Bougainvillea

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Bougainvillea can be seen flourishing all over the Mediterranean and Middle East and with good reason too! This thorny bush with woody, twisted trunks can survive very harsh conditions and times of drought. I have 3 Bougainvillea bushes in back yard which rarely feel the raindrops on their leaves and papery blooms yet they are still going amazingly strong! We have barely had any rain in Riyadh this year and I have a terrible tendency to forget to water plants... the Bougainvilleas were already in flower but not looking particularly spectactular. Hubby did his manly weekend thing of cleaning off the BBQ and outside table and chairs and gave the bushes a good watering too... the results were breathtaking. By the next day the Bougainvilleas were in the fullest of bloom. It's now a joy to stand at the kitchen sink and wash the dishes whilst looking out at this carnival of colour!



They really are wonderful plants; an absolute burst of bright pink which attracts the butterflies, the leaves are a welcome hiding spot for the lizards and the cats gratefully accept the opportunity to sleep in the shade at the foot of the bush.

Picnic time in Riyadh

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Picnic in the UK and picnic in Riyadh seem to mean something completely different!

Since being in Riyadh we have taken the kids out for a picnic to a few different spots that we thought the kids would appreciate... Dir'iyyah which is very close to us and has nice grassy areas; Salam Park towards the south of the city which also has grassy areas, a boating lake and some play equipment.

Salam Park Lake

We've even been out to the desert a few times although admittedly the addition of sand to the sandwiches can be a bit irritating on the teeth! Once we were forced to stop by the road en route to Makkah as it was Ramadan, we were fasting and maghrib had arrived. It wasn't too comfortable sitting on the rocky roadside even on our rug but it was a welcome relief to eat our iftar and then sip on the hot tea we had prepared before leaving.

In the UK we like to go to nice beauty spots for summer picnics too.

Wales... beautiful!

Here in Riyadh though I have noticed that the locals will stop anywhere for a picnic. And I mean ANYWHERE! On a Wednesday evening which is the beginning of the weekend here you will see people stopped at the side of the road with the rug spread out on the dust and a family sitting enjoying a flask of Arabic coffee. Open areas near to us that have been smoothed out ready for building will often have families picnicking, enjoying the slightly more temperate conditions at this time of year and there will be boys partaking in a game of footy. The desert is very popular at this time of year too.

Who'd've thought that the Ikea car park would become the local picnicking spot for people that side of Riyadh though?! We exited the mall next door to Ikea on Thursday evening and there was a very distinct odour of barbecue in the air. I joked that it seemed that someone was having a barbecue in the car park... dh and I then racked our brains trying to think what grill restaurant there could be in the mall. Suddenly we noticed smoke gently billowing in the air just behind a parked car... there was indeed a family in the car park who'd brought all their BBQ equipment not to mention meat with them! How strange I thought that someone would want to have a BBQ in the car park! As we exited the car park though we noticed that there were many families either sitting with flasks of coffee or even with the BBQ and it was not something strange at all!

Ikea, Riyadh

Trying to get mummsie

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

I haven't been on the internet so much lately, partly because I have been finding it so slow and frustrating and partly because I have been enjoying getting more mummsie around the house and with my kids! OK, so even after 15 years of marriage and 5 kids this doesn't always come naturally so I am happy with progress!

Have turned into a baking queen what with cakes and bread and trying to make healthy snacks. These Focaccia plaits filled with tinned tuna, hard boiled eggs and cheese were among yesterday's offerings:

Today I thought the kids would enjoy trying to make microwave meringues; something I remember doing when I was kid (yuh... many years ago! ha ha!). They didn't turn out quite as superb as I hoped, however there really was instant gratification for the kids. They crowded around the microwave, excitedly watching the tiny balls of mixture puff and rise into comparatively huge meringues! The next fun part was melting chocolate, chopping strawberries and whisking cream with which to decorate the pink, sugary mounds we had created. We served the meringues with a healthy strawberry and banana smoothie. Yummm!



Now with all this mummsie-ness going on, it can be a bit difficult having a 4 year old and 1 year around my feet wanting to 'help'. A few days ago, I got creative once again and made playdough -whoo hoo! Simple recipe, wonderful results.

All you need is:
1 cup plain flour
1 cup water
1/2 cup salt
2 tablespoons cream of tartar
1 tablespoon oil
few drops of food colouring of your choice
*Even add glitter to make some really fun playdough

Throw all ingredients into a pan and heat gently and stir until you have a dough starting to come together. When you can stir no more, turn out onto a floured board and tentatively (so as not to burn your hands) begin to kneed into a soft malleable dough. When it has sufficiently cooled, hand over to the kids!

They start off rolling...

Cutting out shapes and making cute patterns... (This is 7 year old daughter's effort)



After a while 4 year old son started investigating the drawers for more 'tools' and discovered the garlic press.... yum, worms! (Or was is spaghetti?!)

Blogger problems

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Aaaargh! Is it my slow internet connection or is it Blogger that is the problem??! When I try to make a new post there are no text editing options available which mean no aligning, coloured fonts, hyperlinks etcetera. Even the 'save now' button is not working so I can't come back to a post later and edit! My ISP drives me crazy at the best of times but today it seems to have become really bad.

Aaaargh again!

Janadriyah

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

According to the Arriyadh.com website, it's that time of year once again... the yearly cultural festival at Janadriyah will be starting this weekend. The event will boast such spectacles as camel racing, traditional dancing and special features this year which will highlight Turkish culture.

The festival is scheduled to run for two weeks from 5th March and March 17th, 18th and 19th have been earmarked as family days.

The last time I was able to attend the cultural festival was 2 years ago. It takes place at an ideal time of year when the weather is not too hot and one can enjoy strolling around the traditional style souqs watching artisans at work, exploring the displays of traditional costumes, jewellry and such-like as well as watching the traditional method of drawing water from a well: with a camel pulling the ropes attached the buckets.

There are many vendors there selling an enormous array of spices, ouds and bukhours, metal-, wood- and potteryware as well as Arabic snacks.

I bought this little terracotta vase for only 10 Riyals on my last visit there.

For more photos (not my own), click here.