View...

This is the view that opens up from the square before the mayor's office of Sheki. Apologize for the quality of the pictures.

The little girl on the picture is Munise, one of my cousins who would go anywhere I went, if possible :) Her energy is astonishing...This time Munise and I took one of our relatives to mayor's office as she had to register to be an observer on entry exams...and we took these photos while waiting for her :)

1st region…

The place that I come from in Sheki is called “gyshlag” what means “place to spend winter” as this part of the city is located in the bottom of the city and is warmer than the top of the city called ”yaylag” – “place to spend summer”…

The city is also divided into so called regions…i.e. the first the highest (in location) the most ancient and oldest part of the city is the 1st region…(our house for instance is situated in 21st region)…as it happens very often people rarely go to other regions of the city unless it is necessary…tourists in reverse very often explore the places they visit in very detail and see many places that locals never visit. Although I visit Sheki almost every summer lately I try to find something/somewhere new that I didn’t see before…Therefore this year my husband and I decided to explore region Number 1 of the city of Sheki. It is located on the mountains itself I would say…the roads are/were paved in stones…it is very easy to go down but going up is quite a challenge…can imagine how harsh winters are…here are some pictures that we took while exploring…

View from region # 1

I wonder how the owners put hay up there...must be hard work...

See the top of the furthest mountain...nothing grows there since it is so high and cold...

Two beauties...

Hello, everyone! I am just back from Sheki...thankfully trip was great as always and here I am back in Baku...

Today I am posting photos of two beauties…

To be honest I am not sure what causes the fact that I started to notice beauty around me more: my growing age or my sculptor husband who always draws my attention to everything that surrounds… In any case to my delight I see more and more (this is what I think…I wouldn’t be surprised if one day I realize that I haven’t noticed many things before)…

Ok…my epilogue turned out long…sorry… See if you share my opinion that these creatures are very, very pretty…I couldn’t pass by without taking their photos :)

P.S. Thank you very much for your great comments, everyone!

View...

A bit dark photo but view was beautiful, believe me...:)

...Miracles of nature...

I wrote about pomegranate earlier in my blog…today I am posting more photos to show how flowers turn into fruits…I think this is amazing…like everything in nature…

On a completely different subject...I want to share with you something that happened to me today: when I was driving today to work, I stopped to let the pedestrian man to cross the road...the man stopped to let me drive showing with his gesture that I am a female and he is gentleman...dilemma...who lets whom go first? driver - the pedestrian or gentleman - the woman?...funny :) very nice of him...at the end I drove and gave him thank you smile :)

Land of plenty...

This scenery opens up before you when you drive to village of Ivanovka in Ismailli region of Azerbaijan. People in Ivanovka, Molokans, were deported from Russia in XIX century or so and spread to many places including this village in Ismailli. This field of wheat is amazing and stops one's breath...

Seven waterfalls

As I mentioned earlier Qabala has beautiful waterfalls that are called "Seven waterfalls". Road to those waterfalls is quite difficult as it is a village road and one has to pass even through a small spring or river...but roads never scare locals (because they take thing easy by nature) and foreigners (because they usually drive jeeps). Waterfalls are quite high and one sees as far as he/she can and what is above higher in the mountains I do not know. But there must be other waterfalls so that there are seven of them.

People in Azerbaijan believe that anywhere one goes there must be tea place and this place is no exception. Tea place is available by the waterfalls as well and whoever desires makes a stop to listen to sound of water and enjoy the scenery that nature has granted.

Peace...

There are waterfalls in Qabala called “Seven Waterfalls”. To reach those waterfalls one has to go through a village that has beautiful landscape that I am trying to convey via these pictures. To me this village seemed as peaceful as any place could be…so green…so quiet…so beautiful…so big and so free…well maybe village inhabitants have a quite different view with harsh living conditions especially in winter (this is my personal opinion of someone coming from the city spoiled by heaters and air conditioning…maybe villagers do not think so...) although with such mountains around them winter must be really harsh actually…

In any case the place is beautiful…one wants to stay on the grass and just watch the mountains and sky…but we did not do so as we were in a hurry to see the waterfalls…pictures of which will be posted tomorrow...

Fish feast in Qabala

This weekend I visited Qabala and had fish by Nohur lake (about which I wrote earlier.) Although local people were calling that small fish as “river fish” to me they seemed very much like sprats. Interestingly they were selling it in kilos. So you had to buy a kilo of fried fish and then if it wasn’t enough another kilo or half a kilo…and so on :)

P.S. Just had a comment from Kris McCracken asking how this fish taste...They taste good and it is fun to eat them :)

Kur River

Two biggest rivers that go through Azerbaijan are Kur and Araz. Strange/bad thing that happened during Soviet times is that all Azeri words were translated first into Russian and then further to other languages. This resulted in total mispronouncement (if I may say) of Azeri words. For example in Azeri we call capital of Azerbaijan Bakı, in Russian it is called Baku and now in all languages the city is called Baku…the same is true for river Kur. We pronounce it Kur, in Russian it is pronounced Kura, in English and other languages I am not sure…

These are pictures that my husband Teymur took for me in Zardab region of Azerbaijan which he recently visited. Zardab is located in so called “aran” region of Azerbaijan (means lowland in Azerbaijani), is located in centre of the country and Kur River passes right through it. As you see I have enlisted all my family members in my blogging so that I have enough pictures to share with you :)

Hope you enjoy! :)

Fog in Quba...

