365 in 2012. I did it!

My project 365.

Music: Fast Guitar Love Beat

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJKUhvPkL6M

Furry

A street in Riyadh. A lot of construction is going on around.

A walking man. By the way, the long robe he is wearing is called dishdasha. In summer, local men usually wears a white dishdasha, while in winter it's of some darker colors.

Bokeh in Photoshop

I was just experimenting with Photoshop. Although these photos can be used as a background or texture. Which one is better?

Our trip to Mecca

The OH had a brief winter break and we used the opportunity to visit some of the Saudi Arabia. We took a flight to Jeddah and from Jeddah went by taxi to Mecca.

Once someone arrives to Mecca, you can see from any spot, this impressive building - the Abraj Al-Bait Towers, also known as the Mecca Royal Hotel Clock Tower. It is said to be the second tallest building in the world with the largest in the world clock face. Right behind this building is the heart of Muslim world - Kaaba.

The same building from another side.

We went inside to get some rest and I took a picture from a window. Human anthill around mosque Masjid al Haram.

We are also heading there.

People from various countries

There were many elderly and disabled in wheal chairs.

Those who came in groups were wearing some identification signs on their clothes or same color clothes.

This man came to Mecca to perform Umrah.

Some more photos of people.

Ritual travel back and forth between Al-Safa and Al-Marwah. Muslims have to perform this travel seven times during the Hajj and Umrah.

Overall, the place is very clean in spite of huge number of people. In fact, I was surprised to see over there so many people in the middle of a working week. Water zamzam that is coming from well right within the Masjid al Haram indeed is very special.

I hope I'll get another chance to visit this place after a while.

I found some very interesting info with monthly averages for Alexandria.

Monthly average temperatures throughout a year looks like the following:




Next, the average rainfall:



Lastly, average number of sunny days:


Source of info

Colorful fruits

I was just playing with colors :)

Graffiti

These pictures were taken during my recent walk walk along sea seafront in Alexandria:







And the same closer:


The left graffiti depicts pyramids and oil derricks on fire. The right one reads "Free forever."



This graffiti reads: "Welcome to new Egypt" and "25 January" that is the day when the Egyptian revolution begun.

Cairo Flower festival in pictures

As I wrote few days ago, the annual plant and flower exhibition has been undehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifr way in Orman gardens, Cairo. I heard about this event before but the reality exceeded my expectations. During the entire month of April many nurseries bring, exhibit and sell various plants and flowers. Each nursery orange its own landscape and flower display.


Some created something simple. Other invested in more sophisticated displays.














In addition to plant and flowers, you can buy various pots (plastic or clay), fertilizers, insecticides, seeds, decorations.

I was mainly looking for succulents – the easiest plants to grow in the Egyptian climate. They thrive under heat of sun in summer and easily survive windy winters on my open balcony.

Cacti:















Portulacarias:



Interestingly, many sellers do not know scientific names of their plants and call them by their "common name." For example, this succulent was introduced to me as “buttons” while it’s real name is Crassula conjuncta:




And this one was named “noodles” while it is Senecio herreianus:


Each of them went at price of 15 Egyptian pounds (that is $3).

Bonsai. There were been plenty of them on displays! The cheapest, regardless of the plant type, were for 200 Egyptian pounds (that is $40). Like these ones:







This was for 500 Egyptian pounds (that is $125):



This was for 2000 Egyptian pounds (that is $400):



I did not want to know the price of this one :)


By the way, I had been for special bonsai pots everywhere in Egypt. So this has been a great opportunity for me to ask where I can find them. As I expected I learned that nobody produces this kind of pots in Egypt. The bonsai growers order them from Holland. The also added that if I want then – mafish moshkele – they’ll order for me too.

There was a very big number of various fruit trees: mango, papaya, all types of citrus trees. Here is the bunch of kumquat small trees:




There were gorgeous bougainvilleas and pelargoniums in all imaginable colors. And much-much more...

Cairo flower festival

For anyone who is passionate about planting and flowers: in Orman gardens, annual flower festival has been underway for two weeks and will run until the end of April. You can find there a huge variety of plants, flower pots, fertilizers, insecticides and so on. They are open from 9 am.

I was there few days ago, spent couple hours wondering, asking gardeners and bought some new plants for my collection. I am mainly focusing on succulents.

My report in pictures is coming....

Last day of December 2010

The day was wonderful: partly sunny, partly windy, and slightly ruff water.

Orange trees planted by someone right in the center of the city between tall concrete buildings exude a magical aroma.