.
Diamond encrusted
grass tips, fallen leaves glisten
day melts the moment
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by Scooj
Author: scooj
I am Stephen. I live in Bristol, UK. I decided to shorten my profile...to this: Wildlife, haiku, travel, streetart, psychogeography and my family. Not necessarily in that order.
Thursday doors – 20 November 2025 – Marrakesh doors – Excursion to Sti Fadma in the Ourika River valley, High Atlas.
Doors 333 – Doors and views of Sti Fadma in the High Atlas Mountains, Marrakesh, Morocco, January 2025 (Part XIII)
We managed to escape from the busy bustle of Marrakesh on a day excursion south to the High Atlas mountains. Our driver, who was half Arab and half Berber, explained to us that we would be heading into the mountains which is mostly populated by Berbers, often called Imazighen (“free people”).
The drive only took a couple of hours, transporting us to a stunning high valley along the course of the Ourika River Valley. Here we stopped to take a hike up into the mountains to reach the lowest of several waterfalls cascading down into the valley below. The small town of Sti Fadma, with its restaurants lining the river banks, was the starting point for the walk and to which we returned for a well-earned lunch.
Because we were visiting Morocco during the low season, the mountains weren’t all that busy and there was no traffic on our journey. Our driver said that from March onwards, the temperatures in Marrakesh become unbearable, and people flood out of the city and head to the mountains, which are a bit of a honey-pot and attract enormous crowds of people seeking a cooler climate. I’m glad that we chose a quieter time, and for us Brits, anything over 24 degrees is considered warm/hot, so there were no complaints from us at all.
Not so many doors this week, but some lovely views of the mountains and Berber settlements. I hope you enjoy them.
This is probably one of the least doorsy Thursday Doors posts that I have uploaded ever, but I hope you enjoyed it nonetheless. Next time, we visit a garden on our way back to Marrakesh from the mountains. Until then, have a great weekend.
If you have made it this far, you probably like doors, and you really ought to take a look at the No Facilities blog by Dan Anton who has taken over the hosting of Thursday Doors from Norm 2.0 blog. Links to more doorscursions can be found in the comments section of Dan Anton’s weekly Thursday Doors post.
7293. Cumberland Basin
As you might expect, there was a great turnout from the great and good of the established graffiti writing/street community for Dibz’ 50th birthday celebration paint jam, including an appearance from the brilliant Soker.
It took me a while to establish that this wonderful piece was indeed by Soker, as it is unsigned, and the letters, of course, spell Dibz. There are one or two small giveaways that it is Soker’s work; The high-quality finish, The black star in the ‘D’; the small accent rectangles at the top left and top right; and the green drips around the piece. I was thrown off the scent slightly by the white accent lines that create a sense of round letters, because that is not something I associate too much with Soker. Classy work.
7292. Horfield skate park (16)
What a pleasure to find this tidy three-quarter profile of a trademark orangutan by Kool Hand at Horfield skate park. The piece was painted alongside a wonderful pair of cats by Daz Cat. A quick look at an updated gallery of his work gives an insight into his progress over the years.
The green-faced character has particularly large teeth, and looks a little more ferocious than some of his renditions of the ape. Two things stand out for me in this piece; the confident solid fills and lines all neat and tidy, and the slight angle of the portrait, moving away from the straight on face, which is where it all started.
Colder
.
Chilly sleet showers
warn us of winter to come
dreaming of summer
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by Scooj
7291. M32 spot (208)
Ahh, a wonderful triptych of writing either side of a central character by messrs Ryder, Jest Soubriquet (LWT) and Neddy Ned Ned, respectively, in one of my favourite Bristol spots.
The writing on the left is by the wonderful Ryder, who doesn’t paint as much as he used to, but still manages to take a break from family responsibilities once in a while. Classic, tidy writing from him.
The portrait piece in the middle by Jest Soubriquet, who goes by the name Likeswantu, is a perfect foil for the two pieces of greyscale writing either side. The portrait may not be his best, but it works so well in this situation, and the eyes with drops are really effective.
To the right, the letters WISKA reflect the colours of Ryder’s writing. Neddy Ned Ned is one of those artists who doesn’t seem to paint all that often, but who has a strong presence on the city. The letters are well presented and the 3D drop shadow looking cool in purple and white. The whole triptych is painted on a swirling cosmic background with a touch of green. A fine collaboration.
7290. Cumberland Basin
I haven’t seen too many pieces by Andy Council this year, so this birthday piece for Dibz, which doubled up as a Halloween piece, was very welcome indeed. Andy Council painted this alongside the fine geometric piece by Acer One that I posted yesterday.
Andy Council’s style is to create his (usually) beasts by ‘stitching’ together component parts to make a coherent whole. Here he has created an awesome raven with some lovely colour touches in the red eye and iridescent greens on the feathers. A lovely piece to add to his menagerie.
7289. Dean Lane skate park (884)
Haha! I love this three character piece by Mr Crawls. A simple, and rather curious design of characters that conveys emotions and humour in equal measure. As you might expect, the threesome are painted onto a chrome background, one of the signatures of Mr Crawls and his painting pal Mote.
The characters have plenty about them, even though they are composed mainly of eyes and shoulders. The middle one has a rather expressive mouth, and the shading in the eyes of the green ones gives the impression that they are looking inwards. I rather like these abstract beings that Mr Crawls has developed, and I think he likes them too.
7288. Cumberland Basin
I haven’t seen too much of Acer One this year, I guess he is probably busy with his commercial work, so it was so great to see this gorgeous geometric piece alongside Andy Council for Dibz’ 50th birthday celebration paint jam.
The sophisticated stellar piece features the sun, moon and a star all interwoven with great precision. The background is a wonderful cosmic scene, most fitting for this piece. I feel I haven’t had my quota of Acer One’s work this year, so will be keeping my eyes peeled for more.
7287. Moon Street (109)
Moon Street used to be one of my favourite spots, but the amount of development in the area has reduced turnover of street art and I don’t visit it all that often these days. On my last trip, walking to work, which in itself is a rarity as I mostly work from home, I spotted this strikingly different piece of artwork.
I don’t know who the artist is, but found the letters VP, so that is what I am going with. The rather creepy piece is composed of a portrait of a woman with pink hair and psychedelic eyes surrounded by multi-eyed ghosts. I wonder if it had been painted for Halloween, but don’t really have any way of dating it.
The artwork is something a little different and painted with brushes rather than cans. I have to say that I really like this, and would love to see more from the artist, but I get the sense it is probably a one-off.
Natural adventures 