No Accounting for Taste
My Mother once joked that the definition of good taste was someone whose taste agreed with your own. Her house is all smooth, modern, elegant lines, while mine is all old, antique and semi-antique. She has clean lines and clear surfaces, and I am guessing that to her, my decor is cluttered. (Not that she criticizes me.) We just have different tastes.
My husband and I also have different tastes. Often, his eye will alight on something, say like a Masai shield 7 feet long, and he will say “wouldn’t that be great in our house?” and my response is “yes! In your den!” He calls his den The Adventure Man Museum, and says that the only thing the Tarek Rejab has on him is that they have had a couple more decades of collecting. But he is still working on it!
He LOVES these trees. He keeps threatening to buy a couple for our yards back home. I mention little things like shipping expenses. . . . or maybe he is pulling my leg – ya think?
So far, we agree that they look great in context. I am not so sure they would do so sell in a rainy climate.
And this is what I love:
You used to find these everywhere in the Gulf, even in the cities you would find them in the diwaniyyas. This is the only one I have seen since I came to Kuwait, and it is in a museum. I remember being out in the beit-as-shar in the desert (for my non-Arabic speaking friends: tents, literally, House of Hair because the tenting was woven of goat and camel hair.) I remember the sound of the metal clanging as the coffee was ground in the morter, I remember the smell of the wood fire when the coffee was brewing, and I remember the coffee being poured through branches that kept (some of) the grounds out. I miss that ceremony; I miss the sounds and smells and taste, because out in the desert coffee tastes different. It wasn’t that long ago – but I never see them anymore.
Do you?
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Those trees do look cool, maybe you should have an open mind about them π
lool @ Masai shield π
shipping, customs, theyre fragile, save electricity, short when it rains,…. lol say anything, theyre ugly π lol sorry kinano.
those pots you really only find in gift shops these days. everyone uses those crappy made in china things nowadays. i think there are a couple of basement dollar shops in farwaniya where they still sell them.
also theres a ‘metal’ stuff market in the city, opposite the al mulla mitsubishi and chrysler shop. havent been ter ein a while but they make alot of stuff for arabic style bbq’s and cooking. they might have them there. even if they dont, would make for interesting pictures π
I love the first pic with blue tree, so dramatic!
WOW the blue tree is cool π
You’re gonna kick me and kinan out aren’t ya?
Ya coffee in the desert tastes so much better.
I’m looking at your post with Big D. She loves the trees, and says “don’t they HAVE those in Seattle? Especially at holiday-time?”
She thinks you and the khalo should get a forest’s worth, and celebrate all the holidays: blue and white for Hanukkah, red and green for Christmas, red and pink for Valentine’s Day, etc. Also, do they come in a shrub size?? And what about illuminated frogs, to go with?
I think you should order them all and have them sent to … Iowa! to her house!
Kinan, Rieaane and Elijah – the blue trees ARE cool, here in Kuwait, in commercial establishements. They really sparkle! And no, I don’t think I want them in my front yard. . . .
I’m gonna have to find that metal work shop, Skunk!
Little Diamond, I can hear you hooting with laughter now. Please tell Big Diamond I will have them shipped to HER since she loves them so much!
“the blue trees ARE cool, here in Kuwait, in commercial establishements. They really sparkle! And no, I donβt think I want them in my front yard”
But
But
But
π¦
OK, I think the trees would look awesome in a rainy climate! They would be a kind of blurred version in all that mistiness and very romatic. You can always put them in the BACK yard! And, I think, for you they should be purple……..
Kinan, they ARE cool! So . . . YOU buy then for YOUR front yard!
KitKat *dying dying laughing* oh yeh, those trees would be well regarded where YOU are living! Oh my stars! Oh the very thought!
Uh oh. I missed the trees! And I (of course! of course!) LOVE them. Big D can’t have the ALL – must share with little sis! Oooh, even just one…. the blue one! No, the red one! Wait, do the come in purple???
OMG, Sparkle, you are right, they would fit right in to the micro-climate beach paradise you have created . . .but might not be wind-resistant . . . and I am sure if Madam wants purple, Madam can have purple!