Tree Trunks

Palm trees are fascinating to me. Almost every part of them is edible by either humans or animals, or they can be used to make all manner of useful items. The trunks of palm trees are not smooth or ridged like other trees but lumpy with knots formed by the fronds that have either fallen or been chopped off. Unusual texture.

Boys Will Be Boys

Football, aka soccer, is a national insanity in Egypt. There is hardly a boy here that doesn't play or hasn't played football. Today I was quietly reading in my garden enjoying an unseasonably warm afternoon when I heard shouts and laughter from the driveway at the farm. My grooms had finished feeding the horses and the gardeners were done transplanting lettuce plants to new spots in the kitchen garden. My driver/personal assistant (the Photography Elf) had joined them all in an impromptu football match.

The Ride Home

A boy caught in silhouette catches a ride home from the fields atop a cutting of berseem clover. Camels are still used quite a lot for farm work in this area.

Why I Use A Mobile Phone

A phone company worker struggles to make sense of the phone lines in the countryside.

Good Morning, Little Girl

Bunduq seems to be bestowing a greeting as we pass a village girl on her way to the water plant to fill a jerry can with purified water. Most of us out here depend on our wells, which are more reliable in delivering good water than the city taps are as long as they are deep enough, but the well water is very hard due to the calcium in the soil and often has a slightly sulphurish taste. So a number of the larger farms have built reverse osmosis water plants and made taps available to the farmers who collect the pure water for babies and drinking water.

Minding the Store

A brother and sister watch the family shop in the afternoon. To the right is the area where their mother makes and sells foul and taameya and fried eggplant sandwiches.

Looking For Water

It isn't as though there isn't water here..there's tons of it, but if you want drinking water you have to drill deep enough to avoid surface water that might have agricultural runoff in it. Naturally, they do it by hand, like almost everything else.

Curiosity's Face

The Photography Elf was whiling away his time while I ran into a shop when this face suddenly popped into his window. He was curious what Mohamed was doing and thought that it was pretty cool to be sitting around taking photos.

Waving Goodbye

At the beginning of the new year a farewell to the old one seemed appropriate. This is a salute from a dancing horse.

Nuts To You

Seems a good topic to begin the new year. I love the healthy snacks that Egyptians are so fond of. There are shops all over the city that sell nuts and dried fruits and this is one of the best, the nut shop in Maadi next to the post office on Road 9. Every so often I go and buy raw almonds, walnuts, peanuts, dried apricots and prunes.