A Post about Chickens

Chickens in cages at the Mellah Market.



A price list of chicken parts at a little chicken shop in the souks.




A handpainted sign from the chicken section of the Mellah market.



Another of the same.

IMG_0513.JPG, originally uploaded by schmidwix2.

A chicken in the Ourika Valley wandering about as chicken are meant to do.
I have lots of images of handpainted chicken signs from the suth of Morocco but need to get a scanner in order to post them.

The Square at Night

IMG_0035, originally uploaded by schmidwix2.

The usual mysterious, smoky scene.
The biggest barbeque in the world - every single night of the year.
Where can all these people possibly come from?
All over the world, not to mention all parts of Morocco.
Eggs, tagines, snails, mussels, flat bread, chicken, sausages, salad.

Shadow Shot Sunday/From the Archives

A visit in June to the Bahia palace where the light hits the plasters work and the fruit trees are reflected on the carved wood.



Two more of the same..............



An extra shadowy one...........



Derb Djedid just outside our front door with no one there............



The same with neighborhood children and one of their mothers.

The Beach at Night

These are really poor quality pictures but rather fun nonetheless.
They were taken from the Sea Chalet fish restaurant right overlooking the beach at Essouira.
In the distance are the lights of the harbor itself
Something magical about the water at night.........when the sand itself is deserted.


.......with the lights from the dock reflected in the water.
Lights too from fishing boats in the water.



The wind drops at night giving a wonderful calm leaving rippled water, rippled sand and a lovely tranquil feeling.

Birds on the Roof

IMG_0206.JPG, originally uploaded by schmidwix2.

A picture for Paz who enjoys birds!

Last Summer at the Beach

One thing about the beaches in Morocco is that they're huge, and it's very easy to get away from the crowds.
Here at Sidi Kaouki some 14km. south of Essouira a mist came in off the Atlantic shrouding everything in a romantic miasma.......out of which emerged the usual salesman selling "Rolex" watches.......



At Diabat, camels head towards Essouira and are about to ford a little stream which crosses the beach,



Fairly lonely young men with bicycles also going towards town.
Also at Diabat.




This castle in the sand will only last a few more minutes.

Edmund Spenser wrote:

"One day I wrote her name upon the strand"

One day I wrote her name upon the strand,
But came the waves and washed it away:
Again I wrote it with a second hand,
But came the tide, and made my pains his prey.
Vain man, said she, that dost in vain assay
A mortal thing so to immortalize!
For I myself shall like to this decay,
And eek my name be wiped out likewise.
Not so (quoth I), let baser things devise
To die in dust, but you shall live by fame:
My verse your virtues rare shall eternize,
And in the heavens write your glorious name;
Where, whenas death shall all the world subdue,
Our love shall live, and later life renew.

Anna Carson's Project Black

Quite a challenge Anna Carson has set us!
I had to delve deep into the archives to look for something black in Morocco.
Other than some tile floors and some women's robes there really isn't much.
Morocco is all about color.
However, I did find these charming pictures from the beach at Essouira.............



.........where water was draining out to sea through dark sand or particles of some sort of sea life.
The resulting designs were almost like trees.



A dark-clad figure walks up derb Dabachi.



This one -- a door on derb Essnane off Mouassine -- is a bit of a cheat, because it's gray -- which is black with a little bit of white in it.........



This floor is just off the square in Essouira.
Actually, quite a lot of new restaurants and newly done up riads and so on feature black and white and neutral colors.
Morocco is a visual feast and sometimes one gets surfeited and needs a little rest.

Yellow in Marrakech

Back to left over photos by me.........
This post is for Mrs.Nesbitt's ABC Wednesday Y.
Yellow cloth drying in the Dyers' Souk.



The lovely yellow urn at the Jardin Majorelle and the lily pond.



Flowers against the yellow tadelekt in the courtyard of the little house which I miss.



In the Bahia Palace such wild painted ceilings. These stripes feature a rather a subtle yellow.

Docks, Essaouira, Morocco/Shadow Shot Sunday

Docks, Essaouira, Morocco, originally uploaded by Claudia Schmid.

This is more like silhouette Sunday. See Hey Harriet's super blog.
I'm still cheating. Claudia took this shot of the sun setting behind the fishing boats in Essouira - our favorite seaside/fishing town.
The town faces towards the West and everyone gathers near the sea wall to watch the sun sinking into the Atlantic.
It's always rather lovely, and for some reason the wind seems to drop when the sun goes down.
I wonder if there is some clever explanation of this?

Looking up in Morocco

These are lovely thumbnails of pictures Claudia took all over Morocco. Go to flickr.com and look up Claudia Schmid to see lots more pictures from Morocco and other parts of the world.

Abstract/Jardin Majorelle

Stripe, originally uploaded by Claudia Schmid.

Another Claudia picture.
The perfect blue of the bleu Majorelle paint.
The perfect green of the well-tended grass.
The sky reflected in water.
What more could one want?

Table in Dappled Sunlight

Repeat, originally uploaded by Claudia Schmid.

This table is on the terrace at hotel Sherazade.
A photo by Claudia.
We are now in New York.