Naramata Peacocks

Naramata has three peacocks. No one knows where they came from, or who brought them, only that they showed up one day in 2008 and have made Naramata their home ever since. 

They didn't arrive without controversy, the village has been divided since their arrival, some people love them and others... well, don't love them. Whatever side of the fence you're on, it has to be agreed that they are beautiful, especially when they display their tail feathers.

One peacock makes the few blocks around our house his territory, so I run into this guy on a daily basis, (in fact just this morning, he was on our front deck and roof) and we have several of his tail feathers that he's left in the back lane or in our yard.

Last week, on the way home from a community breakfast, I took the above three pictures. It's spring, and although there are no peahens around to mate with, our guy was out in full force; prancing and dancing in a back alley for those who came across him. 

When I got down low to take his photo, he strutted towards me in an aggressive manner and shook his tail feathers, it was quite intimidating! 

So I made a lino cut of him, this is actually just a proof and I have yet to make proper prints of him. I printed this on paper I brought back from Thailand.

Blossom Time!

Early Cherry Blossoms

I haven't been in the Okanagan during blossom time for a long time. Blink once and it's gone! Apricots are first followed by apples, pears, plums and cherries. The day after I took the pictures below there was a huge windstorm and these delicate petals were all blown away.

Peach Blossoms

Apple blossoms

I remember when I was in high school riding the bus in the morning, I'd look for the blossoms in the spring, an omen that the school year would soon come to a close. Local kids know how to identify fruit trees in the dead of winter from the the bark, shape of the tree and branches.

These days there are far fewer orchards, most have been replaced by vineyards. Although they have their own beauty, I still love an old orchard. Each year I make sure to photograph a few of the old trees, (the new apple trees look more like vineyards than orchards).

Stay tuned for a blossom linocut!

Plum Blossoms

Vegetable Gardening in the Okanagan

Swiss Chard

My mom has a small garden running along the North side of the house. It isn't huge, but it's manageable and the soil is soft and black and holds moisture beautifully. 

This garden is bliss compared to our old garden at our old house. That pathetic plot was rock-hard clay. Digging a hole took all day and it seemed the only thing we grew were more rocks. In fact, "rock picking" was a dreaded punishment in my childhood. Sassing mom? One hour of rock picking! Home late? Two hours of rock picking! 

Rock picking involved going out to the back yard, picking up rocks and flinging them towards the creek. Tedious. Boring. Never-ending work. Alternately, in winter, we were punished with "wood stacking". 

Anyway, as I said, this garden is bliss! If you plant it, it will (usually) grow!

The herb garden - parsley (flat leaf and curly), dill, oregano, rocket, chives, rosemary, cilantro and mint!
(Basil, tarragon and thyme to come!)

So this month has been a month of planing and anticipation! What should we grow? Did the parsley and rosemary survive the winter? (Parsley - yes, rosemary - no.) Which tomatoes did we like last year? What were those ones the neighbour grew so well? Are the strawberries worth it? 

If you have never tended a garden, let me tell you - it's a hugely rewarding and satisfying thing to do. (As long as you have the soil that supports growing plants and not just rocks and sagebrush.)

Oh yes, I've turned into a garden geek! I've even drawn and redrawn plot maps, moving the zucchini and tomatoes to new locations, debated over planting lettuce, (how much lettuce can 3 people consume before it bolts?) spread compost, had the garden roto-tilled, and watched youtube videos on how to properly prune tomatoes. And yes - I have even picked rocks and surprisingly, rusty nails. (I find dozens of them daily!)

Now our eyes turn to the long-term forecasts. Will we have anymore frosty nights? Probably not. We're pretty sure we won't. But we might. But probably not. 

Normally, folks in this area will wait till after the May long weekend to plant tomatoes and peppers. But with gorgeous summer-like days in the high 20's and low 30's this year, ours are in, we just couldn't wait. We'll cover them if there's a frost danger. Which there won't be. Hopefully.

These little babies came up in a matter of days!

So everything is in except our peppers, and by everything I mean most of the herb garden, nine tomato plants, onions, carrots, scallions, swiss chard, mixed greens, romaine, (our neighbour gave us some), zucchini, squash and sunflowers along the back fence. 

We took our strawberries out this year because they were quite a disappointment last year, (small and watery), the blackberry bush is off to a good start, we planted our squash in a half-barrel to free up some space and the rhubarb is ready to go! 

