corner view - white

it's all colors, everything and everywhere. it's the icing on the cake, the salt in the soup, and the stars that shine so bright, when the light is gone. it's the wedding dress i never had, the pearl earrings that took me by surprise, and the moonlight reflecting in the deep, dark water. it's the egg so full of life, the scar on my stomach, the milk i gave my children, and the bones under our flesh. it's the snow that covers the roof, the frost crystals i once had on my window, and the house where i grew up. it's the wild water, the breaking wave, the mountain top, the puffy clouds on a blue, blue summer sky, and the birch trees i miss so much. it's the flag that ends the war and the dove that brings the peace. it's the crisp clean cotton where my head will rest tonight, the fog that floats as the sun sets, the morning dew, and the warm milk in my morning coffee.

it's purity with potential and so much more. it's the surface that has yet to be filled, the piece of paper yet to be written on, and the painting, photography and drawing still to be created.

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and then of course it's pretty white things, and natsumi's pick for corner view this week. for the links to more white corner views, visit jane at spain daily.

what i brought home

i brought home a few things (ask D and he'll say a lot of things) from denmark. i always do. the cute little antler i found on a flea market. same goes for those four, tall, dark green candle light holders on the white shelf. it was on this beautiful summer morning bike ride through copenhagen, just me on my own. and i found all of these at the same place, this cute old couple selling out from their summerhouse decor. there were treasures among those things.

then there's the two potholders. my grandma used to do these all the time, and my mom has a lot. she's really not good at throwing things out, which can sometimes drive me crazy (even though it's really not my business, i know). but it allows me to dig out little treasures like these from her "stash of things". thank you, mom. she's also the woman behind that biology poster on the inside of a chicken and how an egg is made. i know it's kind of bizarre, but when i found it in my parents shed, we had just been talking about - and realizing we really didn't know exactly - how an egg was created. and fertilized for that matter. and then this popped up. so i had to bring it with me. and just two days later it was used as an illustration in a danish newspaper in an article on an exhibition about old school biology posters. which i love and have a few of. but the others are prettier with flowers or butterflies. but pretty is not necessarily the best, right?

oh, and then there's the chair. i found it a few weeks back in tel aviv. it was standing in the street, so i picked it up and brought it with me on a coffee date with a good friend. and i'm very happy about it, as is always the case with the things i find in the street. it just adds something extra to them, that they came my way by chance.

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i am planning to make more posts of the theme "what i brought home", so i hope you enjoyed it. and thank you so much for your sweet comments to my previous post. i am in a better mood now.

saying goodbye and returning home

we went camping with friends. D plays beach volley as often as he can squeeze it in between all the rest, and a couple of times a year we go with the beach volley guys and their families to camp on the beach. it's a wild beach, no facilities, no nothing. just sand, sun and the best view when waking in the morning as the sun is rising, open the tent and look out over the sea with a cup of hot coffee.

this year my friend and her youngest son, who has been visiting, came with us. it was great, but i must admit i found it a bit hard to enjoy. see, usually this is one of these occasions where the roles are easily divided. this is mainly D's friend, he plays beach volley and i play with the kids . and then we all hang out together. but this time, being the last day of my friend's visit, i couldn't really find the passion to play in the sand. or to be with friends. i wanted to beam myself to a little cafe, or at home, with my friend, no kids, no beach volley friends. just the two of us to talk, drink wine and hang out before she will return home and we will once again be parted for so long.

and that made me feel sad. to not be able to really enjoy the time with her, with the kids, with D and his friends and their families. to enjoy the beach, the sun, the blue water and the salty sea air. because the summer is ending, and it will be a while before we will go camping again. and it is so damn beautiful, and usually that is exactly the place where i find peace at mind.

but then again. i'm just so bad at goodbyes. so bad that i can't even say it and i would probably not even have enjoyed to hang out, on a cafe or at home, only the two of us. because it would still be that time before the goodbye. and i am just so bad to part from the people i love and cherish. i'm not sure i could enjoy the time up to that point of saying goodbye even if i was right in heaven. which was pretty much exactly where we had our camping and spent the last time before she returned home. before the end of the summer.

now we have returned home too and yom kippur is almost about to set in. the quiet will fall on us.

we spent the morning cleaning the house and washing towels, sheets, clothes. then D went to clean the car. as i mentioned that we now had a clean house and a clean car, he asked with a smile, "but what about our souls?". since that is what yom kippur is all about. i'm not expecting any answers on that any time soon, but i hope we will have a peaceful day here at home. that would certainly do my soul some good.

chatima tova

one, two, three: breakfast!

1. make a simple bread dough (flour, yeast, salt and water) and bring out the cookie shapes
2. let the kids make bread cookies and place them on a baking plate
3. bake around 10 minutes at 180-200 degrees celcius

...take out, cool off (if you can wait!) and eat!

my mom's great idea in denmark. to use the cookie shapes for baking buns. the kids woke up early and wanted to bake for breakfast. but it can be hard to wait for your breakfast if you're hungry. so we made teeny weeny mini-buns. it was fun, it was fast and the kids enjoyed them for breakfast. just out of the oven with butter. nothing beats that!

