Cairo/Giza Daily Photo

Spring Break

2012-05-11T14:22:00.000+02:00

Many apologies for not posting anything, but given the interesting times currently being enjoyed by Egypt, I decided that my usual June pilgrimage to visit children should be in May this year. I have my iPad with me but haven't been able to figure out how to use any of the images on it with Blogger.

Colour Changes in Spring

2012-04-28T20:39:00.000+02:00

It's the season for our bougainvilleia to be bursting in colours over the garden walls. But one of the interesting things is the way that the plant gradually can change colour. The picture on the bottom is from the same garden and the same vine as the white blossoms above, but they are gradually turning pink. I have no idea why or how.

Hanging Out In The Trees

2012-04-27T23:03:00.001+02:00

It's mulberry season in Egypt and everywhere you go (unless you are trapped in grey concrete urban hell) there are lush green trees with black or white mulberries hanging off every branch and children of all ages climbing the trees to pick them. In our garden we have a huge Omani white mulberry tree with fruit the length of a finger that tastes like pears. But there is no way in heaven that I can even begin to eat all the fruit so every couple of days the staff get together to shake the ripe fruit out of the tree.

Village Entrepreneurs

2012-04-23T15:20:00.001+02:00

He isn't much older than his customers, and since it was Sham el Nessim weekend, I figure this was probably a temporary job to pick up some pocket money. The plastic bags are full of cotton candy and the seller announces his presence with the aid of a particularly raucous horn.

Antiquities Trash...AGAIN!

2012-04-18T09:07:00.001+02:00

There is an area out in the desert behind the Step Pyramid where the Sakkara Antiquities people dump their dig debris. This is an interesting place to ride as there are bits of ancient mudbrick, old bones, bits of pottery and so on. However, lately they have also been dumping basic garbage out there and that is NOT ok. Every so often I post photos of this to try to bring it to the SCA's attention. This particular dump site is on an old road out into the desert and anyone doing a camel or donkey ride from the Step Pyramid would be riding right by it. Bad SCA!

Curiosity Almost Saddled The Dog

2012-04-16T16:16:00.000+02:00

We were painting the tack room as part of renovations here so all our saddles came outside for a while. Horse equipment has to be imported to Egypt for the most part as our local saddle makers still don't make decent saddles. Ours comes from the US, Italy, Germany, the UK, Argentina, Australia and South Africa, among other places. Mindy the Dane came out to look around and Kelly couldn't resist trying out the little donkey saddle on her. She wasn't impressed. It's one thing to let the baby pretend to ride for a second, but this was just too much.

Equestrian Photography

2012-04-14T23:35:00.000+02:00

It isn't easy to take good photographs from horseback and taking great ones is a total fluke. I was out with a couple of friends this morning who decided to record the occasion. The contortions to get the right angle were entertaining, but the horses found the approaching cattle and donkey cart even more riveting.

Reprise With Fuzz

2012-04-10T21:01:00.001+02:00

Many mornings while crossing the Nile on the Moneeb bridge we've seen the invisible basket bicyclers completely hidden by their load of baskets on the way to Maadi or Garden City. Today I was driving in and we were talking about just that image when what to our wondering eyes should appear... an over the top bicyclist carting in FUZZY baskets. Kelly Anderson got the shot while I tried not to run into the car in front of me.

Yalla!

2012-04-09T21:53:00.001+02:00

There simply isn't anything better than this to chase the cobwebs out of your head. This is a very common daydream for a lot of people visiting Egypt. Two fast Arab horses and a lot of sand.

Exploring Water With a Friend

2012-04-07T20:30:00.000+02:00

We were doing some watering today using a diesel pump attached to the well and a used firehose. I think "flooding" is really the right word. The resident infant was playing on the grass and one of my larger dogs walked in front of him and stood there looking noble for a couple of minutes after which I realised that the toddler I'd been watching was nowhere to be seen. I walked around the aviary to find him happily sitting in a flowing stream of well water while another one of the dogs supervised his explorations. This is a lucky kid. Not that many have this much clean water to play in.

New Tombs

2012-04-06T21:08:00.000+02:00

For years the people of the village of Sakkara have battled with the antiquities authorities to try to expand the burial area for the village. There is no space to bury people in the Nile Valley. It is filled with dwellings, cities and farmland. In addition, the water table in the valley is so high that digging a hole a meter or so deep will hit water...not the best situation for burial. I'll bet that this has always been the case and that is why for thousands of years Egyptians have buried their dead at the edge of the desert. Within a month of the end of the 18 days of revolution (or whatever it may turn out to have been) these tombs had been built in a wadi next to Sakkara village and the pyramid of Pepi II. In past years the Antiquities Council has brought in bulldozers to get rid of the village tombs but with the government in disarray no one did that this year. In fairness to the villagers, my unprofessional bet is that their tombs are unlikely to be a major problem, as in the valley that they chose for the location, the yearly flood would have made any construction in the area difficult if not impossible. But the horses sure miss one of their favourite gallops across the wadi.

