rebecca soble

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.