Signs of Spring

and a promise for autumn.........

our breakfast companion

Water in the falls.....

and falls in the water.... (no he didn't but I had my camera ready just in case)

work on the new road

More "after the rain"

So on Saturday morning, when I woke up and found the electricity was off, we headed for the hills - well a day trip to Immouzer. I remembered my camera and have taken a fair number of pictures which I will post on the blog (though it will be a slow job!).

We went in the reverse direction of the trip I took Eileen et al and Caroline and Ian and took the Marakech road north and then turned off into the mountains where we had a good view of the works on the new road and snow in the high peaks.

All along the road there were signs of damage due to the heavy rain, clearly the road must have been closed for some time after the rain fall.

We also saw loads of little chipmunk critters running across the road as we drove through the pine woods - actually they are striped ground squirrels.

For the first time (that I have seen) the cascades at Immouzer had water... which actually meant that (unless like Mohamed you have no regard for personal safety, dry feet or frostbite) you can't see the falls when you trek up the path to the base... too much water. This is also the first time that we didn't have to endure the gauntlet of souvenir sellers (that man who makes the wooden boxes has a heck of a lot of nephews!) - which was nice! For those who have visited - it turns out that the carpark REALLY is the dry river bed....

We had a little walk away from the falls and found the local olive mill in use, with the spent, crushed olives being taken away by the donkey load for drying and then to be used as fuel for the hamman.

We had some wonderful tefernet bread (cooked in clay ovens on hot stones) with the usual eating companions but decided to go to Immouzer proper for lunch. This turned out to be a bad decision as the tagine was not properly cooked - I don't think it was cooked in the tagine at all but when we complained the guy just said that we had come too early and it hadn't finished cooking yet.

Just as we left Immouzer we were stopped by a Sherrif who demanded to see our marriage contract - sure that Mohamed was working as a false guide. Usually Mohamed does carry a copy with him but he had given it to some other petty official so we just had to bluff it out... which was easy since we knew we were in the right. It is the first time that has happened for a long time. We gave a lift to some young boys heading home after a week at school in Immouzer who told us about the taxi that had driven off the side of the hill in the night just after the Eid. Apparently the one passenger leapt out and is still recovering in hospital but the driver (because of his seatbelt)didn't escape and died!

We came back into Agadir through the Paradise Valley. There was lots of evidence that the whole of the gorge had been flooded leaving debris on the trees at the side of the road about 1m off the ground. It must have been something to see - though I am glad not to have been caught in it.

Mohamed had his first Russian class to get to so we didn't hang around too long but it was a nice day out.

Yesterday I went to Taroudant for my monthly visit to the Police Commissary and this time my Carte de Sejour was there! Only another 4 months till I have to start thinking about applying again. I have to start reminding Mohamed now to get his changed so that when I apply we both have the same address... and that is all my news.

I will try and get some pictures posted... but the internet is a bit slow tonight so I might wait for a while

Some local wildlife

These flowers are sprouting from bulbs all over the place and there are also some with broader leaves that have not flowered yet. I have spotted what looks like it might be a forsythia bush just by the Argan tree - I think I need to take time over planning the garden, just to see what is there already (apart from large rocks).

Here is Marmela in a calm state:

and Honey being stalked by Martha:

How green is my valley?

I am writing this offline and will post it later when I hope we will have a better internet connection. Mohamed is up on the roof with his laptop trying to find the best place for the modem.

We have had some more horrible weather – though I know it is nothing like the weather that you are experiencing in UK/Europe at present. On Wednesday night I had a really sleepless night listening to the wind moving everything round on the roof. We had to get up halfway through the night to try and anchor down the rain hood over the stairs…. I have to admit it sounded much worse than it actually was - I mean I don’t suppose it would qualify as gale force winds or anything, but it made for a really bad night’s sleep. I also found my that modem (which is on the roof for a better signal) had been blown off the wire…. lucky I found it I suppose. Anyway when I plugged it in the next morning my pc refused to recognise it so we had to take it apart and dry it with the hairdryer before putting it back out on the roof. This time I created a waterproof (I hope) house for it… in a little water bottle, which was a bit fiddly to achieve - like a ship in a bottle, and we lashed it to a post…. But the connection is so slow I think I would be better coming and knocking on all of your doors with my little story.

Which is why Mohamed is up there just now, searching for the best spot…. I think we might have to try a Maroc Telecom modem as well to see if we get a better signal as work is very difficult with such a slow internet connection and my patience is fast running out even if my (dear) employers’ is not.

When it is not windy and or rainy it is lovely outside, everything is greening up. I am going to take some photos from the backdoor and post them so that you can see the change as it happens…. I know there are some very sceptical people out there when I say it is getting lovely and green here. So this first shot was taken on 6th January and the second just 2 days later.

Already you can see that the little bit of Argan forest is looking much greener, but I will add more as time goes by.

