24 August · The guide
Suhail is up
We saw it just before dawn, low over the southern cliffs. Two weeks later the nights really did start to cool, just as my grandfather always said.
V · The journal
Notes from the valley.
Written by our guides, our cooks and the people of the valley, slowly, whenever there is something worth writing down.
Ritual · 4 min read
The three cups: how coffee is poured, and when to stop
On the dallah, the right hand and the shake of the cup, and why your host never fills it to the top.
Read
Craft · 5 min read
Sadu: the patterns woven into every villa
Four weavers, four patterns, and what the zigzag lines mean.
Read
Kitchen · from the dining page
A morning with the families who grow our dates
Three farms, twenty kilometres, and an agreement made before every season.
To the farmsii Field notes
Small things we saw this season.
12 October · The nursery
A hundred and twenty acacias
This autumn we planted a hundred and twenty saplings in the western wadi. They will need years to become shade, but the hares found them on the first day.
3 November · The eastern ledge
Three ibex
A female and two young, at seven in the morning, on the ledge above Jurf. They stood for two full minutes, then vanished as if they had never been there.
Letters from the valley
Twice a year, never more.
One letter in autumn and one in spring: what changed in the valley, and the best nights ahead for the stars.