Weeds, I Mean Wildflowers, In My Garden

Any spare time I've had the past few weeks has been spent out in the countryside enjoying the beauty of Creation that is spring in Jordan, or weeding my garden; both activities include wildflower spotting. This morning while weeding my garden, I spotted three wildflowers I'd not yet observed :

The first one is definitely in the Lamiaceae, or mint family, and could very well be some sort of Salvia. I couldn't find it in my field guide, but maybe I'll find time to search for it online sometime...

I'm pretty sure the next one is Geropogon hybridus, from the Asteraceae, or daisy family:

Geropogon hybridis

I think the last one is a Silene (pronounced sii-leen'-e) from the Caryophyllaceae , or carnation family.

so beautifully delicate!

I'm letting a lone poppy plant go to seed, too, before pulling it up as I haven't yet been able to identify it. I have a hunch some of the wildflowers blooming in my yard are not indigenous to the Mafraq area. When we moved into this house and yard a year and a half ago, Dear Husband had dirt brought into to fill the empty places and he said the the dirt came from the countryside of Irbid.

Flowering Jordan Calendar~March 2013

Yep, more flowers. It's March, after all.

Adonis

Come Celebrate Spring...

For my nearby friends:

I am glad for the chance to promote the beautiful flora of Jordan--an what better time of year!--and to promote the exquisite carved olive wood products of Glad Tidings Holy Land Designs. Their workers, underprivileged and deaf Jordanians, produce the finest olive wood products I've seen in Jordan.

This should be a fun time, and goodness knows, I have plenty to say about the wildflowers of Jordan!

and Just a Little More Meandering

We spent Saturday in Jerash visiting with friends, and in the late afternoon met the bus which was bringing Tayta back from her youth retreat. It was another beautiful day so Dear Husband took a couple side-roads on our way back to Mafraq. Carpe Diem in the modus operandi in Jordan when it comes to enjoying the spring landscapes.

Anemone coronaria (Crown Anemone)

Overlooking the Jabbok River Valley

And a little bonus: my first sighting of Orchis sancta. I did have to untangle it from the Sarcopoterium spinosum which it was growing in the midst of.

Orchis sancta (Holy Orchid)

Meandering Around the Countryside, Part II~Um Qais

Upon enjoying the beauty of Thursday's meander around the countryside, Dear Husband and I decided to get out on Friday in search of more fresh, green landscapes, short-lived as they are in Jordan. We headed north on the road from Mafraq to Irbid, and then continued north into the countryside.

As we began descending a hill and on a road that wound between more limestone hills dotted with oaks, Dear Husband commented that we might be getting close to the Jordanian-Syrian border and would need to turn back. Just after he said this we rounded a bend and found ourselves at a check-point. Though the guards were polite, as we've always known Jordanian guards to be, these were the toughest looking border guards we had ever seen, and we've seen quite a few. We turned around, of course, and headed back up the hill. The landscape was so beautiful that I took a few pictures from the inside of our moving vehicle; We didn't think it a good time or place to stop the car or get out to take pictures.

Maybe it is my advancing age, but I am growing ever more aware of the beauty of trees. 

We decided to wander over to Um Qais, to see what wildflowers were blooming. We didn't go into the main ruins of Um Qais, another ancient decapolis city, but drove a a few kilometers north. This was the area where I first discovered, some ten years ago or so, the bounty of Jordan's flora. Some friends took us to an area which has been closed off as a security area for many years, but which has recently been opened after Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel. We picnicked in this area, in which we found ourselves waist deep in an incredible variety of wildflowers. The fields are grazed and degraded now that the area has been open for a number of years, though the view into the Golan Heights and to the Sea of Galilee is beautiful on a clear day.

A patch of bright yellow and chartreuse caught our eye, so this is where we stopped to explore.

The euphorbia and fennel (a shorter, clumpier variety, I think) grew in such a way from the extended ruins of the old city, that it looked as if someone had planned and planted a lovely rock garden.

Ferula (wild fennel)

Cerinthe palaestina (Honeywart)

But where was Dear Husband? Oh, there he is, over yonder, exploring more ruins.

We were a couple kilometers outside the restored ruins of Um Qais, so began to get an idea of how big this decapolis city once was.