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we went on beach camping so i made this post and scheduled it. thought it was a good opportunity to show you even more from denmark. i hope you're enjoying your weekend too.

shanah tova

we celebrated rosh hashana last friday, the jewish new year. literally it translates "head of the year", and therefore it's custom to eat a head of some sort, as a part of the seder (the evening meal). my mother in law serves a fish head, but it's actually only her husband who will take a bite. the rest of us pass on that opportunity.

shabbath and holidays in israel are still counted as in the old days. meaning, that the holiday begins by sunset and ends the following evening, traditionally it would end when you could see three stars on the sky, but today the exact hours of shabbath and holidays are posted in the newspapers.

so, a holiday would then traditionally begin with a visit to the synagogue as the sun sets, just like when the shabbat is greeted on a friday evening. if you observe shabbath you obviously don't cook, so the women prepare the meal before sunset, the shabbath candles are burning and the table set. she can then either join her husband in the synagoge or take a moment to relax until the men arrive back from the prayer.

don't get me wrong here. we don't do this, as we live a secular life. my parents in law are traditional and observes shabbath in a modified version, and will follow the traditional course of a holiday seder (what to eat and when to eat it fdring the holiday meal, together with the reading of the holiday scriptures). i am just giving you the traditional way of shabbath and the seder. among secular jews, some will do parts of the seder, some will serve some of the traditional dishes, but many will just have a family dinner, based on the rosh hashana and holiday meal traditions.

as you may know, a traditional shabbath dinner will always include the breaking of the bread. often they will begin with a short prayer, over the wine, then there will be some light dishes, followed by the breaking of the bread and the prayer that goes with it. the host will then take little pieces of the bread, dip them in salt and pass out to everyone participating in the shabbath dinner. that's the beginning of the real meal.

on rosh hashana the salt is replaced with sugar. the sugar is what makes rosh hashana seder meals special. the sweet ingredients are like a wish for a sweet new year.

besides the sugar instead of salt, the seder prayer involves eating certain sweet dishes, while reading aloud. like dates, sweet pumpkin and pomme granate. and most importantly, apples dipped in honey. this specific snack is everywhere around rosh hashana, it's the snack for this holiday, closely followed by the pomme granates.

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sunday evening yom kippur, the holiday of fast and atonement, will begin at sunset. for now we're headed at the beach, where we'll be camping with friends. it means, barbecuing, swimming, sand and salt in the hair, and lots of sun and wind. we'll be tired and ready for a day of complete yom kippur silence and quiet when we return home.

shanah tova! wishing you a sweet and healthy new year!

flying high

do you remember this? when dad or an uncle could throw you all the way up, right into the blue sky? how you would jump excitedly on the ground while waiting your turn? the happiness, the thrill, the laughter when flying through the air?

sometimes i wish i could be like that again, that i could fly like that again. feel so light again.

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sorry, i missed corner view this week. i actually took the photos, but didn't have the time to sort through, you know, the life-got-in-the-way sort of thing. that would also be the reason why i didn't visit any of your corner views yet. but i will.

friends, family and food

more from denmark. we visited good friends, had lovely food, cold glasses of white wine, home made fruit drinks, new potatoes and lovely moments in beautiful homes and gardens. i know it's beginning to be a while back, that denmark trip, but i still have some photos to share. and i love to look at them, so this is my excuse to sort through them again and again.

we have had a few days with rain here, it's still really hot and more like tropical rain, really heavy for a short while and then nothing. but it has cleared the air a bit, made it fresher. and the smell... there's nothing like the smell after summer rain, is there?

yellow

i meant to do the yellow post this week, but i'm running late. blame it on september and all the holidays. and on top of all the family gatherings, beach days and barbeques, i have a very dear friend visiting from denmark. alas, i'm prioritizing hard core these days. it's good, but it means not much posting and not much blog reading. i will be back soon, though.

check out kristina's post for more yellow.

wishing you a lovely week :)

corner view september

september is usually the last hot and humid month around here. not as hot as july and august, but still pretty much summer.

it's the month of the jewish holidays of rosh hashana, the new year; sukkot, the feast of booths (where you are to eat your meals outside under palmtree leaves); simchat torah, the reading of the torah starts over again in the synagoge; and yom kippur, the day of atonement and probably the most important of all jewish holidays.

we'll have a lot of family dinners and events around here. and i am planning to show and tell as it happens. today i am showing you a few glimpse from around the village, taken on yesterday's walk to the place of the fire.

evidence of september: orange dates fruits on the palm trees, texas sage blooming in the front yard (which i brought home for a bit of pretty in the house), a few white clouds on the clear blue sky, and then the green that is still here, all though most green plants and grass is by now dried out and more yellow than green. summer sun is hard and shows no mercy to little plants.

for more information about corner view, visit jane from spain daily.

for a little boy

i made this blanket just before we went to denmark. a gift to a very special little boy, born on the other side of the world back in july. i hope it'll serve him good. and i wish we will one day again live closer to him and his sweet family.

after the fire

i went to look at the place of the fire i mentioned in my previous post. it was a wasteland with a beauty of it's own. such a contrast to the neighboring green orange trees.

i'm kind of intrigued to see how nature will take back this land in the coming months, how the dust will slowly disappear and the blackness will fade.