on dhaish

dhaish means baby donkey in arabic. we have a baby donkey. her name is matilda. if you have never before seen a baby donkey in person, you should make a serious effort to. they are the most precious, awkward, leggy little animals you will ever see. fuzzy ears as long as their face, which is two times too big for their body, hair cropped just above the eyes that dives into a wild mane, and the longest, skinniest legs that end in miniature hooves they tiptoe around on all day. clip clop clip clop clop. amazing.

matilda is still bottle feeding, and we need to find her mother soon. she needs a LOT of food. aziz found her wandering the streets after dark, and rescued her - we put in a declaration at the local government in case anyone notices their adorable donkey is no longer with them. but it is a joy to have her with us for the meantime - kicking around the yard, forcing out her little heehaw. wish you could see her in person!

on progress

we have had quite a productive may, despite the majority of it being filled with rain. some of the things that have taken up our time include building a second bathroom on the roof,

finishing the roof walls with cement,

working in the garden,

painting the outside of the house,

and fixing up some cute second hand tables to accommodate guests.the bed and breakfast is starting to get to the final stages, which is really exciting for us, having invested a lot of time and effort into making it profitable. i posted some pictures of recent developments....don’t judge the house color. basically the paint we use is like white wash (i think) - it starts out as rocks, that you add water to, it heats up, melts, and then you stir it up and paint. kind of scary. you can add color to it if you want, and then you slap it on the walls with no rhyme or reason, and after it dries, it actually looks pretty decent. the only problem with adding color, like i wanted to, is that when you mix it it looks really dark, and when you first put it on the walls, it looks really dark, and then after it dries, it is about ten shades lighter. so you think that you have mixed up a nice dark gray, and then in the morning you find off-white. so....the colors that i mixed were supposed to be a dark blue gray (which turned out fairly close) and a dark rust color (which turned pink). so instead of a bed and breakfast, it kind of looks like we are running a daycare. i am trying to be patient with it until next year, when we will probably have to repaint it because the elements are not so kind to whitewash. i am pretending it is tan with a pink tint. anyway, at least the paint makes the house look cleaner, and finished. so that’s that! more updates to come later - hope you are enjoying the start of your summer!

on spring

our grass was getting a bit long so i decided to hire a local lawn mower. isn't he cute?

i have also been so enraptured with spring exploding all over the place, i had to bring a bit of the brightness inside. i am not sure what all of them are...i need a plant guide for morocco...but they are beautiful regardless!

refresh!

spring has declared itself in ain leuh! i had been fooled into thinking this very thought about three weeks ago when i saw a baby praying mantid in the garden. this was quickly chased away as snow once more made a spiteful appearance, killing half of the seeds i had planted in my hopeful eagerness to get a head start on spring. oh well - we needed the moisture, and our grass was happy for the cold covering. but now! it is no longer frigid at night, the ground stays warm, and buds are flinging themselves open all over the countryside.

there are few things that give me as much pleasure as planting, waiting, and then the suprise greeting one morning, my garden having exploded overnight. I love it. the small plants that grow almost in front of your eyes, the gritty dirt on your hands that never quite leaves your fingernails, the small buds that unfold carefully throughout the day. it never ceases to amaze me how rapid the transformation between winter and spring is. especially in morocco the seasons have always seemed to change just in a day. one day you wake up and fall is over - winter has come to stay. one day there is snow on the ground, and the next, spring has trumpeted in with warm weather. anyway, i could go on all day describing how delightful it is to me, but i really just wanted to share a bit of my garden with you. so i'll move on.

we were able to go to a nursery the other day, and pick out a few plants. too impatient to wait for my little seed pots to get going, we got some fast fixes until i can replant my seedlings. there are a few flowers around the fruit trees, some above the doors that will climb down, a honeysuckle that will someday dominate part of our wall, and a few other varieties for decoration around the yard. they do nicely to add a bit of color - and soon some will become practical too! i have five varieties of mint - great for flavor or medicinal purposes. different herbs will soon be planted as well - rosemary, oregano, thyme, basil, dill, etc, and onions, tomatoes, peppers, and salad greens! my arugula and mustard greens are already shooting up nicely. we also planted two grapevines on opposite sides of the house that will shoot up to give us shade on the roof. inside the yard a peach and cherry tree, and hopefully soon a fig tree. yum! we have some flowers and a plum tree outside our yard...we also had a pomegranate, but someone unfortunately stole that. will have to replace it with something less appealing i guess.

it is definitely a joy to be able to work outside and see results within a week or two. after a cold winter inside, to be greeted by warm, even hot, sun each morning is so refreshing! we are so blessed to be able to eat breakfast on our roof, and look out over an amazing landscape that gets more beautiful each day. you can see part of that in the photos posted. i hope all of you are also enjoying spring wherever you are! be healthy, joyful and rediscover things that have become familiar to you!