Archive for the ‘Animals’ Category
Going over to the Greek island of Meis is always a treat for me. I like to hear Greek spoken, it reminds me of my days in Cyprus, and I can get a couple of duty free items. As usual I got a bottle of Cognac and one of decent red wine, the other thing they have over there that I can’t get here is Cadbury’s Whole Nut chocolate. I got two 400 gram slabs, you can’t call it a bar of chocolate when it’s that big. Also had a pork chop for lunch and a couple of beers. When I got back home I had a sleep on the sofa on the veranda with the dogs.
This evening one of the Hoopoes was wandering around the garden busily pecking at stuff. I scared it off at first but it came back and I managed to get quite a decent photograph of it. Little bit of motion blur on it’s crest but otherwise quite good except for the lack of light.
200mm 1/50th at f4 ISO 100
In the garden this morning doing some tidying up I heard the dogs start to bark and looked up to see what they had seen. Hanife, my neighbour was at the gate with her little girl. I went down to see her and she wanted to ask if she could bring her cows in through the other gate to eat the grass growing in the centre and at the sides of the drive down there. Well it saved me the job of cutting it down so I said yes. Eating the grass would be good for the cows too because it is thick, rich grass and not the sparse stuff that grows alongside the roads. It would be good for me in another way, I get my milk from Hanife and what’s good for the cows is good for my milk. It’s beautiful milk too, lovely and creamy and makes fantastic porridge. Here’s a picture of Hanife and her daughter with one of her three cows.
She can bring the cows again. In the past I haven’t suggested it because I didn’t want cow manure full of weed seeds all over the place. Now I have a big container I can shovel it up and let it soak in with some water to make a good feed for some of the plants, they don’t do that much of it anyway.
My neighbour Mustafa came past the back of my place the day before yesterday so I told him about his dog. He said that four or five dogs had been killed by the poison so somebody is going to be on the receiving end of some retribution when they find out who did it. While we were talking I took the opportunity to ask him if there was any spare milk now that his cow has had a calf. He told to come and get some so I went yesterday with an empty five litre yoghurt container and his wife Hanife filled it up for me. It costs me six lira and it’s lovely milk.
I’ve been repairing the veranda roof for the last three days. I painted all the wood that I got with stain on Thursday yesterday started to lay the shingle roll. With a superhuman effort I finished this evening at six and tidied up a bit, fed the dogs and went to get a well-earned beer from the fridge. No cold beer! I’ve had to put a couple in the freezer so while I’m waiting for them to cool I’m writing this, then I’ll have a shower and they should be just right by then. I’ll have a beer and a good sit down as my old Granny used to say.
I’m sad today. Often I let my dogs off their leads first thing in the morning so that they can go and have a bit of a run around in the bushes at the back of my place. Yesterday my two big dogs Wilf and Alf ate something bad for them, it could have been rat poison or just something that is bad for dogs, I don’t know but they were in a bad way for a couple of hours. I’ve decided that letting them off their leads first thing in the morning is not a good idea so I am going to reinstate the early morning walk that I seem to have let slide in recent months.
Well this morning I took them for a walk a couple of times round the garden and I found my neighbour’s dog, the one that I call Skinny, lying dead. He had obviously eaten some of the same stuff as mine had. Poor Skinny, he never did anyone any harm, quite the opposite in fact, I feel really sad about him.
Skinny has been coming to play with my dogs for about a year now I think. Shortly after I first saw him he had an infection in his right eye and although the vet had a look at him it was too late and he lost his sight in that eye. Another time he was taken to the vet in Fethiye by another of the Brits living in the village and neutered. He was nothing but skin and bone in those days, I’d been giving him food most days and recently he was starting to look a bit better, he was also starting to be happy. He played nicely with my dogs and came bounding happily when he saw me and at last seemed to be enjoying life. Well that’s all ended now, what a shame. I’ll go and tell the neighbour later on today but I don’t suppose there’ll be much sadness there. Dogs seem to come and go around here, there are only a few that last more than a couple of years.
R.I.P. Skinny, hope you enjoy yourself in doggy heaven.
I live in a wooden house. Completely wood, roof to floor. This morning I was cutting up some wood for the kuzina (baby Aga) and came across a wood boring grub. I’m glad to see them, it means I can keep the wood twenty or thirty yards away from the house until I need it, I always kill them though, no need to give them the opportunity to have a go at the house, but you never know how many of them are lurking in a piece of wood. I get a quiet sense of satisfaction when I put some infested wood on the fire, I imagine I can hear them cooking.
This morning though I came across more than usual, and they put me in mind of the Australian Aborigines who eat a species called the witchetty grub as part of their bush tucker. I didn’t fancy eating these but I guess a few this size would keep you going until dinner time eh?
Yes that’s MY size nine workboot next to them, they’re bigger than my big toe! Wilf, my white dog had a sniff and proceeded to eat them! I won’t put the photo here for decency’s sake, it’s disgusting and judging by the face he pulled I should think he was glad when he’d finished them!
Some days I question the wisdom of having a wooden house, but at least the wood is kiln dried and treated against this sort of thing, thanks be to Allah.
Cukurbagli's Blog 
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