Sweetheart's carpets

Sweetheart has two moroccan carpets,  or should I say kilims. The first she bought herself in December and has in the spare room. The carpet seller went to great lengths to explain that this was a wedding carpet of the sort that would be sent by a bride to her putative husband's family before the wedding. In those days the bride and groom would not meet until the wedding and the carpet was a way of communicating. The square in the centre represents a house which has two entrances with the families entering through the opposite doors.
She must have liked it when she got it home because she got me to buy the red one for her living room and I must say I think it goes there spectacularly well. I was worried about matching the colour but Ali Baba pointed out that whilst two reds may clash, several will blend and he was obviouly right. The sharper-eyed of you will notice other moroccan purchases , the brass bellows and leather tea light holder and also one of my needlepoint cushions. This one was described as the sort of carpet a woman would send to her mother after her marriage to tell her what was happening.

The fisherman

It was interesting to watch the Essaouira fishermen bringing in the catch. It was largely sardines. I think they had been caught in nets which people were mending on the quay but there were also lines of lines with hooks like mackerel lines being untangled and folded; like any Cornish village in the 50s. The method of getting the sardines from the bottom of the boat onto the quay to be sold was interesting. As with most things in Morocco it was entirely manual, labour intensive and backbreakingly hard work.
One man stood in the bottom of the boat, another partway up the steps and one on the quay. A small plastic basket of the sort one buys at the pound shop to tidy up bathroom ephemera was used to scoop up about a kilo of sardines, perhaps less. This was thrown to the second guy who passed it to the one on the quay who emptied it into a box of ice and threw it back down. The process was repeated ad infinitem. Other people scurried about bringing fresh ice and removing full boxes and selling the fish to punters.

Gardening on two continents

I've given myself an unecessary stress by trying to garden on two continents. Gardening always results in failure even if seemingly successful in that it never turns out as intended and the best bits  occur entirely by chance. I do not have green fingers although thankully Moha seems to and manages to keep my african plants alive. Nevertheless my original vision of the terrace with  bouganvillea climbing up the boudary walls mimicking the climbing roses of my fences at home have had to be abandoned. Bouganvillea really needs more rootspace than my pots provide and doubtless more assiduous watering than a nonresident gardener, even Moha, can provide in a 50+C summer heatwave. So we have turned the emphasis on the terrace to palmate/tree fern types and cactus.
The garden here in the UK suffers too and having spent the last several years trying to extend the flowering season I am now ruthlessly whittling it down to spring and summer. The vegetable patch is problematic too as we can only grow those plants that can be planted when home and forcing early by planting under galass is not really possible. We planted broad bean Aquaedulce Claudia before we left in October. Came home in December to prune roses and returned to prune the hibiscus hedge a second time and should have pruned roses in morocco but left it too late and they flowered. We have now come back to plant potatoes and eat purplesprouting broccoli, cabbage and spinach.

However the neglected flower garden is giving hope. The camellia is in full bloom.The dwarf narcissi are out and the main daffodils and tulips just starting. Primroses, pulmonaria and hebe give hopes for spring and the fatsia japonica is in full bloom. The grass needed cutting which is early this year and we will give it all a tidy up and get the veg in before going back to Taroudant . We will return in May in time for the roses here and to put in the summer bedding, but it will be expensive bedding as I will not have grown it from seed or grown on under glass. I am perusing catalogues which are of no use as they threaten late April/early May deliveries with plants dispatched "as soon as they are ready".Ah well , at least I will be eating broad beans.

Essaouira - The Port

Essaouira Port retains much of its old charm and we took a stroll there before we left. This coast was famous for its pirates  which led to european interference quite early and the port was actually built by the Portugese. Whilst it retains a role as a fishing port it now longer retains its role as a main  Atlantic port which was lost when the French "protectorate" developed Casablanca, and the town now resembles a south Devon fishing port turned resort.

