While I may not celebrate the typical things most people do, I do anticipate and exalt the coming of winter. The highest recorded summer temperature on the Arabian Peninsula reached 53.9°C (129°F) in 2016. The highest “feels like” temperature hit 178°F (81.1°C). Seriously.
One August day, I was in Dubai helping a friend assess if one of her geocaches had gone missing. While waiting for an empty street to both search for and eventually replace it, we were outside for 45 minutes on what we would soon learn was the hottest temperature recorded on the entire planet that day. A mild headache started after only 20 minutes outside, and as I walked back to my car, I could feel my brain pressing against the inside of my skull. Opening the car door released a torrent of miserable molten air. I stood outside to allow the temperatures to equalize. As I slipped into the driver’s seat, I caught sight of my face in the rearview mirror and froze. My face was the most stunning shade of lavender I’d ever seen. I sat there admiring this beautiful color, wishing my phone hadn’t overheated and shut down so I could capture it, because how could one do justice to it with only words!? The growing headache eventually snapped me back to reason, and it occurred to me that no human should be purple, and this might be really bad if I didn’t do something about it. With no working phone, I started driving and stumbled upon a drive-thru coffee shop 2 blocks away. I ordered 2 gigantic frozen coffees and pulled over, immediately pressing them against my face until they had both liquefied and my face resumed a normal color.
I would run after 11 pm, but living 2 blocks from the Arabian Sea, the heat evaporated seawater, making the humidity brutal all night long. (photo taken at 11:08 pm)
So the coming of winter is a longed-for gift. One of the signals that the weather is set to change is a series of sandstorms that sometimes come a few days apart. Each storm brings a flip in the temperatures. Hot to warm, back to hot, and back to warm. This can happen 6 or 7 times before the last flip finally brings cooler days like a fever breaking over the whole city. And then come the migrating Eurasian hoopoes, my favorite bird.
The Hudhud الهدهد (hoopoe bird) appears in Egyptian hieroglyphics, quilts by the Egyptian Tentmakers, the Greek play “The Bird” by Aristophanes, twice in the Old Testament, and the Qur’an. It is named for its signature sound, “oop-oop-oop”. It is associated with good luck, wisdom, and change. They live about 10 years in the wild.
If you ever find yourself in Dubai in cooler months, look for them on sandy patches just down the grassy hill from The Frame in Zabeel Park. I once saw 16 of them at one time, plunging their beaks into the sand to pluck out bugs hiding below the surface. They can also be found spreading their wings out along the ground, sunbathing. Before you think about trying to hold one, know that they can shoot accurate streams of liquid feces when they feel threatened. Maybe appreciate these beautiful birds from a distance.
The arrival of the hoopoe means we can finally exhale and go back outside.
The flowers are frangipanis, and while we do have them in abundance here, they are usually the white variety. I asked my daughter to send a bunch of photos of the pink ones where she lives in Hawai’i as a contribution to the quilt.
What is your favorite bird?
Quilt Name: “The HudHud”
Size: 32.75″ x 43.25″
Materials: batiks and commercial cotton, fusible web
You’re quilt is beautiful Christie.
I too love to see the Hudhud in winter. My neighbour has a pink frangipani, a lovely unusual burst of colour.
We had a taste of the extreme heat in the Liwa desert just a few weeks agao when the temperature shot up.
It was so dry I felt the moisture from my eyeballs being air dried!!
It’s a beautiful piece featuring the hoopoe!
Please take good care of yourself. The weather there seems quite harsh.
The hoopoe is seldom seen in Korea.
I also have a deep love for birds, and among them, I’m particularly fond of the white crane. In Korea, the crane symbolizes longevity, nobility, sacredness, peace, and freedom. It frequently appears in landscape paintings, folk art, crafts, and traditional garments, representing long life, the spirit of the scholar, and the realm of immortals.
Oh, I am familiar with the crane! While we didn’t have them growing up in Florida, we did have the Great White Herons, which are somewhat similar.
Yay! You got yours done. I’m going to squeak under the wire I think. I loved learning about the Hudbud. And I appreciate your longing for winter, just as I long for spring!
I did manage just before sunrise. I was hoping to see yours squeak in before the bell and ma happy to see that it did!
I love your quilt, your bird, and your writing! Such a gift. I’m torn on my favorite birds. There are so many amazingly ridiculous chickens and they give me eggs, so they’re practical. The cardinal (male) because they always appear as a message from my now deceased mom. But my favorite beautiful bird is the peacock for the vivid colors and showiness and screams! Thanks for sharing your gifts with us!
It is okay if your favorite changes weekly. 🙂 There are just SO many exquisite species out there. Have you see the Lilac-breasted Roller (Coracias caudatus) from Kenya? Have you seen the white peacocks?
This is beautiful. Not sure it is my favorite, but I saw my first Albatross up close while in New Zealand a few weeks ago. The way it glides and hangs in the air is amazing.
I really loved the albatross before I met the hoopoe. Their faces are practically airbrushed and architectural.
Great use of color and texture in a painterly style reminiscent of James Audubon’s work in “Birds of America”. Excellent work.
I got lucky with the texture quite by fault of my impatience. I intended to master McTavishing FMQ in the week before I started on this but ran out of time. I kept second guessing myself and changing the quilting everytime I got bored doing one thing. It ended up being okay at the end. A family member used to always get the Audobon desk calendar every year!
The quilt is wonderful. The temperatures are crazy. I think I found my favorite bird this morning on CSB Sunday Morning – the Roseate Spoonbill. I love pink a white and that is the color of this bird plus I really like spoonbills.
Pink birds are wonderful too. I’m partial to flamingoes. I need to look up where roseate spoonbills are native.