Good-bye Istanbul!!!

Not forever, of course, but just for a few weeks.

In my travels to say good-bye to friends and get a laundry list of things done, here is my last few days in the Big 'Bull, mostly in pictures.

The gorgeous fountain outside Topkapi Palace. I cannot get enough of this building! 

The colours, the textures, the marble the tiles... I just love it.

My friend Murat owns a few carpet shops here in Sultanahmet. He's from Van and has two Van cats at his shop. Like him, these cats come from Eastern Turkey and have a few special qualities. 

1) They always have two different coloured eyes. 

2)They are always pure white, sometimes with a little grey spot at the base of their necks, between their shoulder blades. (Legend says it's the place where God touched them as they left the Ark, also located near Van on Mt. Ararat.)

3) They have an undercoat, which keeps them dry when they SWIM. Yes, I said it! SWIM!

Sultan and Sultana

Sultana's blue eye, green eye and evil eye, (round her neck!) 

Sultana has just had kittens, although all of them are ORANGE (bad Sultana!), 

they all have the most amazing green or blue eyes,

 (matching eyes, only pure kitties get different ones.) 

The Blue Mosque in the late afternoon sun.

Sweet dog that has been adopted by a restaurant on the hippodrome.

Cargo Ships getting loaded up on the Asian side.

View of Sokollu Mehmet Pasha Mosque and the boats in the 

Marmara Sea from our terrace at sunset. 

Although we're sad to leave Istanbul for these next 6 weeks,  we keep telling ourselves we'll be back before we know it. In the meantime.... next stop for adventure - Muscat, Oman! Hello 50 degree weather, blazing sun and burning sand!! We must be crazy! 

Whew! What a weekend!

A big thanks to all the people who made it out over the weekend to attend our show! In our eyes it was a huge success!

We got to see some of our old friends and made a few new ones as well. Will return with pics soon! 

Prints, Paintings and Pizza!

About a month ago, Mel and I had discussed having a little weekend gathering of friends at the local "Family Pizza Pie Place" here in Sultanahmet. The idea was that we could show some of our art to people who were interested, and also give the Family Pizza Pie Place some much-deserved publicity.

Well our "little weekend gathering of friends" just keeps getting bigger!

We had a photographer out from Today's Zaman newspaper yesterday, and Turkish Daily News plans to do a story. Here we are in the weekly MyMerhaba  newsletter and we'll also be in Pukka Living this week. The Family Pizza Pie Place owner, Virginia, also plans to get someone to review the show for a newspaper. All this for a two-day show!

So, if you happen to be free that weekend and want to come over to our neck of the woods and hang out among the mosques and Tulips and eat a little pizza - please do! 

Look forward to seeing you! 

Flower Inspiration!

Since I've been surrounded by flowers over the past month, I've done this lino cut in celebration of all the blooms. It's called "Flower Mandala", and is quite small compared to the other big ones I've done in the past. I've hand-coloured them and plan to include them in the upcoming "Prints, Paintings and Pizza" show Mel and I are having at our friends Pizza place this month.

Mystery Flowers

Anyone know what kind of flowers these are? They remind me of Gerbera Daisies, but they look like they've been painted! I LOVE them! 

Mel and I found one flower bed full of them near a military building here in Sultanahmet. All of these pictures were taken on the south side of the bed, as the north side is a restricted no-go zone and guarded by soldiers with guns!

Emirgan Park - For Kate!

Kate regularly visits Butchart Gardens in Victoria and post the changes throughout the season. So last weekend Mel and I made the long traffic-clogged trek to Emirgan Gardens in Istanbul. 

The time to visit is now! As the municipality has made the park the central showpiece of it's Lale (tulip) Festival. This is a huge campaign designed to re-instate the tulip as a Turkish flower, (the Sultans gave a few of their prize tulips to Holland as a gift way back when and the Turks have been kicking themselves ever since!).

Emirgan park reportedly has over 5 million tulips, and there are another bazillion all around town and, of course, around my home in Sultanahmet. 

Emirgan Park has three pavilions, that were probably once summerhouses for the rich and famous. These days they have been lovingly restored and are popular places for breakfast. 

This one is called Sari Kosk, (yellow pavilion). There are also a pink and white pavilions elsewhere in the park that we didn't get to this time.

Kate has some gorgeous pictures of these flowers here, I find it interesting that the same flowers grow and are in bloom at the same time on opposite sides of the world!

This is what Emirgan Park is all about. I swear every little old lady in Istanbul who wears a headscarf was up there getting their pictures taken. This guy is taking a picture of his mom. 

...double tulips...

.... and more tulips.....

...and Mel frolicking in the tulips! 

Note* No tulips were injured in the taking of this picture. 

Obama!

President Obama was in Turkey last week, and he came to my neighborhood! 

My camera was on the fritz, so I couldn't get a good picture of him, but Mel got this picture as he pulled into Sultanahmet square. We got a good view from the nearby "Seven Hills" hotel's Terrace. (Yup, we stood next to Turkish military snipers!)

Later we watched as he walked between Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque, but we didn't get a good enough picture of it. Next time!

I'd like to write more about it, but Mel has put together a great article about it, so I'll link to that when she's ready.