We have a few small rows left, so space is at a premium, and no doubt we have a few more debates in store before we decide! (Cucumbers? Baby potatoes? Kale?)

Rhubarb!

Al Ain: Sheikha Salama Bint Betty Mosque

I actually think this is an instance when the real thing surpasses the architect's rendering. This is Sheikha Salama Bint Betty Mosque, named after Sheik Zayed's late mom, newly opened in Al Ain. The old Sheikha  Salama Mosque that was on this site was torn down in 2007, right around the time my sister showed up in the UAE for the very first time. 

Although I can't find any real articles about the mosque, word of mouth says it was designed to put a modern twist on traditional design. The architect obviously took a little bit of old, a little bit of new and mixed it up with a whole lot of green. 

 First the old. The whole mosque is finished in a sand-coloured rock which echoes the colour and texture of nearby Jebel Hafeet and the Hajar Mountains in the area. The minarets  are also a twist on the old wind towers that were built in houses to cool them before the advent of air conditioning. The designs around the top of the towers are very traditional for this area and consist of bands of flowers and geometric shapes plus geometrically patterned screens.

The layout and the plan of the mosque all follow the usual layout, with a Qibla wall facing Mecca and a large courtyard with an ablution fountain in the centre.

 Ablution fountain - the water inside was HOT!

However, there are some features of this mosque that have been added for modernity. Inside, this mosque has no dome, (highly unusual!). The roof slopes upwards towards Mecca and is outfitted with dozens of little windows to take advantage of natural light. Directly under the mosque, there is an underground car park, although it's believed most people will walk to this mosque due to its downtown location.

As I stood and took this picture in the searing heat, I noticed my eyeballs were actually sweating, or maybe the sweat from my forehead was dripping in my eyes. Either way it was disgusting and felt awful. Please think about that while viewing this picture.

Lastly, this mosque has been designed with the environment in mind. Al Ain is a relentlessly hot place in the summer. The wind towers pull the cool winds downwards into the building and the light colour is to deflect heat. The walls are made of thick rock, insulating the inside from the outside heat. Sheikha Salama's doors are closed during the day, keeping the cool air in, and the courtyard is completely covered with a large tarp to keep the courtyard in shade at all times. It's rumored to have solar powered lighting at night. 

I wish I could find more information on this mosque, and even find out if foreigners will be allowed to enter this one as they are at Sheikh Zayed's Mosque in Abu Dhabi. I'd kick off my shoes and don the abaya for this! I'm quite taken with this building.

If the stars align and the cards are right, I may find myself in Al Ain again this summer and it will be my personal mission to learn more (and hopefully gain access if allowed), to this mosque.

Updates to come....

*Update* The stars aligned! I'm in Al Ain till the end of July!

Keepin' the town square shiny in 50 degrees...

Hitchin' a Ride On The Dubai Metro

All the metro stations look exactly like this. Unless, of course, they're underground. 

Recently I found myself on the Dubai Metro. I can't say much about it other than it's your average metro and very much appreciated by people (and by "people" I mean "me"), who don't like to pay expensive taxi fares to sit in bumper-to-bumper traffic. 

I caught the metro at Ibn Battuta Mall and took it to Dubai Mall. Yes, the one under the current tallest building in the world. (For now, Saudi Arabia is constructing a taller one as we speak!)

Inside. 

What? This escalator isn't the longest or tallest or made of gold? 

Are we sure this is Dubai? 

Hmmm.... Is it just me or does this look like the Sky Train in Vancouver?

Also those are not dollar signs on the floor. I checked.

Right up front, 3 guys enjoying the view. By the way, stripes are in this year. 

View from the train. Ah yes, I knew I was in Dubai!

Something you don't see from the road, The Burj Al Arab.

 This is Mall of the Emirates and that appendage on the building is the ski hill. 

View of the golf course in Dubai. 

You can get air conditioned gold carts here, a little tube blows cold air on your neck.  

End of the line! It was cheap, easy and very convenient. Just like a metro should be. But I can't finish this entry without a winge at the system. Why are the service buses only good one way from the metro to Dubai Mall? If it's free with a ticket, and I'm catching the service bus from the mall to the metro, where I'll buy a ticket, what's the difference? 

I never thought the Emirate of Dubai would be so - *gasp* - cheap!

Shakira and Amr Diab on Yas Island

I went to Yas Island a few weeks back to see Shakira and Amr Diab in concert. 

I took this video with my old, old sony camera. It's amazing the thing still works! 

