"Green Space" in the City
Because space is such a luxury here, people who have gardens in or near their homes really keep them up nicely. Virtually every yard in our neighborhood this spring has been blooming with rose bushes, honeysuckle, fruit trees (cherries, oranges, and more!), hyacinths, tulips, and all kinds of flowers that I haven't seen before. Even very small homes make their gardens (bahce, pronounced "ba-chay") a priority... they'll have patios under wisteria vines or bright flowers lining the walkway, and they'll often have seating space outside, either on a balcony, patio, or in the garden itself.
Sometimes even if they don't have actual grass or a garden, but just have a large concrete wall in front of their home, they'll make it into a garden! 
Sadly, the scarcity of space (and green space in particular) makes it unlikely that we'll ever have our own yard or garden here in Istanbul. I do find myself eying those few random garden homes that come available (as the picture below proves), but mostly, I just enjoy looking at them.
Apparently, it's time for local elections, and so the politicians in charge of each area of town have gone about "sprucing up" the neighborhood parks:
Since we don't have an actual garden, we and about 100+ of our "neighbors" at any given time can be found enjoying the beautiful park they built just up the hill. Hooray for motivated politicians!!!
2 comments:
Ooooh, seeing that park makes me lonely! It really is a beautiful park. I'm so glad it's close! It's kept up nice and the kids love it! Another neat thing about the parks there that I noticed was at the majority of the parks there was also workout equipment that was really utilized by adults. That was pretty nice too.
isn't it crazy how much we take for granted in the states... I am groaning and moaning about watering and miracle growing my yard and all the flowers and you are longing to do just that... your blog was very good for me today, I need an attitude check my friend and I just got it....
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