wanderingquilter

Had an interesting morning walk with Snoopy this morning.  We were almost home, just going through a walkway. There were two cats at the corner in the middle —- Snoopy loves cats- for chasing, that is.

Well, this one didn’t give him a chance.  The little 3 pound black calico literally FLEW at him, all points out. Even with her fur raised, she probably wasn’t bigger than his head, but she was loaded for bear, or rather DOG.  He was trying to get away, and she wouldn’t let him.  I kicked out with my foot so she let go, but she wasn’t backing down an inch – hissing and spitting and ADVANCING. If it was a fight to the death, she planned to WIN.

We backed slowly out, with her following, until we could safely turn tail and get away.  Snoopy was left with a bleeding nose……. we’ll see if he was also left with a new respect for cats!

I have spent all day today at home, waiting for the internet repair person to call and say he was coming with a new router. Well, actually, I was gone for 10 minutes to the store for milk and some more recharge cards for the thumb-drive. It’s after 5 pm now, and he said he would call at 9 am.

Oh, and I walked the dog too.  Seems sunflowers grow everywhere.
I called the help line about 10:30, wondering if someone was going to call. Guess I shouldn’t have, as it seems every time I call them, the service gets worse.

I’ve had trouble with the internet ever since I got it in January. I’m positive that the router is faulty, as I can have a great connection, and then Wham! it’s gone, and the computer won’t even admit that we have wireless, even though all the lights that should be blue or green are blazing merrily away. I’ve tried wireless, I’ve tried direct hook-up to the computer……the only thing I can really depend on in my iPhone – and it’s too small to write a blog on.
I guess I shouldn’t complain – when David isn’t home trying to work, I can use the dongle (read thumb-drive internet connection), which costs $2.50 per day – on top of the monthly fee for the wireless that doesn’t seem to work most of the time.Yuri and Margarita are visiting this week from Kuwait. We went out together yesterday to the hot springs near Nakhal, and then on into Wadi Bani Awf to Little Snake Gorge. Yuri is a geo-physicist, so the geology of the area is particularly fascinating to him, and he was able to tell us a bit about the rock formations and how they came to be like that. We took Snoopy, who was NOT welcome at the hot springs, so he and I wandered around a bit while the others checked out the springs… so I didn’t get my free fishy pedicure this time. I did find a fig tree with small figs on it, and banana tree with time bananas, and another tree with ginormous leaves, and fruit and flowers that I didn’t recognize. Research time again.Snoopy was quite happy to run and sniff around the rest of the stops we made….. and he didn’t get the chance to chase any goats into trees this time either.
Here are a few photos of yesterday’s safari. This is an amazingly beautiful country, even if the internet doesn’t always work!

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The other night we weren’t very hungry, so we went out to the Civil Aviation Club for a beer and spring rolls. After almost 4 years in Kuwait, it is still a novelty to actually be able to go out for a drink. and after over 4 years in the Middle East, sitting under a palm tree overlooking the ocean still hasn’t gotten old.

We became members of the club just before Christmas, and have really enjoyed it. There is a pool (haven’t been yet, but one day), a small gym, a bar and restaurant – both inside and outside by the beach, a lovely long beach with many shelters available to members, a dive centre… lots to do. Most members are Omani, so it isn’t just an Expat hangout. They make very good use of the beach houses on the weekends…. with barbeques and maids and children running and playing in the sand. We went once on as Friday afternoon… just sat in the shade and enjoyed the cool sea breeze….. and Alice and I went on a weekday afternoon as well.
I have to admit that we have gone most often for a quick meal and a beer –  It has been handy when we have visitors as well…and very close to home so traffic isn’t an issue.
Anyway, back to the crabs. It was just dusk when we arrived. We ordered, and then, instead of sitting at the table along the railing where we could hear the sea but not really see it, we went down the steps to the sand. I think I mentioned before how some species of crab build towers during mating season. The beach was littered with them, and in the twilight, we could see one or two busy bringing sand out of their holes and throwing it up on the piles 2 feet away. of course, they stay underground when you try to approach them. There was one crab, however, at the edge of the water, so we ganged up on him and chased him back and forth… not letting him reach the water. This guys wasn’t a ghost crab… he appeared to be brown or green, and was about the size of my hand… and could he ever move.

I tried to take photos with my iPhone, but in the dim light, nothing turned out good enough to post. Next time, I’ll use the Canon and see what I can do.

It was not a good morning for octopi………… I found two of them with their shells on the beach this morning.

It was the hottest walk I’ve ever taken on the beach.. I couldn’t believe that there was no cooling breeze.  Snoopy and I went by car to the point, and set out, wading in the low tide and watching for interesting shells.  We hadn’t gone very far when I just decided I’d had enough.  I was up too early and didn’t want to go any farther.  We went up to the high tide mark, and hadn’t gone 10 meters on our return journey when we came upon our first paper nautilus.   The octopus was still in her shell, but had been out of water for far too long.  One perfect shell, and larger than the first one I found.

We hadn’t gone that far when we found the second one with her shell close by.

I also found a few other shells – like a cowrie of a colour I haven’t seen before, and some rather large olive shells with distinctive markings, a light coloured pen shell, and a small bonnet shell that doesn’t show up very well in the photo, but is quite rare to find on this beach.

