Wishywash

A business common in Morocco but not in the UK is the lavage. This will wash your car or flying carpet, or at least carpet. There are high pressure hoses and racks to dry the carpets. Petrol stations have normal car washes both drive-through and self-clean with pressure hoses but the number of lavages suggest good business. The pictures are of the one down the road from us, opposite the bakers.

The Sandalmaker

Opposite Moha and the babouche sellers shops are a number of sandal makers. One makes solely for the Marrakesh market and he and Moha have on occasion taken lorry loads north to sell eg in El-Jalida. The others will sell from there workshops as well. Each sandal is made in a tiny area sitting at the back of the shop, the owner being assisted by a young apprentice. Sandals (indeed shoes) cost between 80 and 120 MAD. The woven ones shown would be about 100MAD. If you are an Ian Thorpe and have unusually large (or  particularly small) feet and have trouble sourcing shoes in your size sandals or shoes or boots are a good purchase because if you stay a day or so the cobbler will make some to fit.




Making the cross-strap for a sandal.Taroudant Souk




The completed sandal




Cutting the leather for the sandal lining. Taroudant Souk




A range of mostly men's sandals



A range of women's sandals

Dydd Gwŷl Dewi Sant hapus !

I was seeking to show my allegiance to God's own country but it is not possible to obtain a daffodil or leek in Morocco. The nearest to the latter is an allium currently in season which resembles a cross between a leek, shallott and scallion. It is sweeter than a normal onion and less intense. As they are in season they are also cheaper.

My Grandmother went and bought....

Sunday is market day. The market is north of the town where the standard walled market area houses the food market. To the north of this is and area selling mostly clothes and floorcoverings. Through the market you come to a smaller area described by the Rough Guide as a flea market but selling what beloved described as "a scrapyard of wasted metal which no-one could possibly want to buy". This from a man who hoards "useful pieces of string" and bits of wire which "may come in useful". Through this you come to the wholesale vegetable market with huge mounds of carrots or onions or gourds. There is also the beast market; mostly sheep and goats, but I did see cattle. This was interesting as though I drink lots of milk and eat beef which is cheaper than lamb, I had only previously seen about a dozen cows in five years worth of visits. Circling back to the vegetable market you pass through an area of tented cafes selling tea and fried fish to the stallholders.
It is light here about 7.00 by 8.00 the wholesale and beastmarkets are in full swing and the fish fryers are just staring up trade. The vegetable market is still partly setting up. If you go into town it is dead the shopkeepers and stallholders there not getting going until about 10.00, but later in the day the town comes alive with many more street traders than a weekday. The Sunday market is basically for small farmers from all over the Souss and this part of the Atlas to sell their produce. They will have left their villages well before dawn and need to sell before they can buy which accounts for the timetable and the need for a fish breakfast.


Taroudant sunday market




Hay for sale Taroudant Sunday market




A very small part of a carrot wholesalers




Vegetable for sale Taroudant Sunday market

 This is the only place where people have been uncomfortable about me taking general photographs so there are fewer pictures, sorry.

Terrace progress.

The table arrived yesterday. Beloved fetched it From Agadir. At first I was absolutely delighted because the colours turned out even better than I expected. On closer examination I was a little disappointed because some of the work is not up to the standard of the tables on display out side the shop. The centre in particular looks in places as though an apprentice has been let loose on it. Apparently when beloved and lorry arrived it had pieces missing even though they'd rung up last week and said it was finished. We suspect a quality control person (the boss) had said some bits needed redoing but because we had not rung first, well they had said it was finished, they hadn't redone it and then had to do it in a great hurry whilst the lorry waited. I can't blame beloved for accepting it as we had paid a 1/4 the total cost for  the lorry. Anyway it shows that it is all hand made. The table in the patio area superficially seems better quality but closer examination shows that the centre piece which features curves was clearly machine cut.
Yesterday was the hottest day so far , about 28C. It took 5 men + beloved  to get the table up the stairs. It is incredibly heavy and we'll never be able to move it, 2m x 1m and about 1" deep. Moha had divested his jacket in view of the heat and was only wearing his shirt and a thick sweater. The driver had shirt, sweater and thick jacket.
Then this morning the bell went early and my peacock cushion arrived. Mariam (Moha's wife) had made the tapestry up for me. I was very pleased with the result.
The terrace is the most used room in the house at the moment. It will be too hot in summer and the moroccans never use theirs this way but at present it is really pleasent to lunch in the sun  and then I sit out and do needlepoint. In a couple of months we'll be hiding from the sun on the patio or reaching for the air conditioning but at the moment it is perfect in a short-sleeve silk shirt or thin Tshirt. (note the contrast with the locals sweaters and jackets).



The peacock cushion





The new bespoke table




The inherited patio table





The hand chipped centre



This centre is machine cut

My next project - Gloriafilia's marbled cushion



zellij work

Zellij is a traditional craft setting pieces of tile into cement to make intricate patterns. In the past palace walls were decorated wit high quality zellij in highly intricate and complex patterns. Nowadays it is mostly used for tables and fountains in more workaday and less intricate patterns. There are no zellij workers in Taroudant but if you go to Agadir and go south towards  Inezgane there are a number of workshops more or less opposite the Royal Palace.
We commissioned a table for the terrace from one of these and beloved went to collect it today.
Cost varies depending on complexity of pattern. We wanted quite a large table so opted for a fairly basic one. The mosaic can also be made from numerous little squares of differently coloured marble which is more expensive.



The zellij workshop




Fountains




Various designs. The table on the right is marble.




Our table awaiting collection




The workshop floor displays a complex pattern




Chipping the tiles to shape




A marble topped table




Hand basins to the front, fountains to the rear



Spanish Bouganvillea

                                                       


As Tripadvisor forum gets excited about demonstrations and broken windows in Marrakesh and american papers report peaceful demonstrations in Rabat and Casablanca I have to report that revolution has passed Taroudant by. Today is market day and everyone just wants to get on with business. So I blog about my new bouganvillea. 
It was Southern novels Tenessee Williams (OK, he's drama) and particularly James Lee Burke's Robicheaux novels that made me want bouganvillea. They made me want jacaranda too until I saw the size of the tree it grows to so I made do with plumbago. We planted several bouganvillea of different colours in the containers last year when we set up the terrace. They did not survive the summer heat and Moha replaced them but they cannot be said to be flourishing.
We have always planted small ones on the grounds of miserliness but we wondered if a more established plant with a bigger rootball may stand a better chance of surviving the summer. So when we went to Agadir we bought the largest in the nursery. Not only that we paid half as much again to have Spanish bouganvillea as opposed to your everyday bouganvillea.
The "flowers" of bouganvillea are not flowers at all but coloured bracts. As such they do not bloom and fade so bouganvillea is constantly in "bloom" all year round.They come in a variety of striking colours; magenta, purple, orange, scarlet and white. The spanish bouganvilla has bracts twice the size of ordinary bouganvillea and has two colours on one plant, presumably grafted. I wanted cerise to stand out against the turquoise terrace wall and was not too sure about the additional white, but I certainly wanted the larger bracts. We kept it a while before planting whilst we tried to find a space but took the plunge and planted it on friday. It now looks a rather unhappy plant and I can only hope it will recover  from it's root disturbance. We had brought quantities of water retaining gel from Wales which we used liberally so if it survives the transplant it may insallah survive the summer.