The Charcoal Burners

Charcoal is an essential for a traditional tajine. You light it somewhat dangerously on the gas hob and the transfer it on a metal tray or shovel to the burner, put you tajine on top and leave it for 2 hours. It's also essential for barbecues and cooking the Eid sacrifice. I have always wondered where it comes from as you rarely see it sold. Coming back from the drive we saw where it is made. 

About a dozen km north of the Anti-Atlas we came to an area with two large charcoal producers a little far apart on opposite sides of the road. There was nothing to indicate why this area should site large scale charcoal production. Beloved assumed the wood was brought in from the Anti-Atlas; but why bring it so far ; wouldn't you just take it to the first bit of flat valley floor? I thought it may be connected to the argan forest regeneration, That land had been cleared of trees (there were no trees only scrub) and it was being burned more or less in situ; but why would you regenerate a forest by cutting the trees down?

The method is exactly that described in Swallows and Amazons.

The wood is heaped into circular domes, covered with earth, and burnt slowly over a long period of time. The slow burn with limited oxygen produces charcoal rather than ashes.

Goats in Argan Trees

One of the features that made the drive interesting was that just as you turned up into the Anti-Atlas there was a herd of goats grazing in the argan trees. Tripadvisor takes a sceptical view of this phenomenon talking about goats being tied to the branches, and whilst I know that to be untrue there are some places where I have thought that the herdsperson put them up  the trees in hope of some passing tourists. Here was miles from tourists and there wasn't a goatherd in sight. The goats jumped up and down  and jostled  precariously for the best position. 

You could see why; the argan trees are in full nut.

 At least some of them are covered in fruit, others have none. I had always thought argan trees to be self-fertile but they must have male and female trees like holly and cherry. As this would double the number of trees needed to get a crop and as you need 10x the volume of argan nuts as olives to get a litre of oil, I begin to see why cosmetic quality oil is £20 for 250ml in the co-operative.

A Morning's Drive

Instead of going home we took the other fork into the Anti-Atlas. It was a pleasant little drive and only 20 mins from home. The milestones said that it got to Igherm in 100+ Km but we just went partway up the first winding ascent to get a panoramic view of the Sousse valley and of villages clinging to the steep slopes.

It was an interesting drive. The almond trees were starting to blossom so perhaps an expedition to Tafroute and the Ameln valley is called for.

We were particularly taken by the new school which respects its old argan tree.

The Quarry

On the way back we passed what appeared to be a quarry of some sort. It was quite strange. From a distance you could see a tell-like mound with crumbling buildings on top not unlike a Ksar. Close up it was a mound of mis-shapen boulders.

 It was difficult  to see how they had been built up as the mound sat on the flat of the Sousse valley. Nearby were a large number of dressed stone blocks which suggested that the area was a quarry but it was difficult to see where the stone came from as there was no hole excavated and no hill to be bitten into just the valley floor.

The anti-atlas are a few kilometres behind the dressed stone blocks say 1m-1.5m square.

The Road to Assads

About two years ago a Frenchman at the orange juice stall told us we should take the turnoff from the main road marked "Assads" as it was very pretty. We never did so but this morning decided to go for a drive. We took the turnoff and then another for the Assads road. Beloved was bowling along and braked pretty hard when we came to this.

 We presume it was a result of the 2009 floods and hasn't been a major priority for repair, although the road seemed good and new so it may have been later. The area is having the Argan forest "regenerated" and a co-operative is to be built.

 Now Argan oil is becoming fashionable in cosmetics in the West it must be worth the investment.

 Beloved studied the map and realised the road was about to run out at Assads whilst I was more taken with the tortoise,

 so we didn't bother with the deviation and came back. 

Plant Progress

Well none of the plants we potted up in November have died and some have had more babies which have needed potting up themselves. The large shrub in the Tamagroute pot had finished its small pink flowers which are replaced by large wispy seed heads. 

The hibiscus hedge need trimming yet again, a task Beloved has been assiduously avoiding in the way I avoid ironing. It has had a couple of flowers but it is very frustrating because the hedges in the sculpture park which had looked as though they were dying of neglect and then were pruned to nothing are now covered with flowers.

Bespoke Shopping

One of the pleasures of living here is that you don't have to buy of the shelf you can have things made to exactly suit you.
I have a seamstress in the Souk. (Why are men tailors and not seamsters  but women are not tailors but seamstresses?) Over the years she has done quite a few small jobs for me; fitting new zips , sewing on buttons, adjusting side slits and shortening trousers. For this last she charges 40p a pair to do on the machine. Beloved goes to a male tailor who specialises in trousers and costs 80p by machine. We have paid as much as £1.50 for hand done work by a man. When we first came here 7 years ago there were only men but then my seamstress started and now there are other women's businesses. Anyway, when we were in Shanghai I had some trousers copied in silk. Unfortunately I gave them quite a short pair to copy and then they shrank a bit when I washed them so they are now very fashionably short quasi-capri style which is great with sandals but silly with lace-ups. So when we were home for Xmas I went to Abakan fabrics which sells material by weight. I was unable to get any silk or silk-linen fabric but got cotton-linen. I have some extremely comfortable but utterly ugly (printwise) trousers I use for gardening, and I took my material to the seamstress who copied them and made me two pairs in plain black. For this she asked the princely sum of £4.80. As I'd paid £8 for the fabric I thought I should pay her at least the same; so now I have 2 pairs of bespoke trousers at a total cost of £8 each.

I wanted to have the longstitch canvas I'd made from odds and ends turned into a pouffe for the lounge in Wales. I went to the sandalmaker's opposite Moha's who had made up the Kasbah pouffe. It's turned out better than I expected although ,of course, it isn't stuffed yet. I will have that joy with small polystyrene balls when I return. The plain one we got at the tannery for Madre for Xmas was a nightmare and I wouldn't have got it done but for Sweetheart. It's very light though to move about and Madre says it's a bit squadgy which makes it comfortable to put your feet up, although I'm not sure that's good for sitting on.

Whilst we were in the sandalmaker's   I spotted a pair of sandals. Two years ago a friend gave me a pair of toe ring sandals and I have worn them every day since. I had a pair of similar design in the 70s and I had forgotten how comfy they were.

 The  moroccan version is even more hippy because it incorporates a piece of carpet , and, as there are a lot red carpets, every pair I had seen, like mine, were red; but the sandalmaker had some that were blue! Sadly they were size 41 and I am size 38. No problem! I was tried in various size sandals to make sure I really was a 38. a few days later a further fitting to establish the fitting of the toe loop. A final stretching and low and behold ,perfectly fitting blue sandals.

 Although this took a while as they waited for me to go back the whole process can take less than an after noon. Apparently a popular "excursion" for tourists with one local tour  group is to go to the sandalmaker's and make your own sandals from scratch. He gives you the equipment and instruction. I wonder if any of sweetheart's friends would enjoy that?