Post Summer blues

[samson]

you keep that chicken locked up next month and whatever you do please dont leave your oven door open!

[itstime]

Loving reading this and really cheers up a dismal day. More please 

[kalkan4eva]

absolutely loving your insight into Turkish life....keep your posts coming, Korderekid. Not sure I can go a day without them now

[Lizilu20]

Ditto itstime and K4E. Please keep these brilliant posts coming. I'm getting very attached to death wish chicken and hearing about Turkish life. 

[Korderekid]

To reach the group of houses in our small neighbourhood you have to drive along a dirt track. For ten years there have been rumours that the dirt track would be turned into a 'proper road', one that did not become impassable every time it rains heavily.

But as the road is so poor, and ultimately goes nowhere, we get almost no traffic. Wildflowers grow all along the verges, we have iris, cyclamen,slipper orchids, jonquils, anemones and poppies in profusion.

Children as young as two and three use the road as a playground, our elderly female neighbours gather at the well - no longer used - and sit for hours in the sun doing their crochet, 'mad Mehmet' who has dementia, from time to time goes to sleep in the middle of the road, and if a car comes along the driver stops, wakes up Mehmet, moves him to the grass verge and continues his journey and of course chickens strut up and down, crossing the road
continually.

This is home for Death Wish Chicken. We still don't know where she lives.  She can be found every day on the track, but so far,, none of our neighbours have claimed ownership. Each morning she arrives at our house just after the bread man, stays for breakfast then wanders off to spend the day playing in the road.

Yesterday she went a step further. I had taken the dogs for a walk, leaving the front door open. When I came home twenty minutes later, Death Wish was sitting on the kitchen table, listening to the Today Programme on my laptop.  She seems to be nursing a secret passion for John Humphries. Every time she heard his voice she puffed up and clucked.

She was shown the door, which was closed behind her and strolled up the drive to begin her daily promenade on the track.

Then the peace of our little community was shattered. There was a deafening roar, the ground started to tremble, an ear splitting grinding of gears and into view along the track came an enormous earth moving machine. We have waited ten years and finally, the road is going to be asphalted.

The old ladies fled back to their houses, mad Mehmet was whisked away by his daughter in law, the children stopped playing and ran back to their mothers and death wish stood in the middle of the road and defiantly stood her ground. Was this to be the ultimate and fatally final game of chicken for death wish?

The driver of this huge machine could not see death wish, she was below his line of vision. It seemed as though this was the end but then there was an even louder noise as the earth mover, which was almost a metre wider than the actual track, became entangled in the mains water pipe which supplies all our house.

Suddenly, a jet of water ten metres high shot up in the air and came down directly on top of death wish. She too shot up in the air and rushed for safety.

Within minutes the track was completely flooded. The machine was well and truly stuck and the driver went for a cup of tea with his cousin who lives up here, leaving chaos in his wake.

We can go neither in nor out as the machine completely blocks the track. Some of the neighbours are stranded one one side of the machine, some on the other. 24 hours later the broken pipe is still broken, there is no mains water and we are all talking about using the well again.

Death wish has disappeared again. She didn't come for breakfast and has missed her favourite radio programme.

And I am left with food for thought. A friend more familiar with the ways of chickens than me has pointed out that all the chickens around here look the same. Must be inbreeding. How do I know that death wish is just one chicken. Perhaps death wish and her entire close family take turns to visit me. Maybe all the chickens here , because of inbreeding , are deeply disturbed and I am building a relationship not with one chicken but an entire flock. What a terrible thought.

KK

[samson]

  so you have a chicken that plays"chicken" !

[itstime]

Oh my word KK  not sure which is worst, having no water, being stuck at home and not able to get out or the thought that you could be playing host to an entire brood of crazy chickens 
If it's any consolation at all I absolutely envy you your "interesting" life 

[turkeyfan]

Love, love, love it!

[Blue Lizard]

I do hope Death wish chicken is allright...many years ago i worked with a digger driver and rather worryingly most of his meals consisted of chicken sandwiches 

[Kalkan regular]

You painted a great picture of local life. Love it.

[kalkan4eva]

Lordy...what a pickle
Seeing how DWC is fairly approachable you could try tagging her to see if it is the same one or one of many...I hope its the same one and not a family of suicidal birds.
In the meantime, I hope things get sorted for you all soon but if you are trapped does that mean more posts...I hope so

[Lizilu20]

I am absolutely LOVING reading your posts about traditional village life and it's characters. It sounds idyllic (apart from no water, no access etc!) and reminiscent of "birds without wings" which I really loved reading. I would love to know how you ended up living in Kordere, and is it better living in a village on the outskirts of Kalkan, rather than Klkan itself? Sorry for being nosy, but I'm finding your posts addictive and I just want to hear/read more and more. 

