A breath of fresh air

Finally, finally, last weekend this happy guy and I got to take a little vacation from our industrial city,

trading exhaust fumes for fresh mountain air, and the endless noise of humanity for a silence broken only by bugs, birds, and wind.

We stayed in a hotel which lay between dry, desert-y Marrakech,

 and the refreshing foothills of Oukaimden, one of the few mountains in Morocco with year-round snow.

The hotel had a huge rooftop terrace which allowed for endless phototaking opportunities...

including old-fashioned selfies (read: timer function on my DSLR),

and silly ones.

The hotel also boasted a nice pool,

and even a peacock wandering the grounds which made me feel a bit like a nature photographer! 

As Othman napped one afternoon I sat on the balcony with my telephoto lens and snapped about a hundred photos of this bird. It wasn't particularly cooperative.

As is evident from some of the above pictures, it rained quite a bit while we were there. But that meant I got to see this:

Plus the thinning clouds made for a breathtaking sunset,

and the view the next morning from our room window was crystal clear.

Breakfast outside the next morning was lovely as well.

The weekend was full of time to appreciate the little moments, the forgotten corners, the silent details.

And it was just what we needed.