After surviving the excitement of the attempted coup, it was a relief to head for England for a spot of R&R. Short-lived of course, as we’ve had such a procession of engagements with friends and family that I’m tempted to ask Her Maj if she can lend me her social secretary.
Our friend Babs has been staying with us over the last few days, which has been an excuse for a few treats. She doesn’t have a happy relationship with wheat, so I snaffled some Doves Farm gluten-free flour when I saw it in the supermarket last week and set out to discover whether it really was interchangeable with ordinary flour – so far, so good. Continue reading “Gluten-free courgette and lemon tea cake with lemon frosting”
Ho ho ho. Sorry about that terrible pun, but it is 3am, and apparently we are in the middle of a coup.
Turkey may be one of the world’s less attractive nations in terms of political and social freedoms, but when it comes to pure geographic and natural beauty, it is breathtaking.
Yesterday, on what was probably one of the hottest days of the year so far, we joined in with a group of volunteers to take some dogs from our local dogs’ home for a walk to Kyaneai, a Lycian city thought to have been inhabited as far back as 500 BC. 
We’ve been invited to our friend’s 50th birthday party this evening. Handily, it is being held in Çukurbaĝ – the almond farming village where we own a converted farm cottage, which we rent out during the summer.
After weeks of balmy weather, today is so blustery it feels more like autumn than spring – very clear skies, a howling wind and lots of white horses on the water (white geese to the Turks). I happened to look out of the window a few moments ago at exactly the right time to spy Diagoras, the Rhodes-Kastellorizo ferry, coming in – that’s the island of Kastellorizo that you can see behind the ferry. 
It’s true. We’ve scraped out the last jar of piccalilli. At the beginning of the winter, I made a Piccallilli mountain so vast that it probably qualified for some kind of EU subsidy. It is just the thing to perk up our cheese butties when we go out walking – I used to hate it, but have gradually acquired a taste for it after years of making it for Robin. I still don’t like the bits of cauliflower, but I’m in charge of making the packed lunches, so I just sneak those into Robin’s sarnies. 
We’ve been invited over to our neighbours’ house for dinner this evening, and I’ve been put in charge of pudding.
A bunch of over-ripe bananas in the fruit bowl is a good excuse to make banana bread before our little friends the fruit flies come out in force to check them out and render them inedible.
Robin has acquired a Fitbit, so we are rather obsessed with the number of steps we are taking – it’s quite astonishing how they add up (over 20,000 yesterday, since you ask). Our house is on three floors and my reading glasses are never on the same level as me, so I am up and down the staircase countless times in a day. A trip from the kitchen to the bedroom is about 100 steps return, so I think my newly-acquired long-sightedness is accounting for quite a lot of calories burned! 
aviewfrommykitchen.com 