A Personal Hammam: From Phyllis in Morocco - Part 4

Phyllis writes:

The sketch above is of the room just outside the hammam and the massage room. All day long the fire was being fed with sticks from two great piles that had somehow arrived outside the door of Dar Louisa the day before. The fireplace is underneath the room for the hammam and opens onto the patio. Suzie and Kate were in the hammam while I was getting a full body massage. Suzie and Kate came out with exclamations of delight while I was on the massage table so I was pretty sure I was in for a treat. When my massage was done (ahhhhh) I went into a small room that you enter before going into the steam room, and Barbara and Fatima both chorused "come on in!". I walked up two steps, opened the swinging doors and found myself in a small room filled with steam with a bench at one end and two sinks in the floor on the other. Barb was sitting on the bench and Fatima was scrubbing Barb's arm. I sat beside Barb and waited my turn. The light in the room was very dim, the steam was thick but not suffocating, and everything and everyone looked beautiful as in a dream. 

The fire had been heating the water in the sinks and making the steam. The wood had a sweet fragrance. The scrubbing process was in several stages and I doubt I can get them right. Perhaps the first scrub with with argon soap....arms, legs, back and front. the second was while sitting on a short stool and was the exfoliation done with scrubber mitts and some other substance, then we were smeared with a special mud, and then finally another wash and rinse. Lots of throwing bowls of water over our bodies and our heads. I don't know why splashing with bowls of warm water is so pleasurable but it sure is. Lots of massaging as well as washing, lots of laughing and chatting. It was a most lovely experience. If anyone ever offers you.....by all means take it. The cost? 100 dirham (approximately $12.50.) 

After all the women had been thoroughly washed, scrubbed and oiled, Abdililah took Bill in and gave him his hammam. And THEN he served us a beautiful meal of turkey breast slices rolled around vegetables with a fresh tomato and cilantro sauce. Before this a pureed soup of vegetables (squash and sweet potato). For dessert we had a divine concoction of avocado, yogurt and honey pureed very smooth and topped with something like creme de menthe. Needless to say we all went to bed quite early totally relaxed and sated. We couldn't quit feeling ourselves because it felt like we had new skin. And so that, my dears, is the story of a personal hammam. It is customary in Morocco do do this once a week, either in a public or private setting.

Go Dukes!

My longtime friend, Deb, has a daughter in the marching band at York High School in Elmhurt, Illinois. So we went to their football game when I was visiting a few weeks ago. She says they always lose and this night was no exception. But hopes were high since they were playing the second worst team in their division. I think it might have something to do with the team name: The York Dukes? I think that might be worse than my home town team, the Havana Ducks.

Here are my favorite sketches, done from the bleachers.

Wildwood Nature Center

A couple more sketches from my trip to Illinois. I went out on my own for a couple of hours to sketch at the Wildwood Nature Center in Park Ridge, a suburb of Chicago. When I first arrived I was completely taken with the huge weeping willows hanging over the lake. But as is often the case, my sketch subjects were dictated by where I could find a suitable place to sit out of the direct sun.

Swan grooming

I was surprised at how long this swan held this position, grooming its feathers. Long enough for a sketch, anyway. I guess he (she?) was pretty serious about personal hygiene.

A path through the woods

I am always attracted to a winding path. I think there's something deep in our psyches that wants to know where a path leads.

Barb's Sketches from Dar Louisa

Here are Barb Barry's latest sketches from Morocco. She writes:

Phyllis just walked into my "office," saying "no sketch, no can capture the way this place FEELS." Well, we're doing our best. Last nite, after dinner we had mint tea and I loved seeing the tea pot and glasses on a wicker chest before beautiful African cushions and tapestries. I wanted to capture TEXTURE. 

 This morning, up before breakfast, I wanted to capture DIMENSIONS so I sketched the swimming pool in our interior courtyard. 

