into the mountains

Entirely according to tradition, we go into the mountains on the last workshop day.

Before we cross the Ourika river, we first pay a visit to the Saffron Valley. Which, as we know before we arrive, is only blooming in the fall.

It does not make the visit less special, because the vegetable- and herb gardens are gorgeous, with a breathtaking view of the mountains.

We pick some nice 'green memories' for our herbarium, drink home-made lemonade and get in our minibus for the last few miles.

On arrival at our final destination, we have a delicious lunch, overlooking the red valley of Kasbah Bab Ourika.

The rest of the tropical day, we spend in and around the pool and everyone is loving it. Plenty to enjoy at this magical place!

Ps: Ank's 5 months old puppy Flip has accompanied us on all workshop days (cool crochet and green garden!). He is the coolest, easiest, funniest and sweetest dog. Flip has seen more in his young puppy life than many other dogs throughout their whole life.

nature & art

On the last trip to the Atlas Mountains we visited the Anima art garden in the morning.

It's one of the most beautiful and imaginative gardens in our program, created by artist André Heller from Vienna.
The small mirror greenhouse, surrounded by african nature is my favorite 'piece of art', well one of the favorites. I also love the holes in the roof, where plants grow through. Awesome!

In this colorful, surprising garden, I could not help frequent shooting (because of the stunning light and actually all corners in this colorful garden are heavenly and so photogenic), so I don't want to give away too much for those who will join our Green Gardens workshop in October.

By the way, it was bloody hot that day, temperature went up to 40 degrees. Fortunately, there is a lovely swimming pool at our final destination in the mountains. I like it, just keep drinking and stay in the shade.

So we gathered in the cafe. Funny detail, in the tastefully decorated outdoor cafe, they serve Moroccan tea with Viennese Manner biscuits.

Fully inspired we went on to the next highlight, the safran valley. More about this in the next blog post.

PS: thanks Saskia, for taking the 'rock that wall' pic...

greener by the day

The light in the medina at the end of the day is so enchanting.

Therefore we returned late in the afternoon, a few hours after our veggie cooking workshop and lunch, to the medina to visit a secret garden and we stayed until sunset. In this fairytale garden, another beautiful pomegranate tree. (For those who participate in the Green Gardens workshop in October; it's the pomegranate season!)

On our way we encountered a public water tap, entirely in 'green style'.

At the end of this particularly beautiful day, a drink and light dinner at the by far GREENEST urban jungle restaurant Le Jardin.

herbs, spices & veggies

Another Green Garden day in the Medina, to shop & cook our own lunch.

With our 'Arabic' grocery list and big baskets we went out shopping in the souk in the morning.
First towards Place des Epices to buy herbs and spices and then straight to the local market, to buy vegetables and fruits.

Heavily packed we returned home to Chambres d'Amis, to get started with the cooking class, under the guidance of Malika and Rachida, kitchen princesses of the house.

Cutting a lot of vegetables and preparing refined seasoning blends and dressings, under the banana trees of the courtyard.
We made various vegetable salads, a vegetable couscous tajine and a delicious fruit salad. Those scents, hmmmm...

While the food was slowly simmering, we were dismissed for a siesta.

At the 'a table' call, we all came to the roof terrace to taste our home-made lunch in the shade.
During the first bites, the afternoon prayer sounded in the background...

Simplement magnifique!

blooming & botanical

The second day of our botanical discoveries we headed outside the city walls of the medina.

Early morning visit to Jardin Majorelle is obviously included in the program. In our private 'greenhouse', we worked on our herbarium while enjoying coffee, tea & kaab el ghazal, delicious Moroccan pastries.

Via a gigantic colorful botanical garden out of town, we continued the green trip with our minibus, up for lunch in an ancient olive grove.

After a blissful lunch, time for a relaxing afternoon in and around the pool and a some of us made another stroll through the beautiful gardens.

At the end of the day we enter the city walls of Marrakech with a botanical afterglow.