The MGS Forum
Members' notice-board => Notices => Topic started by: John J on March 17, 2020, 10:24:33 AM
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This year's MGS Excursion was to Jordan. Despite the threat of the dreaded virus hanging over the world at large it was decided to go ahead and in the end 26 members met up in the first hotel in Madaba on 10th March. The first part of the trip went well and we moved on to Jerash. Unfortunately the weather began to deteriorate and travel plans had to be revised due to roads being flooded, not something one would expect in the desert! The historical site at Petra was also closed because of the danger posed by the heavy rain, but we did visit Little Petra, where the water on the rock formations possibly enhanced their beauty. The 5 star Old Village Hotel and its facilities did much to soften the disappointment. The worldwide situation had by now become so bad that Jordan decided to suspend all flights from the country and we had just 48 hours to return to Amman and arrange whatever flights out we could find. So we missed seeing Petra and our stay in the camp in Wadi Rum, but our guide Oron had found some amazing flowers for us while we had been travelling around. The historical sites that we had visited had also been well worth the journey. I have found over the years that MGS members are a resilient bunch who will take whatever is thrown at them in their stride and still be able to enjoy themselves. My thanks go out to all who were on the tour for their support and to our encyclopaedic guide, Oron Peri, for all he did to make this trip as memorable as possible.
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Sorry to hear of the problems that hindered your trip but have to agree that MGS members do seem to have a way of overcoming most situations - I remember well the situation in Turkey at the end of a wonderful visit there when many homeward flights were cancelled due to the volcanic eruption in Iceland. Look forward to some more photos - the Iris you posted today is charming.
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Helena and I were in John's Jordan tour. All told, it was a wonderful experience: many thanks to John, who had worked for months on the arrangements, dealing patiently with innumerable oddities, and staying unflappable when we faced the unexpected - and thanks too to Sally Beale, who equally deftly handled all the financial arrangements across multiple borders and tangled transfer regulations. Oron Peri took us through glorious landscapes to many unforgettable plants, like the very rare near-black Iris nigricans, I. haynei, and - for Oron, the most beautiful plant in the world - the intricately marked I. bismarckiana. The cultural sites are unforgettable, and the Jordanians couldn't be more welcoming. What a trip! The abrupt ending was a shame, but the scramble to get home actually made it even more of an adventure with some great extra memories.
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Lovely photos Alisdair and for sharing your memories of the trip - more please!
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Just to prove that we were there, Oron passing on his amazing knowledge to some members of the group.
Thanks to Demetrios for the photo.
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What Oron was telling us was that that very dark patch on the lip of the Iris bismarckiana he's holding looks to flying insects like a little warm hole for them to spend the (relatively cold) Jordan spring nights in. So they home in on it, and find that actually the interior of the flower really is a few degrees warmer than the outside world. So they crawl in and shelter there - moving around enough to fertilise the flower overnight.
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Not brilliant photos but a pretty little tulip, Tulipa aganensis.
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Thanks for sharing Alisdair and John- keep them coming 😊
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Oron found us this pretty little plant that is related to the Colchicums, it's Androcymbium palaestinum.
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We also found this nice little Adonis dentata.
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What about the fly? Is that something special?😊
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Just to prove that we were there, Oron passing on his amazing knowledge to some members of the group.
Thanks to Demetrios for the photo.
Thanks Demetris for the photo, and to all organisers. And to Oron for his all-consuming passion for bulbs, especially this one! Lilian in the photo - I'm in the brown cap, back to you, sitting on the grassy bank. Wonderful trip !
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I don't think so Carole, but I do believe that the plant is pollinated by flies as well as bees so maybe it was just doing its job. :)
To be honest when I took the photo I was wet and so cold that I didn't even notice the fly. :o
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Today's photo is of a group of Alium aschersonianum.
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I have just discovered that the photo for each letter of the alphabet in the index of the journal THE MEDITERRANEAN GARDEN, which can be found on the website, shows a photo of a flower beginning with that letter.
What an awful sentence!
Anyway for some reason I was looking in A and thought the flower looked familiar , it is of Adonis dentata , a specimen of which was posted on this thread a few days ago.
I do get excited about some things
Later I will look at all the photos for all the alphabet !
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Getting excited about things - even something small and inconsequential- is what helps to keep us going and will be increasingly important during the coming weeks/months I feel. 😊
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Calotropis procera, Apple of Sodom, unfortunately not in flower or fruit but an interesting find all the same.
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My wife climbing up a slope past Iris haynei to see what other gems Oron had found for us.
Thanks to our lovely Danish friend Ulla for the photo.
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Another of Ulla's photos. Four members of the Cyprus contingent preparing to raid a spice shop in Madaba.
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Clemetis cirrhosa a familiar sight in our Cyprus countryside, this one growing in the grounds of the Olive Branch Hotel in Jerash.
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Beautiful Clematis John - and lovely to see the photo of you and Charithea and friends- thanks for sharing and bringing back memories of other excursions 😊
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Hello and apologies for taking so long to post photos. My old computer refuses at times to open up the photos sent from my ipad to be minimized. It has taken several times before I managed these today. John has posted a photo of Calotropis procerabut forgot that I was given the pod by Oron to send to Chantal. He explained that the natives there use/used the hairy bits inside the seed pod as a wick to light an oil lamp. I rolled up a bit as demonstration. not as good as Oron's.
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Fascinating- how lucky to have Oron as your guide whose knowledge and enthusiasm, not only of plants, is so rewarding.
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Bellevalia steporrum, not a plant that stands out particularly but this one was growing in the sand in Little Petra and had managed somehow to avoid the trampling of tourists' feet.
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Plants were not the only thing we were lucky enough to get a photo of on the trip.
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A step back in time?
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What a photo!
I have put it as my screen saver for the day
Somehow I find it very upliftting
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Not our Forum but a huge colonnaded one in the Graeco-Roman ruins in Jerash.
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The last hotel we stayed in before having to abandon the trip was the 5 star Old Village Resort in Petra. This covered a very large area on a sloping site and the rooms were in small blocks scattered around, rather like the one in the first photo. Our room was in the block to the left of the second photo. The door to our room can just be seen over the wall of the courtyard, behind the wispy tree. In the third photo the boot outside our room was because my wife was cleaning them after a day of walking through wet sand and mud.
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Nice to see you following the old traditions in such an ancient place - you following your interests and wife doing the dirty work🤣👍
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I'm hurt, Carole, they were her boots not mine. :'(
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View from Mt Nebo, where it is claimed that Moses looked down upon the Holy Land, and the memorial that commemorates this fact.
At that time Moses was forbidden to enter the Holy Land. Two days before I took the photos a couple who were due to join our party were denied access from the opposite direction. I realise that they were for entirely different reasons but it still struck me as proving how little life can change in small ways even over thousands of years.
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The Dead Sea with a group of bathers, or should that be floaters? Photo taken from the comfort of a chair outside the restaurant while enjoying an ice-cream in the sun.