Grammy...

Grammy went to heaven today...

She is giving my dad and Ali kisses. Maybe they'll teach her tavla(backgammon)?

She was 90. It was time. She had been wanting to just "go home" for a long time. It was a blessing really. Grandpa wants to follow her close behind. He is her "best kisser" after all...

"one for me, one for you, and one for us" Every time 3 kisses.

They have been married for over 65 years...wow!

I feel fortunate to have so many beautiful memories of my grandparents, their green house with the door always open, bells ringing, the round kitchen table and always plenty of food. The big gardens outside, grammy's raspberry jam, mmm...summer tomatoes with basil, vinegar, and tons of garlic...

She was a great cook!

Grandma never complained, "I'm fine", was so humble, kind, and...

These times are when it is so hard to live abroad...

It was past time for grammy to go but wish I could be hearing the memories shared as everyone takes turn laughing and crying in her honor...listening to "Amazing Grace" in church...hugging the tons and tons of relatives that come with big families who all live close by each other...

It is so different when someone passes at the ripe old age of 90, more a blessing than anything as opposed to 57- then you just feel robbed of time-like it isn't quite fair.

Grandpa will follow soon I'm sure and it will be amazing when the little green house that nurtured 7 babies and tons of grand babies and great-grand babies with the 50 year old willow tree in front? Another constant - a root that will be severed that I am going to have to get used to...ohhh man...

Dear grandma, I love you so much...Goodnight...sweet dreams...

Love, Em

Traditions...

When I was younger I never thought I was a good writer. Then I took my first college english course and the teacher kept telling me to "write what you know." I wrote about our Johnson family Christmas tree hunt with my father as the leader of our pack...can't find the original story but the memories are always strong...especially this time of the year...strong family tradtion...

Every year shortly after Thanksgiving KAJman(our dad) would dawn his bright orange hunting hat signaling it was time for the hunt...hunt for the year's trophy 18 foot Christmas tree.

Our family would get all bundled up, boots, hats, mittens, down jackets, scarves up to our eyes...four children plump from all the layers loaded into the "woody" station wagon all fighting for the back seat. The hidden seat in the trunk so you looked out at the cars behind you. After all settled into our positions, dad prepared with a full 12 pack of Diet Coke under his legs or was it the megaswig stage at this time? Dad would turn the inginition and we were off up the highway to some remote tree farm in northern minnesota where my dad knew we would find the perfect tree.


















My parents house has gorgeous 18 ft. ceilings in the living room and my father placed special hooks so the tree sat perfectly in the middle of the stained glass window. Gorgeous every year...

This year is different with our missing link. We decided to put the tree outside this year and decorate with popcorn and cranberry strings, pinecones with peanutbutter and birdseed, all food for the birds. As the topper we used dad's signature bright orange stocking cap as our shining star tree topper, our angel!!!!

We love you dad!

Also Mavisu is growing more beautiful everyday! She just got over her first cold and we are getting eager to see her daddy when we go back to Turkey in January.

Hope all are having a good holiday season whatever holidays you celebrate! Hope it is filled with love and time to be with those loved ones! xoxo


















Mavisu is getting ready...with her party dress on! Will take picks of the outside tree soon.

Fall...

It is fall in MN. Normally in mine and I believe many Minnesotans opinion the best time of the year with squash, pumpkins, apples, crisp fresh air...













And of course the colorful leaves, reds, yellows, oranges and everything in between. The most gorgeous as the sun shines through warming the crisp air.

Minnesotans know that you really have to get ready for the long cold winter though. Unfortuanatly it might be coming earlier than normal this year but we hope to get another warm spell!

Mom and I readied the gardens. Picking the carrots and beets. Tearing out tomato plants. Harvesting the herbs and honey crisp apples(probably the best apples I have ever had!)all before the EARLY snow we are supposed to get.

Gardening and working outside is so therapeutic. The smells of the soil and the fresh crisp air in your lungs.

Most Minnesotans are busy canning or freezing their gardens right now. My aunties and sister made salsa. So much you can do to preserve the garden delights for winter; canning, freezing and pickling are a few.

I have previously written about Turkish Turşuci, The pickle man. They pickle anything and everything in Turkey and have whole fabulous shops dedicated to this art. I recently came across and article through Istanbul Eats from Today's Zaman about the best Turşu in Turkey and even how to make it yourself...so for those of you drooling over the thought of pickled everything check out the article here and make some yourself...


















