COLD DARK ROOM

[CarolM]

Back from a long day of kayak exploring on the banks of the Atlantic Ocean where it lashes into southern Delaware & Maryland’s Eastern Shore just south of Rehoboth Beach. Five hours of driving, four hours of kayaking.
Worth the Effort

Calm Before the Storm

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Always love your pictures, and welcome back as well. You went AWOL for a little while. ?

 

[CarolM]

It's a fairly modern castle built by the French during their colonial period, one to the North, one to the South, to keep an eye on the Fassi (people of Fes) who were notorious trouble makers.
Here is a traditional Moroccan kasbah :
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The curator is on the right.
I pop in to have tea with him when i'm near the place.
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I wonder what they used to make the walls? Was it cement with a sandy colour or is it clay?

 

[CarolM]

Oh yes he is... that's the third time I've caught that little toad hanging out with him. I'm going to take a picture if it's the last thing I do. The little toad was actually laying against Sapphire's shell. They were both just chilling together during the rainstorm. It was ridiculous.

I would love to see a picture of that. And maybe Joe's interpretation of it as well.

 

[CarolM]

Tis okay!
Most places here have electricity. In the South, where this particular Kasbah is located (there are thousands) many of the smaller towns, villages and farmsteads have solar panels. Morocco is very much at the forefront of renewable development and usage. Many rural places do still get their water from springs or wells, though. It's great fun going down the hill with your donkey with water barrels on its sides, to fill them up from the well. For the first week. Then it becomes a tad irksome.
These old kasbahs and the surrounding houses are built from wattle and daub - effectively mud and straw, so, every time it rains, which isn't too often, they dissolve a little more. The one I showed is Ait Benhaddou, here you can see the houses from a distance leading up the the kasbah.
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Only a handful of families live here now, though many of the buildings are shops and cafes for the tourists.
The rest of the locals live in the modern concrete buildings on the other side of the river.
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Many towns are like this. Here is Tinejdad where you can see the empty, abandoned wattle and daub buildings in the foreground, slowly dissolving in the rain, and behind them, the occupied,modern concrete new town.
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Well you answered my question very nicely. Thank you kindly Dear Sir.

 

[CarolM]

Yup, it's a beautiful country, full of deserts, mountains, forests and beaches.
Wonderful.
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Wow, congratulations on catching someones light bulb moment in the first picture. I wonder what it was that they came up with?

 

[CarolM]

Oh great! We will drink together then.. as long as you can remember the stories of where you’ve been... you keep talkin.. and I’ll keep drinking.. win win here I’m thinking... Everyone gather round and fill your cups;-))

You still have my Hamiltons pink gin available?

 

[CarolM]

I think you-all are doing very well too. That's my definition of paradise. What else could anyone want? ??

NO Camels, and lots of cheese!!

 

[CarolM]

Oh my garsh. I can't wait to watch this. Chubs where are you when I need you? Elly May?... someone

What are you watchin?

 

[CarolM]

think chubbs started back at work today?

I think he might be in the nut house. I left at page 7 the other day and when I looked again it had 44 pages, I shudder to look how many pages it has now!

 

[CarolM]

It wasn't me.
I didn't do it.
wifey made me.
I'm a soft white innocent lamby sort of thing.

Yeah right. Now try and pull the other leg!

 

[CarolM]

Tick.
Tock.
Tis late.
I'm off to count my toes.
May take a while, so I'll not see you all in a bit or two
Nos da, Roommates, old and new
Or old and young
Old but still sprightly
Whatever
Nos da!

Nos Da Adam and wifey and let's not forget Tidgy as well.

 

[CarolM]

I don’t think I can handle another like Cinder. She’s more than enough.

Well.. I think I’m done now.. sleep tight everyone.

Sleep tight, mind the bugs don't bite and sweet dreams.

 

[CarolM]

How stunning!!!!
Reptiles just amaze me sometimes and this is one of those times. What a beautiful pet you have and how interesting ?
I also love your wine bottle wall!!!
You drank all of that yourself?!?!?!?!?
What about the torts??
Don’t they get any?? ??
? + ??= ????

LOL, No I did not drink any of it. I very rarely drink acohol and recently only hamiltons pink gin, if I must. I got all the wine bottles from family, friends and work colleagues.

 

[Maro2Bear]

Always love your pictures, and welcome back as well. You went AWOL for a little while. ?

Always here, browsing. Posting more on Twitter too.

 

[Mystic_Queen (Llaria)]

Good morning. Well afternoon for me ☺️

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

When you return if I may be so presumptuous as to ask could you indulge my curiosity and tell me about Tidgy?

