A Birthday Outing to Abila

Last Saturday was a perfect day. It really was. In celebration of Dear Husband's birthday, we planned a day trip to the countryside, once again joining our preferences for ruins, landscapes, and wildflowers, and chose the ruins of the ancient decapolis city of Abila, about an hour from our home.

Asphodel

(Asphodelus fistulosus)

Abila is not nearly as developed or excavated to the extent that Jerash and Um Qais (Gadara) have been, yet there is yet evidence of a large ancient city. Below is a distant view of city ruins which I took from atop another hill of ruins. We picnicked on yet a third hill of ruins.

We immediately set out exploring: Dear Husband and Tayta for ruins and maybe some Roman glass, me, for wildflowers.

I was surprised to find several stands of orchids (which Dear Husband and Tayta passed by completely!) as I didn't know this species grew in the area. Disappointingly, they were just past their prime, browning around the edges of their petals, but beautiful all the same.

Fan-Lipped Orchid

(Orchis collina)

Adonis

(Adonis aestivalis)

Jagged-leafed Phlomis

(Eremostachys laciniata)

We left the main site of the ruins and drove up to the top of an adjacent hill--Dear Husband's  vision for a picnic site. We had this lovely spot, with its panoramic views, ruins, and wildflowers, all to ourselves.

Views from our picnic spot:

The main site of preserved columns at Abila

And turning slightly to the south, this spring-time view of rolling green hills, gently sculpted with stone terrace walls and olive tree groves~

Having laid out our picnic lunch, Tayta's next task was to round-up her parents, who are prone to wander around such places, her father, exploring the ruins, and her mother, searching out the dearest freshness deep down things.

Judean Bugloss

(Echium judaeum)

Anchusa

Oriental Garlic

(Allium orientale)

Star of Bethlehem

(Ornithogalum montanum)

She succeeded in coaxing us to sit down.

And after lunch, some more wandering and exploring:

Dense-flowered Fumitory

(Fumaria densiflora)

"I stumbled upon a land of my childhood dreams. All of a sudden, the stories of The Silver Chair became so real: here I stood at the edge of the ruined City of the Giants. This place matched what I had imagined, or perhaps, my imaginings came from what I knew..." Tayta

Purple Clover

(Trifolium purpureum)

Chaotic, abundant fields of beauty

Dear Husband reflected that visiting Abila was an ideal birthday present for him as it was his first visit to the site, a new discovery. And, he has now visited all five ancient decapolis cities in Jordan.

Happy Birthday to a very Dear Husband. May God give us more years of wandering and exploring together.

A Charming Singer

The white-spectacled bulbuls which frequent the trees in our yards, serenade me throughout the day. Their beautiful, clear songs often draw me to the window and sometimes out the door, beckoning me to observe the creatures who sings so charmingly.

Today I spotted these bulbuls, resting after an brief afternoon concert and cozied up to each other in our pomegranate tree, which is nearly bare of leaves.

I tried to sneak around to the other side of the tree, guessing that they would spy me and fly away, and so they did, only to alight on a nearby olive tree.

This bulbul's white spectacles and bright yellow breast can be seen in this picture.

It spied a few olives on the tip-top branches, missed when Dear Husband and a friend completed the harvest a couple weeks ago...

...and found one within immediate reach. 

Spring Birdwatching in Jordan

Driving together from Mafraq to Amman yesterday, Tatya warned me (paraphrase), "You're going to cause an accident, between looking on the ground for flowers and looking in the sky for birds!"  Yes, I used to watch watch only for flowers, but now I am noticing the birds as well. Jordan is a great place to birdwatching, and Dear Husband and I have taken up the hobby.

From an Exploring Jordan blog:

"Birding has become a truly international pastime, inspiring an increasing number of enthusiasts to travel the world in pursuit of rare and exotic species, often in fragile ecosystems.

Jordan is an exceptional place for birdwatching. Its geographical position means that it is a hub for migratory species from Europe, Africa, and Asia. The bird life of all three continents pass through Jordan twice a year on their passage between seasonal habitats and sometimes it is possible to see specimens from each at the same time."

Since it is wildflower season, I rarely leave home without my camera. Thus, I've been able to photograph a few birds this week as I've been out and about. I don't have a telephoto lens with the reach I need for most really good bird pictures, but capturing even a slightly blurry image feels like a great accomplishment--birds are hard to photograph! A birding friend helped me identify this first one as some kind of Wheatear.

Wheatear

near Jerash

I'm learning that the bill is the first feature to notice when trying to identify a bird. This bird's beak guided my friend to identify the next bird as a Shrike, and Dear Husband identified it as a Woodchat Shrike.

Woodchat Shrike

Jerash

I've spotted an number of Hoopoes in Mafraq, but I've never had the chance to photograph one until Friday.