The Results

Sunday was our last day in morocco so we watched the race and then had a long lunch with friends in the Jnane Soussia. The race was interesting and clearly well supported by participating locals. I missed snapping the men's winner as after a long wait some quad bikes screeched to a halt directly in front of us and the two front runners streaked past sprinting for the line before I got my  camera set but I did get a picture of the women's winner. The crowd applauded everyone but with particular appreciation of some of the older runners who were clearly popular and well known locals. The most applause went to one runner whom I had noticed at the start. When relaxed he had twitches and an unbalanced gait which suggested cerebral palsy and when he arrived in a track suit I took him for and observer but when he started running the spasms disappeared and he was a creature of beauty and elegance when he ran. I have seen similar transformations in people with  tardic dyskinesia. He was not one of the fastest finishers but by no means one of the slowest and certainly one of the most popular. 
The winner of the men's race was a local which gave particular satisfaction but the women's race went to an Ethiopian. Our friend told us over lunch that everybody had finished and nobody had dropped out, although some of the older apple-shaped men seemed to need water and assistance in the heat and finished at a walk. A coach for the local athletics club stood in the road about 50m from the post clapping everybody on and encouraging them to jog over the line.
The restaurant served us mechouel and the elusive women's football team were haveing a team lunch in a back room. The children just loved the swings and playground and a very pleasant time was had. The only confusing thing was our friend's insistence that we must know of Richard Marx a very famous singer songwriter like the Beatles and the Eagles whose songs were used to teach english. I have googled him since and he appears to emanate from California in the 90s. I taught him the following poem which I cribbed from Maurice de Sautoy's book to illustrate homophons

                   11 was a racehorse
                   12 was12
                   1111 race
                   12112



RESULTS

11 MARCH 2012: ASTA 10km INT'L DE TAROUDANT, MOROCCO

MEN:
1  Ahmed BADAY                       MAR  27:56
2  Simon CHEPROT                    KEN  27:57
3  Hafid CHANI                           MAR  28:30
4  Jonas CHERUIYOT                 KEN  28:41
5  Mourad EL BENNOURI           MAR  28:50
6  Khalid SAADDEN                   MAR  28:53
7  Jawad LAARISS                     MAR  28:56
8  Ataly YIRSAW                       ETH   29:00
9  Reuben INDONGO                  NAM  29:03
10 Noureddine BOUCHMAMA     MAR  29:08

WOMEN:
1  Amare MEKASHA                   ETH    31:47
2  Agnes BARSOSIO                  KEN    31:50
3  Winnie JEPKEMBOI                KEN   32:02
4  Rkia EL MOKIM                      MAR   33:43
5  Marina PETROVA                   RUS    34:03
6  Aziza ALAOUI SELSOULI        MAR   34:11
7  Salima CHARKI                      MAR    34:18
8  Alexandra JAWOR                  POL    35:05
9  Khadija EL AARIBI                  MAR   36:07
10 Hanane TOURCHI                  MAR   36:48

 



Laying the start line



A patriotic supporter



Marshalling the start




Get Set



Musicians entertain the VIPS



Musicians wait for the finish




The women's winner




A coach encourages a finisher to a final sprint




A popular finisher



The Art Exhibition

                                                                         

The artist has a one woman show which started yesterday at the Parador in Antequera. It runs until May 8th so any of you in striking distance of southern Spain may want to go along. It may well have some of her moroccan inspired works.

The Long Run

I had intended to blog Taroudant Ladies Football Team today seeing as it's International Women's Day. They play in the new stadium north of town and are very successful, playing in the first division of the national league. Given the national men's team deplorable showing in the African Cup of Nations perhaps they need to come to take lessons. Anyway I haven't got a picture so I will blog an alternative sporting event instead.
This Sunday is the Asta 10km run. Asta, who appear to be a tea and coffee brand who also make C'Bon energy drinks, sponsor other races including the Rabat marathon and the Zagora super-marathon. There is a prize of 10,000Dh for the winner in  both the men's and women's races and  a further prize of 5,000Dh for beating the course record. There are place prizes for the first 10 men and 5 women , the distinction ,I think, reflecting the relevant entry rates.
Last year both the men's and women's events were won by Kenyans but whereas the womens event then was mostly moroccan including a large number of Roudanis with some international entries, the men's event was truly international , although  3 moroccans broke the Kenyann/Ethiopian hegamony on the top 7 places.
It starts at 8am Sunday, although as my informant said that is a morrocan 8am, in front of the Palais Salaam and will finish there about 46 min later.
There are lots of preparations with sponsors signs on lamp posts along the route. Place Aout 20 has lots of activity with temporary stalls erected and temporary cafes and seating selling Asta products. They are also planting up the garden area previously given over only to rocks.