in the hot range. 35C is very hot and 40C flipping sweltering. :)

Matt fettling with his board