...another old door...and optimism...

Here is a photo of another old door(gate) in Sheki...those smaller doors inside the gate are for people to use. It is fun to use these kind of doors/gates but people rarely have them now as they are considered uncomfortable...The gates are open completely for cars or cattle.

Extension that you the see on the left side must be the place where the house owners keep fodder.

I also like the sky...very often people forget to raise their head and observe beautiful sky above them...as if having a burden on their shoulders that bends their heads downwards...but beautiful sky brings a lot of optimism...I think :)

can you see the apples?...

can you see the apples on the tree? I really loved the tree and the spot and decided to share with you its photo.

p.s. you can read my article about Sheki here

...yellow door...

Today I am posting a photo of a yellow door that I came across in Sheki. I thought that the colour is quite cheerful...The house that you see behind it is quite old as its style tells it...actually the door and the house look quite old as well...

have a cheerful day!!

p.s. you can read my article about Sheki here

...about tea...

Hi. Missed you all and thank you very much for your comments.

Going back to tea subject…

Today I am posting a photo of a tea set. Please pay attention to at least three things on the photo: samovar (the usual), tea pot on it (as you might know we prepare tea leaves separately in a ceramic tea pot.) We never boil the tea. First we put couple of spoons of tea into the tea pot and then add just boiled hot water. Then we put the pot on a little gas or as on this picture on a samovar so that tea leaves open up…but if tea starts to boil it means that tea is wasted and another tea must be prepared…then I want you to pay attention to typical Azerbaijani tea glasses called “armudu” meaning pear-shaped. The idea of “armudu” is that tea stays hot in narrower lower part and becomes cooler on a wider top part (where one’s lips touch). On this picture as you can see lemons are in “armudu” waiting for tea to get ready and be served. This picture is taken in “çayxana” tea-house…at homes lemons are usually never put into the tea glasses in advance as preferences differ and people might want to drink tea without lemon. We never drink tea with milk…and sugar is added into tea mostly at breakfasts…one would scarcely find an Azerbaijani drinking sweet tea (as we call tea with sugar) during typical relaxing tea sessions…

Tea house in Ilisu village of Qakh...

As promised yesterday (please see the previous post) I am posting today pictures of the tea house / cafe / restaurant (call it the way you want since they are offering both tea and food) of Ilisu village of Qakh. We started with tea but then decided to have a meal as well. The waiter said that it looked like it would rain so we escaped to shelter (you can see the sheltered places on 1st and 3rd photos). Tea pot and glasses you see on the 2nd photo are very typical for Azerbaijan. Drinking tea non stop is also very normal for Azerbaijanis...I will go back to tea topic again at some point in future inshAllah...(means God allowing...this way we show that we know that notions like tomorrow do not really depend on us...but this is a completely different subject...) Unfortunately I dont have photos that would be without people...so thank you for bearing with me.

Have a good day :)

Ilisu...

Ilisu is the village situated in Qakh region of Azerbaijan. Qakh is located in 1.5-2 hours drive from Sheki. Both regions are blessed with beautiful mountains and in Qakh mountains are even closer (I mean that people live even closer to the mountains). Ilisu village of Qakh is famous for its healing hot(warm) springs but it is not possible to drive up to them but only go on horses. We didn't go up to those springs this time but only walked up to see the waterfall. Going up is quite difficult (especially to my husband who had to carry the child up there as well) and it is a walk of around 1km...but we made it...unfortunately there was no tea house up there...going down was easier :) and we rushed to drive and find a tea house in the village...if you wish to see the photos of the tea house wait for my tomorrow's post...:)

Qircana river...

This is a photo of "Qircana" river of Sheki. The river is not very wide (unless it is flooding) but it is quite fast and the stones on its bottom are quite slippery. To cut the story short I was scared to cross the river cause there was a good chance that I would fall into river and get wet. So I stayed on my part. The water in the river is ice cold and I really mean it. Very great creation of nature.

Long day...

I was passing by the shoes of my son and noticed that someone (must be my sisters) put his shoes and socks neatly so that we find them easily when he wakes up. I liked the way they were put and decided to take their photo and share with you…I realize that the photo has nothing to do directly with Sheki…but actually the baby is in Sheki so it is kind of applicable…:)

Rain...

This summer Sheki was lucky to have lots of rain...continuous rainy days are not very pleasant but rain for a short period of time is nice...also evening and night rains are very refreshing and romantic :)

Imagine sitting after a hot weather under a shelter, listening to rain, enjoying the scenery and drinking tea in a nice company of people..superb!:)

I am not sure if you can see on my picture rain drops...they were really big...rain was short but very heavy with thunderstorm...very impressive indeed...

Rose bush...

Today I am posting a photo of a beautiful rose bush that I saw in the garden of the "Albanian Temple" I mentioned in my below post. Isn't it beautiful?

Good gardener of the museum one more time revealed the greatness of the nature...

Old men of Sheki...

Today I am posting a photo of three men whom I met in the street of Kish village of Sheki. They are playing backgammon, one of the most favorite national table games of Azerbaijanis. I have asked them if I could take their photo and post it on internet and they replied that I was free to do whatever I wanted. Actually I just wanted to share with you this scene that I couldn’t pass by.

Interestingly these old men are sitting close to an old Albanian Temple of Kish village. Well the Temple is of V – VI century B.C. (the oldest Albanian church) so men are younger :) I will start series of posts devoted to the mentioned temple but for now here are typical and real characters of Sheki. I thought it would be interesting for you to see them. Take your time and look attentively to the cloths they wear and wood cuts they sit on.