You can tell when summer comes to the village. Apart from the more regular appearance of the sun the Yörük goat herders head off, with all their goats and possessions, to their summer grounds (yayla) up in the hills where there is water and good grazing. The Çukurbağ Yaylası is about seventy kilometres from the main Çukurbağ village here and it usually takes them about three days to get there. They walk with their goats while their shanty tents and possessions go by tractor or truck. This year the ones who stay for the winter just up the road from my place here left a few days ago so yesterday when we walked the dogs we went to have a look at their empty camp site. A shrill mewing sound alerted the dogs and there, hidden amongst a pile of old boxes and clothes were a couple of tiny kittens.
They weren’t going to survive long there so they are the new residents here. After a day of eating, drinking and sleeping they are now gambolling around the place quite happily. Stanley is taking a dim view of the new arrivals though, he is nine years old this year and has grown used to being the only cat. I don’t think he is too pleased about the arrival of a couple of babies and has hissed at them a couple of times. Well it was the same when he came, then the boss was another big ginger tom called Roy and he didn’t like the baby Stanley at all to begin with, I dare say Stan will get used to these little ones soon.
I noticed a Dragonfly sitting on a stick yesterday so here is a picture of it, not as colourful as some I have seen but still interesting.
Cukurbagli's Blog 
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