Doha Musings - Growing stuff

Here are a collection of thoughts and refelctions of late in Doha ...

In Qatar in November and December comes the irrestible urge to .... plant stuff!! The heat has boken and you can put around the courtyard and not pass out from heat exhuastion. The temperature is a perfect 25 C, and everything is in bloom. When everyone back home is batting down the hatches in preparation for winter blizzards, our windows are opening, we are turning off the AC and finally moving outside. Our spring planting happens now...
When we arrived here, a year and a half ago ( hard to believe ), our little condo was collection of concrete and brick. But its amazing what a little potting soil, a little water and constant sunlight can accomplish...

Our courtyard looked like this last year
Conor tearing up rocks to plant trees
Breana and Lenore getting their hands dirty!
There's one ....
And this is what it looks like now!
My favorite plant is the Bouganvillea. It's indigenous to Brazil but grows well in all warm climates. They are a woody vine that has hooked thorns and so they grab onto anything, great climbers! They bloom like crazy and come in a varieyty of colors. The plant is named after a famous French Explorer named Louis-Antoine, Comte de Bougainville, who circumnavigated the globe in 1766.
More of them..

Our front entrance before
and now
Every weekend it seems we pick up a new plant or some gardenning paraphenalia. It starts feeling more and more like a home.

And outside our gate ....
Before
After
In the back we have "the temple flower" tree or plumeria or frangipani
Conor is planting the tree in the back, to give us something to look at and smell while we do the dishes.
The blossoms are a beautiful white and are quite fragrant.

You're in a desert and the dust and the constant heat can get to you but being able to make things grow. Taking a blank slate and splashing it with color makes it bearable.

Today December 18th is national day! Qatar's day of Independence... And as with last year, a day off work was granted the week before by our Emir. We had been waiting for the announcement of when the day off would fall as it impacts our school with end of term exams. Would it be Thursday December 16th? or Sunday December 19th? We waited with baited breath to find out... On the wednesday it was finally leaked that the holiday was definetly not Thursday..The student body collectively groaned. It would be Sunday, which is during our Christmas and therefore of no use..:( Poor kids ... a couple of chagrined teachers I might add.

For the last week the Qatari Air Force has been conducting exercises over the city.... I presume in order to show the populace the might of its French Dassault Mirage 2000-5DAs fighter jets ...
The planes make a phenomenal amount of noise as they fly around in formation above our school. Pretty cool to watch, but you always have that niggling feeling that there's always the chance of an error and one of those planes might land a little prematurely :(



The article below appeared in the Qatari news recently ... A big sting opperation shut down the creation of some dangerous contraband...

Arrests for ‘offensive’ cakes sale

The Preventive Security Department at the Ministry of Interior has arrested a number of persons of different nationalities for making cakes of “offensive and abrasive models” and selling them in one of the restaurants in Doha.
A spokesman for the ministry said the culprits were arrested on a tip-off. “The information from a source was passed on to the Preventive Security Department. Search and surveillance proved the information to be correct and the permission of the Public Prosecution was sought to conduct a raid at the site.
“A sting operation was carried out to trap the suspects,” the official said. “The Public Prosecution has ordered to detain them and to file a case and to refer them to the concerned court.”
The official said the operation was held as part of the efforts of the security agencies under the Ministry of Interior to maintain the safety and security of the community and to respect its values, characters and public norms.

Well there it is ... everyone can sleep soundly tonight

We took a big leap this year and put Christmas lights out to decorate our entrance from the street. We are the only family to take the adventurous leap... I feel like the Griswolds!

If you look real hard you can see my lights above the garage door ... they're the only ones in the neighboorhood.. And by the by, Lenore did a heck of a job on the christmas tree...

Happy Holidays !