No comments...

Lake in Quba...

Continuing on lake theme...

My sister just came back from Quba, region in north east of Azerbaijan and brought some photos. Here are the photos of a beautiful lake the name of which she and her friends never asked :(

Sometimes I think that if there were no photos and videos how well would one remember places he/she saw, experiences he/she lived...sometimes when I see something very beautiful or I am too excited at some event, there are things that I do not notice, details that I do not catch and later when I look at photos or watch videos not only memories come back but I also notice something new...

Hope you enjoy...

Nohur lake in Qabala

This is "Nohur" lake that we saw on our way to Sheki. It is located in Qabala, another region of Azerbaijan that one passes when travelling to Sheki. Lake is not on the way but if you go a bit deeper towards the mountains this beautiful view opens up in front of you. I heard from people who are originally from Qabala that this is not a natural lake...but in any case it seemed beautiful to me...

I am also posting a photo of a nice house that I saw by the lake. Maybe I am violating the privacy of the owners by posting this photo but the scene looked so nice that I decided to share it with you.

Photo session from Sheki bazaar...II

In Azerbaijan people eat herbs a lot. We just put them on a plate and eat them in combination with cheese, cucumber and other dishes. Might sound wild if you never tried this but actually it brings a lot of flavor and is very healthy.

This is a photo of a woman who is putting bunch of herbs together to be sold at her counter. Size of bunches in Sheki is usually much bigger than in Baku…must be because herbs are in abundance in Sheki…I asked the granny if I could take her photo and she started to praise me without even asking why I was taking the photo and tried to pose…very kind and touching…

This is the picture of the counter…not the best photo I took but hope it conveys the idea…

Have a good day, everyone...

Pickle time!

Pickle time is slowly starting in Azerbaijan. Vine leaves have already been pickled for dolma (will need to write about dolma in future) and other fruits and vegetables also rush to be eaten, pickled and preserved :)

Here is picture I took in Sheki bazaar with jars of pickled, marinated and preserved products for those women who don't have time/desire to do things on their own (few in the regions, many more in the capital :)

Have you ever seen white cucumber? :)

Let me boast of this sort of cucumber but I just know that Sheki people prefer it to green ones :) We, people from Sheki often may find ourselves boasting that white cucumbers grow only in Sheki :) I do not know if this is true but it doesn’t grow anywhere else in Azerbaijan and I am not sure about the rest of the world. Have you ever seen/come across? It would be interesting to know. I don’t know the origin of this sort of cucumber but I just know that Sheki people prefer it as white cucumber’s skin is thinner and more gentle…they prefer to pickle white cucumber instead of green one as well and in general Sheki people go for white cucumber :)

Today I am proud :) to post pictures of Sheki white cucumber :)

Photo session from Sheki bazaar...I (one)

People in Sheki do not go to supermarkets for major grocery shopping. For that they go to bazaar. Usually they do that on Sundays. During my last trip I also went to bazaar and took some photos (in addition to shopping:) that I thought I would share with you.

Lets start from nuts, raisins and like products...

Have you ever tried mulberry?

Have you ever tried mulberry? (I found this word in dictionary only today as I have never used this word in English before!) Blogging is educating me further ;)

Starting end May (until end June) everyone in Azerbaijan is getting ready for mulberry season. Mulberry is considered as a very healthy product for heart and body in general therefore everyone is waiting impatiently when mulberries get ripen. Mulberry can be white and black...black is also very rich and is excellent for blood, immune system and as a natural vitamin.

In our garden in Sheki we have white mulberry tree. My father is ready to travel 360 km to Sheki in order to enjoy mulberries...Mulberries grow in Baku too of course but he just enjoys going back to his garden...:)

Today I am posting photos that I took when he was gathering for everyone mulberries while we were in Sheki...

Mulberries...closer look...

Can you see mulberry on the tree?

Mulberry tree...

On my way to Sheki...

I am just back from Sheki. Thanks to blogging I am rediscovering everything that I saw so many times before…and this is fantastic!

Today I am posting two photos that I took on my way to Sheki… I have another nice photo but that will come tomorrow…be patient…

isn’t this beautiful?!...I don’t think more words are necessary…:)

Sheki fortress wall

We are having a long weekend this week and I hope to be able to go to Sheki (I reside in Baku) and bring lots of new photos! :) This photo is also fresh and taken by Autumn (please see below post). This is Sheki fortress wall. The thought that comes into my mind every time I see a fortress or any grand construction built many centuries ago is that people were/are able to build with their bare hands anything. Amazing...Many people must have sacrificed their health for these constructions...But it shows that quite often people pass away...memories about them vanish with time...but things they create live for much longer...

Have a good day...