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

Market day again

We've been here three weeks and failed to make it to the Wednesday farmer's market near our house. So today we covered ourselves in sun block, donned our hats and set off in the heat. It is a lovely experience with the smells, the colours and the banter from the farmers.

Hil and Matt

The honey man

Some of our shopping

Today's super yacht

The super yacht parked up in front of our house today is called Vertigo.
http://www.boatinternational.com/yacht-features/vertigo-sailing-superyacht-of-the-year/
Quite an impressive vessel. A stately pleasure dome they say!
Only 295,000 euros a week. We are wondering who might be on it this week!

A weird old morning

Planted with copious amounts of goat poo!

This morning there was a strange sea mist hanging around the Greek Island of Symi. Eventually we couldn't see the island at all and as the morning progressed this mist rolled towards us until we had no view at all. The temperature dropped to 27C and our house was enveloped in it. It was a very odd happening and we have never seen anything like it here before.
It goes without saying that there was no wind so in order to prevent him becoming bored I set Matt to in the garden and he worked tirelessly to dig holes in the rock hard ground to plant our new white hibiscus and a shrub with pretty little purple flowers.The lady in the shop said it was called cikapu but I cant find it anywhere.
I supervised from the terrace and Hil worked hard in the kitchen preparing a delicious lunch.

For a while we couldn't see Symi at all. Here is it starting to clear.

Waiting to be planted

working hard!

Hil rustled up a light lunch.

When the boat comes in

Hil arrived today. She took one of the alternative routes - flying in to Bodrum, staying overnight and then catching the 13.00 feribot to Kormen. She chugged in just before 15.00 where we were waiting for her. Kormen is a bit of a mess now as they are busy building a new marina. There is concrete everywhere you look and the little beaches have been obliterated.
Anyway there she was waving madly as the boat came in. Her suitcase is full of goodies such as Southern Comfort, Jelly Babies and chocolate.

Squillions of goats

Now this post is really for my bonkers but lovely friends Melanie and Rob. There is nothing they like better than the sight of some cute goats. Sadly we didn't show them any on their visit and although they put on brave faces I think they were very disappointed. So today on our way to Kargi Koyu there were loads. They won't be around for many more months as I am pretty sure these are being fattened up for the religious festival Kurban Bayrami starting on 4th October for 3 days. This is the Feast of the Sacrifice so I'm sure you can imagine what will happen to most of these cute goats! Here is an explanation of why it happens
http://www.wittistanbul.com/magazine/kurban-bayrami-or-the-feast-of-the-sacrifice-in-a-nutshell/
Loads of them are rounded up and put at the top of our road where families can buy them and have them slaughtered. Not something I wish to witness but it is something that has happened here for a very long time.The goats actually have a happy enough life roaming around until then and I am told that most of them are dispatched swiftly. Not everyone actually buys a goat, some of my friends who don't want to do this give money to be distributed to the poor.

So anyway here is the large herd of goats that we saw today, especially for Melanie and Rob.

After that we headed for the beach and crashed for the rest of the day. It was a low wind day so Matt was happy to snorkel round the bay.

An extended trip

Surf Camp - Matt's favourite place here!

Last year as we sat by the harbour watching the world go by, Matt uttered "What would be the optimum amount of time to spend here?" I almost choked on my iced soda water as until then he would only come for two weeks at a time. Last year he agreed to a three week week stay which was very nice. The most I have stayed has been four weeks and that is usually enough. However we discussed it and came to the conclusion that if we were both here, six or eight weeks might be nice. So as soon as I could (before he changed his mind and as soon as they were released) I booked the cheapo Easyjet flights. Matt asked for some unpaid leave as he didn't want to use all of his annual leave in one go and the request was granted. We decided on 43 days as our annual travel insurance only covers us for 45 days at a time and we will be returning for a couple of weeks in September.
So, here we are for our extended trip. It is a really great feeling to know we have so much time here. There is no rush to do anything.

We picked up a very nice, brand new rented white Corsa at Dalaman and arrived here a week ago. In preparation for this stay we brought out a bike and a third windsurfer at Easter and for much of the last week Matt has been zooming around on the water. The wind dropped for a couple of days while we had our bonkers but lovely visitors Rob and Melanie, so that was great as then Matt was happy enough to accompany us out and about.
Then we took them for a night in Marmaris, staying at the Orsmaris Boutique Hotel. I just picked it from the hotels.com site and it was fab. On the outskirts of the town, right on the beach with good rooms, pools and gardens. We tootled over the mountain to Turunc (OMG that is another tale) to see my friend Joan and dined in her favourite restaurant. Then today we put Melanie and Rob on the bus to Kalkan and it was sad to wave them farewell. They were the perfect guests, easy going, happy to muck in, turning up loaded with goodies such as gin, Brittany butter, Jelly Babies and pork pies. So the following photos are snippets from our first week here. We now have about a week alone before Hil arrives for more adventures.

The inevitable trip to the Saturday market.

Cafe Inn

Bonkers but lovely friends

Melanie in Marmaris

Our mini break to Marmaris

Home

I never tire of our lovely views

From the bedroom