ROOFTOPS AND VIEWS TO THE MOUNTAINS

Overhead view of the studio.

The concrete trucks were scheduled to arrive at 5 pm on Saturday evening. They were only three hours late, which is typical for Morocco.

View from the roof of the house, looking over the property wall 

to the Atlas mountains to the south.

View to the east.

View to the southeast, with one of the zeitoun trees obscuring the bamboo palace.

 

AMAZIGH DESIGNS

The garden home is located in a rural area populated by Amazigh people, the indigenous people of the Mahgreb. I created a series of designs for the window and door grates, all based more or less abstractly on the proposed symbols of the Amazigh, the "free man" and "free woman" symbols. The steel artist took a look at this design for the studio door and suggested that it be simplified a little, and I agreed it was a good idea.

This design is for a few windows in the house.

The porches on both ends of the house now have roofs, and the comfort provided by these shelters on the east and west sides of the house should be substantial.

Geoff Lawton of the "Greening the Desert" project in Jordan claims that these ground-covering succulents (ice plants) provide a carpet of insulation for the soil, and it looks like we have a good start on that.

Kaoutar and I planted nine bags with three tree seeds in each today, and placed them in the temporary tree nursery on the north side of the bamboo palace.

CONCRETE ROOF AND GARDEN

The roofs of both buildings are concrete, something I have never seen before in a home. I am looking forward to getting comfortable with it.

 

 

Looking from the west porch to the studio.

Assembling the pulley that will bring buckets of concrete up to the roofers.

These steel reinforced concrete  planks go up first, then concrete blocks are spaced in between and finally, more fresh concrete is poured on top.

Concrete being moved up to the top, bucket by bucket.

Manuela stripping leaves fron zeitoun branches. The leaves will be used as fertiler/mulch in the garden beds and the twigs and branches will form the hugel pathways.

Egg case of a praying mantis.

With so much of the ground used by the construction process, we stole a small space next to the toilet for a new garden bed.

OF TORTOISES AND SLAOUIS

The harvest of the slaouis just keeps on. Here Manu is harvesting enough for the lunch tajine.

The youngest person on the crew building the studio.

Scaffolding, Moroccan style.

Beginning the new garden bed.

Slaoui tajine by Kaoutar!

Another beautiful sunrise at the garden home.

What I had imagined to be insects chewing on the leaves of the sweet corn seedlings turned out to be a baby tortoise. Kareem built the bamboo corrals around the seedlings and they are works of art!

Man on roof of studio.

Concrete roof supports with the first few blocks.

 

 

SUNRISES AND MUD BRICKS

The sunrises here can be so intense-this photo was not enhanced.

We are building using the Spanish cajon style of construction. Steel reinforced columns are situated every few meters, providing structural strength to the adobe mud walls.

Views from the future windows of the studio.

 

HOUSE, STUDIO AND GARDEN

North wall of the house.

Kaoutar's delicious tajine slaoui, served in the zeitoun grove.

Gorgeous Jerusalem thorn (palo verde) and leucaena seedlings.

The studio faces the northeast and will have sliding glass doors 

and four large windows in the facade.

Abdelkarim spent a couple of hours today building me ramps 

over the garden bed berms to reduce the stress on my knees-and 

he built me a small bridge over the irrigation ditch as well.

The slaoui in early morning light. There are many squash 

under those leaves!