SPRING 2026

 Knee surgery in mid January and the move to the temporary housing in the studio at the garden home interrupted the ability to post regularly.  Construction on the house and grounds continued, at more or less a steady pace.

Winter rains, as well as the sloppy habits of workers in regards to cleaning up after themselves, made getting around the property hazardous.

Due to difficulty getting around to source beldi tiles, I chose piscene tiles for the kitchen and bathroom in the studio.

Underside of the roof.

Tataoui ceiling made of pine logs and bamboo panels.

Aziz brought nine new bamboo plants from Gmat.

Trying to get the correct color for the terrazzo floors has 

proven to be a difficult task.

Bedroom terrazzo floor.

The terrazzo consists of cement, coloring powder, and small stone chips of different colors-sometimes shell fragments are added. Here, the workers are troweling it onto the floor of the porch.

After the extra stone chips mix are applied to the mix, a very heavy roller is used repeatedly to compress the stones into the cement. The floor is left to harden next, and then awaits the final polishing steps.

The first scheme to create a curve in the pathway leading from the house to the gate. It brought to mind ancient cities disappearing into the desert.

I alternate between frustration at sloppy workmanship at times, 

and admiration for the ingenuity of these people. 

Here, leftover water lines were used to connect a series 

of short boards from one of the debris piles to create a 

concrete form that was easy to manipulate into a curve.

At the same time, the concrete for the straight pathway 

along the south side of the house continued.

The established gardens continue to grow and mature. This is a succulent I bought at Souk Tlet and planted when it was 

about the size of a grapefruit.

Each morning, house wrens land on the window grates 

and bring me their morning songs.

Poppies came up in the pile of white dirt that came from Darte.

Thinking that the heavy rains had caused the potato plants in the tower to rot, I harvested prematurely and still ended up with plenty of potatoes to share.

The artistry of the master stoneworker Mohamed is 

continuing along the side of the house.

Pioneer plant of the year award goes to Nateesha's Flame, a weed that has grown to eight feet tall in the olive grove. It has been attracting bees and butterflies for over two months.

I have never planted  nasturtiums and after experiencing these beauties, I will never not have them in my garden.

Meanwhile, the house is still a mess of uncompleted work and construction debris.

The neighbor to the west has a line of pomegranate trees along the wall, and their overhang has given us a plethora of blossoms to admire.

One late afternoon, particular atmospheric conditions provided 

a great backdrop for a bird perching in the bamboo.

Stone debris from work on the cladding of the house.

Pomegranate blossoms collected from the ground.

As beautiful as the blossoms are these stems and pods of poppies.

One of the butterflies that has been frequenting the Nateesha's Flame. This beauty is a Red Admiral.

One of the evermore ongoing tasks is to protect the soil of the garden from the brutal heat and evaporative power of the North African summers. We use anything we have or can find, and sometimes buy. Winter herbaceous weeds, bamboo leaves and twig, olive tree debris, and these palm leaves are all cut up into small pieces and spread over the ground. The first year, we had to buy a lot of straw, and every year we produce more on the property and the need to buy straw decreases. 

This beauty is a Sardinian warbler. It visits this particular window every morning and has either a love affair or a battle with its image in the reflective glass. It expends a tremendous amount of energy in the activity, not resting from its frenetic movements for a couple of hours.

This green, spiky ball is a cluster of developing seed pods that forms after the flowers fade on the leucaena trees we have planted. Leucaena is a strong nitrogen fixer that will provide us with abundant mulch after it is mature enough to be pollarded on an annual basis. We planted hundreds of seeds and a few inch high seedlings and this year we are being awarded with a dozen or more successes.

Evenings at the garden home provide us with 

some spectacular sunsets.

Last summer, I brought home a large Mexican petunia in a pot from an Essaouira nursery. After clearing away the winter herbaceous weeds from the garden beds, we discovered that the segments we had divided into half a dozen new plants all survived and have begun producing blossoms. This plant is a vigorous multiplier and I am hoping that we can soon have it appearing as a ground cover in multiple locations.

Another transplant from Essaouira, this is the tongue plant (or tonguefig) that is native to South Africa. They 

supposedly need bright, direct sunlight and sandy soil, 

but they are thriving in the shade of the olive tree

 and seem to love the clay soil and frequent waterings.

We have several baby tortoises now living in the garden. We are not sure how many, but we have seen three at a time. These two were lunching on a plant in the middle of the path through the olive grove.

We also have a new adult tortoise, another that we found 

loitering at the gate. This has happened several times, and I am not sure why-perhaps they are attracted by the abundance 

of moisture, greenery and shade?

The markings of this new addition to the tortoise population are much darker and more pronounced than any of the others. 

We followed popular advice concerning the elimination of pine beetles by using used olive oil. It not only did ot seem to work, but there were problems with oil dripping from the tataoui ceiling for several weeks, as well as the initial noxious odor. Here, Karim is cleaning the oil  that had dripped down onto the adobe walls.

I happened upon this tiny immature mantis climbing one of the new bamboos. It was so small, less than an inch from front to back legs. For something so small, it packed a big wallop!

For the second time, we witnesses a visit by this 

fabulous bird, the hoopoe.

Four new trees were planted in late spring. Eucalyptus, neem, fig and carob now inhabit the location and will provide the structure for the studio garden.

This small owl caused much consternation among the Eurasian blackbird population.

Yet another example of Moroccan ingenuity. These are all pieces of a derelict desk that was on the property when I purchased it. I dismantled it and stored the pieces until they were discovered by the building crew. Here, they were used as a cement form for the partial wall of the front porch, and later they formed a portion of the curved path forms.

Building supplies come by truck, tuk tuk, wheelbarrow and mule.

With the arrival of spring, insects invade the open studio door and windows. This mosquito net takes care of the problem at night.