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With the weather really starting to heat up, and facing the prospect of yet another weekend at home in Beirut, we decided to go exploring in the Chouf district. This mountainous area south-east of Beirut is the heartland of the Druze and is one of the less spoiled parts of Lebanon.

Key highlights are the fabulous 18th century Beiteddine palace, the Jumblatt ancestral home, and one of Lebanon’s two remaining cedar forests (the other, more famous forest is in the hills above Bcharre, see here).

We had a lovely time driving around the mountains, never getting lost thanks to Alex’s new GPS (which he got for his birthday the other day).

But the highlight was the cedar reserve. It was just lovely to be the only people sitting under the cedars, enjoying the cool breeze blowing up the valley and with a soft bed of pine needles underfoot. There was nobody else about and we had this magical place to ourselves. Mitchell loved being able to roam, although he did have a particular interest with throwing rocks off the edge of the platform. Sheridan really enjoyed getting out and stretching her legs too. Alex just found the fresh air to be so invigorating after day upon day of air conditioning in smoggy Beirut.

Of course, there is always the sad knowledge that Lebanon’s mountains used to be covered with these magnificent old trees, some of which would have been alive when Jesus and his friends wandered through the area.

For more info about the Chouf Cedar Reserve, check out this website.

This morning we were sitting at the dining table having a late breakfast of pancakes, pieces of plums, nectarines and grapes, and the odd dollop of maple syrup.  It was very yummy, so many thanks to mummy for making it.

Towards the end of the meal Mitchell asked for a sip of daddy’s water.  “Have water?” he asked.

“What’s the magic word?” was our immediate reply.

With a dramatic flourish Mitchell replied “Da na!”

Not sure that’s the word we had in mind, but I guess it does evoke images of conjuring something by magic!

Okay, so daddy stuffed up a little.

Whenever Mitchell goes to the loo he likes to flush the toilet himself. After doing a number two he looked into the bowl and then asked daddy “what’s that?”.

Without thinking daddy said “son, that’s a skidmark”.

So now whenever we’re helping Mitchie to do a poo on the loo he tells us that he’s making a skidmark. And after he’s done a poo he’ll tell everyone around that he made a skidmark.

Good one daddy.

Mitchell’s French has been getting better through day care (where half his teachers speak French to him) and everyday discourse with Elie our driver (who speaks bugger all English). Yesterday he greeted Elie with a polite “comment ca va?”.

We’ve also been noticing that Mitchell slips in the odd Arabic word, which is a particularly Lebanese approach to communication - why use one language when three will do?

His favourite, which he only seems to use when things are getting heated (also a Lebanese trait) is to state “la!” (”no”) emphatically when he wants to make clear that he doesn’t want something.

He’s also taken to shouting out “yalla cars!” when we’re stuck in traffic jams.

Ahh, there are certainly moments when it’s lovely living in (or at least coming from) a monarchy.

Today we’ve got the day off for the Queen’s Birthday. We have a whole day free to do as we wish, while everyone else in Lebanon has to go about their normal business day.  Bliss!

We’ve packed Mitchell off to school for the day and mummy and daddy are going to have some quiet time! Yay! What, that’s not fair you say?  Like hell.  Mitchell loves it at school where he gets to paint, draw, run around, sing songs, play with his friends and be a little sociable rabbit.  Much more fun than boring old home where there’s nothing to do and no-one to play with other than his dull parents and of course Fina.

So anyway, now we’ve got the day free, I guess we better work out what to do with ourselves!