Bamako unrest and Fez

           

                             

Bamako has been shaken by three days of murderous uprisings. The former head of the Haute Conseil Islamic, the powerful Wahabist leaning Imam Dicko is widely accused of orchestrating the anti government demonstrations which aims to topple IBK- some say in order for himself  to try and grab power.  The entire country has been put on alert and even  in Timbuktu this morning the banks were closed. 

My Air France ticket has been booked for my long overdue return to Mali on the first of September-  who knows whether this will happen.

Everything now seems unstable in so many ways. It feels as if the very earth we stand on is  moving somehow, criss-crossed by fault lines of diverse origins- epidemics and other disasters pulling in different directions and threatening to make everything crumble...

Not perhaps the time to start dreaming and planning a risky new venture... but the other day some mysterious impulse made me look up properties for sale in Morocco and I landed immediately on this 18th century Riad in Fez with a roof terrace with 360 degree views over the medina and an outside space for a little garden and swimmingpool...

 

 

 

It needs complete refurbishment, but what a project! 6 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms! Thickly encrusted  with original glorious tiles and wood fret work! And I have a friend in Fez already, Gigi a vet who works in an American 'horse hospital' and knows all expats and has all necessary contacts of 'doing things up' in the medina. 

I was wondering why I have been learning Arabic- I thought that it was mainly in order to give Youssouf in Timbuktu some extra cash - and of course since I am involved in Arabic manuscripts it can be viewed as 'staff development'... but maybe there was another reason for it? Some sort of divine guidance with an ulterior motive? 

Hmmm.... what shall I call it? Riad Djenne? Riad Keita perhaps? 

I think I might just be serious about this...London life is just not quite enough. Let's see...

And there are enormous deposits of ancient Arabic manuscripts in Morocco of course, which my Benedictine friend and boss Father Columba would most certainly be interested in,  at least I should imagine so...

Summer delights

 Can there be anything lovelier than floating slowly down the Cam in a punt?  with a basketful of strawberries and bubbly ready to go... and the sun intermittently obliging..

Wormwood and Canal

 The lockdown in the last three months has produced a city of explorers and walkers- since we have been  allowed to go out once a day for exercise many of us has exaggerated and have stretched that allowance into great hikes of exploration around the parks of London and along its canals.  I know many who have walked for three or four hours a day- and discovered a London that they never knew existed although they might have lived here all their lives.  And friendships have been struck- like my new Welsh friend David who I found on a park bench by the canal in Little Venice the other day.  He showed me Wormwood Scrubs yesterday- it is only up the road from Ladbroke Grove- it is huge and wild- actually a nature reserve rather than a park. Although I vaguely knew it was there I guess I was always put off by the name- and by the fact that its eponymous Prison looms gloomily in one corner on its parameter.
But meanwhile the vast central fields are bordered by woods and soft meadows and there are large varieties of wild flowers, grasses and lovely thistles which attract butterflies and insects buzzing about making it feel like deepest Devon...

One can reach  this new haven by walking the canal route from Ladbroke Grove

 I seem to spend half my life by the canal these days, on my way eastwards normally but this time the route leads west towards 'The Scrubs'. Plenty to look at on the way always- like this bird (must get myself some sort of a bird book: any suggestions?) with his elaborate boots!