I am really pleased to report that the start of the week brought calm to our neck of the woods. The first photograph shows Anton as he stood by the window from which no gas-masked protesters could be spotted. His relief that there was 'nothing out there' that day was palpable.

On Thursday we picked Ruskin up from the airport for a long summer together, now that his exams are finished. Of course he was curious to see Taksim Square (I am sure he was actually quite sorry to miss all the action) and on Friday we went to take a look at the scars of the protest and it's latest incarnation: 'standing people'. Since one man (quickly dubbed 'standing man') stood for hours in the middle of the Square in a silent, peaceful continuation of the protest, others have started to do the same. The kids played among the 50 or so protesters stood at Taksim under the watchful eye of the huge Atatürk picture that replaced the protest banners. If you were visiting Taksim for the first time you might not notice the changes that Ruskin and I saw. You might think one end of Taksim was a bus station if you didn't know that the municipal buses are full of police. The memorial, like so much of the centre of the city, is covered in grey paint hiding anti-Erdoğan slogans. Gezi Park is lovelier than it ever was before (it was never very pretty) with new turf laid and flowers planted. This time will take its place in Turkish history and there is a strange feeling to the physical manifestations of this unrest being the backdrop to the small milestones of our kids histories: Neve's steps, Anton's vocabulary stretching to meet what he has witnessed, the siblings forging ever tighter bonds (though we are all missing Matti who is visiting his Grandma near Ankara before we go to Finland).

This is our last week on the Island of Heybeliada where we have lived until we started spending the majority of our time in Beşiktas a few months ago. The Island looks incredible right now but I am ready to leave it. Typically for us we have not involved any removals service and are moving our things case by case by boat and taxi! Happily there is still time in the evenings to enjoy the abundance of flowers against the mellowing sparkle of the sea.

Visit the Facebook page, the Tumblr page, the Flickr page or the Twitter page of this blog