The base of a column

A well preserved Corinthian capital

A closer look of the capital shows the carving of leaves from the acanthus plant. I found a couple acanthus plants, though not yet in bloom, growing nearby.

Edit: per a close look at my field guide, I would now identify the leaf below as belonging to the Syrian Artichoke plant, note the Syrian Acanthus--similar appearance, entirely different plant family.

I was surprised to find the Chrysanthemum already beginning to bloom as I have memories of visiting Um Qais in April and this flower being in full bloom, brightening the hills and the meadows surrounding the old city.

Chrysanthemum segetum (Corn Marigold)

Leaving the ruins, we stopped by the family home of our oldest and dearest Jordanian friend. We thought we would stop in for a quick hello, if our friend was there. It turns out he was still on the road from Irbid to Um Qais, but his brother saw us from the roof and came down to greet us. Once we were seen by his brother, it was if the drawbridge was drawn up--we were now "prisoners" to our friend's Jordanian hospitality, even though he wasn't even there yet. Dear Husband and I smiled at each other knowingly. Though we've lived in Jordan for many years, we were reminded that we are still foreigners and had not yet learned how to graciously extract ourselves from Jordanian hospitality. Though, as Dear Husband later commented, it is nice to experience the value of relationships and friendship in the Arab world.

Our friend arrived and we had a nice chat over first tea, then fruit, then coffee, before we were allowed to leave. Once on the road again, we determined to drive straight home as we had a Skype appointment with Oldest Daughter, and no time to spare lollygagging over more wildflowers, but as Dear Husband drove, I caught site of an extended blue patch of growth out of the corner of my left eye. Dear Husband, who has grown very forbearing, yea even interested and encouraging, turned the car around at the next possible place to make a U-turn, and headed back. I'm glad he did.

Lupinus varius (Lupine)

Meandering Around the Countryside

Yesterday we drove along the country roads from Mafraq to Ajloun, taking Tayta to meet up with her friends for the annual youth retreat. It was a beautiful Spring-is-Just-Around-the-Corner day, so we decided to make a long afternoon of the trip, meandering at a relaxed pace to Ajloun and back, enjoying the exquisite beauty of early spring in northern Jordan.

The most notable sign of spring, besides the green hills, were the hundreds of almond trees that are at the peak of bloom, mixed in with the evergreen olive trees and the still winter-naked fig trees.

Almond~Amygdalus communis

The trees were thick with white and pinkish blossoms. Soon, produce stands and street vendors will be selling green almonds, a favorite spring treat in Jordan, but one of those acquired tastes I have yet to acquire.

The country roads we followed took us through a number of villages. I see many scenes that I'd like to photograph, but usually Dear Husband or I decide it wouldn't be appropriate. This door was on the edge a village and no people were around, so I took my chance. Dear Husband commented that the Google camera glasses might come in handy for photography in such situations in the future. Yes!

As we drove toward the old decapolis city of Jerash, we enjoyed more green hills and meadows bright yellow from the bloom of wild mustard. I spotted this lovely specimen of borage along the side of the road.

Alkanna strigosa

From Jerash we headed further north to Ajloun, to drop Tayta off at her youth retreat. When we arrived, the band was setting up and we had a nice chat with Layla, a retired Jordanian nurse who has run the conference center for years. Both Dear Husband and I felt a bit wistful as we left; we have wonderful memories of the years we helped with the youth group and youth retreats in Ajloun were highlights of those years. 

We purposed to take the long road home, in search of some more creation beauty, so when Dear Husband noticed a side road heading up to the tip-top of a hill, he decided to take it. We entered a lovely old oak forest, the kind where the oaks grow in more limestone than soil, weathered, sturdy, fixed.

There must be a dozen metaphors bound up in the roots of this old oak:

My imagination was captured by the beauty of the limestone bedrock.

Art quilt inspiration?

"...even the rocks will cry out..." Luke 19

Nestled  amongst the oaks, limestone, mosses, and ferns, was one beautiful species of wildflower, the dainty muscari at the peak of its bloom.

