(s)alt çoğunluk

Whilst the sentiments of Turkish citizens voting abroad from embassies in Germany and Austria were solidly in favour of constitutional reforms that would give the country’s executive broader, consolidated powers more in line with those of the president of the United States, there was no clear majority among domestic polling stations.
Though the election commissioner is expected to release in ten days, the party of Erdoğan is already claiming victory with a bare fifty-one to forty-eight percent majority in the contested referendum. The opposition party is to launch an investigation over voting irregularities. With campaign pledges certain to derail any hope of Turkey’s pending membership in the European Union, it would seem that the expatriate community would not vote against their own self-interests but with relatives and in some cases whole families left back in Turkey, I suppose these voters are also among those that could be easily intimidated, just enough to nudge the outcome.

leeked memo

It never occurred to me that Bärlauch—the leaves of which we’ve gathered in the woods before—signified anything else but a kind of wild garlic but it translates quite literally (reflected too in its scientific Latin name Allium ursinum) to bears’ leek for bears’ taste for these plants. Also known as buckrams, I guess the closest equivalent outside Europe to this broad leaved plant is chives. It makes a good base for pesto and with a few other ingredients, makes an excellent, fresh spaghetti dish.

For two servings, one will need:

• Approximately 225 grams of dry spaghetti noodles
• 150 grams of fresh Bärlauch leaves (washed, and use extra caution if one is gathering them oneself as they can be easily mistaken for poisonous plants that thrive in the same setting)
• One dried chili pepper or one tablespoon of ground 
• Salt, black pepper for seasoning 
• Vegetable broth 
• Parmesan cheese for garnish 
• 100 millilitre of good olive oil for cooking 

Following the directions on the pasta packaging, prepare the spaghetti to al dente consistency in a pot of vegetable broth (this is a way to make all pasta dishes a little more flavourful). In the meantime, dice the garlic, the chili pepper (use caution as this can make one’s meal very spicy) and the Bärlauch leaves (without the stems) and fry in the olive oil for approximately two minutes (the garlic ought not to brown). Drain the pasta and serve immediately topped with parmesan.

spirit of the law

In response to new legislation that stipulates that bars and similar establishments in India must be separated from highways by no less than half a kilometre, one existing pub has successfully skirted the law by compacting that space and time into a series of barrier mazes—like those set up for queuing at airports and amusement parks. As the purpose of the law is not necessarily to limit access and egress but to prevent patrons from stumbling into to traffic—which seems like a long way to stumble, local authorities let the innovative solution stand.

cross-roads

Though I can’t say for certain that many hikers will cross our path, we discovered that our new home, remote and rather secluded as it is, lies just behind the intersection of two of the European Long Distance Routes (the nearest point of reference shared by both trails is the City of Coburg), marked and maintained hiking paths that follows ancient trade and pilgrimage routes. From north to south, one stretches from Lapland through Finland and Sweden through Germany and Austria to the Adriatic coast, and from west to east, the other spans from Spain following el Camino de Santiago (der Jakobsweg) through France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany, the Czech Republic onto the shores of the Black Sea in Bulgaria. What an amazing journey to embark on and to think we are at if not the centre-point at least a nexus of sorts.

may Easter joys be yours

machinalia

Thanks to the always fabulous Everlasting Blört, we are introduced to the illustrations of Boris Artzybasheff (1899-1965) whose grotesques of anthropo- morphised machines as self-toiling beings with distinctly human traits—though suspiciously cheerful, like cartoon depictions of happy and obliging livestock. Find more of Artzybashneff’s Machinalia at the links above, though keen-eyed, long-time readers may have come across his artwork here before with inventor and engineer Buckminster Fuller portrayed as one of his own signature geodesic domes.