no, not 'Them”, but the storks have arrived. I saw the first this morning circling over Tyre, looking kind of lost, flying erratically, circling and searching for a place to land due to the wind and dust in the air. Difficult to find a place to land in this highly urbanized landscape. It were two big flocks, separate but close to each other that came up the coast from the south. The are earlier this year, four weeks ahead of from when I saw them last year. Maybe they have been misguided by the unusual weather patterns, sensing and believing that spring is around the corner to the north, hence deciding to leave their places in Africa. Who knows, along with many humans, they may have also decided to flee chaos and mayhem that is reigning in many places on the African continent, places like South Sudan, Central Africa and the Congo and the western coasts and savannahs of the continent. If they left early to fly to Europe to find safer pastures there, they should be careful, as right now the outlook does not seem to be good. They better avoid the lands of Ukraine and surroundings as chaos and mayhem is reigning there as well. The political weather forecast seems to be storm, dark thunderhead clouds on the horizon, but no long term weather forecast is still possible. Anyway, wherever they go, or rather fly, I wish them a safe journey and best of luck!!

'Storks over Tyre'

The weather-forecast for the 'coasts' here says rain/storm for the next week. I hope it is correct, as plenty precipitation is needed urgently. This winter we have so far only received about half of the normal rain fall. Newspapers are already writing about the looming water crisis if no significant further rains are received during the spring. The water crisis will be added to the 'electric crisis', the 'political crisis', the 'Syrian crisis' and whatever else could come up. Resilient as people are here, they manage somehow and anyway hope is still always there that somehow, something, someway will be able to be fixed or the abyss averted.

"Rodent life on "Rue Hamra"

Being back at work is hard after a nice break away from it. Going to Beirut tomorrow, it has been a while. Let's see what, if anything, has changed in Hamra. Wonder if the rat is still living there. Wildlife of Rue Hamra. Locking for more photos for my project of 'Rue Hamra' and of course having my coffee and croissant in the usual coffee shop on the corner, letting life pass by, watching from the shade. Ever so often a good photo opportunity just comes along. Sometimes it can be used, sometimes it can not. But then I think that every missed photo opportunity makes me more aware and let's me look out for other ones. Like life, it's often about the missed opportunities. Bye.