Evil Eye Beads

In Turkey we like to hang evil eye beads to our offices, homes, cars, boats etc. or wear it in the form of jewelry. In a way you could attach them to everything that you wish to protect from evil eyes. It could also be your new born baby, or pets. I just love them. I have one in my house, one in my car and a small turquoise color one framed with gold that I use as a necklace..

3rd World War

I cant sleep..... Every morning in the very early hours of dawn, the 3rd world war erupts in the airspace of my house. Opposing parties are seagulls and crows. I literally jumped out of my bed with the sounds of two screaming armies and as you know they are not the types of birds who receive the grace of good voice. My husband says that they are protecting their young ones. I am impatiently waiting them to grow to have some silence. O, how lucky you, starts the day with the sounds of singing nightingales....

Pumpkins

Every summer I like to collect weird shaped pumpkins for decoration. I took this photograph last summer. They were the collection of a proud farmer. Aren't they lovely???

Lycian Way Dreams

We are moving to our beach house in 10 days to spend the summer. Our number one item on our to do list for the summer, is to be on this exact location and to look at this beautiful scenery.

This photo taken on the Lycian Way, near Fethiye - Oludeniz, from a fantastic spot on the 509 km long trekking route on the southern coast of Turkey. The walk passes many remote historical sites but as you can imagine we are only planning to cover a very short distance of it.

Phote: from my friend Ozan Alperden

IF

If you can start the day without caffein or pep pills,

If you can be cheerful ignoring aches and pains,

If you can resist your complaining and boring people with your troubles,

If you can understand that loved ones are too busy to give you time,

If you can overlook when people take things out on to you when thru no fault of yours, something goes wrong,

If you can take criticism and blame without resentment,

If you can face the world without lies and deceit,

If you can conquer tension without medical help,

If you can relax without liquor,

If you can sleep without the aid of drugs,

Then you are probably a DOG...

I heard this piece on a zen talk given by Tara Brach and love it.....

Tea for two

If you have nothing to do on a hot day in İstanbul, the best thing to do is to go to a small cafe at the Bosphorus ( İstanbul strait), wait patiently for an empty table right by the sea, drink lots of tea, watch the passing boats and dream lazily and that's exactly what we did yesterday.

Less is more ????

I like the idea of less is more and trying to adopt it to many areas of my life, but when it comes to books, paintings and beautiful pieces I want more and more...

The latest addition to my paintings was a gift from a dear friend in İran...Sara and I first met thru our blogs then I have the chance to meet with her on my trip to İran this past April. So Sara's Khatoon found its place among other paintings I collected from my trips to Cuba, Mexico,Bolivia, Mexico, Cambodia, Holland and Bolivia. This is the entrance of my house where I like to display colorful paintings for a colorful welcome..

You could visit Sara's blog at www.day2daypictures.blogspot.com