Tire in the Snow

We’ve been pretty quiet recently.  We went to the UK at short notice due to a family emergency and ended up spending Christmas there.  We’ve been back home just over a week now and are slowly getting back to normal.

Today, though, we decided to go to Tire market because Hilary needed some thread for a sewing project and because we just felt like a trip out (not to mention the late breakfast/early lunch at Haci Baba which was, of course, as excellent as always).

We met some tourists on the bus who had a wonderful app. on their phone which translated whatever language they were speaking into written Turkish.  I think the lady to whom they showed it was a bit …. puzzled by it!

We failed to take into account just how cold it would feel.  There was snow on the higher hills visible from our house and quite a lot more snow on Kaplan Dağ, as can be seen in the pictures.  We got some thread (and some almonds and some dates) and had an excellent lunch.  It was a good day out.  Then we headed back home to the warmth of the radiators and the wood burning stove.

We did find one travel site that maintains that in Turkey it is always ‘bikini weather’.  Then can, with all due respect, keep their bikinis.

Little Surprises in Life

Today Ashley started the process of getting new glasses since his old ones are more than two years old and we were pretty certain the  prescription had changed.  We went with staff from the Optician in Kuşadası to a local hospital for an eye test, and learnt that for some unknown reason our GSS (Health Insurance) was no longer in place.

We paid for the eye examination (at 100 lira it was not unreasonable).  It should have cost a lot less, but had we cancelled, gone to Tire to sort the insurance out, then back to Kuşadası, all the running around would have significantly eaten into any savings.

Back at the opticians we ordered the lenses, varifocal, transition, with anti-glare coating and scratch protection, at a very reasonable price.  They will be fitted, into Ashley’s existing Flexon frames, and should be ready for collection on Friday afternoon.  As part of the general customer service Ashley had his current lenses fitted into older frames, Hilary had hers adjusted and çay was provided.

Then since we were in Kuşadası  and it was approaching lunch time we went for balık ekmek in the much improved square near the fish market.  It was, as always, cheap and delicious.  We did look into the fish market just in case there might be some tuna or swordfish – unfortunately no such luck.  We did learn that the restaurant / locanta next to the fish market will cook fish bought by customers on the market.  There was a good deal of trade in giant prawns, selling and cooking.  Ashley may give this a try at some point.

We’d gone on the dolmuş in case the eye exam involved something that would make riding unwise but, once we got home with a few bits of shopping we hopped on the bike and went to the SGK office in Tire (about 35 km up the road in the opposite direction from Kuşadası).  Which was fun and games as it is market day in Tire and, of course, we couldn’t resist a couple of purchases.  Anyway, the people in the office were as puzzled as we were about why our insurance was suddenly stopped.  They checked our documents, took some photocopies, filled out a form, and  they reinstated it…

With all the issues we have had with GSS we will be checking in the pharmacy that we are both properly on the system, but they definitely did something, as we have now been able to pay our current premium.

Felt Making in Tire

Our Craft club went to Tire where we had arranged with Arif Cön, one of the very famous felt makers in Turkey to have our felt workshop.  We gathered at 09:30 and divided ourselves into two cars to make the trip.  There were nine of us in total.

Arriving at the workshop we were offered tea and those of us who had not bought our own silk to use were given a choice of scarves.  The pattern I originally wanted to make was not available in a suitable weight for the technique so I settled for a paisley scarf in blues and purples.

We were shown how to pluck the wool and lay it, first on the mat then, having spread the scarf over that layer, onto the scarf itself.  Everyone, of course, had quite a different idea of what they wanted to achieve so there were  a variety of directions to the creative effort.

Once the wool was laid onto both sides of the fabric, we watched it all being sprinkled with soapy water then rolled up in the plastic mat and put into a pounding machine.  Traditionally the mat would be pressed with feet and rolled around – the machine takes some of the hard work out of it.

Even more so for us.  We went for lunch whilst the machine worked its magic…

Back at the workshop our work was carefully removed from the machine and unrolled.  We had the opportunity to add more wool and correct minor flaws in our concept before it got resprinkled, rolled up into the mat and put back into the machine.

We were then taken out for tea…  Or rather we were directed to an extraordinarily pleasant park area with a number of tea gardens.  We strolled around for a while (during our stroll I discovered that it is acacia that makes me sneeze) admiring the scenery then had a glass of tea before heading back to the studio.

We claimed our scarves, settled our bills and headed for home.  The instructions were to wash the finished work at 30%, subjecting them to a spin cycle should we wish the felt to shrink further.  I carefully washed mine by hand in cold water.  Quite a lot of dye came out.  When the water ran clear, I took it up to the roof to dry on the line…  I was quite happy with the final result.

More work…

Pre-felting

Hard at work

My scarf before felting

Sprinkling the felt

rolling up

lunch

Where we had tea

View from tea garden