Blue Witch

Mugla Market Views

This was an inland market of a size I have never seen anywhere. Mostly fruit and vegetables, but with some textiles, footwear, and some grains (complete with floor-standing mills to grind them to the desired coarseness), cheese and fish.

We saw three other non-Turkish people in the 3 or 4 hours that we were wandering about there.

If I could only photograph one subject for the rest of all time it would be local markets.

I always try to be very unobtrusive when taking photos, but, in other countries, if 'caught', I've often been pestered for coins, or to buy something, but here, when seen, my smile of thanks was always rewarded with a smile back; the people seemed genuinely happy to be recorded for posterity by The Incomer. But, I guess that's tourism off the beaten track for you. Give it twenty ten years...

There were a few signs of Western influence too:

Just what the doctor ordered

Tis is a haven for the best kind of toads for spells...

But I think one of them must have gone a bit wrong.

Guess who was responsible for this little mishap?

And have you any idea how long a lizard's tail wriggles for, after said Talking Villa Feline has detached it from said lizard's body?


Today were were driving back from a fantastic home-made from home-grown ingredients traditional lunch with a local couple (who have been involved in building and maintaining these villas from the start) who speak no English, when we saw a tortoise crossing the track to our villa.

Can you guess what happened next?

No, it's OK, we didn't run it over.

I got out and picked it up and put it in the side of the road. It was at least a foot long and weighed about a stone.

Yesterday we went out with another friend of the villa owner's, on his boat. Captain Pugwash and his 20 year old 'helper'. One sufferring rather badly from OCD in the cleaning department (but the boat was immaculate) and his cute son, allegedly studying 'international relations' at university, although you'd never have guessed from his monosyllablicity. We spent nearly 4 hours snorkelling, from four different deserted places.

Very clear, and delightfully warm, water, and zillions of tiny fish, but not many larger ones. I guess people are hungry round here.

Mr BW has decided he likes Turkey as, "The men do what they want, and the women do the rest." Which is rather opposite to how things are at The Coven ;)

I like Turkey because their kitchen roll has perforations every half-sheet, something that should be adopted in England, pronto.

We've been watching storms echo around the mountains for most of the afternoon. 20 drops here, but we did drive through some torrentially scary rain on the main dual carriageway in the bottom of the valley. You could smell the rain approaching before it hit, and the temperature fell from 35 to 21 degrees in 10 minutes. I've walked and climbed in a lot of mountains in my time, but I've never experienced quite that rate of drop before.

Back to sunny and hot tomorrow, for the rest of the week.

Having a few power cuts and intermittent internet signal, hence lack of regular posting. And, looking around at how hard the locals (of all ages - from birth to 90 it seems) work scraping (literally) a living from agriculture...

(this picture of a family selling their produce in a locals' market: I suspect they harvested all they could, took it to market, and will themselves live off the leftovers),

(this picture of a man selling his own olive oil from old plastic coke and water bottles)

...or building roads with a very minimum of machinery (high vis jackets? Protective headgear? Ear defenders? Protective Cones for miles and miles? Oh don't be silly, just work inches from the traffic passing dustily at 100mph... actually, I think the road-building workers that I saw when I was in Cambodia at the beginning of 2007 were better protected), we know what the villa owner means when he says that the UK 'spoils' itinerant workers, which makes a huge problem for this country when they return here. Perhaps the £2 a hour that a fish and chip shop in Small Local Town pays to a regular supply of Turkish workers is not so bad after all...

It got to 40C in the shade by lunchtime...

...and then I forgot to look at the thermometer again, but it did get hotter. Dry heat of the non-tiring kind. This part of Turkey is amazing - just like Greece and the Greek Islands were 30 or so years ago when I first knew them, before cheap mass tourism (aka pissed - dare I say common? - Brits) spoilt them.

We decided to go on a Swimming Pool Safari this afternoon. It was the only thing we did all day (well, other than swimming and snoozing in the shade, and Mr BW read the whole of a book he found on the library shelf - although why I don't know as he did bring 4 paperbacks from home with him - minus the 20 pages missing from the middle). As we're the only ones here, we could try out the other three villas' pools.

