Full Moon

Yesterday there was a beautiful full moon. When it first appered on the sea it was in a gorgeous red colour. Then slowly as it rises up, the red turned into a bright yellow.. It's reflections on the sea were breath taking and inviting you to dream and ponder.

While laying on a deck chair and having some 'me time', I remembered a zen story about the moon and ponder about how little actually we need to be happy....

One night a thief visited the little hut of a zen master only to discover that there is nothing to steal. Then zen master caught him and offered him his clothes as a gift not to send him empty handed. Afterwards as he sat naked, looking up, seeing the moon, 'poor fellow' he said ' I wish I could have given him this beautiful moon'

Hope you are not neglecting to enjoy full moons...

First photo: Last night

Second photo: Another full moon in Datca...

Turkish Coffee

As I am a dog person, I can definitely say that I am also a tea person. I especially love green tea. During winter times I think, I can drink it in unlimited amounts. However after a heavy dinner, my one and only favorite is a good cup of Turkish Coffee without sugar...Tips for a good Turkish Coffee: (1) Freshly grinded coffee beans, (2) no tap water, (3) cook it very slowly.. And after you finish drinking if you have a friend who can read your fortune by looking at the shapes in your cup, it means that you are having a perfect Turkish Coffee experience...

Photo: from an application in facebook

Cherries..

'' Live in each season as it possess; breath the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit and resign yourself to the influences of each''

Henry David Thoreau

Have a great week and enjoy your fruits...

At the beach

Yesterday our dear friends Selal and Juha from Finland came to visit us. We took them to Palamutbuk which is one of the most beautiful bays in the Datca peninsula. Things to talk was endless as well as the food and drink. French fries, pastry, calamari and cold beer. Our usual lunch at the beach...but when you share them with friends they even taste better.

Transformation

One of the favorite dishes of the Aegean region is stuffed zucchini flowers. It's a lovely transformation of a vegetable. First you are buying the flowers from the farmers market You can only find this delicate flowers early in the morning.Then before cooking you can chose to put them in a vase and adore couple hours
When you start to get hungry, prepare minced meat with onions and herbs and stuff them..Mımm... they are delicious...Bon appetit

Mirror..

One of my favorite pieces in the beach house is this mirror, that I made right after my visit to Guatemala. One day I saw mirrors like this there but thank God I was on a sane day, so I did not attemp to carry it all the way from Guatemala to Turkey. Instead I bought these tiny hand made dolls from a local woman and I think the price was USD 1 for 5 of them. Then I ordered round mirror and glued the these Guatemalan ladies. And since then we keep looking at each other every morning...

Cleopatra island

Yesterday Turquoise Diaries was on her first daily tour of the season on the Turquoise Coast of Turkey. As it is customary here, we have joined a daily tour boat and went to Sedir island or also known as Cleopatra İsland. The first picture is from here.

What is famous with this island is its very small and unique beach. Story goes that Cleopatra had brought this sand from Red Sea for her sun baths but in reality it is a very rare and organic sand made from sea shells where each grain of sand is a perfect sphere. Nowadays its forbidden to enter the beach as well as to remove any sand from the island.

Island is also an open museum. Dorians are its first inhabitants. Later the island saw permanent settlements in the Greek, Persian, Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine areas. After a cooling swim just like Cleopatra, I spent happy hours walking around the ruins.

And here is a picture of me at the boat taken with the camera of my 7 year old niece. She thinks she is a great photographer but as you can see she definitely needs some training :)) Well, her excuse was very simple and concrete ' but the boat was shaking...'