rebecca soble

I just noticed today that my blog was hacked about a week ago, and stupid link code embedded (hidden from view but visible to spiders) in all my posts. luckily i’ve never gotten around to updating this blog with most of my older posts from archived sites, so there were only 62 posts in total, but each one has to be edited by hand to have the offending CRAP removed, and the date reset to the original post date.

I hate the fact that there are some jerks out there whose favorite activity is doing stupid shit to make things more annoying for those of us who are just doing simple little things on the internet. I use reasonable security measures (though my mistake was in not updating wordpress at the earliest opportunity – note to others who might not have upgraded yet) but I don’t want to have to be a security genius just to write a simple blog.

Interestingly, it might have taken me a lot longer to notice all the crap in the posts if the dates of the posts hadn’t been changed. So thanks, jerks, for that little clue. and @%#$@%#$ to you too.

Ona benzeyen bir adam gördüğüm zaman kalbım yerınden fırladı.

Havuza girmeden önce çabuk ve sabunsuz duş aldığım için iki yaşlılar bana söylendiler.
Onlara sinirlendiğim için daha hızlı ve hareketli yüzdüm (ve havuzda dalgaları yaptım).

Eve giderken minibüs şoförü çok öfkeli davranıyordu. Diğer minibüs şoförlerine acı acı bağırdı, freni çok sert kullandı, ve İKİ DEFA bağırmak için minibüsten indi! Ikinci defa, evimini yakin varmadığımız halde, ben de indim çünkü o minibüs güvenli degildi. Keşke plaka numarasını almayı düşünseydim ama alsaydım ne yapacaktım?

Canım seni çok özledim. öptüm.

Mersin’de çok güzel bir tatil yaptık…

Emrah Kız Kalesin önünde. Mayolarımız götürmedik, düşündük ki hava yeter sıcak değildi ama yanlıştık.

Pedal çevırerek Kız Kalesi etrafina gezdik.

Kız Kalesinde.

Merdivende en uygun grafiti.

Kız Kalesinin kapısındayım.

Kız Kalesinin dışardayım. Yüzmeye çok istedim.

Kale içindeyim.

Gezdikten sonra Adana kebab yedik.

Mersin sahilde çok uzun yuruyabilirsin.  O gün çok ruzgarlıydı, dalgalar çok hareketlıydı.

Outside the Mersin Archaeology Museum.

Detail on an ancient column

Playing along with the statues

Lovely palm tree view from the upstairs window of the museum.

Mersin marina, with floating fish restaurants

We had to take our own picture since there were no papparazzi around!

Rowing in the marina, with oars of two different lengths.  a bit tough!

I’m getting the hang of it!

And so is my sweetie.  xo!

Şimdi eminim, Heybeliada en sevdim ada.

Of course, I did go on a partly-cloudy Monday, when there will naturally be many fewer people than on a sunny weekend, but it was glorious.  Back roads, empty of everyone but me, the singing birds, and seemingly zillions of little green lizards.  Found a comfy bench with a terrific view, so sat and did some knitting in nature.  Walked a loop around the island, which I have done before.  But last time I stuck to the low roads and had a much longer walk.  This time I went up to the high roads, had nicer views, a stop at an interesting Greek Orthodox cemetery, and a shorter loop.

Heading out of the main village

Alone with the birds and trees

A lovely spot to sit in the sunshine

And some green friends for company.  This is just two of at least a dozen I saw.

view of the Marmara sea

Pics from my visit to Emrah in Mersin coming soon…

The weekend was mostly grey and cold, not really encouraging me to go outside.  But on the 2nd afternoon at 3pm the sun appeared and I scampered out.  I stayed in my neighborhood but walked on a new route, on Eski Bağdat Caddesi, just above the train tracks.

I turned a corner and my heart leaped with green pleasure when I saw this little path.  Probably a dangerous place at night, but in the sunlight it felt like the closest thing to a stroll in the woods I would find in Istanbul.  My joy was muted when I realized it was just a one-block-long dead end, but it was still a nice find.

Next to the fence by the train track, a tree was blooming.

And a lovely overgrown garden filled with little purple wildflowers.

And something that looks like forsythia except it has pink flowers.  Maybe it’s quince?  It looks just like something in my mom’s yard, but I can’t remember what it is.

I’m really enjoying the warm spring weather (despite the almost nonstop rain) and new plants I see peeking out everywhere.  During the winter I reaaaallllly missed the smell of green, and didn’t even get the smell of white to make up for it.