4 villas of traditional style have been constructed over many years, within 7,500 square metres of rugged hillside land, by a couple who bought the original parcel of land 20 years ago, and still live here. Turkish law only allows 5% of any plot of rural land to be built upon (in any way, including out-buildings), and none of the villas is visible from the other, and each has a separate entrance, along different accesses on various levels. Each has its own traditional and unique features, and lots of objets the owners have collected, in much the way I collect objets at home. All four are amazing, and each had one feature I preferred. But, this pool, looking directly down into the Bay some ten miles away, was my favourite:

Luckily, overall I preferred the one I chose, having spent several hours poring over the excellent website, before booking.

Here's an aquatic family we saw yesterday during lunch by the river that feeds into the Bay.

The network (the routers are tied up in trees, covered by terracotta tiles, we discovered earlier) seems to be messing about, and I can't get my server to upload any more of the wildlife pictures, so they will have to wait. But, we have all the Witchy Necessities: toads, bats, wild boar, lizards, a baby dinosaur, red squirrels, butterflies, moths, but we've not yet seen the tortoises or snakes.

Oh bugger, I've just sat on the cat in the dark, while moving about trying to find a better wifi signal... She's not too flat...

"Welcome," said the Turkish Villa Cat...

..."I am pleased to meet you, and I already know all about you.

I know you identified the only potential Child Troublemakers (18 months and 3) while waiting at the gate at Heathrow (they were the ones pulling the crowd control elastics in and out and letting them ping back, while their father laughed and encouraged them. I know you were then horrifed when you found yourself in the same row as them on the plane. I know you shouted at them for screaming their heads offf while their mother nonchalantly read her book and their father played on his iPhone (for the entire hour you sat on the plane until take-off) then on his iPad (emitting lots of noises), as if the kids were nothing to do with them. I know you offered the parents your business card and told them to invest in some parenting classes now, or they'd be in for a lot more trouble later, and asked them why they had had brats if they weren't prepared to take responsiblity for looking after them, as the nice stewardess kindly moved you to seats in a more appropriate area to your Witchy Needs.

I know you like BW Blue things, so I've had the minarets on all the local mosques specially coloured:

I've arranged for the migratory b33k33pers to be a quarter of a mile down the road, in the pine forest, and they have quite a few BW Blue h1ves:

I've had blue flowers planted for you:

And I've made sure that the pool is very blue:

And that the sea and sky are even bluer:

Oh, and I've had the owners put some beers, and lots of other lovely goodies, in the fridge too:

There's super-speed free wifi at your disposal, even though you are in the middle of nowhere half-way up a mountain, and no-one else staying anywhere nearby. Now, if you don't mind, that lot has taken quite a bit of arranging, so 'll just have a little snooze on the verandah looking down the mountain to the bay, and hope you'll do likewise:

The cushions are mine, but you can have the BW Blue chair, or the hammock, if you'd prefer.

Later I'll introduce you to some of the local wildlife."

"Gosh" I thought, "a talking cat. How many beers have I had? Or is it the glorious dry heat of the sun? It's certainly an extremely magical and tranquil spot here."

While the mice are away...

... the cats will play.

You'll note we've left them some beer, and the pressure washer to play with.

Left to right, from back: PVC the Mummy Cat, 2010 Kitten Cat, 2009 Kitten Cat, 2008 Kitten Cat.

Check what weather we're having here (although we are in the middle of nowhere further up in the mountains than this).

There may be updates... or not, depending on how the wifi works, and whether or not they actually let me on the plane - so far I've been pat-down searched and made to go in the new body scanner.... first time ever for either.... That new hair cut was obviously terrorist stylee...

The Friday Question

Earlier in the week the media was full of the 'library visits drop' story. Apparently 16.4% of adults attended their local library at least once a month in 2005, whereas, last year, the figure had dropped to 12.8%.

Happily children are still using libraries at the same rate. One of the first questions I ask the parent of a child referred to me with 1iteracy difficulties is, "Do you use the local library at all?" closely followed by, "Are you aware of how much your local library has to offer children, and how excellent the children's librarians are at motivating re1uctant readers, firstly by finding books that will interest them, at their level, and then by running all sorts of holiday reading trails, with stickers and certificates, and story times, sometimes with children's authors reading their own stories, as well as daily story times for pre-schoolers?"