We had our little Mavisu Pumpkin Lovely out for some sunshine and fresh air. My darling Turkish in-laws might be upset to think she was out in the cold but I promise she was bundled up tight and I am being a good mommy. I love her more everyday! We miss her Baba (Daddy) though!

In Minnesota...

This beautiful bouquet was made by my darling mother who used lots of good things that have sprung up after the long Minnesota winters. She used rhubarb flowers(I will explain rhubarb and it's deliciousness in a post soon), honeysuckle and some grape vines all inside a cool old glass jar. It was perfect on the picnic table for our BBQ we had! I love the green lawn in the background too! Lots of love for my home town!

I have been in USA for about three weeks now between Minnesota and San Diego, California. Busy times and have been neglecting my blog even though I have lots to write about! I really want to make more time soon!

In the mean time my second column, A Journey Within came out last week through Didim/Altinkum's local English newspaper, Voices. It is a continuation of my first column, the initial experiences/reactions to my first days inside Turkey. Hope you enjoy!

Newspaper artist

I found this piece hanging in the Nordstrom's shoe department at the "Mall of America"(come on Minnesotan sing the jingle song) in Minnesota, USA. At first it is a nice image of course appropriate for the shoe department but then I looked closer and was fascinated by the woven newspaper technique. I come from a Fiber Arts background and love the use of recycled materials, the texture it gives the piece and the large scale.


















Here is a close up. I researched and found from daily art muse.com(lots of good stuff!) woven newspaper paintings by Danish artist Gugger Petter. Living in California since 1986, Petter has used newspapers as a medium for her paintings for the last 18 years, rolling the paper into tubes and weaving the tubes with hemp. Here is Gugger's personal website.

My fascination with newspaper consists not only of its being “the diary of our lives”, it also presents me with a black/white/and limited color palette, which has always been my choice. My work is most often based on an over sized image, an observation of daily life, which can be seen as an abstraction as well as a representational image, where surface, subject matter, color and content all convey tension between opposites.

This inspires me to get creative again by using recycled materials and what is around me...surprise but there is no Dick Blick art stores in Didim...or any equivalent. I do miss really nice paper(any one know how to make paper?), I also have a book idea? On this blog I document daily life and love bring small activities into focus. I just need to get our new house and make myself a studio, a place where I can have all my art junk out and about to work on at any time of the day and not worry about cleaning up. Yes! Messy art fun!

P.S. I am happy for my friend Len for deciding to make art for a living, hard road but I wish her the best!

Bittersweet....

Although it is literally -20F which equals -29C and I have the chance to escape to the warmer climate of Turkey it is still bitter sweet. I miss my husband terribly and not a day goes by that I ever regret marrying him but once I leave Minnesota I know I will miss my family terribly. I have had pretty steady wanderlust since the age of 18. It was always easy to go but lately that excitement has given way to some new sadness. I can't quite figure it out? Maybe because now I fly across the ocean instead of across the states to Cali. Or is it because I am married and have this wonderful husband that my old familiar life barely knows? I think I feel like if I fully give into living in Turkey that we will never come back to the States as we have planned, why do I do this to myself? Where has my vagabonding spirit gone? Reverted back into my roots?

The above photo was taken on the shores of Lake Superior in Duluth, Minnesota. So beautiful but bitter, bitter cold!

Making things with my mama...

We have had a wonderful holiday season but also a sick one in this Minnesota cold so my mother made her sick babies(big grown up babies) some chicken soup with homemade noodles. I love making things with my mother. She is so talented and passionate about everything she makes. I watched her mix the eggs, flour, salt with a little Turkish olive oil since Minnesota is so dry in the winter needs that extra moisture. After the ball of dough was kneaded she cut it into smaller balls and we sent it through the pasta machine. Every time we sent the dough through we made the setting smaller so the get nice thin sheets of pasta. Then another setting evenly slices the noodles. We did this with my Turkish husband via skype with web cam. He chatted with us and watched us do the slicing. Thank you technology for this amazing invention. It is making this big world so much smaller.


















You can save this fresh pasta by line drying it. It hardens and preserves just like the kind you would buy in the store. Again I think my generation is so disconnected where food comes from or how it is made. Also time is always a factor but pasta making is easy and so fun with the ones you love! Hope all are having a happy new year!!! 2009 wow!

