Hail

One day there’s hail and the next day it’s sunny as can be!

Some days this is a fountain and some days it’s a dog’s swimming pool!

This big yellow lab just trotted over and jumped in.  His shorter–legged pal just looked on.  The strays are often seen in pairs or a group; but they don’t act like a “gang.”  They are all friendly and I want to take them all home.

Cat visitor

Now that we’re close to the restaurants and not far from “fishermen’s bridge,” we’re closer to lots of the stray cats.  We can often hear one during the night and early morning walking around on the boat having  spent the night.  We don’t feed them or let them in because we don’t want them dependent on us or attached to us…or us to them like we were to that kitten in Israel.    I did make the mistake of giving a bit of chicken to the small doggy that followed us to the boat hoping for some of the cooked chicken we’d just bought in town.   I led her away from the boat and put the bits on the ground but shortly thereafter I heard some creature larger than a cat walking around on the boat.  It was the goofy dog.  We shooed her off and she jumped just in time before the boat moved further from the dock as it does in the wind.  None of the animals look hungry as there are feeding places around the marina and town. 

I have a new bicycle!   

   Aydin Motor where I bought my new bicycle                The owners, Father and Son…we guess

Randal is leaving for China on Friday and will be gone for a month.  I chose to remain here in Marmaris in great part because I just don’t enjoy spending that many hours in airports or airplanes.  I will miss seeing our friends in China, but I really wanted to stay here and continue with classes and projects and CLEAN THE BOAT!!!  Our cruising friends here have bikes so I thought I’d get one to join them on bike rides along the coast.  I’ve missed having a bike and this will keep me entertained while Randal is away. 

We certainly didn’t invest lots of money but then I won’t be doing serious mileage over mountains.  Just jaunts around town. 

I love my new blue bike with the wire front basket. 

Chart Plotter Problems

Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t!  Our GPS is giving Randal fits.  All systems must be “go” before we move along in the spring.  And we need a new dingy and to get the life raft inspected, and and and….

Swedish Sune returned to Wednesday Morning Group to reteach the knots class and to teach how to make a monkey fist.  A monkey fist is made from rope wrapped around a rock or something hard.  The fist has a long “tail” that can be attached to your heavy dock line.  You throw the monkey fist to someone on the dock who then pulls it in to get to your heavy dock line.  Make sense? Wikipedia’s explanation was more confusing.

That’s a monkey fist from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey’s_fist

My fist and my monkey fist..made with lots of help from Sune and classmate Brigget.

Not so complicated at first…but by the end Sune was finishing it for me to make it all small and neat.

Sune, always patient and encouraging,  helps Mary with her monkey fist

If you think Mary looks confused, multiply that look by 10 and that’s how confused I was.

Viktoria                                               Mary                     Sue M

You put the right rope in, you wrap the right rope around, you put the right rope in and you turn it all around….da da da dada dada and da da dada dada,,,, that’s how to make a monkey fist!

And then there’s Randal’s Corn Syrup Cake

    Remember Randal bought all of that corn syrup in case he was able to stumble across some pecans so he could make more pecan pie.  Our pal Gwen, with her friends and contacts everywhere, got Randal some pecans just today!  In the meantime I’d found a recipe for Corn Syrup Cake

#1336 – Corn Syrup Cake

(by Shirley McNevich)

1/2 cup softened butter

1 cup lite corn syrup

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

2 1/4 cups CAKE flour

2 1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

In a mixer add 2 egg whites–beat until stiff and set aside. In a mixer add butter–beat. Add corn syrup–beat. Add 2 egg yolks–beat. Add baking powder–beat. Add milk–beat. Add salt–beat. Slowly add cake flour–beat. Remove bowl from mixer–add beaten egg whites to the batter and fold them in using a spoon. Pour batter into a greased 9 x 13 cake pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes–test with a toothpick for doneness. Serve with whipped topping or frost as desired.

http://momsbest.blogspot.com/2009/06/1336-corn-syrup-cake.html

Randal didn’t have a mixer or the correct sized pan.  The baking powder was bought in Malaysia several years ago   I liked the cake.  It tasted more like cornbread than cake, but that’s okay.  I think it would be great for breakfast with butter and strawberry jam.  Or clotted cream if one had clotted cream.  Randal wasn’t impressed.

I’m still trying to paint…and have learned just a tiny bit but can’t do even that bit consistently. 

More garlic paintings and more attempts to paint Marmaris; I can’t resisit fanciful colors…..