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

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.