Compound living is not all it’s cracked up to be! While secure (guards 24/7, thick brick walls that tower over the perimeter) it is rather isolating. You can hear life all around you, kids playing in the compound next door, dogs barking, cars rolling past, but you never see these things. I did not  realize how visually starved I was until I went to check out a nursery.

The first part of my tour was through a new development just outside the city called Amiri City. It’s a high end residential development. The first phase is open to the public, though in a guarded, security conscious sort of way. I was there a few weeks back to have  coffee at the restaurant there. The treat for me was being able to tour Phase II.

Amiri Coffee House and Garden

I started to say “image if you will”, but I realize that you cannot begin to understand the quiet toll that visual deprivation takes on a person. Though I am living in a “nice” compound (running water, electricity, Internet etc.) it isn’t refined. Bare electrical wires hang from the ceiling where a fan might one day be placed, they stick out of walls where sconces once were and hide behind tin plates that some previous tenant placed over them. The walls are painted with a chalk-like substance that rubs off if you brush your shoulder against it. The floor, a lovely mosaic, though clean, is unpolished. The point I’m trying hopelessly to make is that there is not an oasis for ones eyes. (…not yet)

Flowers

Though I’ve described my state of mind, I am again at a loss for words to adequately describe the feeling that flooded me as we turned the corner and stopped at the park in Phase II. It was something close to the feeling that that one has after a particularly good massage.

For the first time in weeks my eyes were quiet. They rested on the newly cut grass, the roses and swing set waiting for children to play.

We walked through the park to a what looked like a low lying building with a domed roof. As we rounded the corner I saw that the building was not low-lying, but actually built into the earth. The landscape manager explained that they were bringing back the old building styles, just with a updated look. They nailed it! I can’t wait until Phase II is complete and the coffee shop is open!

Partially open greenhouse.

From the park we went on to the nursery. It was incredible to see so much soft beauty in one place! They guys were clearly amused with my delight at the simplest things and showed me through each greenhouse (the best part of which was exiting as I was still wearing my head wrap).

They grow their own plants for their gardens as well as sell them. They even have a little shop where you can purchase seeds that they have harvested. It’s incredible! Bag after bag of seeds from trees to flowers.  They have even let a portion of their vegetable garden go to seed…just to harvest for next year.

Amiri Nursery has more than 30 colors of Pansies!

To say I was like a kid in a candy shop would be a gross under-exaggeration! But I loved every minute of the tour which ended up at their reservoir…full of ducklings. Talk about the perfect ending to a perfect tour. For me it really was an oasis!

Ducklings...perfect end to a beautiful day!