I returned to Turkey in late October after spending six weeks in Canada for our first grandchild's birth. It is always hard to say good bye to family and this time having to say so long to my new grandson added to the burden, but it is always good to come "home" too. All I can say is thank goodness for Skype!
Since Trevor had already been at anchor for 5 days with no store nearby, he had emailed me while I was still in Canada to pick up produce and bread during my 20 minute taxi ride to the boat.
The Turkish people are so friendly and helpful! The taxi driver held open the plastic bags as I selected my produce, carried it all to the counter and then out to the taxi. Since my Turkish is so limited and the Turkish woman's English is non-existent, the total is rounded off to 10 Turkish Lira (about $5). I can understand "ten" in Turkish and she can easily communicate a rounded-off number with her fingers! An easy solution to our language barrier. After saying "thank you" (tesekkurler in Turkish) and "see you later" (gurusuruz ), I'm off for my dinghy ride to arrive home aboard Onward. Ahhhh.
Note: Gurusuruz was one of first phrases we taught ourselves. After hearing in several times as we left shops, Trevor thought it sounded like "Girlie shoeless" so it was one phrase we remembered, even if we weren't pronouncing it quite properly.
For the next 2 1/2 weeks, we stayed at anchor. I started a daily exercise routine while lying on the bow and Trevor dove on the hull to keep her clean. But most of the time, we just enjoyed the view, swam, ate and enjoyed our Greek wine. Anchorages are quite peaceful now that summer is over and the number of boats has decreased dramatically.
One view from the cockpit is a steep rock face with pine trees growing and in the foreground a beachfront with olive trees growing. In another direction is a long distance view of the mountains in the area that will soon have the tops covered in snow.
We decided to move closer to the small village of Gocek so we could go into town regularly to shop. The town was getting noticeably quieter each time we visited with the tourist season coming to an end. One day I saw zucchini blooms on a tree!
It was so pretty we returned the next day with our camera to take this photo. If you look closely, you can see the zuchinni starting to form at the base of the bloom.
I recalled seeing blooms for sale for the first time in a small market in Italy a few years ago. I was so curious how they were used, but in typical fashion, the language barrier didn't allow me to ask the shop keeper about them. Then this past year my friend Linda posted photos on Facebook of her cooking these same blooms using her Calabrese mother-in-law's recipe. Mystery solved!
And now I read on the internet a little about the male bloom versus the female blooms. I believe these are males...who would have guessed? I find with the internet now, you can learn just about anything about everything!