Wild, Wild West(ern Arabia)

Living here in our Sultanate's quaint little capital, nestled on its narrow plain between the hills and the sea, it can be easy to forget that there is a whole other world on the far side of those hills, in the country's interior.

Over the holidays, we took Miss Rheba for a long drive - what the Grandparents Muscato used to call a Sunday Motor Trip, although theirs were to exotic destinations like Ashtabula or Titusville, rather than, say, the medieval fortress that served as the Residence of the Imam. One bonus of the recent rains was that, unusually for this part of the world, there were clouds, which meant much more interesting light and shade than we often see.

This study of a very Southwest-seeming tableau was snapped from the top of that fortress, a charming attraction, if one that would benefit greatly from escalators.