rebecca soble

I’ve managed to shake off my listlessness and got myself out and about a few times this week. On Sunday morning (the first day of my weekend) I woke up around 9:30 and thought “I MUST GO OUT”, but couldn’t get excited about any particular place to go. So I left the house with a book and a knitting project but without a plan and wandered north. I ended up in lovely Çengelköy, on the Asian side of the Bosphorus between the two bridges. Here is the view I had for my book reading:

The nicest part was that the bench I found to sit on in order to look at this view had rather short legs, which made it much more comfortable for me than normal city benches. My feet easily reached the ground!

After reading my book (The Thirty-Nine Steps, by John Buchan) and soaking up the sun and view for a while, I continued my wander north and ended up meeting up with Emrah in Beykoz. We went for dinner at my favorite fish restaurant, the Beykoz Balikci Barınağı (basically a fishsellers area with a big grill and outdoor seating - short tables and little square benches). As far as I can tell, there’s just one thing on the menu: ızgara uskumru (grilled mackerel) served with arugula, parsley, onion slices and bread. Best of all - no forks, just dig in with your fingers! If I hadn’t been so hungry I would have taken a picture before we ate almost everything…

The next day we stayed home and relaxed for the most part, just wandering near the local seaside in the evening, people and animal watching. On Tuesday (a work day for me but due to cancellations I had a big chunk of the day free), we went to Büyükada and rented bicycles for a couple hours.

Eventually I did have to leave and head to work… but it’s nice that the adalar (islands) are close enough that I can spend a few hours even on a workday.

Finally, last night, taking advantage of another cancellation I was able to leave work just before sunset so again decided to go up to Çengelköy because I wanted to watch the bridge at night. After dark (these days around 9pm) it is lit up with lights that change color in interesting patterns. Also last night there was a lovely crescent moon (waxing) just above the bridge. As it sunk lower in the sky it turned a lovely orange color. I unfortunately forgot to bring my camera so no pics this time, but if you want to see for yourself, try this google images link. I plan to go again before too long, with my camera.

I finished The Thirty-Nine Steps rather quickly (it’s a thin book) and started another called Balthasar’s Odyssey by Amin Maalouf, a new author for me. Jenney lent me four of his books while she is away and this first one is very enjoyable so I’m looking forward to the three others to follow… Here in Istanbul it can be hard to find good books in English without spending a fortune so teachers (who tend to also be readers) do a lot of sharing. Yay for book sharing!

The genesis of this bag was getting a large ball of beautiful lace-weight mohair as a gift from my mother. The first thing I made with it was a simple airy shoulder wrap, garter stitch knitting back and forth with increases at each edge and two in the middle. Well, I got tired of garter stitch after a while, so I bound it off and started wearing it, but the ball of yarn wasn’t quite used up. I intended for this lace pattern to be a matching scarf but - whoops, not enough yarn! - so I got creative and turned it into this bag. The knitting was blocked and sewn to a piece of leather using blanket stitch and the bag closes with a simple button. It’s currently holding school (teaching) supplies.

Current Thoughts:  preparing to return to Turkey, saying goodbyes and hellos.

Current Read: No God but God, by Reza Aslan.  An excellently written, educational, and balanced history of Islam.  I have 80 pages remaining. 

I am reading and reading. And then more. Here’s a partial list.

The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant. Historical fiction about the wives and daughter of Jacob. I would have read it in one sitting if I could have stayed awake. Written with elegance and warmth at a deliciously slow pace. An inspiration to appreciate being female and the strength of community that can exist among women.

Subwayland: Adventures in the World Beneath New York, by Randy Kennedy. This is a collection of columns Kennedy wrote about the NYC subway for the New York Times. Entertaining, educational and eclectic: just as the subway is itself. Makes me want to get my MetroCard back in action.

Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss. Subtitled The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, this book had me giggling and snorting through paragraphs on improper apostrophe usage. It reassured me that I do use commas correctly after all — though, unlike most Americans, I prefer to eschew the Oxford comma — and encouraged me in the true usefulness of the colon (see paragraph above). A delightful education.

From Beirut To Jerusalem by Thomas L. Friedman. A slightly less delightful education, but exceedingly worthwhile. Friedman, an international correspondent for the New York Times writes about his experiences as a journalist amid the political happenings in Beirut and Jerusalem during the turbulent 80’s, with ample views backward and outward when necessary. If you’re American and trying to understand the Middle East, this book is an excellent start. Good luck to you, and please explain it to me when you’ve figured it out.

If you’ve noticed me in recent weeks walking the creek, meadow, and roadsides around town, you’ve probably also seen that I’ve been carrying a book. You’ll have seen me here and there stop abruptly in the middle of my stroll and start riffling through the pages. I’ll look up now and then, keep flipping pages, perhaps kneel on the ground or peer closer at what appears to be just weeds. The more often I go, the less stopping you’ll see me do, because I’m acquiring a new body of knowledge.

The book is the Peterson Field Guide to Wildflowers, Northeastern and North-Central North America. The book is written and illustrated by Roger Tory Peterson, one of the world’s most renowned naturalists. The book’s major division is by color, and then within each color the wildflowers are broken down by family, with a symbol of the general flower shape as a guide. In the beginning it’s a little daunting to try to find one plant (especially if it’s white or yellow) but after a while the symbols become more familiar.

I love learning about the wildflowers on several different levels. One is just about me as information collector — any information that comes in interesting sets seems to intrigue me. Aside from that, I like developing my observational skills. I like that now when I walk through a meadow I see it differently than I did before - instead of being a simple mass of green, there is more specificity, I see individual plants and have a better understanding of my surroundings. (Some information gathering about grasses would also be a tremendous help with that.)

I like knowing which flowers are native and which are alien, I like knowing which ones are closely related to each other, I like learning the little tricks for identifying (plants in the mint family have square stems). I’m looking forward to seeing how the wildflowers change with the seasons (I’ve only been doing this a few weeks). I like quizzing myself as I walk - see a plant that I know I’ve looked up and scour my brain for the name. And of course, I love the names: May Apple, Chickweed, Stitchwort, Northern Bedstraw, Wild Madder, Yarrow, Boneset, Plantain, Chicory, Oxeye Daisy, Fleabane, Mullein, Coltsfoot, Cinquefoil, Trefoil, Purslane, Hawkweed, Vetch, Valerian, Marsh Mallow!