Today we'll walk to the town of Tourandannt, see the souks, meet some locals. The Moroccans are super sweet and accepting. The women wear head scarves for traditional reasons, not religious. The Tourandannt women wear blue haj's (spelling?)... head scarfs and very colorful patterned caftans.

Big Day of Sketching in Little Edison

We couldn't have asked for a better sketching day in the charming village of Edison, population 133. We found everything we were looking for and more. Great weather, great views, great characters, unbelievably great food, and even an outdoor sketching venue serving wine with view of a slough!

Tweets Cafe Co-owner and Chef David

David again

Tweets Cafe was the big find of the day. The food was SO good and the decor so artful and inviting and sketchable. Faye and I had both lunch and dinner there plus dessert AND sweets to take home... Faye gave hers to Truman. She's a better person than me.

View from Tweets deck.

Tweets Cafe deck

Eventually we explored the rest of the town and ended up at Slough Foods patio for Spanish wine and cheese (before we went back to Tweets for dinner of course!). Slough Foods is on the Edison Slough although the water doesn't show up in my sketch. We enjoyed chatting with artists Tom and Elizabeth from Sequim.

Slough Foods patio view

Todd on the patio of  Slough Foods

Don't ask me what is going on with the lower part of this chair. I think I got distracted by our conversations and got lost. It happens.

From Phyllis in Morocco - Part 3

More sketches from Phyllis in Morocco. They are now at Dar Louisa, in the walled city of Taroundant.

Phyllis' room and balcony

Poolside at Dar Louisa

Some excerpts from her delicious daily reports:

This place is so beautiful it is hard to describe. There are jasmine vines and lots of other vegetation on the walls. The birds come into the courtyard at night to sleep and make a great wonderful racket. In the morning they wake up and start to cheep and sing about the same time as the first call to prayer which is around 5:30. I was too excited to sleep last night so slept very little. But who cares? I can nap or not.....whatever. Adbelilah is our chef. For about $18.00 a day he will make us 3 meals a day. We asked for 2 meals with a small snack of fruit and stuff for the third. We are eating everything that is put before us.....including vegetables and fruits, we are drinking the tap water, and we have only seen real toilets (no squatters), so we are traveling very first class. All of this because Suzie and Bill traded our casa in Mexico for these delightful riads. Fatima is our housekeeper, and she quietly goes about keeping everything beautiful and clean. It's a bit decadent, I know....but oh so delightful. This riad also has a private hammam. We can be scrubbed, manicured, pedicured and massaged. Which we will do. Anyway.....I will for sure. We have mint tea everywhere and often. Everyone wants our money, but they are mostly very, very nice about going about getting it.

Taroudant is a walled village. The walls are 800 years old. The tops of the walls look just like the castle walls in fairy tales. The merchants here do not hassle us like they did in Marrakech Still everything must be bargained for.The climate is more temperate here. The days are warm but not hot, the evenings pleasantly cool, and the nights not cold but cool enough to use a blanket and sleep well. Taroudant is much more tranquil than Marrakech, fewer tourists, easier to mange, still busy will all manner of vehicles. Lots of bicycles. Fridays are the day of prayer and the day for cous-cous. The shops were closed at 1:00 today for people to go to the mosques. We could hear the prayers throughout the city and from Dar Louisa. After prayers it is traditional to go home for cour-cous. Adbelilah made delicous vegetable soup for dinner, followed by Moroccan cous-cous smothered in vegetables with a small amount of lamb. Dessert was pears poached in a light sauce flavored with allspice. After we had a fire and mint tea in the salon. I'm feeling very, very fortunate, pampered, lucky and happy. This is a real vacation. So different from what I imagined or expected.

Never, ever have I experienced the sort of exquisite care, food, attention to detail as we have at Dar Louisa. I am almost embarrassed to tell about it. Abdelilah makes all of our meals, serves us drinks by the pool, builds fires for us in the evening in the downstairs salon, took us on a walking tour today and will take us to an oasis tomorrow. While Abdelilah is taking such care of us Fatima is making our beds, doing our laundry, sweeping, and such things. All of this is cheerfully done.

