Monday, February 1, 2010

The Extraordinary Ordinary - Gulf Trees...


'Big Bertha' in Salwa, Kuwait...


Apologies for not posting for a while... The excuses are as feeble as they are generic, and I thus blame a lack of access to proper Internet here in Oman, where I'm currently stationed, and a severe case of preoccupation with work related matters...

However, included is an additional submission of Extraordinary Ordinary, introducing this time a set of trees found mainly in Kuwait, but there are also a few examples of trees from elsewhere in the region... Most of the trees included are of the, call it, less 'manicured' type, which often can be found outside the more groomed gardens and fenced areas scattered predominantly around the city's various residential areas... These are trees which mostly have had to, at least partly, fend for themselves (this consideration includes the fake and the semi-dead trees), and can thus be counted within the paradigm of 'local' (bona-fide) authentic Gulf/ Middle-Eastern trees. Their roughness and dusty textures, jagged leaves and often stretched and strained roots become a part of their character and charm...


Dead-tired...


Bowing & Showing respect...


The Three Kings of the Trash heap...


Plastic-Fantastic...


Big Ben...

Fighting Trees...

Hitch-hiking...




Suckling cars...

3 comments:

Jewaira said...

An intriguing collection of photos and captions.

Barrak Al-Babtain said...

I think Big Ben is also fantastically plastic.

Thomas Modeen said...

Thanks Jewaira and I agree Barrak - I believe it's one of those camouflaged mobile antennas. I've taken a few pictures of these around town, some have ladders on the side and various other more 'space-age' contaptions sticking out through the gaps in their silicone foliage...