They Were Framed!

It's almost like having brand new art hanging on the walls of my room! There were three photos and a small watercolor that I had lost track of, which have just been re-discovered and finally framed (Wood frames, glass and hangers cost all of LE 160, or about $20!) So I marked where I wanted them to go and staff put in hooks and... Voilà! At the same time, I had them put in a hook for a painting I had just propped on a table. And I'm very proud of my collection of caleche hardware, so you get to see some of those too!

Here's how the bulletin board wall looks now:

Dramatic Single Balloon Flyover!

Yesterday there were six. Today only one, but how dramatic it was!

First Balloon Fly-Over of the Season!

I heard that easily identifiable sound early this morning. And it was an astonishing hot air balloon fly-over! Six balloons encircled Chicago House at various distances. What fun! And good news for Luxor tourism too!

Happy Halloween!

There are no real pumpkins in Egypt, at least not in Luxor, so our creative team get to use squash to "slash" into jack-o-lanterns for the holiday. Here are the results:

Two Cats Lounging

The bad news on the CH cat front is that we lost a couple more during the summer--Pablo and Rusty have crossed the Rainbow Bridge. We are now down to three official (neutered/spayed) CH cats--Heidi, Buttons and Beau. We also have a couple of unofficial cats who hang around but whom we consider too nasty to try to capture and take to ACE (Animal Care in Egypt). Buttons and Beau have been found lounging, sometimes in strange places (Beau was roosting in a storage cabinet in the Photo Archives yesterday). Here are a couple of photos of them at their loungiest!

Beau takes a selfie!

Buttons keeping cool

Moonshine Over Chicago House

It was a mostly clear early evening with a few wispy clouds to add character to the sky. As it darkened, I happened to be out in the garden fooling around with my relatively new Canon EOS Rebel DSLR and its 50-255mm lens. The moon was a perfect target! I got this result, shooting handheld, no tripod. I'm pretty impressed with the clarity and detail, since my hands tend to shake a bit, and that's a long lens! Happy Friday evening from Chicago House!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Roses from our garden on the desk in my office...

Season's Greetings!

So sorry I've let my readers down. Here it is Christmas and I never reported on Thanksgiving! In any case, I wanted to share my wishes for all of you this holiday season:

"Egypt needs a complete de-Mubarakization"

An interesting post-acquittal analysis!

Egypt needs a complete de-Mubarakization

Weekend Wanderings

Yes, I'm still alive... An amazingly busy few weeks since my last post...

I thought I would share some random images from the weekend so far. The first four were taken during my morning constitutional around the perimeter of the CH grounds. Later, we went fitness equipment shopping. Would you believe there are at least three shops in Luxor that deal in exercise equipment. We just bought a treadmill from one of them, and it was delivered by donkey cart! On this run, I got some bright red 3kg hand weights so that I will have no excuse for not doing my exercises in my room! So there are four shots taken during the shopping trip--the pharmacy is across the street from our last fitness shop stop, which consists of an equipment shop AND a gym, and across from the gym is a wall with lots of graffiti. The last three shots were taken this morning at Healey House--two of the Healey House Hoopoes (sound like a sports team!) and one of the supplies needed for a relaxing morning on our roof:

A solitary balloon over the West Bank, striking against the rose-gold of the sunlit mountain

Sunlit bougainvillea

Rich red hibiscus

A CH carpet hung for cleaning

Rooftop relaxation necessities: (clockwise from top) journal and pen, face mist, coffee in my special Sunday cup, fly whisk, iPad, and sunglasses

Happy Halloween Egyptian Style!

We celebrated yesterday and our "party of the season" was held last night. A resounding success!

This is what I wore during the day:

 Courtyard decor:

Gina and moi at the party:

The wonderful party food created by our fantastic kitchen crew:

And the jack-o-lanterns carved by our creative professional staff:

Crowd scenes:

I hope you all have as great a Halloween as we did!