Quite a long time ago, I came upon a book called “Gift From the Sea” by Anne Morrow Lindbergh.  It is a lovely, gentle book, written in 1955 by the wife of the pilot Charles Lindbergh.  It is a book about life in general, and a woman’s life in particular……. jottings of thoughts on her solitary vacation at the beach as she centred herself and became aware of what was truly important in her life.  She gathered shells as I do…… filling her pockets at first, and then, gradually she began to pick and choose the best, the most meaningful… the few that would always remind her of where she had been and what she had learned.  I think that we do this a lot in life, with more than shells, surrounding ourselves with only those books and friends that enhance our lives, and shedding those that clutter or tear us down.  We learn to treasure quality over quantity.

Mrs. Lindbergh packed a lot about life in her thin volume…… I think I need to sit quietly and reread it. 

But first, I’d better wash those shells.

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Monday night we attended a benefit concert and auction for Japan.  It was held at one of the big hotels here, the Intercontinental.   I heard that they planned to set out 600 chairs… when we arrived, the concert was almost ready to begin, and it looked packed.  There wasn’t much room in the parking lot at any rate. The ballroom is beautiful and was humming with activity when we arrived. 

The music was classical…most of the performers were professionals working here in Muscat, many are tutors for the symphony orchestra performers. Many nationalities were represented as well, from the Columbian harpist, Czech violinist, and Danish cellist,  to the Iraqi oboist and the Japanese pianist that had the idea in the first place.

Sitting  beside me was a young lady with a magic pen…… as we listened to the music, her hand was never still as she sketched members of the audience, and even one of the performers.  She said that it is her job… I’m not sure what she does… but she is sure good at it.

At intermission, they headed into the auction of donated prizes.  We had heard it would be a silent auction, but it wasn’t.  Unfortunately, it took forever.  When the began, David and I headed out to the hotel cafe for a bite to eat, as he had gotten home from work late, and just in time to get us to the concert.  The second half featured a lovely young Japanese lady who had done her high school here in Muscat, and is now studying opera in Germany.  Wow!  We finished the half with a very flamboyant Italian flautist ……. he played his own compositions, accompanied by a guitarist of local renown.

I’m not sure how much they raised, but it was a wonderful evening, and truly showed the international flavour of Muscat, and the talent that abounds here.

The photos won’t go into the proper slots, so I’ve added them as a slide show to give you a taste of the evening.

A paper nautilus shell, that is.

Yesterday morning, Snoopy and I went again to the beach for our walk. It was a lovely day; a bit cloudy with a light sea breeze. Not to many people there either.
The tide was still fairly high, leaving only a short wet-sand area to walk on. I just left my sandals in the car, after dropping one the day before and being fortunate to find it again. Old sandals, but they still fit and do the trick.

There were precious few shells, and most of them small. The waves were very small and not bringing much in. We had seen a fairly large jelly fish with a lovely coral fringe and Snoopy had found a few dead fish that interested him a great deal.

Almost back to the car – well, yes, we DID drive, even though it’s about a 10 minute walk from home. I wanted to spend my time ON the beach, not getting to it. Anyway, there, at my feet, lay this shell…. right next to the water. It hadn’t been there when we went by the first time. A bit cracked… they are very delicate and seldom make it to shore in pristine condition….. but there it was. Now I have found one… and I can always hope that I will find more.
Here it is, beside my glass case to show how big it is.

And here is a house across from the beach that has been under construction… or rather NOT, since we moved here. Won’t it be incredible when it is finally finished?Now, off to get some quilting done.

I’ve been to Wadi Bani Khalid three times.  The first was in the spring of 2006.  David and I spent a week in Oman, and had driven down to Ras Al Jinz to turtle watch.  On the way back to Muscat, we saw something about springs and a cave in the Lonely Planet guidebook, and decided to check it out. 

Wow… the road went up and up and down and down…. but we finally arrived, only to discover that a flood had torn up the road.  The only way to reach the pools was to clamber over hugs boulders… these were the small ones. A local boy offered to guide us through the greenery at the edge… along the falaj (water channel).  He took us to see a banana tree…. and then insisted on 5 rials for his services… and we were too green to argue.

There were no concession or changing rooms there then… but it was worth the climb. This small child and donkey were near the bottom of the climb.

When David’s cousins visited in February, we went again… and luckily, there are now change rooms, otherwise only the men would have been able to swim.  And the road has been repaired.The water was clear and just cool enough to be refreshing.  We climbed up to the mouth of the cave, and David and Gary went inside, but not all the way to the waterfall.  It is very dark inside, and you need flashlights…… Gary kept taking photos and they used the flash to show them the way.  The openings got just too tight to go on in the dark.  Dawn and I don’t do caves… so we waited outside.

On the way back, the guys went in one of the deeper pools… and by the yelps as they entered, it was fairly cold.  And then, Gary had to jump from the cliff into about 20 meters of water.  It made a nice refreshing stop on a warm day.

And we didn’t take the Bedouin taxi back to the car.

Last week, Sue and I made the trip.  It is too nice a place to miss just because you’ve been there before.  The mountains are very interesting… many different colours and shapes of rocks and cliffs.  We watched the elevation rise from under 500 meters to 800…. lots of driving in 1st and second gear.  How come I’m always driving?

Mid-week and with the weather warming up, it wasn’t nearly as crowded as the last time.  We were way-laid by a herd of goatsand then had a bite to eat at the concession.  After dipping our feet in the cool water, away we went, as we still had quite a drive ahead of us, and wanted to reach Muscat before dark.