Karen Phillips

Author – Photographer – Traveller
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Playing Tourist

I have lived my whole life in tourist destinations, from beautiful Pembrokeshire to the Costa Del Sol, from the Mayan Riviera to the Turkish Aegean, and I am lucky to have lived like that and it isn’t that I take the places I have lived…
  • Playing Tourist

This is Turkey

This is Turkey, where when your car spectacularly blows a turbo in the middle of road works at 2 o’clock in the morning and dies in an impressive cloud of black smoke the people in the car behind stop and help. This is Turkey where…
  • This is Turkey

The week in Kirazli – April 30th 2011

It’s all been a bit busy this week and I haven’t had time to blog or even comment on my favourite blogs, between guests getting rained on and house viewings and guest changeovers and lots of cooking it’s been unusually hectic. And now to top…
  • The week in Kirazli – April 30th 2011

Property Advice Turkey – The 2nd House you buy in Turkey

One of my friends has just given up his villa with an awesome view in Yalikavak and moved to a prettier, more private, no sea view house inland for a variety of very sensible reasons. Funnily enough this is the fourth time in the last…
  • Property Advice Turkey – The 2nd House you buy in Turkey

The Main Attractions

Yesterday I was rewriting the information booklet (ha, massive tome!) we leave in the studio for guests and thought I would take some extracts and put them on here. This is a brief guide to the big attractions locally with a few prices, tips and…
  • The Main Attractions

Samos – Sunny in Spring

I actually got sunburnt last Friday, and that never happens, but we took a day trip to Samos to stock up on piggy products and spices you can’t get here and it was a glorious sunny day and I was glowing when we got off…
  • Samos – Sunny in Spring

Studio Life in Kirazli

Spring is here, all of our routine maintenance is done, the pool is sparkling, the shutters are teak oiled, the Studio is freshly painted and we’re all ready for the first guests of the new season. Despite turning down a lot of bookings in January…
  • Studio Life in Kirazli

Test Kitchen Week

A new season is starting and I’ve spent the week playing with recipes and testing new stuff. Most worked, but one really didn’t and even Nick refused to eat it (Shadow liked it!). Also, my daughter and her hungry boyfriend arrive soon and as food…
  • Test Kitchen Week

Things I wish I’d brought, and things I’m glad I brought

Every expat in Turkey can fill an entire evening with the things they miss from home, normally food related, and will wax lyrical about bacon sarnies and PG tips teabags and crumpets and sausages and gammon steaks. I don’t tend to miss the food so…
  • Things I wish I’d brought, and things I’m glad I brought

A true tortoise tale

This is a true tortoise story and there is no mention of hair or fur or knitting with tortoise hair although many people enjoyed and some people believed (go figure!) the April 1st tortoise story. We have a new resident, a tiny tortoise, rescued by…
  • A true tortoise tale

New Residency Permit Costs

The major gripe of expats in Turkey over the last few years has been the cost of a residency permit. In theory, under the recipricocity principles, it was supposed to be the equivalent of what a Turkish person would pay to reside in the UK,…
  • New Residency Permit Costs

The Tortoises of April

It’s that time of year again, early April, and in their shallow mountain burrows the tortoises are stirring from their hibernation as the earth warms and the sap, so to speak, rises. Here in Kirazli the rare Hittite Tortoise is still farmed by the villagers.…
  • The Tortoises of April

A Home in Kirazli – Scenes from village life

I sit here with the cat attempting to climb onto the keyboard, the spring sunlight is bright warm yellow, sliding through the windows, patching the tiles with squares of light that the dogs take turns to bask in. Nick is cleaning the pool and we…
  • A Home in Kirazli – Scenes from village life

Louis de Bernières – Birds without Wings author – at Kaya Koyu

Last night I received an invitation it breaks my heart to turn down. Louis de Bernières, author of the beautiful Birds without Wings and the more famous Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (great book, lousy film!) is visiting Fethiye and Kaya Koyu for the afternoon on 1st…
  • Louis de Bernières – Birds without Wings author – at Kaya Koyu

Horrible Hector

This is Hector, my cactus. I don’t remember how he got his name, I think it was Nick who named him, and I think even Achilles would think twice before taking him on. He started life as a sweet and innocent little cactus in a…
  • Horrible Hector
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