Finally able to pick up wireless again, but, alas, no time to write because I'm running to see if anyone shows up to the ANA (Association of Nigerian Author's) meeting scheduled for 1pm today. Feel rather ambivalent about Hillcrest right now, but Tassneem's graduation was very very nice. A more thoughtful post later.
1 comment:
Hi Deborah,
lovely to hear from you. Yes, our yard does feel like a bit of a paradise, especially now in my favourite part of the year when everything is that first new green of early rainy season. Over dinner, my family was idly discussing how Iraq is sort of the mythical location of the Garden of Eden, so, in a way, the gift of fruit trees from Iraq by my dad's former HOD was the gift of a small piece of paradise.(All sorts of ironies on many different levels there).
And, yeah, I think the permanent site is a little more fertile than Dogon Dutse. There are huge vegetable fields behind the end of the staff quarters--probably because of the river between the staff quarters and student village.
Of course, all of those fruit trees don't bear fruit all at once--which I didn't really clarify (like Selwyn Langley who writes a "coon play" of his wife Ella's life in Jamaica, in Erna Brodber's novel Myal. One of the first things Ella notices as the increasingly more horrifying play unfolds is that Selwyn had made all of the fruit trees unnaturally bear fruit at once.) So, let me not be like Selwyn and claim that my house is some sort of exotic paradise--it's not. But it is very lovely and green right now, and the avocados, pomegranites, mangos, and apples are ripe and delicious!
I love your description of the bees.
Carmen
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