Balloons Over Thebes

Happy last day of 2015! I think I will be glad to move into 2016 and see if it's a happier year for the World. We can always Hope!

There were 12 balloons in the air over Thebes this morning. So I have decided to create a new tradition for the last day of any year--for every balloon in the air over Thebes the morning of December 31 there will be a full month of health, love, peace and prosperity in the new year! It's worth a try!

Happy New Year 2016!

Sunset Stroll

On December 27 I decided I wanted to get out of the house for a little while and 5 p.m. seemed like a good time. I'm so glad I left when I did, since it meant I was able to capture this sunset moment:

Just after this I noticed a long line of glossy ibises flying north on the other side of the river

and took the time to shoot a video. Unfortunately, I couldn't manage to add the music I wanted to it, so you'll just have to imagine "Evening Raga" by Ali Akbar Kahn playing in the background:

When the flock had passed overhead I descended to the Lower Corniche where I captured these images:

One Last Shisha Sunset...

It's coming to the end of the season and we had to have one last shisha sunset. The view is hard to take--not!

Golden Sunset

The dust/sand in the air yesterday made this golden sunset possible.

There were some nice clouds too!

Not Another Sunset!!!

Sorry, just can't help myself. The sunsets here can be so glorious. Here is a sequence from Wednesday:

And just one from last night:

Another Great Sunset...

What can I say?

Except...how 'bout those clouds?

And what about these from Sunday while we were on the roof for our first shisha of the season:

It's a hard life!

Out and About in Luxor

Finally! Anait and did a shopping walkabout last Sunday, with a well-deserved stop at The Roof for lemon juice (theirs is the best!), wonderful coffee (the real thing with cardamom) for Anait, and my first shisha of the season (plum). The light everywhere was wonderful, as it tends to be in the mid-to-late afternoon. And of course the views from The Roof are magnificent!

Our resident egret who always seems to hang around near CH:

 On our brief walk through the tourist souk:

Bougainvillea is very opportunistic. Here it's used the trunk of the palm tree to establish itself:

One of the ubiquitous homages to ancient Egyptian influence:

Red Sky at Night...

A glorious sunset yesterday after lots of rain!

To the West and Back Again...

A friend and I headed over to the West Bank after work today for an art show "opening" (great work, Fay!), good conversation and lovely dinner at the Marsam Hotel/Sheikh Ali's. On the ferry headed west:

And on the ferry headed east:

I will miss these magical vistas when I leave Egypt for the summer (Saturday).