.comment-link {margin-left:.6em;}

Christel's Diary

Google

26 January 2007

Excursion

A second attempt on Sunday to bring home some fox meat. We didn’t succeed. Had a long walk through the olive orchards. No fox, but a couple of dogs raising a family of six. Well fed and in good health the little ones are. To satisfy their curiosity, they crawled towards us slowly making cute sounds. I immediately wanted to take some home, but they still need their Mama.

At night when driving home after some shopping a fox was crossing slowly the street. As it was dark we saw it too late and hit it slightly. It escaped.

And yesterday evening, we had our first guests on the camping site. There are no facilities yet, but it was not needed as they travel in a camper (mobilhome). A French retired couple travelling 6 months a year decided to visit Syria for a week after spending a few weeks in Turkey. They left France in October.

As they came unprepared, they were happy to receive information about the most interesting sites to visit and how to get there. I heard them leave very early in the morning and I wonder whether we will see them back before they leave the country.

The children finished the first week of 2 weeks of holidays and they are having a lot of fun, as it is warm and sunny.

Rahaaf is on holiday every day. Some days are more exciting than others. Last Friday, she stepped into the car with us and we drove around for 1,5 hour. She did not speak for 1,5 hour and ate quietly the potato chips bought in one of the million shops around here while looking around in amazement. She has got big brown eyes and it seemed like they were 2 times bigger.

Back home, while having some biscuits, she didn’t stop talking and confessed she was hungry. I left her to have some dinner and to tell all about the excursion to her family.

Google

16 January 2007

Believe it or not

The last few weeks I have been hearing a lot of stories about black and white magic. And I have been asking a lot of questions about it to try to understand how it works.

A lot has to do with “believing” it. Here everybody believes it is true.

As said before there are white magicians and there are black magicians. They are both called “Sjeikh”.

When someone really doesn’t like you, (s)he finds one of the black kind. When you find out or when you notice some strange thing is happening to you, you find one of the white kind to make it undone.

Always make sure your magician is a strong one, because the strongest wins.

The magician writes the message on a piece of paper and puts it into water. The piece of paper is used to make an amulet. Of the water, tea or coffee is made for the addressee.

It is the habit here to serve immediately tea or coffee to a visitor, and often both are served very quickly one after the other. Now, I learned that you should never accept to drink anything in the house of your enemy or people that may have a grudge against you.

The message is : know your enemy !

Magic or not, today was a beautiful day. It was warm, the bees and flies were back in business.

We’ve been planting a lot of trees and there is room left for about 20 olive trees.

It is clear that the trees will produce a lot more fruit than we can eat. Some trees will be in bloom this spring already. The others will need more time.

The fig trees alone will provide a nice income in the summer months. A good fig tree providing figs the same year costs 2,5 Euro. Last Summer 0,90 Euro was earned per kilo figs.

A small investment for both food and income in the future.

Google

09 January 2007

And in the meantime, there was snow

On Saturday morning it was snowing. White all around for half an hour. The warmth of the sun turned the flakes almost immediately into water. Because it is still sunny during the day, with few exceptions.

In Summer I get up at 6 or 7 in the morning. Now I don’t wake up before 9. Often it is 10 o’clock. That’s a good time to get up because the sun is warming up by that time. Often breakfast (or better brunch) is outside. And so are all other activities until 16 or 17 o’clock.

It is very important to dress warm. Knit underwear and Two pullovers. When not working, a jacket is required on top.

On Sunday, it looked like it would snow again, but disappointment all around. Maybe tonight.

On Monday, it was all sunny and warm during the day and after having moved around rocks (big and small) and wet sand on the camping to be, we planted 3 trees. 2 that will provide shade and 1 that will provide prunes. The rest of the trees will be planted one of these days.

In the meantime, the veranda is looking clean. Not spotless, but acceptable. Some tiles are waiting to be laid on the balconies. Some are waiting to be laid at the entrance downstairs. One of the many chores that still have to be done.

In the meantime, the carpets are looking much livelier than before. I have been cleaning them regularly with the vacuum cleaner bought about a month ago. The dust is gone and every time I look at them I discover flowers I did not see before. They are all made from lambs wool and heavy. Not easy to move them around when I’m “interior decorating”.

In the meantime, there are plenty of cushions. Thirty or more. I have some material to make “seating mats” to put around one of the carpets. When they are ready, I will be able to finish my Arabic seating corner.

In the meantime, the arguilehs are regularly used in front of the burning fire.

Google