A Pleasure Full Grown III~Amman

A few days after Christmas we headed to Amman to visit a few favorite  places and so that Active Son could introduce Bride-To-Be to his hometown, the city in which he was born and raised. It was a beautifully clear afternoon and we enjoyed great views of the city from atop the ancient citadel.

We all enjoyed exploring and re-exploring the ruins. Some went this way and some went that. 

Active Son with the hand of Hercules

Meanwhile, I was enjoying some Jordan flora in its winter glory

We made a stop at our beloved Amman museum; there are always new things to discover and familiar artifacts to revisit.

                                             

Tayta posing with  an ancient Roman

Statues of Ain Ghazal

Discovered in 1985 at Ain Ghazal in Amman, made from plaster and dated from the Early Neolithic period, 8000-6000 B.C., is the earliest known statue. You may have seen it featured in a history book--it was in our high school Western Civilization text.

A few more poses before leaving the citadel

Photo credits to Tayta for this iconic engagement shot

Heading down into the heart of the city for some food, we stopped to do a little shopping. It was fun to watch Active Son enjoy the friendly repartee of bargaining as he showed off his skills to Bride-To-Be.

We stopped in at the Duke's Diwan, the oldest apartment in Amman, now turned into a little museum of sorts. Very old, vintagy, and artsy.

We ended our brief Amman tour at the famous Hashem Restaurant where we shared some hummus, fatah, falafel, mutabbel and of course, tea with fresh mint. Cheers from the beautiful city of Amman!

Some see weeds...

I think it's a matter of perspective.

J.A.Y.A. (Just Another Yellow Asteraceae)

Crupina crupinastrum (Crupina)

Adonis palaestina (Palestine Pheasant's Eye)

Tesiera glastifolia (Globe Mustard)

(I think--you really need the fruits to identify these, and they haven't matured yet.)

Trifolium resupinatum (Pink Clover)

The first three beauties were found on a field trip with my biology class of three high school guys; they're not completely past the "they're just weeds" perspective, but they're coming along and can now place some common wildflowers in their proper families. The mustard is growing in many a vacant lot and field around town, including the one across from our house, and the clover is a mostly unnoticed "weed" in our front yard.

Fall Colors?

There isn't much fall color--as in orange, yellow, or red--to be seen in our neighborhood but the bougainvillea is still lovely.

Fall Lily

~Urginea maritima~
"Sea Squill"

Having received no precipitation since around April, the arid landscape of soil, rocks and dehydrated flora now presents itself in variegated shades of tan. The fall-blooming white Squill, whose thick, waxy green foliage has long ago dried up, is barely discernible against this neutral backdrop but I was on the look out for it since I had observed it blooming in a particular vacant lot last fall. I hadn't planned to take a night shot but since the vacant lot is in a busy neighborhood, I decided that 'iftar (the time of fast-breaking during Ramadan) would be an opportune time to take my pictures--no one would be outside to notice a goofy foreign woman traipsing around a vacant lot taking pictures of weeds.

A Summer Beauty

The days have grown so hot and dry that even the hardy thistles are drying up and turning brown. But even as they disappear into the browning landscape, the beautiful caper flower is beginning to bloom.

Capparis spinosa

An unusual shrub, the caper plant remains dormant and leafless during the rainy season, waiting until the dry season to produce it's smooth green foliage and stunning flowers. Though caper plants are found in many vacant lots and open fields, it is not unusual to find these vigorous plants growing out of limestone walls and paths as they tenaciously penetrate the limestone in search of moisture.

The caper flower, with its multitude of showy stamens, opens at night and is pollinated by moths. Outside of the Middle East, the caper plant is perhaps best known for its "capers", the immature buds which are pickled and used to season fish, salads, and other dishes. Interestingly, although the people of the Levant are known for their wide use of wild potherbs (I've recently received two yet-to-be-identified oreganos and/or sages from a friend of my husband's), the caper has not traditionally been eaten in this area. However, with increasing western influence, local capers are now being harvested commercially.

And, lest you think that we are fortunate to be able to harvest and brine our own capers--and we do have several large bushes growing within a stone's throw of our front door--I must tell you that purchased capers are worth every cent you pay for them, as the plants are armed with very sharp fish-hook shaped thorns that are nearly impossible to avoid when harvesting the buds. (Note, the "spinosa" part of the plant's name.) One brief season of caper picking was all that my pricked and bleeding children and I could withstand.

Poppy~

After cyclamen, I think the poppy to be the most graceful Jordanian wildflower flower, particularly, Papaver subpiriforme, pictured left. Though their unopened buds droop softly, once opened, a crumpled crimson flower unfurls to stand erect upon a long and delicate stem.

Much mythology and lore surrounds the poppy, revered by the ancients and the medievals for its magical powers. Poppy remains have been found in Egyptian tombs over 3000 years old and there are many references to its magical and healing powers in Greek and Roman myths. The species Papaver Somniferus (not indigenious in Jordan) is named after the Roman God, Somnus, bringer of sleep. Demeter, the Greek Earth goddess also believed in the healing power of the poppy and from them she was relived of pain as she searched for her abducted daugher, Persephone. When Adonis died, poppies were said to have sprung from the tears of his beloved, Aphrodite, and based on this myth, poppies became a favorite love charm of the Middle Ages; the list of poppy association with myth, sleep, dreams, the underworld, healing, etc. is long.

Glaucium aleppicum

Besides Genus Papaver, Jordan boasts at least three species of poppies from genus Glaucium. The plant and the flowers are sturdier than those of genus Papaver and the buds are more elongated and often erect.

Glaucium grandiflorum

Romemeria hybrida

Papaver subpiriforme

I photographed these two poppies on our Easter walk. As the wind gently blew over them they appeared to be talking. Really! Even my dear husband noticed and he is not one to talk to flowers--even though he now knows a few by name.

Lilies of the Field

"...Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." Matthew 6:29-30

It has been a busy couple of weeks. Last week I was Camping Mom as we prepared for and went camping in Wadi Dana (a future post--more flora pics, of course) and this week I am Baseball Mom raised to the third power with three children playing on three different teams, one son assistant coaching, and dear husband, coaching (loves it) and serving as the Baseball Commissioner. But, as I mentioned here when it is spring in Jordan, there is no time to waste; one must get outside and drink in all the beauty of creation before it takes on its summer form: dry,brown, and hard. So, between phone calls, emails, a trip to the music conservatory, correcting Latin, and trying to prepare for a class, I called to my youngest child to take a brief walk with me; I thought I had spied a few clumps of lilies in a field at the end of our block.





Asphodeline lutea

As we came up over the raised, barren part of the field, the part that could be seen from the road, we were amazed to behold the lower part of the field, filled with beautiful lilies, Asphodelus aestivus and Asphodeline lutea, to be exact.

Family~Liliaceae

Asphodeline lutea and Asphodelus aestivus

Though the Asphodels are lilies which are commonly found in fields and in the countryside, I had never seen such a mass of them in the suburbs. Alas, these too will likely eventually be uprooted as new buildings are going up all the time in our neighborhood. Youngest daughter suggested that we dig up some lilies to replant in our garden in an effort to preserve their beauty. Not a bad idea.

Though it was only about 20 minutes, our time in the field, marveling and enjoying the beauty of God's creation was the highlight of our day. We even met a nearly meter long gray grass snake on our visit to the field and just missed stepping on it, which gave youngest daughter an exciting story to tell her brother upon our return home.