Sunday, September 21, 2008

It's the date for harvest, and the harvest is dates

We live in a city, in a hot climate, in a desert. We do not see much change in temperature - it is 88F at 9:30 am right now - and we do not see the leaves change color, or birds fly south. Oh, there is a bird migration, but we don't really notice it here. And there might be some trees that go dormant - there are TONS of trees! But Spring turns to Summer turns to Autumn, and it's hard to tell. A friend mentioned the coming of Mabon and I was surprised to have the season sneak up like that. I guess I have noticed that the availability of certain fresh fruits and vegetables has been changing, but wow.. here we are nearly at the end of September already!

Last week, in the spirit of the season of harvest... although the spirit was celebrated 'coincidentally'... I was able to go on an Egyptian culture field trip with my daughter's class to visit local farm land. The teacher had been telling them of planting, irrigation, harvesting, etc. This field trip was to allow to experience these ideas in real life. The children were also encouraged to watch from the bus as we drove out of the city and through the villages in order to catch a glimpse of the rural Egyptian life they've also been learning about. I believe the bus ride was more interesting than the farm visit - although that was very nice too.

Here is a (rather long) collection of photos from our outing. Amazingly, many of these were taken through the window from the back of a BOUNCING bus, on a humid hazy day, and they turned out pretty darn good considering(!). Hope you enjoy:

5 comments:

MsTypo said...

Being able to "chaperone" cool field trips like that are one reason i almost wish i had kids. Almost...

Greetekees said...

Great pics, nice presentation. I love the date-tree-climber! The pics from the bus worked out well. You do a better job than me from the car, did you see my attempt to shoot the Citadel from the car? Hahaha! How long was the drive? Was it organized by the school?

Connie said...

It was a school field trip and the drive was a bit over an hour. I've learned that the best way to get good shots from a car window is to take a ton of bad ones, and a few good ones happen on accident!

kenju said...

Connie, thanks for the visit to my blog. I loved seeing your photos; I have wanted to visit Egypt ever since I was a small child, and it seems photos are the only way that will ever happen.

Caffienated Cowgirl said...

How fascinating! Thank you for sharing this...I am jealous of your experience.

And thanks for stopping by my site...I will certainly be back to yours :)