January 25, 2014

Someone passing through left me with a package of "googly eyes." I had fun making some cards using them. They add a unique touch to your average cut paper card.

January 20, 2014

Language Studies Resumed...
 
While my study of Arabic had the romantic allure of "otherness", after only a couple of weeks with Farsi, deep down in my linguistic soul came the assurance "We go way back." Almost a sense of deja vu. Farsi is, after all, an Indo-European language. Here's where those interminable hours with Wheelock's finally pay off.

On a side note...it would be interesting to note all the languages that Tolkien borrowed from to create Elvish and the other Middle Earth languages...and since, in a way, they too have to be Indo-European, it's not surprising that there are hints of Farsi here and there--and some pretty shameless thievery as well. "Mordor," for example, actually does mean "dirtied, fouled, corrupted," however, "Nazgul" is a girl's name and it means "a darling flower."

January 18, 2014

Grandfathers...

I trust at least two men of my acquaintance are looking forward to swelling their ranks later on in this New Year.

January 2, 2014

We visited the ruined Dar al Aman palace today. It was built sometime in the '20s, I think, by Amanullah, the last king of Afghanistan.

Some random shots from our ramblings...

The grandeur and decrepitude of this relatively "young" ruin leave you with a depressing sense of, "it might have been," rather than the peaceful sense of "it was" that clings to Greek and Roman ruins.

A view of the still intact scaffolding from one of the palace's many domes.

I have no idea who Kabir was, but I came away with the impression that he wasn't a cheery lot.

 We think this may have been a telephone box at one time. There was also a spectacularly smashed lift that we did not photograph.

A direct hit...

Kabul and the surrounding mountains from the third story of Dar al Aman. It's not so obvious in this picture, but when you get higher up and look out over the city, its most striking feature is a thick cloud of gray smog that hangs about halfway up the mountains. And then you realize that's the air you're breathing...fortunately lungs are fairly resilient.