Presumptuous is really not a problem for me.
Usually.
Anyway, nearly 9 years ago we visited the house of some friends in one of the suburbs of our city.
Two of the small children were playing with a small rubber tortoise, using it like a toy car.
"Brmmmmmm, brmmmmmm" and smashing it into walls, toy cars etc.
Then twisting its legs and pulling them out as far as they could go.
"What are they doing to that tortoise?" asked my idiot wifey.
"Duh! It's a rubber toy!" said I, in my standard supercilious manner.
But it wasn't. People buy baby tortoises for children as toys for a couple of dollars, and they don't last very long. Which is fine, you just buy them another one. Or a spray painted chick. Or a fish. Or a kitten that will be thrown into the gutter once it's old enough not to be so cute anymore. There's lots of fun to be had.
The adults were feeding it lamb and tomato and if it was in the way, they kicked it under the sofa, chair or whatever.
Don't get me wrong, this family are our friends, good people, they're enormously generous, kind and thoughtful, have helped us out many times and would do anything for us. But the people here don't have the same view of animals as we do. It's a big difference in culture, one of the few things in Morocco that I hate.
At the end of the evening, just as we were leaving another tiny baby tortoise wandered across the doorway.
It was wounded and limping.
"Miskine!" I cried, which means something like "Poor thing" though, as she was actually a girl, i should have cried "Miskina!"
"This tortoise will die soon" said one of the adults as the children picked it up and started pulling its head out of the shell.
"I want it!" said I, who doesn't believe in keeping tortoises in captivity or pets in general in many cases. "wifey, darling, can we have this?" wifey immediately agreed.
"Of course you can have it!" replied the mother of the family.
In Morocco, if you really want something that somebody else owns, they are obliged to offer it to you, within reason, though you should usually refuse at least twice.

I picked it up immediately.
And then asked for the other one.
Sadly, the first one belonged to cousins, the adults of that group not being present, they couldn't give me the tortoise, so i had to leave it, Tidgy's sister. It died a couple of days later, before i could meet up with the cousins.
The tortoise I took was very unhappy in the taxi home. She was sat on my lap and clearly terrified, though i expect you all know that tortoises are really bad travellers.
I got the taxi to drop me off at the local cyber-cafe, as i didn't have a computer back then, and I read everything I could about the care and upkeep of a Greek Tortoise, Testudo graeca graeca. This was the first time I looked at The Tortoise Forum, though I didn't join at this time.
wifey suggested the name "Tidgy" which is an adjective that means very small, but also the intitials of the subspecies.
I pointed out that it should be "Tiggy", but wifey sulked a lot, so Tidgy it was.

continued in next post as this one's getting too long and there is someone at the door who I have to tell to go forth and leave us alone.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

you must REALLY like cheese old chap
Or are you part mouse? ?

Eek! Eeek!

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

I could listen to your stories (and pics) FOR HOURS!!!! But I don’t want to take you away from wifey...
wow how amazing your life is compared to mine. Mine stinks! My views are of the neighbors kids and baby pools.. skunks ?
and a very small and meek vegetable garden I decided to grow myself this year..
I can’t believe a pumpkin ACTUALLY came out!!! ? .... ok... SOME things are good here.... but not many. ?
That’s why I like to live vicariously through all of you and your beautiful settings. It’s like I have opened the door to OZ???
I am so happy that I have found this cold dark room.. how ironically weird it might happen to be..?

Please take me away from wifey!
My life has been extraordinary, but not always in a good way.
We all have good and bad times.
My father left home with another woman when i was 17/18 and i never spoke to him again.
My mother and both my brothers died in a car crash a few years after that.
I have been shot a few times (once by me, by accident) and dragged off blindfolded into the rain forests of Myanmar.
I very nearly died of TB.
But these were all good things, too.
Life is what you make of it.
Your life is considerably better than multiple millions of people in this incredibly diverse world.
OZ? There is no Utopia except within yourself.
Life's Good!

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

All of you who are fairly new here should read Adam's version of Esio Trot...he's a story teller extraordinaire...

ESIO TROT by Tidgy's Dad.

Now, I expect many of you are familiar with the book, "Esio Trot" by the inimitable Roald Dahl and superbly illustrated by Quentin Blake. I had a copy but before I moved to Morocco sold it, along with thousands of other books, as it was simply too expensive to transport everything we owned out...

www.tortoiseforum.org

I am.
I must do another one, that was so much fun.
For those of you who haven't read it, please do!
https://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/esio-trot-by-tidgys-dad.159608/

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

I wonder what they used to make the walls? Was it cement with a sandy colour or is it clay?

Yes, indeedy. It's mud or clay and straw.