I love my abode

I was sorting through my photo files and opened a folder called "519 Bayland". Skinning through the images, I was a little homesick for this beautiful little cottage that we call home. It sure did not look this good when I was there a few weeks ago - the damaging effects of a brutal winter killed most of the tender tropicals that were a major part of the landscape. I am told that the yard is now coming back, with blooms and greenery from the hardy plants that were not damaged. When I get back I will want to replace some of the voids with hardy plants, so John, you should offer some suggestions.

We live in a beautiful old (for Houston) neighborhood with plenty of trees and wonderful architecture. Our house is over 105 years old, but as solid as ever. I love this place. Our blood,sweat,and tears have gone into making this abode what it is. John and Stephanie missed a lot of fun times with thier friends, I am sure, because we had work to do on the house and grounds, but I think that they also learned to appreciate a nice old structure and grounds that have been nurtured for almost 30 years. I have enjoyed having neighborhood friends like Mary Ellen, Anna, Susie, Michelle and others bring their children down to dig for worms, feed the chickens, or build bat houses, and to help Carolyn,in the kitchen with pancakes and tea. I miss all of that and cannot wait to get back to enjoy it again, but while i am here I am trying to enjoy this part of the world like I enjoy home. I am making great friends, seeing so many wonderful places, eating some good food (sometimes)and learning to really appreciate what we have back in the Western World. My friends and colleagues here are from all over the world, and provide me with such a fun and an interesting collage of cultural and linguistical challenges (Arabs, Europeans, Asians, and Americans all). I hope I never loose touch with these folk, and when the time comes to leave, I will leave in tears. These relationships make it otherwise tolerable in this harsh landscape and climate (today the temperature was 106 degrees)and plants must be very strong to weather the summer months - that is why this photo of home makes me want to be back there working the garden and enjoying a place where a lot of different plants thrive and kids come down to say "Richard, can we have some eggs - mom is out of eggs and she needs two for dinner tonight?". :)

Happy Mother's Day!

To all of you mothers out there: Here's to a great day for you! For those of you who can, have a great big glass of wine or what ever you like. I miss all of my family who are mothers, particularly, Carolyn, Stephanie, Amy, and Libby. That doesn't mean that I don't miss you Dianne, Marsha, Ellen, Demra,and mom on the way-Erin, and why not add in some others that are almost family like Mary Ellen, Anna, Ann,Iris, and the list can go on forever. I am sure that I have left out a lot of moms that are close to me, so forgive me if your name isn't here. I love all of you for taking care of Carolyn and being the great mom's that you are. This is your day! God bless you all!

Saturday night in the Kingdom

One of the worst shamals that I have ever seen came though here in an instant this afternoon. It was so bad. They canceled the meeting that I was going to. Then the rain came and cleaned out the dust. It has been raining off and on since. So I am back in my room trying to figure out what to do for a couple of hours. I think I will finish another drawing or two while I watch a movie. Did I say I was bored?

Oh well, here are two more Arabian landscapes.

Saudi Landscapes

Another fun day in the Kingdom! Got up early to go birding and lizarding at the spray fields, the sewage lake, and the desert. Got there before 7:00 am and started spotting a number of warbler species (Willow, Desert, Reed, and Lesser whitethroat), Rufus Scrub Robins, spotted flycatchers, Pallid Swifts, Sand Martins, Doves (Laughing and Collared), House Sparrows, Isabaline and Red-Backed Shrikes, then, as I walked around the lake, a Black-crowned Night Heron, some Cormorants, and a European Nightjar. Out on the desert there were probably 6 Egyptian Spiny-tailed Lizards (they were hard to spot in their yellow-white coloration against the desert tan). I wanted to look of the best hole entrance to set up some nooses to catch one. The best thing of the morning was finding a snake shed. Looked like a Cat snake - a smallish racer-like non-venonous species found her in Arabia,so I know there is one out there near the spray field :) The worst thing was the lack of water - I forgot to bring some water. I was never so glad to get to one of the watering buckets along the jogging trail on the way back to the hotel.

Had a quick brunch at the dining hall, after which I started on a couple of shell drawings that I nneded to finish. I was drawing them for my Shell colleagues, but the end of that group meant that I did not need to finish them. Well, it's time, nevertheless. I will have to virtually send copies to those colleagues to whom I am still connected. I have even started about four more shells from the Persian Gulf to add to the collection.

By 4:30 pm I was headed to the mall to gather the supplies that I need for the Nature Journaling workshop that I am conducting later this month for the Arabian Natural History Association.

So now I am watching a little tv as I make this entry into my blog. Folks, I think I am ready for bed. Until tomorrow have a great day!

Oh,BTW here are some ink drawings of the landscape around here. These are depicting no particuler place - just images in my mind.

Qatif with the Traveling Naturalists

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!

Arabian Doors

I am playing with a series of drawings on the building orifaces (doors and windows, primarily) of the Arabian Peninsula (not just Saudi Arabia, but where ever I visit here in the Middle East). Here are the first four. I will post other items as I complete them. I think I might want to do a series on the minarets that I see around here - hundreds and they are all unique, but I think they might be too much like lighthouses, but they are so visible - every community will have several, and depending on the sect, there may be one or two or more per mosque.

I like drawing - it takes the stress off.

FIrst week of May

Watching a movie about Georgia O'Keefe and it is stirring the artist in me. I want to be creative, but today my sense of skill, creativity, and control was shattered by some people that I thought so much of but who were such primadonas that all my work for the past three months was thrown out the window. The system, the politics, the personalities all came together to kill my spirit (I hope for just tonight). I'm sad, lonely, shattered, and want to do something really creative and freeing. My soul needs to find that something that will give me back my confidence, comfort and sense of accomplishment. I lost that today (I hope it it just for tonight -that tomorrow I will come back and take on whatever challenge they give me and succeed like I've done time and again in Exxon, Shell, Compaq, and every other place that I have worked. Can I scream now?!

Otherwise, this young month has been wonderful. went out twice after work to spot the spiny-tailed lizards and add to my bird checklist with my good birder in crime, Nicole. I had promised her and Tess that would put them both on the ugly creatures, but both times it was overcast and they were down in their holes. Now, Jon and I saw 6 or 7 of them two days before. Nic saw one a few weeks back, but to see as many as Jon and i did is just too much to miss. We did see a couple of new birds for our checklists. I was also looking for a scorpion and she was most facinated with that. Said that I needed a nurse along just in case anything bad happens. She's just like Stephanie - game for anything. Tess, Nicole and I are going with a larger group to a good birding site along the coast just north of here on Thursday morning. It should be a good trip - with the Traveling Naturalists.

I think that Friday I just might go fishing with Omer in the afternoon so that we can drop by our favorite shwarma place for dinner before coming back to the hotel. I need to drum up an offshore trip for some big fish :)

Good night, folks. I'm tired and worn out emotionally. I need a recharge.