Back in Amerika...

Note about the above spelling: In Turkish the "c" is a "j" sound so they add a "k" to America's spelling instead. I previously always referred to my country as USA or "the States" but Turks refer to it as Amerika and I do as well when in Turkey but now I am back in The United States of America...


















Minnesota actually, The Land of Ten Thousand Lakes where the temperature is curently 12 degrees Farenheit which equals -11 degrees Celcius. Yes it is Chilly in the great north but I have been dreaming of a white Christmas, actually a Christmas at all. I became elated while washing my hands in the bathroom of one of the many airports during my long journey back to hear some Christmas carols. Again, Turks are mainly Muslim so Christmas is very minimally celebrated. Some celebrate Baba Noel(Father Christmas) and have a little plastic tree with lights but here in Minnesota we are fortunate to have a plethora of fresh pines to choose from for this grand tradition of The Christmas Tree.


















This one is Sixteen feet which is 4.88 meters. It is our own family tradition to get one as tall as our vaulted ceiling will let us. We will decorate it today as the family collects and decorate while listening to Frank Sinatra sing Christmas songs.

home for the holidays...

I am sitting at the airport getting ready to board my first of three flights to get back to Minnesota for Christmas, unfortunately with out my husband who I will miss terribly. But this is the life of loving a foreigner and my family, some time apart. We took Tequila to the dog school/doggie hotel. She threw up two times in the car since we had to travel two hours, poor thing. Caglar's auntie Nejla came along. I adore her she is so funny. She is scared of getting some disease from dog or cat hair so she rode with a napkin over her mouth the whole time, talking through it. I guess it doesn't sound as funny as it was but she is a doll. The school has a good reputation and having a puppy is almost as much work as a kid.(Note: Please only buy a dog if you realize how much work, time and responsibility it takes and are up for the challenge, or else it just isn't fair to the animal.) Birsen can't do it by herself while looking after Baran and Ali since I am in USA for a month and Caglar Eskisehir. I am flying out of Izmir and saw my first glimpses of Christmas decorations. We went to buy some decor for the cafe from the boxes of cheap plastic decorations seen above, oh all the plastic. See some of you soon!

Side note: I am so excited to not smell lamb cooking...blah and barf! Birsen is so sick of cooking it also! Baked lamb's neck, boiled lamb with potatoes, lamb with spaghetti, (I could probably go off like the shrimp guy in Forest Gump...but just don't have the passion he had). Anyways I have been eating broccoli and peanut butter bread for days since I really do not like the smell or taste of lamb, I try to really but blah! I am excited for some pork though.(For those that don't know Turkey is a predominately Muslim country and Muslims don't eat pork.)

"If only simply for not what we have but what we don't"

Minnesota is a very special place! The above is a quote from a local Minnesota hip hop artist, Atmosphere. The song is called Shhh! I love the chorus to the song...

So if the people laugh and giggle when you tell em where you live
Say shhh, say shhh
And if you know this is where you wanna raise your kids
Say shhh, say shhh
If you're from the Midwest and it doesn't matter where
Say shhh, say shhh
If you can drink tap water and breathe the air
Say shhh, say shhh

But we do have alot!!! It's clean, green, and refreshing!
I love all the green everywhere even in the cities, I miss the season changes, the open spaces, air too breath, and how uncrowded it is, and yes the tap water...but of course mainly my family and friends!!! They are my roots and my strength so thank you and I miss you everyday!

So very many things have been happening in my life hence the hiatus from my blogging. Recently my branches have grown, to use tree metaphors I guess. I married my kind, thoughtful, wonderful Turkish partner in June. I went back to MN for two months without him though(he had work and a physics class to finish). I spent lots of time with my family! My beautiful sister married a kind man in July. My husband flew out to surprise me so I wouldn't be 'alone' for the wedding. Which helps me understand we can make this distance of Turkey and America work. I was bittersweet about coming back to Turkey. I missed my husband but I enjoyed speaking English, being able to speak to those around me, closeness of family and friends. I had been in California for many years before that and feel a drive to come back home but now is not the time...

I came back to Turkey and am now in the arms of my husband and his kind family. His father has cancer right now and this is where we need to be! Pray for Ali!

I love you Minnesota(my family really)!

I will always be connected now to Ohhh sweet Turkey...