6-7.9.2014
… TCDD ile anlaşma sürecimizi başladığına rağmen, yoksa ondan dolayı mı? Beklentilerim azdı, tek görevim Tamera‘ya giden Suriyeli bir su mühendisi vizesini beklerken Güneşköy’ü gezdirmek.
One of the best visits, despite having taken key steps in the agreement for transferring the land – centre strip, first building, main entrance, our Sun Hill, etc… – to the Turkish Railways for the construction of the Ankara-Sivas-Erzincan High Speed Railway. With few expectations, my main task was to guide round Güneşköy a Syrian water engineer waiting for his visa to Portugal where he will develop his expertise in Water Landscape Management at Tamera.
Suriye’de çölde kendi kasabasına yakın 500 dönümlükte atık sulardan ağıçlık oluşturduğu için, Güneşköy’de yapılabileceklerin hep gösterdi. Having transformed 50 hectares of desert into orchard, he had a sharp eye for what could be done on our Güneşköy land.
Arazide Celal’le ortak dil tam yoktu, fakat aramızda anlaşılan çok fazla kelimeler çıktı. İncir’in Rusçası… inçir imiş, ve ‘kuru üzüm’ için çok benzeyen bir ifade varmış. Common languages? None entirely, but so many parts overlapping that communication found its way, like rain water seeking the best slope.
Hava kapalı. Kararınca büyük bir yarasa yavaşca uyup böcek avlıyordu. Slow enough that we could see the bat’s wings… The wind stirred, strong gusts … and the electricity cut out (so the water did too). The next day, Fayez and I went West to the fountain to fill all the containers (cars are useful!): an opportunity to talk with others – the owners of the newly developed land plots. And the old woman digging the irrigation channel so that it would flow into her land for a while. “In Syria women do not do this work”… and the conversation veered eventually to the water sanitation needs of Hisarköy. On our way back Fayez was able to identify the problem, and came up with possible solutions, based on his previous work in Syria (transforming 50 hectares of desert into fruit orchard, using treated waste water)
Fruit: delicious strawberries, between the highest rows of trees below Mandala – will these go under the railway construction? Yummy watermelon. A few grapes, on the surviving vines: not looked after for several years now. In the bushes near the Balaban stream (now being rerouted for the construction of the large bridge, to take the railway construction traffic) the blackberries are juicy.
Fayez gathered much information. High soil salinity over the years results in lower plant productivity as the soil quality decreases.
Fayez talked with Saadet Teyze, working alone as Ekrem is not strong these days:
At night: sleeping in the Sera was still too hot, so I slept under the vanishing clouds as the stars appeared; Cassiopea and the Pleiades, but I can’t remember others.
Çiçekler – Flowers:(without acces to my flower records ((main computer being repaired)), this is a raw list, for revision later… this winter). Notice how the names have been noted in any language that they are best remembered in…
Verbascum, White and yellow spiny cow parsley, Convolvulus arvensis, Daucus carrota (Wild carrot. for years I thought this was Cow parsley. Deceptively similar), Zerdali dikeni, Tribulus, Banbul otu, Çoban yastığı, Dianthus, Yabani hardal (bunu da belki yanlış biliyorum). iğnelik, A.tormentil like thin yellow ?, acı marul, echinops, sarı hindiba, large Salvia (solucan evi yanında), semiz otu, Consolida regalis, purple stalked thistle, mor bayraklı küçük Salvia, mine çiçeği, wild hibiscus/yabani okra, köpek üzümü, yonca, yellow A…(photo record) – yani nothing new. Çarpıcı olan: yolun karşısında: mavi acı hindiba bol, nane, and ? a nightshade ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solanum_dulcamara