I'm fortunate in living in what is widely acknowledged to be one of the most go-ahead counties in this country for library services. This is because, for as long as I can remember, it's been run by an extremely forward-thinking team, who have worked hard to position libraries at the centre of the communities they serve (just as the media coverage this week was suggesting needed to happen, although they were suggesting putting libraries in supermarkets and pubs... but, that was probably a PR idea to get people talking about it, and thinking more creatively in areas where libraries still resemble those from the 1970s).

Our library service have an excellent range of daily and weekly papers and magazines, as well as up-to-date books, CDs and DVDs, and you can order books (online as well as in person), for free. There is a wide network of mobile libraries serving the smaller villages, and long opening hours in towns (until 7pm, and Sundays). The libraries have modern, comfortable easy chairs for those who want to sit and read or browse, and well-lit individual work areas for those who want to do research. You can fax and photocopy (including in colour and A3) cheaply, and they've had free internet access for years and years, and, recently, free wifi too. They allow and encourage local groups to stage exhibitions in the libraries with galleries (all the newer ones), and sell a reasonably-priced range of tasteful cards, reading glasses, and other assorted related items. You can even borrow one of those gadgets to measure your electricity usage these days!

Many of us moaned when full automation came in a few years back (you have to check your own books out and in, although if you really can't mange it, someone will always help you), as we thought that it would be a good excuse to cut the highly knowledgeable and experienced staff, but, in the eventuality, there were no redundancies, and the staff now do much more creative jobs, and feel much more accessible, as they wander around being friendly and chatting to people as they work, rather than stand behind old-fashioned counters looking official and so only approachable by the brave.

I'm not interested in e-readers. I like to feel and smell my books, and reading from an electronic screen is not good for anyone's eyes (or probably health), long-term. Only that research is yet to appear...

Plus, e-readers seem to work best for fiction, and I don't read fiction these days. I must have consumed more than my lifetime's worth of fiction by the age of 12 anyway. When you do what I do, every working day is better than any fiction book, and my escapism comes from my own creativity, not vicariously living someone else's life, as created by some (often semi-literate) modern author. Liking non-fiction books, often about local or social history or crafts, I want to flick, not read every page, and e-readers just can't work for that. Plus, I like photocopying relevant bits, and adding them to my Witchy files for future inspiration.

I'm told that I had the highest number of inter-library loan requests at my local library last year (all done form the comfort of my own computer chair), and am in the top twenty for request numbers in the whole of the county. I have to get Value for the huge amount of council tax we pay somehow :)

So, I will never be one of the 60% of UK adults who have not set foot inside a library in the last year.

Do you use your local library? If yes, for what? If no, why not?

Career change

I have decided to change career. There is something much more lucrative that I could do.

Yesterday a new shoplet opened in Small Local Town. I say shoplet because it is very, very small. A 'starter unit', sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce. Rent, including services, very low (I've heard £40 a week), no business rates for the first year. One bloke running it.

Obvious target market: the gullible.

I know that from the price list in the window.

• £15 to plug a PC into a router, type in the Microsoft URL and wait for the free download to start?
  
• £30 to turn on a PC, click start/programs/administrative tools/accessories/disc defragmenter (or however you do it in other OSs than XP, I'll find out), wait a couple of hours, then turn off?
  
• £40 to consolidate files? Hmmmm, what does that mean? Might be some magic to that, but devising filing systems are my thing. Ah... a quick Google shows that devising filing systems is passé, but, there are plenty of free tools to help with 'file consolidation'. Stuff it all in one place and hope. But, I still think most older people would be happier working with a logical system of folders and subfolders. So, no problem.
  
• £35 to valet a laptop? For a quick rub over with a screen wipe and squirting some compressed gas into the keyboard? I can do that. In fact, I already have 7 cans of gas to get me started, due to a stock level error on a recent visit to Costco.
  
• £20 to spend half an hour telling someone the basics of how their machine works? The library do free courses and Microsoft provide video intros these days, I thought. I can teach eskimos to build igloos, given ten minutes to mug up before the lesson.
  
• £35 for backing up files to an external hard drive? Plug in, drag and drop and wait. I think there's even a built-in Windows tool to do it automatically now.

Oh FFS.

I'm sure there will be lots of willing customers though. But, I think the average 10 year old could do all of these things, and more.

The techies amongst you will probably tell me I'm missing something. But, I'm not sure what.

Given that I currently provide any and all of these services to half the local populace over retirement age... free of charge, I've decided to change career and make some serious money.

