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Christel's Diary

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28 January 2008

New home

The frost is over. Finally. Everybody relieved. The trees also. The pomelo tree suffered the most of all and is keeping its leaves all curled up. Remains to be seen what will happen with it.

The temperature changed, the sounds have changed, and the moods of people have changed.

To me it seems like spring has started. Every time I say winter is over, people look to me in amazement. For them it is not over yet. It has only become more bearable for them.

I started cleaning up the garden after Abu Dibo came by with his mules. He is more than 70, but in better health than most 20/30 year olds. That’s because he is working with his animals every day maintaining his olive gardens and sometimes helping others in getting the garden ready for the new season.

He has ploughed 2 pieces of the garden, destroying everything on his way (mint, broccoli, flowers, …). I was able to minimize the losses by telling him not to go over a piece that I have been nursing very well myself the last weeks.

All in all he was a big help. Now, it is up to me.

The chicken house has been purified with smoke and fire and the chicken have been moved to it. The first evening I had to take and move them while they were sleeping. There was no way to lure them with food. The second evening, they were waiting at the door of their old room. I waited until sunset and chased them to the back of the garden waiving a brush in one hand and a stick in the other. Today, they are staying in the back of the garden. They may have understood.

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16 January 2008

They came unexpectedly

They came

The super cannon days… It has not been as cold as this since more than 10 years. There is hardly any wind blowing. It is really freezing cold.

People are replacing the petrol stove by a wood stove. It is more work, but cheaper, as wood is available for free. You just have to go out in the cold and collect it. After having brought it home, it has to be cut in pieces which cannot be done in the living room near the burning stove. It has to be cut outside in the ice cold garden.

Still I remain optimistic and estimate that by the end of the month the worst will be over.

By now, I’m having the sun tan of a ski teacher, as contrary to hot periods, I’m out in the sun when shining.

At night, the dogs living in the wild nearby are barking and howling in the village. They are howling because it is the mating season and they are closer to the people’s homes because they need to find something to eat.

Same thing for the foxes. They must be near. I haven’t heard one crying out yet, though.

That reminds me that we should have had a dog by now. The one that we “booked” at Qala’at Nejem. It is too late go and get him. He is too big by now to take in and is probably living in the wild too. I’ll have to look out for puppies nearby.

A week ago the last red hen died. The rooster had become a widower. He was not happy about it and crowing the whole day. He got 4 new companions. Adult ones this time. He is dancing around them the whole day, but they are not very keen.

It looked like the last red hen died in an accident while leaving the hen house. I found her in the door opening (During these cold days, I did not have the courage to go out at sunset to lock the hen house). I think she tripped and hit her head on a big rock in front of the door opening. That’s how it looked, anyway.

The rooster and his new hens are residing in an unfinished room next to the camping’s showers until the hen house has been disinfected.

I’m curious to see whether this lot will be the start of my own small egg farm.

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07 January 2008

Cannon Days

Cannon days

A few weeks ago I mentioned to someone that winter days can be so damn cold in Syria. The response was that “It was cannon after all”.

I guess the cannon days are over. It is less cold now. Some milder days with rain, some colder days with sun. We are having much more rain this winter compared to the years before.

I’m already planning which vegetables to have where this year. I’ll stick to tomatoes (lots), peppers, okra, courgettes, green beans and melons… and some salad. Together with the trees and flowers that’ll make a nice mixture. Having too many vegetables near the young trees keeps the trees from growing. They still need a lot of water.

Parts of the garden are completely “weed free”. 2 big parts are waiting to be cleaned up. That’ll happen in the next few weeks.

Nothing really spectacular happened. Everybody is recuperating from the Eid.

Some tourists from France dropped in to say hello. I helped them preparing their journey and finding a chauffeur. Spent a day with the Baumann family from Canada who have been touring around Syria for a few weeks with Mohamed. They looked like they were enjoying themselves really well.

Satisfied customers are what we need. They are spreading the word around with success. More and more requests are arriving in my inbox and I do spend quite some hours providing information about what to see in Syria and how to get around.

And apart from the cleaning, the washing and the ironing, there is not much more to tell about my boring life this week ;-)

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