Alexander and Luba moved out early yesterday. Had intended to exchange email addresses but as usual procrastinated until too late. Hadn’t expected to carry on much in the way of correspondence but contact could have been useful as they seem mostly to be here in the part of the year when we’re not and vice versa. This morning the one cat that Alexander befriended and fed out of the many wanderers is on our patio looking in the window. Can I be your cat now? Looks pretty healthy and may in fact have a real home.
At 9:05 we are slightly startled by the sound of a steady siren but remember that it signals not an emergency but a tribute to the late Mustafa Kemal Atatürk who died at this time on November 10, 1938. He’s rightly honoured as the founder of the Turkish Republic, which he proclaimed in 1923 the year after abolishing the sultanate, as he presided over Türkiye’s rise from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire which had been defeated in WW I.
Atatürk created a secular state - an achievement which has wavered under Erdoğan. Possibly his biggest gift to Türkiye has remained though. Arabic script was replaced with Roman, so despite the idiosyncrasies of a non Indo-European language translation into European languages is not a horrifically daunting task.
Predicted rain comes in the afternoon, although not with the precision that the notoriously inaccurate Acuweather has announced. (As in rain will start in 32 minutes - a declaration that can be made when it’s already raining). Yes, there are other sources, but they’re often no more accurate. Not that it matters enormously to the retired. And, happily, the rain washes the omnipresent bird droppings off the deck.
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