A Crowded Garden

It's been a few months since we begun our garden, and it's beginning to get crowded.

The majestic sunflowers are in charge of welcoming our visitors.

But if you look at the ground you'll see other treasures...

Like the gold of the zucchini flower...

Cucumbers, with little thorns, but delicious !

... and the cantaloupe, that has all the sun it needs, but demands more water every day.

And if you search very hard, you can find a tiny turtle, eating some cucumber - actually, we don't know if we regularly find the same turtle, or if there are plenty of them in the field surronding our house.

To protect all those treausures from the hungry cows and goats, Bachir and Fouad have built this fence with reeds.

The Fez Festival of Sacred Music : A Week in the city

As I promised, here are a few photos of the concerts Fred gave during the Fez festival. Fred joined a Sufi brotherhood, the Hamadchas – although he isn’t a Muslim, which shows the tolerance of this brotherhood.

Storytelling show with the Hamadchas

Fred also gave a concert with his band Shahinaz. They played some Mediterranean music, and although the turnout wasn't great, the few people present at Dar Batha were very pleased with their music.

The biggest moment for Fred was the appearance of the Hamadcha at the last concert of the festival, on the stage in Bab Makina. The Hamadchas played two songs with Ismael Lo, a Senegalese singer, also a member of a Sufi brotherhood which has its roots in Fez, the Tidjans. A lot of Senegaleses come visit the mausoleum of the founder of the Tidjania, which is in the same street where our friend Yacine lives.

Rehearsal at Bab Makina: Abderrahim Amrani Marrakchi,
Ismael Lo and the Hamadchas

But the mix of Lo's music with the Hamadchas' was good I think.

On the right, Fred - yes, he had his own microphone and got to play
alone the intros of the two songs with Lo

And before we get back to Ouled Mgatel, a photo of the view we had from our bedroom in Pauline and Jurgen's house, where we stayed during the festival... no bad, uh?

And I can't resist to show you also the inside of the room.

A saddle waiting for a horse in a corner.



A djellaba and some babouches that had belonged to a child a long time ago.



And a thing that is scarce in Ouled Mgatel (for the moment at least): symmetry.

Pauline and Jurgen own a wonderful guesthouse, Riad Lune et Soleil.

To know almost everything about the Fez festival, go check the View from Fez.

Late

I’m so sorry about the delay in the posts. We’ve been very busy this week with the Fez Festival. Fred played at several concerts, and all went fine. Photos for later.

In the meantime, a photo of our mudbrick house to show you that yes, it still exists !

Back in Meuse

Oups, I wrote my last message two weeks ago. Time flies. I spent the last 10 days in France, because I had some exams at the University.

My parents live in a small village in Lorraine, in the North-East of France. It's not much bigger than Ouled Mgatel (well, there are more cars, and less children, unfortunately), but very different.

There are a lot more flowers. My mother is very proud of her garden. In the background, the field and a piece of the woods are ours too.

Anyway, tomorrow I'm flying back to Fez. I think my garden has changed a lot... and I'm really looking forward to see my cats, that, I'm told, try to scare the dogs all the time (but don't succeed... not surprising !).