Not-Your-Kuwait-Sunset
Blogger Someday (Red) sent me a not-your-Kuwait-sunset to post now that the Great Kuwait Sunset Challenge is officially over:
How incredibly beautiful is that? Does anyone recognize where it is?
Winners! Great Kuwait Sunset Challenge
As promised, here are the winners of the Great Kuwait Sunset Challenge, in the order of the votes received:
Mathai
Bu Yousef
Teagirl
AbdulAziz
Congratulations to all! I think everyone who got to see your stunning photos were also winners.
Thank you all for participating, thank you for submitting your photos, and thank you, too, for voting. This was a lot of fun.
Next Saturday, we will introduce the new challenge. 🙂
CoeurCountry Sunsets
Everybody needs a friend like CoeurCountry. You think you have your day all figured out and she calls and has an idea, and all of a sudden, everything changes. Isn’t it fun when life is less predictable?
After a long day, she called just as I was stretching out to read the paper and maybe catch a little nap before AdventureMan comes home – not a big nap, just a tiny little one!
“Don’t you need to go shopping?” she asked, with a laugh in her voice. “Can I tempt you with a coffee?”
No, I didn’t need the temptation of a coffee, just jumping in the car and driving off with her is enough – we always have so much to talk about and never run out of topics.
And we did have coffee. 🙂
As we were finishing up our errands, she stopped and said “Look! There’s your sunset!”
And there it was. Too late for the contest, but definitely a Kuwait sunset worth shooting:
Al Kout Mall Sunset
And, as usual, we had “just one more thing” to do, and as she completed her errands, I shot one more sunset – no sun, but it is a sunset photo because I was there and I say so!
Mosque Sunset
So now you know something else about me. I may not always be able to make a deadline, but it is really, really hard for me to pass up a challenge. 🙂
Speaking of deadlines – have you voted in The Great Kuwait Sunset Challenge Poll? The deadline – Saturday – is fast approaching. I haven’t peeked at the results, which I will share with you on Sunday.
The Great Kuwait Sunset Challenge Poll
I have to tell you honestly, I didn’t think this through. One day, I realized I did not have one single sunset shot from Kuwait. I took one, and it was awful and it got me started. I had no idea when I started how much fun it was going to be – for me – and I sure hope for you, too.
As the submissions started rolling in, I found great joy in the recognition you were all getting with your beautiful, sometimes funny, often soulful contributions. I was delighted with your enthusiasm, and your graciousness in participating. And I also struggled with “Holy Smokes, how do I end this? How do I choose a winner?”
If I tell you what I really think, you will think I am copping out. I think we all ended up winners. I felt like a winner, seeing all those beautiful sunsets through your eyes. I felt such joy seeing the compliments you paid one another’s photos. I loved spotlighting your talent, and I know there are a lot of non-photo-takers out there who enjoyed checking in every day to see what had been posted. But how to resolve the question: who won the challenge?
Then, a few days ago I started seeing an orange ball I didn’t recognize on my write-a-new-post page, and yesterday there was an announcement about something new at WordPress, PollDaddy, which means I can now put a poll right on my blog (this is new for WordPress; I know some of the others of the Kuwait bloggers have had this capability for AGES) but I am thankful to have it now, just when I need it.
You get to vote. YOU get to choose the winner of the Great Kuwait Challenge Poll. You will have one week to vote (and hurry! I already have an idea for the next challenge!)
I don’t really care who wins; the fun for me was in seeing all the photos that came in, seeing such beauty through your eyes. In my eyes, we are all winners – you who submitted beautiful shots and we who got to see them.
But – just because I can – I am going to turn the vote over to you: Who took the best Kuwait Sunset photo? (Go to The Great Kuwait Sunset Challenge and click through to other’s blogs, also visit individuals posted who sent me photos):
Poll is closed!
You will note – because I can – I chose a very sunset-y polling device to help you make your choice.
