I'm so behind in blogging, but I wanted to share some pictures from recent family days. These first few are from a quiet 'forest' area not too far from home. We were amazed to be there completely by ourselves, without hearing even one sound, except for a very faint call to prayer, and the sound of the wind. What a contrast to every day life in our neighborhood, which is full of noises of cars beeping, kids playing outside, trucks with megaphones on the street selling fruits and various things, loud calls to prayer, the sound of a wrench whacking a gas bottle (to let you know that the gas truck is going by), fireworks on the weekends, neighbors talking, etc. It was a wonderful break after a busy and tiring week.
These next ones are from a couple weeks ago when we visited a wetland reserve in the middle of the desert. It is much smaller than it used to be, due to years of pumping water and bringing it into our city in order to have 'enough' water for the growing population of the city. I put 'enough' in quotes because it is such a relative term. In town we only have unlimited water one day a week. We fill up our tanks on that day and then use that for the rest of the week. We always have plenty but many others do not. Anyway, although this wetland reserve is much smaller than it once was, it still is the only water around for miles and miles of surrounding desert. It attracts many migrating birds. We saw egrets, a bittern, bee eaters, hoopoes, gallinules, and others. Justice really enjoyed using the 'venoculars.'