This is part of the same view as the photo on the blog page proper... though you can see that the road along the valley has now been tarred. It is still mostly used by people with their donkeys heading along to the fresh water spring for drinking water.

Last night I heard some more yip yipping of the wild dogs/foxes/wolves. I would love to see what was making the noise. We have seen quite a lot of foxes and hares since we moved here and I am inclined to think it was foxes rather than wolves.... no lonesome howls.

We took a trip into Agadir the other day (first time in daylight for me for a while) and it was amazing how much greener everything is already. In the Argan forests the crops planted between the trees are starting to grow – and there is that beautiful emerald green of fresh shoots. The Argan forests are owned by the government and protected, though there seems to be sort of common grazing rights and some way of claiming land under and around the trees for agriculture. The Argan tree is only found in this part of the world and produces a nut with a thick fruity outer skin (picture of the tree in our garden). The fruit is what the goats climb the trees for. They eat it and then the indigestible nut is left on the ground (after it has been through the goat) making it easy for harvesting. The nut is then dried, split open and the kernel squeezed for oil. The oil has a nice nutty taste and is used in cooking, to make the delicious amlou (like a runny sweet peanut butter only made with almonds) and also for cosmetic purposes. The nutshells are burned on cooking fires and the Argan trees (when available) are used to make really good charcoal ….. and that is the Argan tree story.

Elvis was out all night and came back with a bit of a scratch on his nose but otherwise OK. There is a bit of a battle going on with a grey and white cat (similar to Little Boy from Taroudant who I rescued from poisoning). Marmela came running in the other day spitting and hissing at everything because she had had a run in with him… luckily Martha "the enforcer" rushed out and saw him off. Marmela goes a little berserker when she gets in a fight and just turns on anyone who looks at her … she often ends up fighting with our cats long after the intruder has been beaten off by the others and will growl , hiss and spit at me until she has thrown off her fighting mood. So far we have had no sign of the ginger and white tom who caused all the trouble down at the pink house.

Amazingly with all the bad weather we have not had any power cuts for a while (stops to save document before she is punished for tempting fate like that).

As it turned out the best signal was in the kitchen and slightly less good in the bedroom. We were going to buy a long usb cable so that I could have the modem in the kitchen and keep working in the spare room. But usb cables don’t work when they are more than 5 m long unless they have their own power supply. We are still investigating that and in the meantime I have moved the pc into the bedroom – though I think I might still end up in the kitchen. Mohamed has a little more building work to do in there so I don’t really want to move just now. The good news is that my future office will be just above where the kitchen is now, so even if the signal is not so good up there I can easily drop a wire through the floor. Unless, of course, Maroc telecom are good enough to run a fixed line into the village before then.

We also have had a blocked toilet…. oh woe is us.

At last I am back online... and at a reasonable speed though I still can't listen to the Archers :(

and the toilet is unblocked :)

Home at last!

We are now officially in residence in That Stony Place. Everything is still in a guddle and yesterday when I set my computer up I found that my monitor had stopped working.... and didn't quite manage to get the internet modem in the right place for anything like a reasonable connections speed...but Mohamed solved all my problems yesterday and I woke up this morning to a working system.

We lost Elvis the first night - he ran off as soon as we got here, evading all attempts to barricade him in, but when I went back down to the old house in the morning he was there. The girls were locked in for the night using a combination of mattresses, cushions, bookcases... and anything else to hand... Marmela got out twice but only so she could come and tell us off! The cats are all fairly settled now... though I am not sure how many of them have gone further than the roof. Elvis and Honey for sure. We need to get the cat flap fixed and then train them how to use it. Elvis just threw himself at the back door last night till we heard him, worked out what the noise was and let him in!

As I was writing this I just heard a scrabbling noise and found Aretha clinging to the outside of the back door - it has a window at the top with some ironwork and currently no glass - and she finally managed to squeeze in through the bars.

We went back to the old house yesterday afternoon and cleaned all the rooms out... though I think Mohamed and his mother are heading back today before we hand over the keys to make use of the hamman.... meanwhile I will be boiling kettles of water and .... well you don't want that much detail. I am also hoping I will find my hairbrush.

I have realised what the hallway in the house reminds me of..... we have left some of the stone wall bare (winter job is going to be removing the mud "cement" and repointing it with something less muddy) and painted the concrete verticals .... It had been nagging at me for ages what it was... this lurking memory, but it came to me on Monday night as I was sitting on the stairs having a breather. It is reminiscent of Tomb of the Eagles on Orkney - though we don't have to crawl along it on our hands and knees! I will try and get a decent photo - at the moment it is cluttered with all the boxes that I couldn't think where else to put when we first arrived.

I hope today we will have the water sorted out a bit - still only pretend running water and not drinkable but it will be better than nothing, and I guess I had better try and find a curtain for the toilet door at least!

oh and Happy New Year everyone.