The Sheltering Sky

I was on the edge of a dust storm today (as here), just the edge; but enough to make one wonder "Why do you do these things? Why?!" Helping unpack & cull fabulous-to-good baskets from Darfur, Sudan, destined for sale here in the States. (The poor uh-oh baskets--we're thinking of what/how to salvage.)

The travel time for these boxes of baskets...what a journey. A new intern, "I think these boxes are older than me!" I think so, too. We had the Sahel all over us, the dust & grime. I said, "Look? Ugh" "I prefer to not think of it," she said in a funny voice. Naturally, I began thinking of the provenance of every piece of grit.

A nice bit of serendipity--Tina Tarnoff, fantastic artist & author of Thought Patterns has a post on tarting up a steamer trunk. (I have had one in my bedroom since I was very little & am enthused by the possibilities. This enthusiasm may wane. We shall see.) Tina & her husband were inspired to acquire & do something with a steamer trunk after they watched The Sheltering Sky, the adaptation of the Paul Bowles novel. And so I take that title for the post or else it will just be titled Desert Grime. Or something worse.

I just realized, yes only now, that I was unpacking things-that-were-shipped from a far away land. Camels were involved. Yep.

Thanks to everyone for their comments here, on Facebook, & in email about Giulia Geranium's birthday. The cat herself remains unimpressed by me & my machinations on her behalf. She is very interested in the basket I brought home tonight, though. After all, she descends from North African desert lands....as do all domesticated felines (anywhere in the world...how weird is that?).

Thursday update: Here's an interesting post called Writing Morocco from Peony Moon blog (gorgeous photographs).

[photographs by Tim Navis (via Sebastian tumblr), Fady Habib (via Beauty in Everything) & the sea is from Noa's tumblr (inactive) all via we heart it]