Another lazy weekend in Khartoum

Gattina from Writers Cramps hosts the blog called What did you do this weekend? As she says, you never know when you might need an alibi! Take a look at the link and do join her and other "weekenders"

Our weekend was as follows: blogging, shopping, (all expats shop at the expat - read "overpriced" supermarkets on Friday mornings) resting (We had three late nights in a row, not normally for the early-to-bed-early-to-rise Hedges of Khartoum!) cooking, tidying the apartment and feeding the animals (domestic and wild). One of the late nights was when we attended a beautiful occasion in the city. More about this, in tomorrow's post. 

One of the young cats I feed in the courtyard below. She's offspring of the mother cat (below with small kittens). The cat one above is so wild, she hisses and spits at me as I place her food on the ground. She eats around the corner from the current litter

I suspect this cat is also one of mother cat's offspring. I took this photo of him on the roof above me  in poor, early morning light

The stray  (regular) mother cat with two of the kittens from the original five. I don't know what happened to the others. One day they were all there and the next day only these two appeared. I always feel so sad (and helpless) at the plight of the feral cats, but try not to get too emotionally involved

I also snapped away at the domestic critters, not least Shadow (above) who's exploring the area under the stairs in our apartment

and (below) also takes up most of my office chair when he needs to rest

On Friday evening I managed to capture a few wild bird antics. The sparrow below was asked to sing a solo at the wedding of the mourning dove at the bottom of the photo series (tongue-in-cheek captions from me)

Awww, no, not me. I'm toooo shy

Oh, do you really think so?  OK, if you insist:

AAAA -  V A Y - YY

M A A - R E E  - Y  - E E -  A A!

Hoo boy, who told that guy he can sing?

On Saturday evening, fifteen minutes before Grant and I were going to sit out on the balcony and enjoy an ice-cold mango juice.(as we normally do) a dust storm came up over from Khartoum

I dashed up onto the roof to get better photos

The storm built up very quickly creating a beautiful sky

Youths always play soccer in the street below. They saw me focussing on them and began to monkey around. BTW they didn't stop their game even when the storm reached us and we'd locked and bolted ourselves into the flat!

Two minutes later, I came downstairs and took these photos from the flat balcony. This is how the storm had worsened in that short time

And wonder upon wonder, we went out for the day on Sunday, to the desert. More about this on Wednesday

For more on What did you do this weekend, click here

The Arabic for domestic animals is al-Ḩywānāt al-Mnzlyh (a Hywunut al Menzliha)

The Arabic for wild animals is al-Ḩywānāt al-Bryh (a - Hywunut - a - Breeha)