I appear to have lost a week again. This happens fairly regularly here. Each day is full and feels long and leisurely but then you turn round and several weeks more than you thought have slid past. To be fair I am in the middle of a big research project and I tend to lose days of time when that happens as I plug myself into the web and suck up information

I’m pretty sure I did things other than just read stuff, there are things that have to be done, dogs to walk, garden to be maintained, pool to clean, beds to change, meals to cook, so even if I can’t remember the specifics I’m confident all of this happened at some point.

Dogs got walked – in the cool of early morning or the thick golden light of sunset we take the dogs along the valley edges, where I lose more time studying the sunlit funnels of the spider’s webs strung between flowers at the side of the path as the crescendos of crickets rise and fall around us. Vinnie does his limping on all four legs routine as he reluctantly trails behind us and Shadow, a fool in the sun, races across the sunlit stretches between the trees sending the grasshoppers flying before her in waves.

The pool got cleaned – it gets vacuumed every couple of days but at least once a week at this time of year I scrub the sides to clean the grout. I don’t use many chemicals, it doesn’t need it, it doesn’t get an awful lot of use and so a few splashes of algicide and a scrub once a week keeps it green free and it’s a much nicer form of exercise than sweating in a gym. At some point this week I must have worked my way around the pool with my brush, hooking my fingers in the jets to hold me in position as I scrub the mosaic border, pausing now and then to rescue the odd castaway bug thrashing in the water. My daughter spends all her time here rescuing bugs and so I tend to rescue them too unless I feel evil in which case I push them towards the skimmer and then feel guilty.

Beds get changed – on a hot night there is nothing nicer than cool fresh sheets and given I have a deep love for linens the beds get changed even at the hottest times of year when you have done nothing other than lie on top of them in the waffling wash of the air con. I’m pretty sure I put the ironing off this week though, I’m prone to that!

Garden got maintained – one of the side effects of endless sun is serious garden growth and the plumbago in the border by the pool normally goes mad at this time of year and puts out riots of pale blue flowers that turn into sticky tendrils when they have finished blooming. I have to chop it back regularly. And as the courtyard is mainly a container garden it all needs a lot of watering as in 40 degrees the pots dry out quickly. The garden is a wonder right now, the roses are on their second wind, the oleander blooms on and, strangely enough, so does the wisteria which is still finding the energy to flower whilst rushing up the studio wall. The jasmine outside has made it onto the railings that top the wall and is starting to weave its way across, as is the wild rose and the yellow rose.

Food got cooked – although it involves a lot less effort than winter! We’re happily living on salads – herb salads with rocket and cheese dressed with olive oil and grape molasses, bean salads of fat white beans smothered in olive oil and lemon juice and flecked with parsley and spring onions, bowls of potato salad and couscous with basil and tangy white cheese, lots of different types of bread and still, an awful lot of cherries. Best thing at the moment, thick thick yoghurt from Selcuk market served drizzled with cherries cooked in sweet wine and raspberry liqueur – really yum.

So despite my mainly believing I have only looked at a computer screen and learnt a lot of weird stuff in the last week or so I guess I still managed to spend a significant chunk of my time enjoying the lifestyle you come here for.

• July in Turkey,
• passing your time as an expat,
• summer in Turkey