Jamie Oliver and the Famous Butcher

I was recently staying with my daughter who often visited us in Marrakesh.
She said I must watch the English chef  Jamie Oliver's programme on Channel 4
"Jamie Oliver does Marrakesh"  (April 10th 2010)
There, lo and behold, was our friendly butcher from the Mellah market.
It was such fun seeing such a cheery and upbeat program celebrating Moroccan food.
Do watch it if you can and if you enjoy eating...........

At Home............

The little fountain in the courtyard serves as a sort of focal point........
Rather like a mantelpiece. The strange brown thing is a Berber tent accessory - hard to explain - anyway a present from a friend who went to the desert.



As summer approaches light falls into the courtyard making all sorts of strange shadows........



Swirls lead you into the sitting room...............



There are always lots of flowers - one of the delights of Marrakech.............



In the evenings we eat in the courtyard, except in the dead of winter. The table cloth is a piece of fabric from the mellah market and the olives were preserved by Ismail's mother.
Flowers, olives and candlelight.........
I wish you could join us.

Gracious Hosts in the Countryside

There is a huge walled garden full of old olive trees and a long drive bordered by luxuriant roses.
Some of the roses need dead-heading to make more and better ones - even though there are plenty already.
The old-bat English lady-gardener in me determines to bring secateurs next time.
What joy it would bring me to do real gardening rather than just fiddling with pots on the roof.
Peacocks and guinea fowl roam in the olive orchard.



There are all sorts of other birds and animals but I'm saving their pictures for tomorrow.



Roses decorate every table top -the handiwork of an artistic five year old of my acquaintance. Her excellent sense of design was probably inherited from both her parents. But, even so, she brings her own individual flair to it.
CocaCola. This is drink much beloved of the Moroccans - as well as everyone else except me. I always like to see it with Arabic script on the bottle. It looks more exciting somehow. For nasty/nice sugared water I'd rather go for Hawaii - a really bizarre yellow brew sold here.



All the drinks - including fresh orange juice and two kinds of water - fizzy and flat.
I can drink tap water here but mostly don't, except for cleaning my teeth.
Of course there is beer and wine for the grownups.
One little boy (aged 4) decided to pour himself a glass of red wine. Luckily he was noticed and gave the most beatific smile as it was taken from him........



The big table indoors has African artifacts on it which make me think of the south.
But today is for outside.



I'm not quite sure what plant the yellow sprinklies came from - but I like the effect.



Pink on pink is so chic. There was lots of food including green sausages - see Flickr. They looked poison but tasted fine.
The secret ingredient turned out to be spinach.......



Even the bathroom window - very high up - is sort of intriguing.

From the Shwerma Restaurant.

DSCN0469, originally uploaded by schmidwix2.

Evening street scene.
Everyone out and about as in yesterday's post.