The cleaner at the royal palace # 7/2012

Another shot taken in Muscat at the white marble colonnade in the ceremonial palace.

Musandam Blues # 6/2012

I am not making many postings at the moment (good reasons, so nothing to worry about) but nevertheless I have, during this "quiet time", picked up yet another watcher. Amazing!).


Here, again is a photo from Oman, not Richmond. Sorry.  It's not tweaked. (Well only a tiny bit).  This is more or less exactly as I saw it and how the camera captured it. Wonderful.


Musandam is the rocky, mountainous, area at the very northern tip of Oman which, though tiny, resembles "Norway in the sunshine", by virtue of the deep sea fiords that cut into the steeply rising mountains. Musandam forms one side of the Straights of Hormuz and Iran is only 30 miles (a 45 minute trip in a smuggler's speed boat) away across the water.


The straights are the main waterway for the giant tankers exiting from the Gulf oil fields and are the prowling ground for powerful warships of opposing navies of nervous antagonistic world powers.


For tourists, Musandam is a place to see the remnants of very ancient lost civilisations where early man lived his primitive life in a totally different and somewhat damp climate!  Today it is a dry desert. It is also a place to see Dolphins, dive to see wonderful fish, and to meet pleasant, amusing Omanis, full of fun and courtesy: a place where the men rub noses when they meet. For Westerners this is an hilarious thing to see!!


This photo catches the dawn as it rises out of the East and climbs above the rocky peaks of the Musandam mountains that are so typical of Oman.

The whole model # 5/2012

Some of you expressed admiration - rightly so. Here is a snap of the whole model.

The model maker - the Omani sailing dhow # 4/2012

The legendary sailor, Sindhbad, was an reputedly an Omani, who voyaged far and wide to exotic places and had astounding adventures.


The legendary voyages of the real sailors of Oman were no less exotic, and the traditional dhows are still built. The only difference is a diesel engine inside a fine, seaworthy, traditionally styled wooden hull.


The dhow yard at Sur still builds these beautiful ships.  They also make wonderful models worth thousands of pounds. Here's a snap showing a builder completing a magnificent model; no doubt being built to order.

Another hummingbird # 3/2012

This time another tiny little hummingbird of a different colour. They flit and twitter through the leaves, so small and hard to spot.

The desert sands

International air travel gives more and more the opportunity to see these scenes for themselves, and magazines frequently show such pictures. Nevertheless I longed to capture such a photo for myself. Here is one, taken in the sandy desert area of Oman known as Wahaiba sands.

The Hummingbird # 1/2012

"It's been a long time" as the Frenchman says in the old Cointreau advert.

I've been away in Oman (again, as last year) and brought this back.  There were hummingbirds in the garden and I had to be smart and get the timing right. They (there was this one and an irrridescent blue one) appeared at around 09.30 in the morning. The snap succeded.  It was worth waiting and watching.