Muscari pulchellum ~Grape Hyacinth

While I'm wildflower-spotting, Dear Husband is ever on the lookout for ruins. He found the remains of a ancient road, the stones peaking out from under both edges of the asphalt.

We made our way back to Jerash and enjoyed a light supper at our favorite Lebanese restaurant. The baba ghanoush (smoked eggplant salad) was perfect, as was the shanklish, a dip/spread of salty goat cheese, chopped tomatoes, and onion. They were out of our favorite muhammara, so we substituted keskeh, a dip of thick yogurt, cracked wheat, walnuts, and of course, olive oil.

The sun was beginning to set as we left Jerash, and as we glanced over our shoulders we were treated to colors more glorious than those we experienced on hills and forests of the countryside.

"The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork."  Psalm 19

Such a lovely afternoon.

Cashmere

I had never owned a cashmere sweater before I started digging through piles of second-hand sweaters in search of wool to felt. I don't think I had ever even felt a cashmere sweater until I found my first one, mixed in a pile with lots of other sweaters of various fibers, but when I felt it I knew that it must be something special. Cashmere is the unexpected luxury bonus of shopping for second hand wool: I now have seven wearable cashmere sweaters, and Dear Husband has another two. Tayta has one too, along with a silk/cashmere "sweatshirt" that she wears around the house. I've blogged about the a few ways I've used recycled cashmere sweaters: lining mittens, lining hats, and winter scarves. But, making a cashmere blanket is what I've dreamed of.

I have a Rubbermaid tub full of cut up cashmere sweaters, but I did not deem all of them worthy of playing a part in my dreamed-of cashmere blanket. Cashmere connoisseur that I am becoming, I've noted that all cashmere is not equal. Some cashmere is extra soft--"like a cloud", Tayta describes it. A few weeks ago I found two more large, like-a-cloud cashmere sweaters and hoped that I would now have enough to begin my blanket.

My blanket is made from my collection of  five like-a-cloud cashmere sweaters. I decided I would not concern myself with color coordination. This blanket is all about feel. I left pieces as big as possible so as to maximize the amount of cashmere I could use from the sweaters and make the blanket, really more the size of a throw, as big as possible.

Laying out the blanket was sort of like working a puzzle. The key was to arrange the pieces in rectangular blocks which can then be pieced together. At a glance the arrangement of rectangles might not be evident, but if you examine the layout you will see the rectangles of different sizes, first smaller, then larger.

And though I would never have planned  a color scheme of  red, black, navy, ivory, and pastel mint green, I like it. I'm finding one of the fun things about working with recycled fabrics is its limits, and sometimes limits force a kind of creativity that I wouldn't otherwise discover.

I've made two other recycled wool throws: one was pieced by butting together the edges of the wool and sewn with zig-zag stitching, and the other was overlapped and sewn with a double straight stitch. Since cashmere doesn't really felt the same way that wool does and because this was to be my dream blanket, I wanted to try yet another technique to piece/stitch this quilt together, a technique that I thought would be more secure. Cruising along Pinterest Avenue, I've kept my eyes open for different seam techniques and recently learned about the traditional Korean pojagi method on Victoria Gertenbach's inspirational blog. I simplified the method in the tutorial to accommodate working with wool rather than woven fabrics, and I was very pleased with the results. I anticipate using this seaming method for future blankets.

Per below, you can barely distinguish the front side from the back side--so it is in person as well.
To create this modified pojagi seam, I sewed two piece of wool together with a 1/2 inch seam, using my longest straight stitch. I then turned the sewn pieces to the back side, and zig-zaged first one side, and then the other, of the seam allowances flat, using a fairly long stitch length. I didn't even need to press the seam--I just held it down as I zig-zagged it. After sewing each seam, I used my quilting ruler, cutting mat, and rotary cutter to straighten up my pieces at the seam, as wool tends to stretch a bit when it is sewn, even if it isn't pulled.

front side

back side

After finishing my quilt, I experimented with this seaming technique using some felted Shetland wool, and again, pleasing results. As with the cashmere, the difference in the front and back is barely discernable.

front side

back side

Though I haven't bound my other wool blankets, I felt the cashmere needed it. I used the saved ribbings from the sweaters to create the binding, which I attached just as I do bindings on regular quilts. I had to use a scrap of cashmere to make the binding long enough, so the ribbings aren't enough, regular cashmere/wool scraps can be used as well.