Teeny Amr on the video screen, real Amr behind!

Opening for Shakira was Amr Diab, a legend in his own right, at least in the Arab-speaking world. I was introduced to Diab's music in 2001, in Egypt while whizzing along Cairo's dusty boulevards with Omar and Hussein, Amr Diab's music blaring on the stereo.

His part of the concert opened with a comprehensive video montage of all his songs sung by him and covered by others. From Turkey and Bulgaria to the musicals of Bollywood, Amr's songs have been sung in dozens of languages by hundreds of people. Half the songs I knew, but I didn't know they were his!

The crowd went wild when he appeared, sang with him through every song and chanted his name between songs. Amr gave a fantastic concert, sweating it out in the Abu Dhabi heat. Near the end of his set, when he raised the Egyptian flag above his head, the Egyptians in the crowd cheered even louder. Yep, Amr is Egyptian!

Later, Shakira appeared in the crowd wearing a hot-pink wedding(ish) dress. The bad news was she was lip-synching (badly) through most of the songs, the good news was that she did not disappoint in her dancing or performance. The other good news is that I was really close to the stage.

The real Shakira in the middle of the picture and two video images of her on each side. She sang equally in Spanish and English, and threw in a few Arabic words for good will.

 Again you can see a tiny Shakira in front, 

and the huge video image of her on the wall behind.

By the way, Shakira does not sweat. Ever.

The crowd for this concert was really mixed, there were a lot of Arabic speakers there for Amr, but of course Arabs love Shakira since she's half Lebanese and as one concert-goer explained it, "sexy as hell!"  

The nice thing was that being a woman, I was given a nice ring of space around me along with the covered girl next to me. No pushing for space, the Arabic boys (mostly Lebanese and Egyptian), were very courteous and respectful. We could all see and we all had fun together, singing the songs and dancing, they even translated what the crowd was chanting or what Amr was talking about for me. They were strangers, but these boys helped make this a really good experience for me. And then we all danced the Waka-Waka together!

Shakira strutting her stuff!

*Interesting side note: They serve beer at Yas Island concerts.

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I was tired and hungry last night after moving villas in the heat, so I rode my bike over to La Brioche for dinner.

Tons of people were out, mostly men. Actually, come to think of it - all men, but when I'm on my bike they don't even notice me, I'm there and I'm gone! The sun was going down and the air was cooling off quickly. As the men left their construction sites in twos and threes, I could smell their cologne and was surprised to see them in their crisp, clean, after-work punjabis, hair combed perfectly, freshly scrubbed skin glowing.

In one huge sandy lot between villa projects, a huge crowd had gathered. There was a cricket game going on on one side of the lot, and a football, (soccer) match on the other. The football goal posts were made of old scrap pieces of wood hammered together, and all the workers played barefoot on the soft sand. They called to and heckled each other in different languages, but their laughter and cheering was universal.

As I turned the corner there was a gap in a tall fence, for a few seconds I could see a large circle of men gathered in the front yard of the luxury villa project they were constructing. Over the fence I heard drumming, singing, laughing and the tinkling of tea being stirred. Their music reminded me of the folk music Mel and I fell in love with while travelling around Rhajasthan years ago.

Hats off to many of the Pakistani, Indian and Bangladeshi workers in our area who make the best of their lives here. Life isn't easy for them. They work long hours in the blinding heat, building luxury homes they can never afford to live in themselves and can never step into again the day after they complete them. They rarely see their families, and yet they send their paychecks home to them every month. Suicide, beatings and murder are not uncommon in labour camps, yet these men still find a way to  sing and play football at the end of the day.

In contrast, most western foreigners are forever looking for a way to cut themselves off. Hidden away in apartments or rooms, they don't want to see anyone else. They watch TV alone, eat alone, and feel all the more miserable for it.

My bike is definitely the best thing I've bought here. Cars race down the empty streets with their black tinted windows closed tight, the air conditioner blasting, like an antibacterial, hypoallergenic, climate-controlled bubble, insulated against everything real.

I love riding my bike and hearing the call to prayer on the wind. I like riding through empty lots where the sand has been packed down by foot traffic hard enough for me to ride my bike across. I know where there's a white mulberry tree, which house cooks Indian food every Friday and where there's a dead cat, half buried in the sand, that's slowly being mummified by the wind and heat.

On the way back from dinner it was after dark, but there was a full moon and I could smell flowers.