January 4, 2019: Tomorrow I go to Orlando airport for my return to Istanbul. I love my lifestyle, and I know that I am incredibly lucky. I can choose to travel, I can choose to see my loved ones, I can choose to go home or go away again.
But.....I have to say goodbye A LOT. Tomorrow I have to say goodbye to my sisters, the people who know me the best in the world and love me anyway. The two women I know the best, the two women that I would die for, who would die for me. These two women are so strong and funny and have such strong moral codes. They are interested in the world, and kind, and caring. They are my sisters. I HATE saying goodbye to my sisters. Again, I know how lucky I am. I get to see them on my holidays, they can come to visit me, I talk to them every night on skype, and we send emails and photos back and forth. Still...
The first days of 2019 have been wonderful, watching sunrises and sunsets, and long beach walks with the sisters. Here are some of my favourite photos:
SUNRISES
I had my alarm set for 6:26. Every morning I would roll out of bed, yell 'sunrise' at Cathy and put the pot on for coffee (Cathy) and tea (me). I would walk in the dark about 5 minutes to the beach, and settle myself on some stone steps. I bought some lovely chocolates when I first arrived in Florida, and every morning, I dunk one in my sunrise tea. A few minutes later, Dar and Cathy would wander down to the beach to join me (sometimes Dar would be there first). Every single morning is different. In fact, every few minutes every morning is different. One morning the world was covered in fog. It was a bit spooky sitting alone at the beach, because visibility was zero, but I could hear the waves crashing. I was a bit relieved when the sisters arrived.
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| Sunrise attire |
One morning, we saw dolphins leaping through the waves. This morning, I was so lucky to see this beautiful creature working on his breakfast.
SUNSETS
Every evening at 5:15 Cathy would start yelling at me to get ready for the sunrise. We would cross the backyard to get to Darlene's house, pick her up, then walk about 10 minutes to the Halifax River to watch the sun go down. There is a little public dock on the river, and we usually shared the sunset with local people out walking their dogs, or fishing from the pier.
BEACH WALKS
Every day, we waited until low tide, then walked for an hour up and down the beach. We saw whales, dolphins, willets, herons, turnstones, skimmers, and sandpipers.
Today I had a run-in with two guys on the beach. As we were walking, I stopped and picked up a golf ball. I have heard lots of stories about the dangers posed by golf balls in the sea, the microplastics damaging fish life, the whole balls found in whales' and dolphin's stomachs. The 'golfer' saw me pick up the ball, and walked up to me with his club perched nonchalantly on his shoulder. When he asked for his ball back, I went into teacher mode, and said 'no, you shouldn't be golfing on the beach.' He was stunned, and started following us, yelling at me. Which of course just made me more stubborn. His 'golfing buddy' approached us, also with his club in the air. At this point, my sister Cathy became alarmed and put her body between them and me. We kept walking, and eventually the dynamic duo gave up and left us alone. Unfortunately, we had to pass them again on our way back up the beach. For some reason, after I had already passed them, the original 'golfer' started following me, yelling at me. This time it was my other sister Darlene who strode towards the offenders, ready to do battle on my behalf.
