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2017 started with exchanging gifts under the tree on the New Year's day. January 2017 was colder than normal with lots of snow. We burned a lot of woods in our wood burning stove. There were many nostalgic evenings, cooking stew on the stove, roasting chesnuts and brewing tea.
Spring again came very quickly and soon we were busy with planting flowers, vegetables, various seeds, etc. This year, we are preparing for lots of vegetables, strawberries, rasberries, apricot and grapes.
 
The kids were busy in their classrooms and at home. They also kept us busy with their homework.
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Early January, we were practically snowed in all month. This picture was taken from our kitchen door. On another sunny day, we decided to go to the mountains called Kazdag. There, we had again plenty of snow on the way. Kids enjoyed playing in the woods. It was surprisingly sunny just as soon as we crossed the top on to the Aegean costal side.
This picture above is taken at Bozburun in February 2017, the south west tip of Turkey. Our dream location both for climate and sailing.
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This picture below is a taken on the road to a town called Kozak. During one of our daily trips surrounding Ayvalik, we took a side road and surprised to come across with this beautiful sculpture of Ataturk, who is the founder of modern Turkey. Apparently, one of the villagers decided to put his arts' skill to work and build this monument on his land facing the road. Apparently, he was very fond of Ataturk.
Story of Köpük:
Last May, we noticed a mother dog running around our house for food, apparently breast feeding. We started giving her food. After a month of feeding, following, tracking, we finally located her babies, all seven of them. In order to secure the mother and puppies, we placed them in an entry level room of an empty house that was under construction. After a couple of months, the puppies were grown and they were eating quite a lot.They became the joy of our neighbours and kids. So, we decided to take them to a government operated shelter, just to have them checked out, get the mother neutered, get their medication, rabies shots, etc. and hopefully have them all adopted. Big mistake! Three weeks later, we were informed that 5 of the puppies were not alive due to infection. They operated on the mother dog but it was not recovering well. So, we took the mother to our vetenirary in Ayvalık, literary bleeding from the operation that was performed at the shelter. Our vetenerians at the Mercan clinic, Ms. Alev and Mr. Furkan decided to operate on the dog again. It took them more than 4 hours to correct the operation and clean the infection developed inside due to previous surgery. They place the dog under intensive care for three weeks and we were finally able to take her home after 6 weeks. We named her Köpük, and she now runs freely at our housing complex, plays with children, greets us at the door. She is an extremely smart and sensitive dog. |
The kids spent all the weekend evenings in the boat while docked at the local marina. We had shore power with electrical heater, so it was warm inside. In April, we hauled the boat to do the work under. That was carefully done and the boat was in water in a few weeks.
  
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We spent very little time at our winter house after the schools were closed. Just enough to enjoy flowers, harvest strawberries and some early vegetables.
 
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We also had to look after our olive orchard, a small olive tree farm in Ayvalık. They are growing nicely this year, giving us fresh olives and tasteful olive oil, all organic "healthy stuff".
 
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Our first summer sailing activity was to sail to Mitillini. It took us about 2 hours to get to Mitillini Island across from Ayvalık. We had to check in at the customs and enter into the harbour with passports stamped and harbour authority paid. Then we went to dock at the Setur Marina across from the customs in the same harbour. We rented a car to tour the island, had a nice fish dinner at a beach restaurant, at the end of the southern tip. There is video of the kids catching fish by hand, very entertaining.
   
There were always daily tour boats anchoring nearby with loads of local tourists all summer long. Unfortunately, their loud music and constant service providers (read small ice cream selling boats) become nuisance to summer holidays. However, kids enjoyed summer time with free swimming. "Look mummy! No more life savers."
 
 
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Below is a picture at the Sarmisakli beach near Ayvalik. Children dug out zebra mussels in the sand at the sea shore. Below, they found some sea life creature while treasure hunting at an uninhabited island near Ayvalik.
  
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Voyages of "SNOW
WHITE"
