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Friday, October 14, 2011

Settling in--Ramla


OK. There's a reason why I haven't posted lately. Two reasons, actually.

First, I've moved to beautiful Ramla. Which is only about a 5-minute drive away from Medinet Habu. But that's a 5-minute taxi ride which I won't have to hassle with.
Now, when I want to go across to Luxor, I can walk to the ferry in about 7 minutes. Or I can pick up a motorboat taxi after about a 3-minute walk.

I'll miss living among fields and farm animals. (Although my dog won't. She had a terrible infestation of ticks last month. I know, too much information!)

And I'll miss living in the neighborhood of the Pharaohs. The vast Malqata palace site is near Medinet Habu. And all the west bank temples are just down the road. Not to mention stunning Habu temple around the corner.

And I'll miss seeing the mountain out of my bedroom window, in all its moods of light and shadow. The mountain of the dead people. The tombs of the Valley of the Kings and Queens, and other tombs, are carved out of this mountain.

The morning before I left Habu, I received a nice-going away present. The mountain was shrouded in mist. Not a frequent occurrence, these days. In five months living at Habu, I had never seen any mist. Not in the morning, anyway. The horizon is often a little misty in the evenings.

But in ancient times, during the inundation, the mist must have been a usual sight. It was quite something for me, to see the fiery dawn color of the mountain through a thick white veil.

Back to important matters. My dog loves the back yard here in Ramla. She sits on the scraggly grass and surveys her domain.

The yard has lots of shade, including some very clever shrubs with hot-pink flowers that close during the heat of the day and open in the evening. And in the front yard there are a couple of hibiscus bushes with flame-colored flowers.

In case you're wondering, my apartment isn't right next to the Nile. And, being a ground-floor apartment, it doesn't have a Nile view. But that's OK. I'm close enough to the river. I know it's there, just around the corner.

And reason number two─the second reason for not blogging for a little while─will have to wait for my next post….

2 comments:

  1. Another move, you're becoming quite the nomad. It sounds wonderful to be living so close to all that amazing history.

    If Debbie and I were younger, living in Egypt would perhaps be something we might try. But as we get older we tend to become set in our ways, so convenience then most always trumps adventurous.

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  2. I wouldn't say convenience, I'd say commitments. Family, work, etc. Sometimes we have commitments tying us down, and sometimes we have the luxury of being footloose. A time and a season for everything. I'm in my second adolescence!

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