Generalife

The Palace of the Alhambra (from Arabic, “the red”) is situated on a hill, Al-Andalus, at the south-east border of the city of Granada, Spain. Built originally during the Nasrid dynasty of the rule of the Muslims in Spain, the palace was a fortress for the Moorish rulers. Today, the complex is comprised of three connected palaces, one of which is a Renaissance palace built by Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire.

Outside the palaces, but still inside the fortresses walls, lies the Palacio de Generalife, or the Architect’s Garden: the summer palace of the Nasrid sultans. They were built by Muhammad III (1302-1309) and recdecorated soon after by Abu I-Walid Isma’il (131301324). The gardens are extensive, but the palace complex itself consists of the Patio de la Acequia (Court of the Water Channel), which is said to best preserve the style of Andalusian medieval gardens…

and the Jardín de la Sultana (Garden of the Sultana, or the Courtyard of the Cypress).

The Cypress there is not in good health, and the plaque on the wall reads something about a caballero (gentleman) and the Sultana, which I can only imagine made the gentleman not so much of a gentleman.

The garden palace was originally linked to the Alhambra via a walkway, over the ravine that separates them today.

View of the Palaces from Generalife

Generalife is one of the oldest surviving Moorish gardens. The walkways are paved in Granadian style, with a mosaic of white and black pebbles: the white from the River Darro, the black from the River Genil.

La escalera del agua, or the water stairs. The ideal show of wealth of a desert people; water running down the banisters.

Unsurpassed Moorish plaster and/or marble carving.

Flora and fauna.

I’m linking to the Spain slideshow on Flickr, in case you wanted to see more pictures from Spain (and all the pictures from Generalife), which I will blog about soon.

paraphrased from wikipedia

Rainy Morning

Good morning Baltimore. It’s 66 degrees Farenheight this morning, and looks a bit like this:

I didn’t go running this morning. I would have, if it had not been raining when I got up, but it was, and it’s been coming down on and off since I was up at 7:30. I was also going to drive up to Selinsgrove, PA to visit Susquehanna University today, until I discovered last night that my interview and tour are actually scheduled for Wednesday. >.< Not what I planned on.

So instead, I’m armed with cats and Robots,
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Windows Vista and my notebook (which needs a name…)

and

It’s nice to have some downtime. I’m also working on (sewing) a messenger bag for my notebook, but we aren’t on speaking terms right now, and I’ve left it downstairs in the dark under the sewing machine. My sewing skills are crapz.

So instead, I’m going to pet my cat, read my book, and knit. It should be a good lazy day.

In knitting news, I have been working on the Mystery Stole

and a pair of “Red Herring” socks in blue

as well as just starting Coupling by Deb Barnhill.

I have finished my Saucy socks for Judy, but didn’t take pictures of them before I gave them to her, so eager was I to get them moving on. I’ll get a picture sometime. Maybe.

computer!

I’m posting from my laptop.  It’s very sexy.  Someday I’ll use a camera again (>.<).

Until then, picture me with a sexy notebook.

I have no knitting to post

Because I have no camera to post it with. I’m working on the Mystery Stole (started clue 3, I’m way behind), also my Pomatomus for my sister’s birthday, Red Herring for me, maybe, in blue merino and brown camel and alpaca (from Spain!), also still Judy’s Saucy socks (I’m having trouble focusing on these), and also a Log Cabin type blanket made of sock yarn scraps. It’s really cute, and people don’t believe me when I say it’s a blanket (being about 4″x4″).

Distract!

I laughed out loud for realz at that one.