[Helshe]

I agree with everyone else, hilarious, fascinating, intriguing, uplifting and sooo descriptive. I think you should have your own page and we can be entertained for hours by your exploits
P.S i am sorry about your current predicament of being trapped in your house with no water and heaven knows how many crazy chickens

[Korderekid]

Today all is well in our little hamlet in Kordere. The earth moving machine was towed away by an even bigger machine. We were told by the driver that the asphalt machine would come soon. When pressed on a definition of soon, he smiled apologetically and said 'maybe next year'

So the children are back playing on the track, the old ladies have abandoned their crochet and have started speed knitting, a bit like speed dating but with more positive results. They rush up to any passing neighbour, cast an expert eye over their body shape and size them up for a wooly garment which they produce in a matter of days. As the ladies buy their wool from the travelling haberdashery van, which has a very limited range of colours, all the garments produced in a particular period are usually the same colour. This month the haberdashery driver had a special offer on day glo yellow and purple. I am currently wearing a very fetching wooly hat in these colours knitted for me by Hatice, who spends her time watching her sheep and goats and knitting six hats a day.

We 'pay' for these 'presents' by offering gifts which are beyond the reach of the neighbours usual weekly budget. So cartons of fruit juice, chocolate biscuits, baklava, shop  bought cakes and sweets are gratefully accepted .

The custom here is for neighbours to share, especially if they have an excess of anything. We regularly receive sacks of apples, onions, peppers and tomatoes.

I am trying to keep pace with this generosity with catering size packs of custard creams, much loved by all.

I have even thought of giving death wish chicken as a present to our nearest neighbour, since I now know it is theirs but that may be going too far.

Death wish has returned and taken up residence in the greenhouse. She can never resist an open door and seized her moment to sneak in  when I had left the door ajar to reduce the temperature,  because the heat was wilting my seedling winter cabbages. No need to worry about them now. Death wish has eaten the lot . 22 baby cabbages, it has played havoc with her digestion system. The floor of the greenhouse looks as though a flock of seagulls with diarrhoea has passed through.

She follows the sun. In the morning when it comes over the mountain, death wish is on the top shelf - herbs and small chilli peppers. After a suitable snack and as the sun changes position, she moves to the middle shelf, cornflowers and wildflower mix ready to be planted out in our meadow, so far she has not eaten this. Evening finds her on the lowest shelf, overwintering geranium cuttings, also not to her taste.

We found out that death wish has in effect been banished from her own home. Our nearest neighbour worked for a week clearing space for a vegetable garden. He planted it with vegetable seedlings, bought at great expense from Kinik market. He fenced the lot with chicken wire but death wish got in and ate her way through 25 liars worth of seedlings, a fortune for our neighbour to lose.

So death wish was given to our neighbours son with the instruction that he put her in our garden . since our neighbours all know we are always taking in stray cats and dogs they obviously deduced that we would welcome a chicken.

I am now searching the Internet for boiled chicken recipes. She is far too scrawny to roast. But I think a boiled chicken stuffed with baby cabbage and herbs could be quite tasty.

All that is saving her at present is that I couldn't bring myself to chop her head off. However, if she stays in the. Greenhouse much longer she will either die of heatstroke or over eating. When that happens, in the pot she goes,

KK

[maryjane]

OH NO, please do not "despatch" DWC     Pack her a little "featherweight" case (full of seedlings and bread), I will pay for her flight to Gatwick (as an unaccompanied minor) and she can rule my roost

[Lizilu20]

Another fab instalment!! Thanks KK. 

[kalkan4eva]

your posts make my day Korderekid I just love reading about the simplicity of your life and long to be in your shoes....well not literally mind, I'm kinda particular about my shoes
Can I ask that you start your own thread...just to make life easier for people to find you. I pick and choose (not just shoes then...) which threads to read as a lot of them don't interest me, but your posts are just so wonderful and deserve their own slot.
Look forward to the next installment...and many more to come

[Bdancer]

Great posts, and I look forward to the further adventures DWC .I agree with K4eve about having a seperate thread
Isis

[Mags]

KK: whereabouts is Kordere in relation to Kalkan? I'd never heard of it before you started posting.

And can I be nosy and ask what made you decide to live there? And you presumably speak Turkish  fluently - where did you learn? I really admire anyone who can master Turkish (unless they are a Turk, of course).

Agree with others: it's very interesting indeed reading your posts about traditional Turkish life. Makes a pleasant change from "wot I did on my holidays"............ (not that there's anything wrong with that - before someone leaps down my throat - just that KK's posts are a glimpse of the side of Turkish life which most holidaymakers don't experience).

[brian j p]

Fried chicken for tea tonight, and  almost feeling guilty ! Love reading these posts