odds and sods*

*British & Australian informal of 'Odds and Ends'

This is and Odds and Sods post because I want to sit down and right about a little something, but I'm feeling a little aimless about it too. Also I like a nice batch of new photos to accompany my dry and dusty prose and I have none, so I'm including some random photos in here today.

It is May 17! We have been in Istanbul for one year and one day! We still love it and don't want to think about leaving. Leaving is part of the deal so we've got to face that at some point. We have a busy busy year ahead of us (meaning just the rest of 2013) and I don't know how we'll be able to do everything we want to do while we're still here. We have an in country trip planned soon that is in an area that I've wanted to see so I'll feel better about having done that. This country rivals the U.S. as far as how many sights there are to be seen and different types of geography and cuisine and history and on and on. I'll try to get as much done and seen as I can, but this country has been around for a long time and will continue to exist. I can always come back. And hopefully we'll always have friends to come back and see.

You can't feel welcome if you don't feel comfortable and I think we're definitely comfortable here now. 

I found this in TimeOut Istanbul. So nice! This month's in season fruits are strawberries, sour green plums, mulberries and loquats, WHICH is what I wrote about and are known locally as Malta Erik. Who knew? I'd never seen or tasted a loquat before!

A small boy in his jaunty hat and dapper footwear.

I think he may have a knife tucked into his Snoopy pants.

This place has pretty good burgers. They also have some good side dishes. Hellim is cheese, Tursu is pickles.

Enjoying the healthy (well maybe except for the lunchmeat) lunch his papa fixed for him. Cucumbers, cheese, olives, pickles, lunchmeat, organic strawberries and a few apple slices leftover from breakfast. Oops, I forgot his carbs!