We're back and here are some winter photographs

It's over seven months since I last posted on our blog. I don't know why. Our last post was a sad one written when we lost our cat Inca. Since moving here four years ago, we have sadly said goodbye to all three animals that came with us from England. Our dog Tyson developed a serious and terminal illness, our cat Horrace died of old age and then in June we lost Inca suddenly and unexpectedly. Also along the way we suffered the demise of two other cats that we had adopted here. Peggy who lost her life at only a year old to cancer and the street cat Çingene who came to us with chronic kidney failure for short term terminal care but in fact enjoyed life for another three years. Maybe it was having to write yet another piece about losing one of our animals that pushed me away from writing more for a while, who knows?

However, a lot of people have told us that they miss seeing the blog, and actually we miss it too. Therefore I will endeavour to put pen to paper (as it were) again.

Obviously over the past seven months we have done an awful lot of things, so it is hard to catch up in one post. Last year we enjoyed the most amazingly hot summer which just went on and on and on. We spent quite a lot of the time with family and friends who were over for their holidays. It was both great to see them, and great to down tools from our projects and spend some time out and about again. Something we have very rarely had the time or money to do. It was wonderful to spend time with people we love and miss since moving here and to show them around our beautiful part of the world.

Even in winter the beauty of our surroundings is undeniable

Our biggest highlight of the year, was when I discovered I had a small pension which I could take and this allowed us to buy a car. It is only an old Turkish car, but it has made a difference to our life which is immeasurable. No more struggling back up the hill to our home with all our shopping in tow, no more missing bargains in town because we can't get there, and if we want to go out even just to the village, we can without the worry of how to get home again or being put off by the long walk back. The freedom it has given us is incredible.

The Fogiemobile

In between visitors and with the benefit of having the car we have been able to get out to buy building materials as we need them and other bits for the house and garden, so although we have not finished by any means we are a lot further forward than we were. I know I say it every year, but we really do expect to be virtually finished with our landscaping and building this year. We'll see!!

I have said before that the hardest thing for us about living in Turkey is missing family and friends, and nothing brought this home more than when my daughter gave birth to a healthy, bonny boy in September. Up to now my daughter had visited every year since we bought the house six years ago. Due to her pregnancy she was unable to come last year, and I missed her visit so much. We don't have the budget to be able to fly back and forth to England so as yet I have not met Harry my grandson, but I am so looking forward to meeting him in May when I am returning to England for a short while.

This year we have enjoyed the warmest, driest winter since moving here. A complete contrast to last winter which was extremely cold and fraught with long term electricity and water cuts making me thoroughly miserable for the best part of three months. Even so we will be glad when it's over and we can start to spend the majority of our time outdoors again.

Winter sunshine in Hisaronu ....

...... and a deserted beach in Oludeniz ......

........... but still the paragliders come

We are really looking forward to 2016. Hopefully we will finally finish the garden. We have family and friends already booked to come out to see us. In fact we have already had friends out to stay for a week in January. Our first winter guests and with the weather being so kind we had a lovely time and were able to venture out and about. It's very different here in the winter and very beautiful.

But we really look forward to the freedom the Fogiemobile will give us. We can't wait to set off exploring, having afternoons at the beach, popping down to Calis to watch the sunset. Ooh so much to do. We'll let you know where we go and how we get on. I'm glad to have kick started the blog again, it's good to be back!