I have (and will) share my cashmere blanket when I'm not using it, but its home is on my favorite reading chair.

Surgery Scheduled

We've been praying and planning, and this week we confirmed the date for Tayta's revision surgery--June 20th, in Madison, Wisconsin.  Last night I hit the "confirm" button, booking our airline tickets to Chicago. Since Madison just happens to be an only three hour drive from Chicago, we're able to fly to Chicago and stay a few days with our favorite grad student, Oldest Daughter. We're already planning a trip to the Chicago Art Institute and a visit to Chinatown.

This recent picture of Tayta shows how well the tissue transplant is doing--the only problem is that there is too much tissue. But this was the plan from the beginning, and thus, the revision surgery. The surgeon, Dr. John Siebert, will remove the extra tissue, sculpting it (that's the best word I could think of but I don't know if it's the right term to use) to normal proportions. He also plans to build up her lower left lip, where she has experienced tissue loss. We've been told by the mom of another PRS patient that this second surgery is a piece of cake compared to the first surgery, a free-flap tissue transplant. This surgery will take only a couple hours, compared to ten hours for the first surgery. It may be outpatient or Tayta may stay one night in the hospital. We'll remain in Madison for the week for Tayta's post-op appointment.

Meanwhile, Tayta has a number of entertaining episodes to recount of  how well-meaning people in Jordan have reacted to her oversized cheek. Strangers are not shy about asking, "What happened??" I've observed Tayta handle these situations with aplomb, always trying to put the the inquirer at ease. Hmm, that would make a good blog-post when we have some time.

Active Son's Birth Day

During one of my last prenatal visits before Active Son's birth, my OB reminded me that I have "precipitous labor" and directed me to call him at the first sign of labor, contractions or otherwise. If Oldest Daughter came so (relatively) quickly and easily, Active Son would likely enter the world even more quickly.

I guess that was good news, but it made Dear Husband and I a little nervous. We had recently moved to a new apartment and though we were settling in, it was the middle of winter, the Winter of '92, Jordan's worst winter for snow and ice storms in over 50 years. Not accustomed to harsh winters, the people survived from storm to storm as the extreme weather paralyzed the country. People lost power and water, and the civil defense was called on to transport women in labor to hospitals when the roads were impassable. We prayed that Active Son would make his appearance between storms, and thankfully, he did. Though riding to the hospital in a tank would have trumped the broken down delivery station wagon that transported me to the hospital for Oldest Daughter's birth.

My water broke just a couple hours after going to bed on the night of Februrary 19th, and we immediately called my OB, along with our good friend, Bruce, to request his offered ride to the hospital. It's a good thing the roads were clear or Active Son might have been born on the way to the hospital. My OB arrived just in time to deliver Active Son, and welcome him into the world after my quickest and easiest childbirth experience.

Here's Oldest Daughter visiting us in the hospital. Along with my new son, I acquired a new identity in Jordanian society: 'Um Active Son, or Mother of Active Son.

Two (or three) days after Active Son's birth, the biggest snowstorm of the winter blew through Amman. Everyone was tucked snugly in their beds, but we could hear the wind howling and the thunder crashing all through the night. We woke to an amazing amount of snow: three feet had fallen overnight, with drifts even higher. 

Oldest Daughter on our back (walled in) patio

Thankfully, we had power, heat, water, and food; we lacked only a phone connection.We enjoyed a very cozy, peaceful existence for a few days--just our little family.

This next picture, Active Son's newborn "portrait" reminds me of how woefully inept we were at capturing those precious, poignant, adorable, timeless, newborn moments that now proliferate Facebook, Pinterest, and blogs. And I only have a few newborn pictures of Active Son--maybe ten?  That would probably constitute child abuse these days. I remember thinking that our chair cushions would make a pretty neat backdrop. It was definitely too cold to even think of doing any au naturel shots. Those would have to wait until summer.

Though many miles separate us, Active Son, you are never far from our hearts. We love you and pray for you daily, trusting you to our Heavenly Father and thanking Him for  your life. 

Happy Birthday, Active Son!