2016 came with heavy snow falls. Our two live pine trees with lights were left on the front porch. Most of January, they were covered with snow. Later in February, heavy snow caused the city to close all schoold. Children were happy to be out for the most the days and play with the snow.

Spring came very quickly and soon we were busy with planting flowers, vegetables, various seeds, etc. Our area in Turkey is literally a farmland, so there is no shortage seedling or seeds of different kinds. We had green peppers, tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, lettuce, and other herbs, strawberries, rasberries whereever we find a spot, there was something.

The next thing was to groom the fruit plants. We had an apple tree, a grape wine, an apricot tree, a plum and a walnut right in our back yard.

  The picture below is a view of Rize from the slopes. The foreground plants are tea plants, not the ferns.

Our first trip out of home was to go to Rize (our hometown) where we had a wedding (a traditional style) in the family. We were surprised and sad to see many condominiums raising by the sea front. Our family home on the right and front is dwarfed by the high rise apartments in the background.

A day at the beach near Ayvalık.

There are no need for words to describe the enjoyment of sunny days with not much wind at sea.

Back to Ayvalık and enjoying the summer still.

This is our Ayvalık home that we bought and fixed up to spend the summers there.

There is big bird in the tree...