At Jeita

Not long ago we took the kids to Jeita Grotto--an impressive (& huge) cavern north of Beirut. Photography is strictly prohibited inside, but you can still see pictures of the interior if you follow the link to the grotto's website.

Since I couldn't take pictures inside the cavern, I got this picture outside instead.

Seven

My kids were born one day shy of exactly two years apart. Yesterday was the five-year-old's day, and today, I have a just-turned seven-year-old.

So, again, here's a picture from five years ago to celebrate. This picture was taken during my father-in-law's visit. That's him holding my first. She was then just two years old.

My husband took the picture, and that's a first 'round here, y'all. And a last. My blog, my pictures. Except today.

The little garden where this picture was taken directly adjoins the Roman baths that were excavated in Beirut's downtown after the civil war. In the past five years, this spot hasn't changed at all. In a city where so much churns, evolves, contorts and transforms, the permanence of this little garden is a bit unreal. It makes five years feel like a heartbeat.

A Chaotic Kind of Peaceful

Five years ago, our second child was born here in Beirut.

She's a fantastic kid, and I feel like her personality reflects qualities we've seen in the Lebanese people. She is unfailingly friendly, extends herself to strangers, loves excitement and adventure and the comfort of family. At times she is unbelievably bold, completely unafraid. She even seems to have a bit of that peaceful chaos that I hope Beirut will hold onto forever.

Stone Facing

It seems like most of my posts these days are following up on previously posted images. Here we go again!

This time we're following the progress of a luxury residential high-rise. A while ago, I posted a picture of some workers painting tar onto the rough cement exterior.

Now, they're attaching stone to that surface. This is done with a kind of metal bracket. The bracket is attached to the building. Pins extending up and down from it are inserted into holes drilled down into the stone facing. This keeps the stone secure and none of it is visible when installed properly.

If I ever get a chance to take a picture of the bracket up close, I'll do another follow up.

On the Way Up

. . . continued from yesterday.

When it was our turn, we climbed into our little pink pod and began the ascent on the teleferique.

We watched the decending pods that passed by. Matthew got out the video camera.

There was a lot to see as our pod was pulled up the mountain.

See what I mean?

Way out there on the horrizon, we could see Beirut. And before we knew it, we had arrived at the station.

The kids loved the ride, and parents love happy kids.

Teleferique

Yesterday we decided to take a chance on the Teleferique; a 9 minute (530m?) ride in a cable car up the side of a mountain north of Beirut.

We arrived early, but still we waited in a very long line. Popular destination. Thankfully it wasn't hot. One kid was satisfied to be held by her dad, and the other was satisfied to play with his i-phone.

Finally it was our turn.

The kids were delighted to ride in a pink pod. Tomorrow, I'll post shots of the ride to the top.

Concrete Blocks

It has been a while since I've done a post about concrete blocks. For those of you who might not know, these blocks are to be found all over the city. They're ideal for creating a semi-private area, stopping the eye without stopping air circulation. Here are my most recently collected shots.



You can see the others by clicking on the tag 'concrete blocks' at the bottom of this post.

Context

Here's a little (well, a lot of) context for an image I published about a week ago. In that post I suggested that I'd go back for more, and I did.

The impression I had of the structure from the highway (the elevated road in the picture) was that it was really crammed into the available space. But here somewhat southeast of it, well, the surroundings almost look roomy.

But just to prove that it looks altogether different from the highway, here's the view approaching from the south:

That's it, to the left of the speed limit sign--with two minarets swathed in green gauze. It looks miraculously wedged into a tiny space.

This next shot, taken from the west, is rather blighted by the highway. This face of the building should look familiar if you saw the photo I posted before. The three mostly-obscured-arches are the same ones captured in my previous post. Obviously, they're best viewed from the highway rather than below it.

I walked under the highway and continued on for another few hundred feet to get a picture of the east-facing side:

I noticed some workers and zoomed in.

When it's finished I want to go back and take some more pictures. They've finished a lot of nice carved stone ornamentation and I can't get a good picture of it until the green gauze hanging in front of it is taken down.

Like

I like this tall, tall whatever it is towering over its own roots stuffed into an absurdly small pot. It seems to be in the midst of an odd sort of dialogue with the squatty, humble chunks of cinder block nearby. I wonder what four pots overhead think of it all.

In an Immense Void

Take a good look. Nothing to protect the eyes, no hard hats, no gloves, no proper footwear, no problem. This is what a man wears to do a day's labor in Lebanon.

They were hard at work not too far from this guy in the straw cowboy hat.

See his sandals?

This is where I found these shots, in the most massive construction site I've seen so far.

Don't go thinking these fellows are some kind of anomaly. One rarely sees a hard hat around here. You'll also rarely see decent shoes, and I've NEVER seen gloves. Almost every man (again, it's never a woman) who works these kinds of jobs is as unprotected as these guys.