A Day of Sketching in Edison

The Langley Sketchers drove up the up and off the Island today to meet up with Missy and the Anacortes Sketchers for a day filled with art, good food and friends. We met in the tiny town of Edison, where is air is filled with the wonderful smell of fresh baked bread. The open door of "TWEETS" restaurant was filled with all sorts of signs of the season - apples, pumpkins, Indian corn - and the most delicious scents of yummy food being prepared wafted out to the chair where I sat and sketched. 

Out behind "Slough Foods" a patio opens up and chairs and tables are set out right down to the water's edge. As we sketched the sun dipped lower and lower into the sky until it turned the still waters of the slough metallic silver, and the reeds along the shore, golden. And through the tall grass I spied a tiny house, sitting on the edge of the still waters.

It was a great day!

From Phyllis in Morocco - Part 2

More fabulous sketches from Phyllis in Marrakech!

 Phyllis writes: So far I like this one best this is one of the sitting rooms in our riad. Today we move to a new riad in a small village.

Barb and I sat in a cafe yesterday and sketched. Very hard because things are moving so fast there. I would have loved to have gotten all the push carts and motorbikes and donkey carts and and and..........great fun. 

What a great adventure. I so wish I could be there, too!

Barb's Sketches from Morocco

From Barb Barry in Morocco:  

Here are two sketches from our gorgeous 800 year old home, Dar Allaimoun. A two story house, with a central dining room opened to the sky. Balconies, climbing flowering vines ... birds cheerfully chirp as they come home to nest at sun fall. No windows otherwise... a real fortress. Colorful tiles everywhere ... floors, walls, fountains... fanciful Moroccan lamps hanging from the ceilings, a rooftop deck with outdoor sleeping. Sweet, quiet neighborhood ... all the houses are fortresses with heavy ornate doors, near the souks in the medina. Lovingly cared for by beautiful Morrocan housekeeper, Fouzia.

Django Fest

Useless Bay Coffee was a wonderful location to enjoy the sounds of Django djammin' musicians.

Django Fest in Langley

We had a ball sketching all the impromptu jam sessions we could find around Langley. I had so much fun, I might have to go back again tomorrow for a second helping.

At Useless Bay Wines

At Useless Bay Coffee

In the Backroom at South Whidbey Commons

Jammin' Around Town

Django Fest is in Langley and that means fabulous sketching opportunities as musicians hit cafes all around town to jam.  Sketching stops today at Useless Bay Coffee garden and over wine at Useless Bay Wines tasting room.  What a blast!

First Sketch from Morocco

Phyllis sent me her first sketch from Morocco. They are staying in a villa in Marrakech. She writes:

This is one of several sitting areas in our 3 floors and a roof terrace riad. It's hot, the birds are singing, supper is nearly ready, we've heard one call to prayer and will go out into this very beautiful city when it cools down. The sketching opportunities are endless and gorgeous.

I'm so jealous!

Summer Colors

This patch of orange was probably too compelling...at the beautiful Smith Garden near Lagoon Point.

We are so fortunate to have these amazing places available to us for sketching!

    

      On a recent camping trip, we stopped to do a little sketch of late sky and the sand dunes at

      Cape Disappointment State Park on Long Beach. The Blowing sand made it a very short 

      sketch, just some spots of sand  filled color. Still sand on the page and in my little paintbox.

 Tide lands looking south from Oysterville on the Willapa Bay side of Long Beach. Afternoon.

And the same spot with a little more foreground. My quest

to simplify.... light a little later , some fog coming in.

Mom's Garden

Sketching at Mom's in Springfield, Illinois. She's all about the flowers and the creatures that visit her backyard garden.

Pink Petunias

Red Impatiens

 A Mighty Oak

Bird Bath

Redbud Tree?

Tiny roses on the kitchen table