Farmer's market

Monday is the day to go to farmer's market for weekly fresh fruits and vegetables. It is located very close to my house and it is always a delight to walk, look and shop around the stalls. Today I took my camera with me.

Favorites of the season are artichoke and fig. Here people say that if you eat 40 artichokes in the season, you will have a very health liver. I am almost on the half way.. I like to serve it with fresh dill, garlic and walnut.

Unripe little figs to make jam are a special delicacy of this season and it is usually the Turkish Roma women who peel and sell them.And if your packages are heavy you can always hire a young and nice porter to bring your goods to your house.

Lazy Weekend

Although the weather in İstanbul is excellent I spent the whole weekend at my home. The reason: my still swollen face from the teeth operation. I did not want to shock the world with my beauty :))

My balcony was the main attraction area of lots of reading, writing, eating and drinking...Sometimes I need times like this. It refreshes me.

Life is...

Life is what happens to you when you are busy making plans...
John Lennon




HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND...........

Teeth

Yesterday I finally had my long time dreaded teeth operation. After 2 hours it was finished and I had a great relief. I had some pain during night,and this morning I started the day with a swollen face. Right side of my face doesnt look like me. It's strange.

Photograp is the George Washington's teeth from the great collection of The Library of Congress in Flickr. They are great old photographs to look. If you havent already checked, I strongly advise it.

Turkish Grand Prix - F1

Fastest cars and their fastest drivers are in İstanbul for this weekend. Unfortunately I will be watching the race from TV as the ticket prices are quite high. However my lovely husband, who is working at the Automobile Federation, was in charge of taking some of the pilots from the airport and he took me some pictures.

It looked like Jarno Trulli the driver of Toyoto arrived in a happy mood.

While Ferrari's pilot Felipe Massa was in a hurry. Both these guys were also played in a footbal match last night to raise money for UNESCO. Very nice of them. So let the best one wins on Sunday.

Big in Japan :))

My old time friend Mutlu recently returned from Japan with lovely pictures. I just love this one. It is the entrance of a restaurant. Very cute and inspiring...

Faces from İran

Taking photographs is a rather recent hobby for me and since I started doing it I love taking the pictures of people. If they are aware that you are taking their picture and have no objection, there comes and instant connection thru the camera and most of the time a shy smile.










I saw many faces thru my lenses during my recent trip to İran. İranian people are very friendly and keen to invite you to a cup of tea and conversation if you can find a common language to speak. Some speaks English and the ones from Tebriz area mostly speak an understandable dialect of Turkish. And in big cities it was common to find people to chat with a very basic Turkish which they learned thru illegal satellite TVs. They sincerely dont understand why the people, especially in the West like to portray them as evil. I dont know about the politicians but the avarage İranian is very friendly and hospitable.. I had no negative experience.





Most of the people I met were willing to pose but with a request. They kindly asked me not to put their picture to internet, and I bow to their wishes although they are among some of the great images. As always, like everywhere in the world, children are the willing and smiley faces in front of the camera.














You could see more of my pictures from İran on http://www.mavilimon.blogspot.com/