Who are they?…. Of course cats… and also dogs too…

Yes, they love snow, trees…plants, animals,  nature world… they need snow… so we need too…

With snow all branches seem so beautiful…

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I am not used to see snow in everywhere… The white light makes changes in my home… There is a brightness outside and it is reflected into the rooms… Even during night too… Under the street lights, everything seems different… Sometimes when it is snowing like a fairy tales… I know, for some of you, this is not unusual, you have winter days with snow… and stays for a long time…

On the other hand, do I like snow? No, except to watch… To go out and to walk under the snow not for me… and also I am afraid to fall down too. You know, even I had an accident at home You may say, nia you don’t know to walk! Whatever you say, I don’t like snow… Should be something comes from my childhood days… By the way around my house everywhere is icy! How can I walk on ice… if it would be only soft snow, maybe I could go out… But I am happy to watch snow from my windows… My Princess, my cat,  she was crazy today, running from one window to other one. She was also talking at the windows. First of all I thought that she saw a cat or a bird, but then I noticed that she was talking with the snowflakes while they were falling down… She is tired so much and sleeping in her bed basket at my desk. But I am sure, she is listening to me! Yes, she can understand me what I am thinking or saying even without hearing my voice….! She reads mymind… (a little break! because she read me again and wanted me to touch her and to take her to the kitchen for some food… )

I came back to my desk… she is too. It is snowing right now… I can say all day long it snowed but not in same speed… I am afraid it would be a few days like that…

A new life is rising under the snow… I hope and wish my tulips will be fine…

Tree trunks impress me so much…

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Yesterday snow came back and snowed. In a very short time covered all the city… I watched on the television news, the most beautiful place was the tallest building, “The Sapphire” to watch the city under the snow… There were crazy people like me to think of this and took some pictures at the terrace of this building….

Yesterday the traffic became a problem in the late afternoon because the temperatures went down, to the minus 8 degrees… That means we haven’t seen this temperature before… At least for 33 years.. As it is said that the thracian side of my country was minus 15 last night… The coldest one that they recorded. On the other hand, in the east part of my country, the winter always is being very hard… But now much more… If you ask me what about Mediterranean part… yes, there is snow there too, but the highest places (Toros Mountains) and in land… The sea side cold but not snowing there…

These photographs from yesterday…

“Snowing ” like in the fairy tales…

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I always talk about new face of my city. In these days, there are so many new projects in building sector.  I am not against to the new buildings… but the whole view should be in harmony… The city with all other buildings (old, historical, legal and illegal) standing in a big mess for me… To establish a new city should be easy but to make something in an old city, can’t be easy of course. In here, what is the exact word for the whole image of my city, “contradiction”,  ”discrepancy”, “contrast”….? I am not sure what to say…

These are some photographs that (as always) I took them while going by car on the road…

Last weekend, in the search of snow…

Legal and illegal together… It is not easy to clean up the city from all these illegal buildings… Even they are big risk for earthquake…

Last weekend the snow was like that… but today we have more. I will post them too!

While we were going in the search of snow by our car, to be honest I didn’t expect to find something like that, outside the city. Fascinated me. This is a small studio of a sculpture art…  It was standing so beautifully when we turned the road. It was a greeting of art. Yes, ART! What I want to see more in this city, ART, art, art,….

Some of houses like this one, was built by their owners… but most of them are not legal. They have to be built according to architecturel rules… They are all being risk.

Istanbul is also one of the industrial cities in my country. Even the most important one with her ports, etc. But of course, the city is well known because of her cultural, historical parts… As well as is a center of art, fashion, education, etc. too. So, every year there are so many people move from Anatolian to this city. There is an old saying in here for Istanbul, “Istanbul’s stones and soils are gold.” So you can guess the population how rising. Estimately, between 13 – 17 millions…

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What is the charming of this city, Istanbul? Even for me, who have been living in this city from 60s till today… I think the variety in (or) this city fascinates… The old and new they are all standing together. The history and today you live in the same time… When I compare with western world’s cities, I can see this, they usually keep the historical part of the city and they build a new city out side of this historical place… But yes, in these days, there are some examples that show us not like that anymore… Anyway, in my city this complex or mixed architectural structures maybe creates also a charming view too… In any place suddenly you can find yourself in the history or in a modern world… Of course never easy to keep the old places and old houses…

These are some old Istanbul houses… Always reminds me, my childhood memories in this city…

1) a street in the Bosphorus area with the old houses that had a restoration…

2) During summer holidays, when I stayed in my grandparent’s home, my grandmother took me with her to her neighbour visit… I remember from those days, a smell of lavender… There was a beautiful lady who lived in an old house like this one. Her home decorations were so nice, fascinated me always. Lace and antiques… Once the weatheer was a little bit cool and I felt cold, she took me in her room, and opened an antique chest of drawers, I smelled at first time lavender… The smell was coming from drawers… There were little lavender sacks… She found a sweater for me, it was too big! But smelling lavender… How much I loved this room and this old house and this smell… And then all these old houses were a smell of lavender for me. Still I can feel the same.  

