Everything about pomegranate...

If figs and grapes are associated in Azerbaijan with its Absheron peninsular with tomatoes particularly with its village of Zira, saffron with village of Mashtaga, apples with another region of Azerbaijan Guba, nuts with Gabala, lemon with Lenkoran, white cucumber and white cornelian cherry with Sheki, potatoes with Gedebey, then when we see pomegranates we want them to come from Goychay. Since Goychay pomegranates with rich in colour and taste seeds are simply the best :).

Pomegranate season is taking off in Azerbaijan at the moment and all the markets are full of sweet and sour sorts of this fruit. Just like recognizing the most delicious melon or watermelon considers to be a task and challenge everyone here tries to master knowing which pomegranate to choose from all the ones which are offered (and said to be coming from Goychay :) in the bazaar is equally important. Good pomegranate would show in its skin...it would be ready to be cut...Grandparents and parents carry kilos of pomegranate to their loved ones. In addition to being served as fruit pomegranate is used in preparation and design of many dishes such as cabbage dolma, fish, gutab and many others. Pomegranate juice is good for renewing of blood (as we say here), immune system etc etc. People with diarrhea would boil pomegranate skin and drink the water...and get well of course.

In addition to all above pomegranate bears a philosophical meaning as well (this is East and everything has a philosophical background and meaning to it :). If I am not mistaken pomegranate is a fruit of wisdom. Fresco miniatures on walls of Sheki Khan Palace have pomegranate in many scenes. I couldn't find in my archive better photo than below one where you can see pomegranate tree painted on the wall of one of the rooms. You would need to visit the Palace to hear from museum hostess what meaning was given to pomegranate by our ancestors...

Please take a second and see my earlier posts here and here on pomegranate with pictures of trees in blossom...

Enjoy the season :)

Sheki Khan Palace with tales to tell...

Generous nature...

40,000 and even more visitors...

Looking back now to 2007 and trying to recall what I did during last three years in addition to making a career and having if any :) personal input to daily life of Universe :) (and if I don't mention family life) then writing this blog is one of the best things that I have been doing...

Sometimes though I am thinking to myself if this is really important, necessary, useful...writing about Sheki, writing about Azerbaijan, educating, informing, promoting, marketing, presenting Azerbaijan. So what that some people would at last hear or would know better about our "land of fire". Does this change anything? Does this make anything better? Anything better for and in Azerbaijan?

Classic and traditional Azeri person/family wouldn't praise himself/itself...he/it would wait for others to do so...I guess this applies to the whole country as well..there is a saying in Russian "скромность украшает человека" what translates as "modesty speaks highly of a person..."But isn't modern world all about presentation skills and information? Don't we study how to "sell" ourselves? How do I explain to a teenager from Sheki that she should speak louder and clearer and not blush as there are not many mature people that would recognize and care to notice capabilities hidden within...that if she can't articulate herself someone might/would do that for her and that presentation can be quite far from reality...somehow I can say the same about Azerbaijan...

Thus although maybe not much can change for/in Azerbaijan by information that I try putting on internet I hope to achieve even though partially at least one goal...that is that information would be accurate...who would do it better than local :) (word used to identify Azeris living in Azerbaijan comparing to foreigners that are temporarily in the country (the same word must be used in other places too :))

Today with this post I am thanking my all 40,000 (and even more by now) visitors who cared to visit, read and even comment on the posts. Are 40,000 many? Well if I compare to 6 billion :) but then I am writing in English...and also if I look around and see ten people and each and every is a unique individual...so I think 40,000 and more is good! :)

Thank you and see you! :)

this picture of another special place of Azerbaijan called Khinalig could be more convincing than words :) Courtesy of Asim Talib.

Summer will have to say good bye...

Septembers and very often Octobers are still quite warm in Azerbaijan...especially in Baku... Surrounded by mountains thats not always the case for Sheki but still many days are sunny and warm...But starting mid September there are more and more days with rain and wind and inevitably summer is replaced by autumn...by mild autumn though...by "velvet" season as we call it that is very pleasant after humid and hot summer..."velvet" season is when you still wear light cloths but you better have scarf with you in case weather decides to change its mind...we don't know how long this would last and every sunny day is accepted with joy and gratitude...

Today I want to share with you the photo I took on our boulevard...this sailing boat looked as cozy to me as cashmere weather of velvet season...it kind of conveys my today's mood of already anticipating relaxing weekend with hopefully good weather...

Be well...