Karen Phillips

November Days and Nights Drawing In

This is the first November I have spent in the UK for nearly a decade….it’s bloody dark isn’t it! The weather since February had lulled me into a false sense of security; a mild winter, a gorgeous early spring and a lengthy summer that shone…

November Days and Nights Drawing In

Lazy like a fox – why I love Chalk Paint!

I am known for being lazy. My Mother once said the only reason I breast fed was because I was too lazy to wash bottles – it’s true, such shame! But I am lazy like a fox, I do a ton of research so I…

Lazy like a fox – why I love Chalk Paint!

So Many Learning Curves – Taking on GoPro Hero4 and Thermomix!

It was a coincidence that I landed myself with two, totally new to me, need to learn how to use them, bits of technology, within the space of a month. One was the Thermomix, a high end food processor that you see used on Masterchef…

So Many Learning Curves – Taking on GoPro Hero4 and Thermomix!

Rebuilding Home – Inside the House – things that worked and things that didn’t

If the garden was bad the inside of the house was worse. When we arrived we only had one small loo and shower and we only had that because my lovely plumber Ian came out to the house, waded through the crap and got it…

Rebuilding Home – Inside the House – things that worked and things that didn’t

Summer in Pembrokeshire before the tourists arrive

In May and June, before high season kicks off, before the schools close and the families come to colonise the holiday cottages, we get Pembrokeshire to ourselves. We get the wide beaches, bouncy grass headlands and secret coves between steep slices of cliff, all to…

Summer in Pembrokeshire before the tourists arrive

Rebuilding Home – In The Garden – things that worked and things that didn’t

I returned to my home in Pembrokeshire in February to a garden that was mainly mud interspersed with nettles and random rubbish. My lousy tenants had ruined the garden with a combination of chickens, dog crap, bizarre fencing and driving assorted vehicles over it. In…

Rebuilding Home – In The Garden – things that worked and things that didn’t

Eating Pembrokeshire – Narberth, foodie heaven

I haven’t written much since we got home; we had a surprisingly mild winter and so we took the opportunity to work outside on the house and garden, then we had a beautiful spring and so we decided to continue to make the most of…

Eating Pembrokeshire – Narberth, foodie heaven

Because I’m Welsh – Moving Home

This is Wales, where the restless waves of the Irish Sea forever wash wide grey sands and the sunsets linger for hours, where the greens of the hills and the water meadows have a hundred hues and a symphony of birdsong starts in the semi…

Because I’m Welsh – Moving Home

Indian Summer

This is the Indian Summer (cue Stereophonics), it’s my absolute favourite time of year, I can’t seem to take a bad photograph with clear colour drenched skies above us, seas that look lit from below and sunlight through the leaves changing their colours every second.…

Indian Summer

September Sunsets

We were promised rain last Monday night, storms and rain, lightening and rain, wet stuff from the sky – hurray! Pathetic isn’t it, how excited you get about seeing rain and feeling rain and smelling rain after four months without a cloud in the sky.…

September Sunsets

Cornucopia – Turkey for the open minded

There is something hugely uplifting about Cornucopia, the tri annual magazine and online site that cherishes Turkey. I like to think of it as like the best baklava, the kind that gets offered on very special occasions, the kind that is layers of crisp goodness…

Cornucopia – Turkey for the open minded

Diary of a diving day…

Early morning – I’m lying in bed waiting for the alarm to go off. My internal alarm woke me up a few minutes ago and I’m watching the sunlight on the pine forests and the mosque minaret and thinking “I need a gallon of coffee”…

Diary of a diving day…

Kirazli stone village house – one summer’s night

I just noticed that the website went over 250,000 hits this week. It’s a small number in popular website terms but in terms of a site about a tiny village in Turkey where only 600 people live and nothing much happens it’s a pretty amazing…

Kirazli stone village house – one summer’s night

High Summer – My Summer

This is our summer in Kirazli; now the long days of Ramadan are done the village wakes up again and starts to enjoy the dog days of summer and the starry nights of August. We have a flurry of weddings in coming weeks; the neighbour’s…

High Summer – My Summer

How to be Koy – Buying in the villages in Turkey – Updated 2013

If you are interested in owning an income generating property in a village in Turkey please see our house for sale at Kirazli Village House for sale This rare stone villa is an established and lovingly maintained home having been lived in year round for…

How to be Koy – Buying in the villages in Turkey – Updated 2013

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