I truly hope I have included everyone who submitted a photo (of a KUWAIT sunset!) and forgive me if I have made a mistake. I think I got you all. My initial photo doesn’t count; it was just to show you how bad my sunset photo was and to encourage you to do better.
Thank you, WordPress, for showing up with a polling device, like a Deus ex machina to solve the dilemma of how I was going to give bragging rights for the best Kuwait sunset.
Ready? Set? VOTE!
Greetings From Kinan
Our blogging friend Kinan sends his Hellos to the Kuwait blogging world, and regrets he cannot participate in the Great Kuwait Sunset Challenge, as he is doing his graduate studies in Sweden, but he sends along his greetings and this photo for us from sunny Sweden:
To my readers who have never lived in Kuwait – you cannot imagine how it feels to feast your eyes on so much GREEN when you live in Kuwait. Kuwait is greener than Qatar, there are more native trees (Daggero calls them Athels) which seem to need very little water and provide a beautiful feathery green – but they are far and few between.
Kinan’s photo is LUSH with green, it’s like life gone abundantly wild. Total WOW, Kinan, and thank you for sending!
Mangaf, Paradise Garden and Beit Ash-Shar
Last week, AdventureMan and I were out looking for the private farm in Mangaf / Abu Halifa that blogger Bu Yousef wrote about. Imagine – fresh produce, locally produced. It is unbelievable that it exists in a burgeoning house-to-house suburb like Mangaf. Once Bu Yousef wrote about it, we couldn’t wait to find it and try it for ourselves. We LOVE local, and I am waiting for Yasmine Farms spinach to re-appear in the Sultan Center.
It is an OASIS!
AdventureMan said “it looks like Paradise!”
We got a little lost trying to find it – thank God! As we were driving around, looking for this farm/garden we spotted this:
In Jordan, these were called Beit (Beyt) ash-Shar, House of Hair. The panels of the tent were woven on small looms by the Bedouin women – the looms were made of sticks that could easily be assembled and disassembled. They had herds of sheep and goats, and the tent panels were woven of hair from their own sheep and goats. In Jordan, the nomads lived in these tents, picking up and moving as it was time to pasture their sheep and goats in the next place.
I can’t tell you how much this thrilled our hearts. Someone is using this tent – we believe – as an outdoor diwaniyya.
It’s a great day in Kuwait.
Demolish Tariq Rajab Museum?
I am horrified. Blogger Hanan reports that there are rumors that the Tariq Rajab Museum has received a warning to close or be demolished, that they have no permit to run a museum.
This family has two museums, two fine, fabulous museums, and admission to the public is free of charge. It is a bright spot in Kuwaiti Culture. (I thought there was a movement out there to encourage tourism? This is where I take my guests! This is where we tell tourists to go!)
I have no WASTA my friends. First, can you confirm that the museum has indeed been warned? Can you make this go away?
Enigmatic Sunset
Wooooo HOOOOOO! Enigma! She sends in a dramatic sunset! What do you think?
I am having so much fun with this Challenge! You guys have made my week. 🙂 It’s your last chance. Tomorrow is the end of the challenge – hit the sunset tonight!
BTW, have you seen the big huge full moon rising over the Gulf the last two nights? Grab your cameras! Run!
Q8 Geek Updates Submissions
Here’s the spirit! Q8Geek submitted some brand new photos trying to capture the Great Kuwait Sunset Challenge bragging rights:
I really love the way he has the Kuwait skyline in the background, and the way the foreground swoops! One tiny little flaw, and it’s just a personal thing . . . streetlights. AAARRGH!
You Be the Judge – Hilaliya
My good friend Amer bashfully submitted some sunset shots, saying that they aren’t as good as some he had already seen posted. I wasn’t expecting much. When I opened them, I gasped!
Look at those clouds! How often do you see cloud action like that at sunset in Kuwait? Most of the sunset photos I see are the sun going down in a thick haze – sometimes a yellow haze, sometimes a ferocious red haze – but these! Well, you be the judge:
Aren’t they fabulous? Wooo Hoooo, Hilaliya!
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