I'm not sure that I look quite geeky enough though (judging from a quick peek through the window of the shoplet at the early/mid 20s bloke running the enterprise, 'appearance' is everything). How do women have to look to seem like computer nerds? ;)

Hair today, gone tomorrow. Erm, gone today.

I woke up this morning and decided I'd had enough. Today was The Day.

12g it weighed, twelve grammes.
9cm it was, nine centimetres.
That's all I managed in 2 years, two years.

Thinking, it may even have been longer than two years that I'd been attempting to grow it. My hair is fine and boring and doesn't grow beyond about 6 inches before it falls out

I have made a shrine to it. In the middle of the kitchen floor.

And so I'm back to my old Witchy short hair.

Wash, rub, and go, short, rather than wash, put up with damp locks around my neck until it dries (I don't believe in hair dryers), brush, fiddle, be annoyed by it all day, and constantly feel it needs brushing.

It feels much better, and I feel much less encumbered by it. And the annoying few grey bits have magically gone (I don't believe in hair dye either).

I asked Hairdresser BW how much extra it was for the restyle. "Nothing," she said, "just spend the extra on some product will you? It would look much better with product in it!" I laughed. She sighed. More than 19 years together : she should know better.

Hair is an unnecessary evil. Discuss.

Thing is, I somehow lost my make-up bag about a month ago. It's probably somewhere in the house, or in one of the cars, but it's disappeared and I can't find it. I currently have one mascara and one lipstick (free when I bought some skin cream in Boots). I haven't missed the make-up, and I haven't been anywhere where I actually need any (it being the school summer holidays, I have only been out to a few crafty things, and the Crafty Ladies, like me, realise that make-up just annoyingly gets onto fabric). I guess I'd better invest in a bit of new powder and blusher, because now my hair looks younger again, I'm going to have to start papering over the cracks. I can remember the days when I wouldn't even take the rubbish out to the dustbin without at least mascara on (1991 I think it was). These days...

Thought for the day

Keep away from small people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.

- Mark Twain

Woodhenge is finished

Yesterday 6.30pm (from up):

Yesterday 9.00pm:

Same time, with some light:

This morning 8am (from up):

This morning 8am (from down):

Two hours for the planting, from start to finish. Raindrops accompanied the final arranging of objets.

It's a good time of year to plant a new garden, because not only can you use summer and autumn plants (heavily reduced in the nurseries, moved from elsewhere in your garden, or split from existing ones you have), you can also underplant everything deeply with bulbs for the spring, so creating a garden for all seasons in one go. Shrubs, grasses, bulbs, herbaceous perennials, and change from £40. Value Witch, me. Just don't mention the cost of the green oak sleepers...

When the light is better later (if it doesn't rain as forecast), I'll get some better pictures.

Fingers crossed for Mummy Mr BW's surgery this morning, please.

Thought for the day

People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them.

- George Bernard Shaw

August Project 2010

The Anvi1 Area, next to the hedge, close to the back door, where I allow bright fiery colours: reds, oranges, and yellow (my least favourite flower colour), has become very overcrowded as the permanent, in the ground, planting is now... ten?... twelve?... not sure without checking the Witchy Annals, how many years old. Despite being chopped back every year, it's become too big and too mature for the space.

Plus, we are future planning and want to cut down on the replanting and watering requirements of all the seasonal pots that surround the central old anvi1 feature (look carefully, it is there!). And, I'm hoping Mr BW will make use of the anvi1 for its proper purpose, as the banging would make a point to the Inconsiderate Townies with uncontrolled screaming brats who have moved in nearby and spoilt the tranquility of the area. Revenge will be sweet :)

"Anvi1 Garden" has been a carry-forward on our running list of jobs for months and months, largely because I hadn't had the right idea. And, new garden features have to await inspiration. We knew we wanted to make something sculptural, with strong form, that would carry strong planting in bright colours. We knew we wanted/needed to take out a portion of the - now four foot wide - hawthorn hedge to better use the space, and open up the view a bit. But, as there is a field drain pipe running underneath the area, the permanent planting space had to be constructed above ground.

While searching the internet to see if I could beat the local supplier's price for new oak sleepers (I couldn't), I found this picture:

We'd seen somewhat similar features at Chelsea and Hampton Court, and, a bit of doodling on the back of an envelope later (well, two envelopes actually), we had hatched a plan.