Hoopoe 

Mafraq

I told Dear Husband that spotting AND photographing this pair of Kingfishers felt like winning a treasure hunt.  We were driving along a country road together--looking for wildflowers--when we spotted the birds on an overhead wire. Dear husband pulled over but we were afraid to open the car door as it would probably scare the birds away. I quickly changed my camera lens, and Dear Husband attempted a few pictures from the driver's seat. Meanwhile I climbed to the back seat and then Dear Husband passed the camera to me. I shot several pictures before the birds flew away.

Nearly all the pictures were blurry beyond recognition, a few had one of the birds, but I was thrilled to find that we had managed to snap one recognizable image of the male and female pair.

White-throated Kingfisher

male and female

Wadi Shu'aib

Smelling the Wind

I began my day with a long mental list of things I needed/wanted to get done now that the festivities of the holidays had passed. Back to regularly scheduled life! But it was Dear Husband's day off, the weather was beautiful, and Active Son and Artist Son are still home from school...so, it was a day to "shem 'al hawa", or get out and smell the wind. Only light activity was desired with Artist Son still recovering from the extraction of all four of his wisdom teeth, and so we decided to head to Dibeen pine forest, one of our favorite places to explore, walk a bit, sit on a rock in the sun.

The first thing we noticed when we entered the forest were broken tree branches, and even some trunks, covering much of the forest floor--snow damage from the big storm which hit Jordan in mid-December. Hearing many beautiful bird songs, we sat still and quiet (not easy for our crew)...

in hopes of spotting the birds. Many were high in the pine trees, hidden from our sight, but one large bird swooped by me. I got my lens up quickly, but all I manged to capture was the bird's silhouette (upper left corner). A kestral, maybe? Or a buzzard? Those were Dear Husband's guesses.

The Arbutus trees were adorned with their red "strawberries"...

Strawberry Tree

Arbutus andrachne

...and the oranges and yellows of this scrub oak provided a beautiful contrast to all the green.

Artist Son spotted the first cyclamen flower, sheltered in the cleft of a rock, and so the new wildflower spotting season officially began.

I spotted another delicate specimen a few meters on.

Cyclamen

Cyclamen persicum

Perhaps because I am so used to scanning the roadsides for flora, I noticed this bright green chameleon as we drove away from the forest. Dear Husband obliged me when I asked him to turn the car around and go back! quick! as I thought I had spotted a big green lizard.

Active Son informed us that chameleons move slowly, which explains why this one did little more than shift his position on the rock while Tayta and I took his portrait. It was the largest and brightest chameleon I've seen in Jordan--about 9 inches/22 centimeters, not including its tail.

From Dibeen we headed home by way of Jerash, stopping to pick up a bag of fresh mu'ajanaat to snack on. The sabaanakh (spinach filled pastry) was

the best and our favorite 'shem 'al hawa' snack.

Just before we arrived in Mafraq, Dear Husband decided to pull  into the village of Rihab to see if we could find the ruins of what could be the oldest Christian church. In the world.  We found it easily as we were kindly directed up the street and to the right by the first man Dear Husband saw walking along the road. What wasn't so easy was getting in to see the ruins. Apparently the guard takes Saturday's off and so the entrance gate was locked. 

That was a problem for Tayta and I, but not for the males in our group, as they were encouraged by the gathering shabaab (male youth) and a few other men, to climb over the fence. So they did, and the shabaab went with them acting as impromptu tour guides. Tatya and I remained properly and appropriately in the car. I took a few pictures through the window, and Tayta handed off her camera to Active Son so as to get a few pictures of the ruins.

Poor Tatya, shut out from the archaeological adventure. (She does posed pitiful very well .)

Artist Son missed some of the sights because he was otherwise engaged with the shabab, explaining his swollen checks (wisdom teeth) and interacting as the shabab tried to convince him to convert to Islam; speaking of religion, God, and salvation with near strangers is politically correct in much of the Middle East!

Per our camera tour by Active Son, this is the door which leads into the church/cave located under the newer but still ancient church.

Believed to be the apse of the ancient cave sanctuary

This mosaic was found in the later church of St. George (above the cave) and reads "the 70 beloved by God and the divine", which has led some to believe that 70 early disciples of Jesus worshiped in the earlier cave, however other archaeologists feel that further authentication of the site is required.

Two of the men who assisted our guys were from the Syrian border city of Daraa' and have settled for now in Rihab instead of Mafraq as the war-inflated rents were significantly lower there. They offered warm Arab hospitality, inviting us all to their home for tea, but Dear Husband told them perhaps another day, and indeed, we hope to return someday soon when the entrance gate is open and Tayta and I can enter the site.