And now, New York

It is good for the soul to have many places of beauty for the eye to fall. Here's the top of my hall bookshelf.

More photos

(click on photo to make larger)

Sitting down, Hatice the weaver (also known as 'old' Hatice, to distinguish her from 'young' Hatice, the director of Hands on Hips: ((see http://www.kilimwomen.com/tour1.html for everybody's pitcture)).

Standing up (yes, she's on a cell phone!) is Kamila, Young Hatice's mother.

They're standing in the doorway that leads to the loom room. The doorway to the right of them is the entrance to the ex-stable, now the museum.

Mt. Argeus

I mentioned it in the first post, and found a photo.

Of course, you have to be there in the still, cool air and the silence (no planes ever go overhead) at dawn or sunset, and you have to know that this whole strange and gorgeous region comes from the eroded lava from Argeus and two other volcanic mountains that aren't visible, creating not only an astounding landscape but a special kind of cave that creates an unusual citrus storage business in this town (more of that later), and a special kind of 3-volcano soil, incredibly rich, thought to create berries with a kind of sugar a diabetic can safely consume, and home to a thousand tiny vegetable gardens and bee hives, stuck off in odd places, down strange paths, under cliffs, and over crevices, with tiny, sparkling springs coming up from hidden rivers under your feet.

Ortahisar home with Buddy

Here's more of my home in Turkey, with my fine little dog for scale.


This first room was a stable. After digging out 4 feet of antique donkey dung (highly prized by the local gardeners) we laid inexpensive, broken stones as the floor and scraped the walls clean. For awhile it was going to be a theater (we put up lights and had one performance by the local children with their parents as audience). Then we used it for a wonderful party, the most amazing dancing. If I can figure out how to get the videos here, I'll show you odd, funny, amazing dancing, by the men! (The women were way too reserved).

Now it's the museum, laid out like a home, with lovely old pieces from the past on small rugs or near seating platforms. I'll find those photos, too.




Much cosier is the entrance to my little house. It was once dirty, cold cement, and I didn't have the time or money to put in wood floors (wood is very expensive in Cappadocia because it's mostly high plateau and dry, almost treeless) so I put in tiles. Not authentic, but neat and nice.

Happiness Levels dictate the choices

This is a blog of photos of the places and people on a scale of 9 to 10. All very good.

Let's start with Turkey. This is the courtyard of my wonderful little home. It was taken from the wooden door that opens from the road. On the immediate left is the 4 room house where I live. Adjoining it is a small 'patio' with a barbecue, then stairs going down to the left to the Chess Classroom and an open space (now with a stone floor) that leads on to 3 cave homes. Under the arch on the left is a room for guests.

On the right as you descend is the original bathroom, the open-air dining room, the theater/museum, a doorway into a hall with the weavers room on left.

Through the door at the end of the arch is a great vista: my gardens and then one of the great canyons of Ortahisar, and in the distance, Mount Argeus, always covered with snow, radiant in the sunlight of early morning or late afternoon.