Photos

(This photo was taken end of afternoon, when the terrace is in the shade ; sitting up there, in front of the grand view was a pleasure, but not the best moment to take photos – I wanted to keep a remembrance of this friendly gesture of extending food towards me and she did not pose ; the result is this photo that has strange colours and on which I struggled with photoshop, without perfect results I fear – what do you think ?)
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Last week, I visited again Hanife Hanim, and gave her some photos that I had taken the last time I was in her « domain », and you can see a general view of it here . She is living in fascinating squatted antique caves perched on a stiff cliff and there are other photos from her in my small theme : squatting in Cappadocia (the same lady, sitting at the same table, with her grand son in the far, is in this photo ).

One of the photos given to her was of her grand son, 5 years-old Tuna, who had been taken back by his father not long ago (he has a « new wife » and he had left his son to his parents for some time) : when seeing the photo, tears came instantly to her eyes as she missed him so much, she kissed profusely the photo and then carefully placed it on top of a cupboard, for her husband to see it when he would come back in a few hours.

Then of course, she told me that she would prepare tea, and busy with this daily routine, she started again chatting like before : I am always amazed by the simplicity of those people, who can pass from tears to laugh so quickly and who are not shy to show their deep emotions…

On this photo, she is telling me : « Hadi, ye ! » = « well, come on, eat ! », with an inviting gesture, the queen of her place, in front of this grand panorama of a mixture of old caves and new houses, sure of herself and if not rich, nonetheless a proud woman who pays her electricity bills and can generate some income, producing small handicrafts that she sells to tourists.

The food consists of « dolmas » = a traditional dish, of delicious stuffed grape leaves, with inside rice and spices, together with yoghurt ; tea will be served in a few minutes and she has prepared sugar for me, but like so many women of her age in Turkey, she suffers from diabetes, so she has those sugar substitutes near her glass.

Also interesting in this photo, behind us on the edge of the terrace, are the colourful « teneke », tin boxes originally containing olives, oil (or even anti freeze), carefully stored and re-used by many farmers as dust bins or more often, as in this case, like pots to grow flowers or vegetables. Very common in Cappadocia, and all over Turkey I guess…

Anyway, I look forward to my next visit to Hanife Hanim, with whom I always like to chat and who is so hospitable...
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(Another photo with technical problems - for me, a debutante in digital photography and PP... your advice about PP is most welcome and will encourage me, because I feel pretty lazy with technology)