And so it was that 25 green oak sleepers were ordered on Monday evening, and arrived in the drive on Tuesday lunchtime. Well, there are only 24 there (I know someone will count them), as one was still rather too tree-like and got sent back for replacement.

Tuesday afternoon passed in a blur of anvi1 and pot shifting, hedge removal, pickaxe root removal, and chainsawing. Luckily it was overcast, and not too warm.

This is an aerial view (from the upstairs shower room window) of the cleared area shortly before the hedge got hacked out:

And the hedge is disappearing:

After nearly seven hours of hard labour, just as Mr BW pronounced himself physically incapable of cutting or shifting anything else (a 260cm green oak sleeper weighs 70kg), the sun broke through the clouds for the first time and sent down a pleased ray on the completed retaining back wall:

And here it is this morning, ready for the next stage:

Aerial view:

The Friday Question

Do you watch news videos? Or do you prefer text?

What do you think of the new-ish BBC news website?

I don't have enough hours in the day to watch online news videos, I just want to skim and go. I find the way these videos are presented - the highly practised and/or edited sound bites, the simplicity of the language used by the presenter - all part of the dumbing down of quality information in our world, despite the vast quantities of it now available.

Since the recent changes to the BBC's news website, I've found the content much less visible, so I find I'm using it less, and viewing fewer pages. Their indexing/search facility has always been terrible, so now I just Google if I want additional information. Given that the rumour mill of cuts to the BBC website grinds on, maybe that's thie plan? If the statistics show people are using it less, that will justify its culling.

Thursday Thoughts

It's weird that so often you don't know how much a person cared for you until they're not there any more. Or sometimes you don't know much about the totality of their lives until they are gone.

I think that's probably only true of people above a certain age, mind, from the days where people got on with things and put on a brave face for most of the rest of the world. I doubt today's Tw/ook Generation will suffer from this fate; their biggest problem is likely to be over-sharing, not under-sharing.

So, I'm talking in riddles.

Strange day, today.

I travelled northward 40 miles for the funeral of the 82 year old Old Family Friend I mentioned here. At a place that always amuses me, as a place for a cremation.

Last weekend Mr BW and I went to a local museum he hadn't visited before, and I hadn't visited since it first opened as a Millennium Project. I love local museums. History at its best. It's situated in an old malthouse, and I remarked that I didn't know of anyone who was, or had been a maltster. Which was quite surprising, given that one of my great-grandfathers was a blacksmith, and the other a carrier, and that that sort of occupation has permeated my family tree.

Until today, when I discovered that Old Family Friend was the son of a maltster. One of seven children, he was the second oldest, and only his older brother and a younger sister (who sadly was too unwell to make the funeral) survive. Older brother, who'd been the person who contacted me (at OFF's request), recognised me from our wedding photo (of 16 year vintage), which the Old Family Friends had displayed prominently in their home, he said, and he knew we were the ones who sent, "The wonderful [that word I can't say in August] cards that everyone, even those who don't know you, love reading!" About 50 or 60 there, mostly from the village where they lived for their latter years. And a lady vicar with a lisp.

Mr BW is in France, doing worky-things. And I am in The Inner Coven, drinking red wine (this poor August weather has driven me from the usual summer Pimms, and from rosé to red) and eating sugar-coated fennel seeds. Do not buy these addictive delicacies by the kilo for £4 from your newly-opened ethnic food wholesaler. Oh no.

Mummy Mr BW, on going for her pre-op appointment today, was told, after only having had her pulse taken, that she has a, "Potential he@rt murmur." Hmmm. Right. The xth of yth people of 70+ I know who have been so told, and so worried unnecessarily, by an inexperienced nurse/junior doctor, just days before major surgery. And that having just had to walk up 4 floors as the lift wasn't working. And then, after an ECG, and several hours later, being told, "Oh, we think it's OK after all... but, well... we don't really know... we'll tell the anaesthetists, just in case!" What does one have to do to get professional/quality treatment from the NHS?

The one thing that stops me from persuading Mr BW to give up full-time slavery work right now is the fact that he gets company private medical care as part of his salary package. I wouldn't trust myself to the NHS. And that's me, who has the utmost contempt for the medical profession and their pharmaceutical cure-alls, and doesn't generally request or require their services.