Up early this morning (well, for the weekend) to grab a good breakfast at the dining hall (waffles and a bowl of cereal) before heading to the parking lot meeting place for the trip out to Qatif and the Tarut Island. I have been wanting to go for a long time - the birding is great for waders and sea birds (although I saw very few because we were not birding). I was also wanting to see the Dhow fleet (old and ancient fishing and trading vessels of the Middle East, particularly the Gulf. The real reason, it turns out, was to visit archeological sites and that we did - three sites - one a new dig and it was just a glimpse of the old communities that dated back some 2000 BC or more. Interestingly enough, Qatif was an early Christian city long before Mohammed came along, so we were looking into the remaions of a community that had an early bishop and churches, but those are long gone now. whatever thet find here ends up in the museum in Dammam (although none of the Christian artifacts or artifacts that preceed Islam are saved and displayed, we were told. I did manage to find some very old pearl oyster shells with beautiful mother of pearl in the old fort that dated back centuries. The beauty of those two shells far exceed the beauti of some recent oyster shells that I collected at Ras Tanura beach a few weeks ago. Also picked up a couple of small old pottery handle pieces from who knows when. Goiong through the old part of Qatif into buildings and alleys still living, but built upon and still using structures that are centuries old was awesome. I managed a number of door and window photos and tons in my memory to continue my study drawing of said features.
We did get down close to the dhows, but not close enough to get any good pictures with my camera. A couple of the gang had nice long lenses and probably got some good shoots. i do have sufficient data to paint some watercolors of the craft in the port up on drydock or beached for repairs. Should be some fun paintings that I know I can sell here. Several wives have me promising to make prints of some of the doors and shells that I have done in pen & ink and sell them here, so I must do that soon (like I don't have anything else to do, folks).
Spent the afternoon finishing some pen & inks of some shells that I had started last year to reproduce and give to the Shell Global Design Team when we would meet again - that never happened :( So, those drawings will serve anoutht purpose and make some other people happy.
Tonight is a big birthday bash for Claudia, one of the nurses here (she is one of my favorites - she just cuddled those birds that we banded in Bahrain a few weeks ago and I still get a kick out it when I think about it - around my house when grew up and if she had been my sister I think she would have been cuddled out with all of the baby animals that I brought home :) At any rate, Nicole, my most favorite of the nurses and my best birding buddy, is picking me up in an hour to drive to the party on the other side of camp. I image there will be a load of people there as I have heard so many people talking about it around camp. Seems like everyone is up for a party for most any reason around here. We need to throw a big party cookout here in the courtyard of Steineke some day after work. We could ahve a real blowout :) Steve would be the head cook for sure.
Attached are some photos from the trip to Qatif.
Gotta get ready!
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