fun summer listening

The Radio Dept. - Heaven's on Fire by Surfing on Steam

1900 Meters = 6233 Feet (and is the elevation of Ain Kalla)

the road home

2009.09.09 Tallest Man on Earth, Bardens Boudoir (Honey, Let Me in) from Tim Ferguson on Vimeo.

If you like this one, check out his myspace (King of Spain and Pistol Dreams are two of my favorites, but they're all incredible songs).

The infants are getting bouncy

The Sahara

Got all packed up, jumped in the car, and realized we had a flat tire

We're getting to know the tire shop guys pretty well.  10 minutes and we were on our way.

Rain in town, snow at the field site (we drove past it).  Common in February, but in May it's just weird.

My that's ominous.

Out of the mountains.  Into the plains.

 Mountains in the distance...

 The road to the desert took us through many of these canyon oases.  I don't think I've ever seen more mysterious places.

6 hours after starting in the rain and snow...this is the view from our hotel room.

The hotel was a bit schmaltzy, but I don't know how one could avoid that in these settings.  It was run by really nice people though, had more than decent food and accommodation, and...

There were cats everywhere.  I miss pets.

 We spent our second night out in the dunes in some Berber tents.  We got to and from the campsite via these wonderful creatures.  No, seriously, I had no idea how cool camels are.  Camels are SO COOL.

We named mine Bogart...

  ...get it?

The light is always changing.  Except for in mid-day of course, when it's so bright and so hot and you couldn't give a rat's-ass about the light, just please could I have some more tea please...thank you.

 Sunset...

 ...and Sunrise.  I opted to spend the night outside the tent under the stars.  Consequently I was one of the first ones up the next morning and was able to run to the top of the enormous dune outside the campsite and grab these shots.

Pouring sand from my shoe after my mini dune marathon

 

Our chariots await.

And we were really just on its doorstep.

It rained all morning, and then the sun came out

HI MOM!!!

Spending all this time in a group with 7 mothers, it's easy to start thinking about just how difficult being a mother must be.  The time, the effort, the herculean levels of tolerance and patience necessary to raise these tiny things from helpless balls of fur into fully self-reliant, self-sufficient, self-sustaining individuals.

No, it can't be possible.  How is that possible?

Notice the hand preventing him from leaping off the rock

And these little tykes are fully independent after two years...

...I'm still working on it after nearly 23.

Happy Mother's Day Mom!
Love you,
and I'll be home soon,

-Michael

One more

I couldn't decide between this and the one with just Artemis...may as well post them both.

Michael in Morocco: Season 3

Flowers blanket the hillsides.  Green has replaced brown as the prominent color scheme.  Babies all over the place (all 7 of the Green females had newborns).  And perhaps most noticeably, we find ourselves again battling with flies over who gets first dibs on monkey poo.

Yup.  Spring is in full swing in the Middle Atlas.