Soft Lighting

2012-04-05T23:22:00.001+02:00

In the restaurant complex at Al Azhar park there is this lovely chandelier that gives off a soft light diffused by hundreds of fine brass chains.

Always Time To Talk

2012-04-03T22:46:00.000+02:00

If there is one thing that Egyptians love to do, it is talking. Most of the social interaction in this country is conversation over tea, coffee, a domino game. In this case two friends stop to chat on their way home from the fields, despite the high winds and the stifling dust. It's never too unpleasant for a chat.

Just Trim The Mustache, Please.

2012-04-02T21:50:00.000+02:00

Camels at Giza have intricate designs cut into their coats. I don't know if it is just artistic and or if it's also a means of identification. But these designs are created with an enormous handmade pair of shears. Frightening.

When The World Disappears

2012-04-01T23:22:00.000+02:00

We had plans for a day long horseback ride this morning but as we were about to leave a huge sandstorm blew up. We went out anyway, but when the wind and sand didn't die down, we headed back home through the dust.

Labour of Love

2012-03-29T18:35:00.000+02:00

A group of dedicated Kiwis are here enjoying the sunshine of Egypt and working their animal-loving butts off in Nazlit Semman, the area near the pyramids of Giza. This is a crowded working class area where many homes have included boxes for horses (usually small, dark, crowded and not terribly clean) that are used for tourists in the area. The owners have little or no education, so it isn't surprising that the horses are often not in the best shape. These two farriers were working on horses with laminitic issues. Just after I shot this, the black on the left skittered backwards and the farrier on the right had to leap aside to get out of the way.

The Tie That Binds

2012-03-28T20:14:00.000+02:00

We are having plastering done on the house and this is the scaffolding that the plasterers are working on. Holes are knocked into the wall (they will be filled in with brick and mortar later), holes are dug in the ground and then the poles that fit into the holes are tied together with palm fiber rope. Yep. Tied. With handmade rope. And they move the planks around to give themselves a place to stand while plastering. Workmen's compensation or industrial safety would be having fits.

Supervising the Workman

2012-03-26T11:50:00.000+02:00

Time for a cute overload. Nadim, my housekeeper's son, has learned how to crawl and is working on walking, which has its hazards in a house with stone floors, so we dump him in the garden at every opportunity to take his tumbles on sand and soft grass. Yesterday he discovered a shovel left behind by the men who are plastering the upper floors of the house and was determined to pick it up, much like he does with a broom in the house. Needless to say, more work is needed. I'm sure he will be much less eager to wield a shovel when he gets older. One of the Danes and our Pit cross decided to lie on the sandpile to supervise...and, in the case of the Pit, to apply frequent licks to clean sand off his face.

Egyptian UFOs

2012-03-19T20:30:00.000+02:00

Visitors often find the open air butcher shops a bit surprising. Walking down the street in Toronto, one isn't that likely to literally bump into animal parts. You get used to it.

The Old and The New

2012-03-17T21:31:00.000+02:00

Oddly enough, you can see the pyramids of Giza from a lot of different angles. People expect to see them in company of sand dunes and camels, but as you drive into Cairo from Alexandria, they come into view in a landscape of traffic lights and mobile phone towers.

Handmade Tools

2012-03-16T21:15:00.001+02:00

Most of our farm tools are handmade by the blacksmith down the road. Handles are bought separately and often don't quite fit. In this case we needed to remove the stump of a dead palm and the axe handle was loose and had to be secured with iron shims. Stump was removed.

Tilted

2012-03-14T18:57:00.000+02:00

Life in Cairo these days goes on in many normal ways but at the same time seems sort of out of balance, much like the lines in this photo. Two young men chat beside an empty refreshment stand along the Nile overlooking the Cairo Tower. I'm not sure what the poles attached by a line are...perhaps part of a stand by the river just beyond the railing, perhaps part of a boat.

A Suitably Heroic Pose

2012-03-12T20:12:00.001+02:00

There was a horrible duststorm blowing across the Nile from the west and traffic was pretty much at a standstill. The erection of huge concrete block walls on some of the main downtown streets has really put a nail into Cairo traffic's coffin. A group of young men were laughing and horsing around as we were stopped in traffic and one got up on the railing by the river for the appropriate male Egyptian portrait in a mobile phone.

Strange Dry Spiky Thing

2012-03-08T22:37:00.001+02:00

While visiting Adam Henein's garden, I noticed a string of objects hanging from a tree in the sun. It's a long time since I've seen dried okra, which the Nubians and Sudanese use to make a dish known as wayka. Wayka is a stew of ground beef, tomatoes and the ground dried okra. It has a rather interesting texture and is often eaten scooped up in bread. Delicious.

Finishing The Job

2012-03-06T22:40:00.000+02:00

Homework is universal. These boys are doing theirs in the garden of sculptor Adam Henein. I can't think of anywhere more comfortable.