Though tinged with sadness as Summer ends, my thoughts this Monday morning turn to all the interesting things we get to do now the weather has changed. Our winter weather is like September in the UK. So coming up this week we can look forward to more daily painting, hill walking the dogs, catch-up with movies, pick and preserve the autumn harvest, start the DIY on the boat and house, join exercise groups, take Turkish lessons and more. I won’t go on but this lifestyle depends on staying fit and well and so we keep our fingers crossed, appreciate how lucky we are and never take anything for granted.
Tag Archives: Autumn
Goodbye Dalaman charter flights for the winter
The end of October brings the last influx of tourists and sees the expat community taking advantage of of the remaining 4 hour flights to the UK. There are a few specials over Xmas and the New Year but generally, until next Spring, one can only travel here via Istanbul and that always means a long wait in an expensive terminal, interminable in fact.
Gina is buzzing off on Friday to visit family and hit the shops and, in between completing the lengthy Job List, I hope to make the most of the cooler weather and do some landscape painting. Meanwhile, I dusted off the watercolours and painted a couple of our most common flowers.
Goodbye Shades of Grey! It’s Rain at Last!
We had 5cms of rain last night! A spectacular storm with continuous thunder, lightning and strong winds causing the first major power cuts of the season. The all enveloping dust has been covering the landscape for 5 months but overnight the colours have magically reappeared . Now bricks are red, leaves are green, soil is brown, roof tiles are orange, the mountains are purple and the sky is clear and blue. And it’s goodbye to shades of grey, black and white are back !
Nar
This region is blessed with a Mediterranean climate and abundant water and could be described as a huge market garden. Everywhere you look the trees are laden with fruit, the greenhouses are full to bursting and the market stalls are creaking under the strain. I must confess I can live without figs and melons but I do get especially excited by the prospect of pomegranate juice and the arrival of fresh walnuts. Talking of melons, last year I was given a pomegranite the size of a honeydew melon!
A change in the weather
The weather changed two weeks ago. Practically overnight we waved goodbye to the scorching heat of summer and said Merhaba! to the wonderful Turkish autumn. Now we can switch off the aircon, move into the sunshine and out of the shower and sleep comfortably at night. For me, it means the brush has stopped sticking to the canvas and I can actually do things again. I have reviewed my post of the 18th and reconsidered the Daily Painting ethic. I reckon it wouldn’t do me any harm to actually submit to the discipline of finishing a small painting every day. I don’t expect they will be landscapes but we will see.
Country Roads
Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia, Mountain Mama
Take me home, country roads.
Lyrics by John Denver
The Colour Purple
A chat with Gina about the 2013 Spring/Summer fashion colours got me thinking about just how many neon colours there are in nature. Acid greens and yellows in Spring, vivid pink and orange sunsets, ocean blues and the violets and purples of distant hills. I suppose that’s why I am so dazzled by the Colourists and Impressionists who gave full expression to what lay right in front of them and how brave they were!
All that talk of food in my last post kept me in the mood for another French autumn picture. I can smell the lavender and hay and feel that luscious late heat coming off the well baked hills.