They try to stand to the time…

I remember what she says in her last book and maybe the most famous book of her, “The Memories of a Dinosaur”, “People should write their own stories or what’s going on around them, for example a grocer at the corner of the street. How would be so nice to read his story, how started and how raced with new markets and then how changed everything in his own street…. “  I remember always her words… This city, Istanbul changes very fast… and sometimes I can’t catch all these new things, and changes… There are always stories behind all these changes… To keep a diary or to take pictures, or to write everything, how important and precious…

Mina Urgan, (1915-2000) she is the deceased Professor of English Literature in Istanbul university. She translated so many great names of the world literatures… Like Thomas Moore, Shakespeare, D. H. Lawrence ,Virgina Woolf ,…etc. I loved all these writers from her translations… She introduced me them. 

Like a lace….

Sometimes narrow streets between the old buildings…

The shadows of time… or memories… My mother-in-law, she grew up in one of old houses in the Bosphorus, like this one. How much I loved to listen to her stories… And she was so happy to share with me… There were so many little details that I fell in love… During the summer days how smell all house, strawberry! Because they are making strawberry jam… Just before our marriage this old house burned. It was suspected that  was a sabotage but police nothing found for this. At the end, there is a new buildings now instead of this old house… I have never seen this house because everything was burned in this fire. How sad…  

This is the newest one that had a restoration. A quick picture, I was on the road… But during spring I want to visit again… I loved what they made.

Just a window… But we know it is not just a window… What stories lived… What rains and snows hit… All these invisible days into the colours of this old house…. How many times got restorations… maybe how many owners?… Maybe a woman waited for her love at these windows… or maybe a mother!

Number 68! Just a door of an old house… But you know, it is not just a door for me…

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When the lights on in the city,….

A cafe/bar at the Bosphorus…

The enterance of the Bosphorus Palace… It is so beautiful and so romantic… One day I dream to stay in this hotel…

http://bosphoruspalace.com/en/index.html

“Beylerbeyi”… means “ ”Lord of Lords”. It is one of famous places in the city. It  is the Ottoman title used for the highest rank in the hierarchy of provincial administrators (all military officers at high ranks, generally Pashas.) It is in western terms a Governor-general, with authority over the Governors (often styled Wali) of several vilayets, generally (if not yet made) a Pasha (General), second only to the Grand Vizier. But in today’s world it is one of historical and touristic places. There are old houses and Ottoman Palace and also some otantic cafe/bar/restaurants.

As these old (but they all had  restoration) houses….

Old bakery… It’s going to be re-built…

People late afternoon at the street along the sea… in Üsküdar…

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Princess Mihrimah Sultan (born 21 March 1522 – 25 January 1578) was the daughter of the Ottoman Sultan Sulei0man the Magnificent and his Ruthenian wife, Hürrem Sultan. Princess Mihrimah means ”Sun and Moon”.

Mihrimah Sultan’s most famous foundations are the two Istanbul-area mosque complexes that bear her name, both designed by her father’s chief architect, Mimar Sinan “Architect Sinan”. Mihrimah Mosque at the Edirne Gate, at the western wall of the old city of Istanbul, was one of Sinan’s most imaginative designs, using new support systems and lateral spaces to increase the area available for windows. The second mosque is the “İskele Mosque” (Quay Mosque), which is one of Uskudar’smost prominent landmarks.

There is a myth about these two Mosques. It is said that Architect Sinan fell in love with Mihrimah and built the smaller mosque in Edirnekapı without palace approval, on his own, dedicated to his love. The legend continues to say that on 21st of March (when day time and night time are equal and Mihrimah’s alleged birthday, hence the name) at the time of sunset, if you have clear view of both mosques, you will notice that as the sun sets behind the only minaret of the mosque in Edirnekapı, the moon rises between the two minarets of the mosque in Üsküdar.

These photographs late afternoon were taken… This is Quay Mosque with the lights of mosque…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihrimah_Sultan

http://www.allaboutturkey.com/sinan.htm

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Some photographs from the city…

Unusual light at the terrace….

“Fashion is Vakko”…. There is “discount” in these days…

Traditional Turkish “Simit”, means a crisp, ring-shaped, savory roll covered with sesame seeds…

Ice cream….

“Tik Tak”… “ Tick Tock”   Always interesting for me clock shops or clock or watch repair shops… Coming from my childhood days… Maybe it is understandable why I wasted my watches… Maybe I wanted to learn how they work… Especially my favurite these bird wall clocks!

Late afternoon, the wind, the rain and the smoke of a house… Actually the original photograph doesn’t say anything but when I turned it something like that, I found it much more interesting. I hope for you too…

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Last saturday people at the street…. (in the sea side of the Bosphorus) Can you see his light of smoke

People at the Baghdad Street… “Şaşkınbakkal”, the name of this area, means “Confused Grocer”… why did they call like that, I don’t know but should be a story for this.  

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