corner view - autumn

autumn this year is, well, summer. it's hot, we still go to the beach and we wear flip flops. but the autumn feel is still here. the days are shorter and the sunsets early and pinkish, the air is dry, making the nights colder (and much more comfortable to sleep in). and the garden changes. right now we're having olives, and for the first time we have actually collected and prepared some. the above is one way we have tried. leaving them to dry in the sun for just 10 days or so, covered in salt. then clean them, put them in jars and add some olive oil. they are good! and for me, a northern girl, it's absolutely exciting to eat my own olives.

autumn also means birthday. today i turned 39. how do i feel? surprised. how did that happen? and grateful, because my friend is here this week, celebrating with me and giving me these sweet ice blue porcelain star ear rings.

for more corner views, visit the sweet theresa.

corner view - famous

they are back, our famous pecans. strictly speaking they are our neighbor's, i must admit. but this tree just gives so many, it's unbelievable.

they owe their fame to this yummy pie, which i am planning to make this weekend. my friend from denmark will arrive this friday, and i think a pie is just in place.

but first i must tend to 2/3 of my little ones. we have fever and flue in the house, so far only two and i am crossing my fingers it'll stay with that. luckily the weather is lovely these days, and so we could go outside and get some fresh air, while resting in the shade.

for more famous corner views, go visit theresa of all of us.

corner view - orange

orange, you said? not yet. but soon we will have oranges. traditionally orange season around here starts with the first rain, and that should be on it's way. at least that what they are telling us on the news. so far it's blue sky and 30+ degrees celcius. the rain might not make these instantly orange, but at least it will wash of some of that dust :)

but when they do turn orange, we'll be having freshly squeezed orange juice.

this week's orange corner view is hosted by the lovely otli.

have a beautiful day.

corner view - mustache

in 2nd grade i told my best friend that my future husband were to be a dark-haired banker with a mustache...seriously. today i'm not so sure i'd like it on my man. never tried, but have a feeling it would interfere with the kissing.

for those of you who cannot get enough of them mustachios, go visit yummy mummy cate.

corner view - seven

corner view is back. it took me by surprise. but that won't stop me.

some of you might have noticed that i have a thing with feathers. and recently i have been pleasantly surprised to see feathers pop up every where in the blogosphere. cause really, who can get enough feathers?

here are seven i received while in denmark. i like seven. in fact i like most uneven numbers. my favorite is three, but 5,7, and 9 are pretty good too. i'm pretty indifferent to 1, though. and even numbers don't do it for me. maybe 8, because it's a cool shape, but 2 and 4 are pretty boring. now you know.

oh, and i got the feathers from the kids. they have noticed that i have a thing with feathers too, and they proudly bring me any feathers they find. i must admit that not all of them take my breath away, but generally i love it. that they notice what i like and treasure, weather it's a flower, or sea glass, stones and shells from the shore. it's good to know how to enjoy the little things you come across along your way.


that said, i will now get myself to tel aviv. hopefully i will be able to enjoy a cup of coffee and some other city delights along my way.

happy corner viewing - check them all out via the amazing theresa who is hosting it while awesome jane is away.

corner view - saturday

a saturday, like any other, and still never the same. at home getting dirty in the garden (digging through the ash of the fireplace), feeding the whale (yes, it eats pearls) or turning the world upside down (just because).

here in israel saturdays are sundays, and sundays are mondays, the first day of the week. for some reason i still don't really like that. silly old habits die hard.

there are plenty more saturdays via jane of spain daily

corner view - summer

it's been here quite a while by now. the summer, the heat, the sun. we have been going to the beach for months, we have made bonfires in the evening, played with water in the garden. we even got tired of it some days and stayed in doors during the hot afternoons with the air-condition on.

but one thing that reminds me of summer, the summers of my childhood, is sankt hans, the celebration of the shortest night of the year. this always seemed to fall just about the time where school was out for the summer, and the excitement of vacation, long days at home or away was in the air. looking into those flames of the sankt hans fire it was like time changed. endless weeks ahead filled with promises of something different with no clocks, no bells.

for the last five years we have celebrated this tradition of sankt hans on a beach here in israel with other mixed danish-israeli families. it's a danish tradition to burn a witch on the bonfire, and so do we. yes, i know, not very politically correct, and a macabre reminder of those dark days in europe where "real" witches were burned, usually strong, independent women (and men) with knowledge. or just plain unlucky humans caught in local power struggles and jealosy.

nowadays it's just a doll, and as i told the kids, it's a magic doll. when she burns she travels with the smoke all the way to bloksbjerg where she will become a real witch and dance happily through the short night with her witch friends and the giant trolls. of course they are all good witches and good trolls in my version. i hope it helped them deal with the scary, but spectacular sight of the doll on fire.

for more summer, pick up your broom and fly on over to the lovely jane of spain daily. 

btw, the kids were very excited and brought pictures to their kindergarten of the witch burning. they talked about it at the morning gathering, and i don't even want to think about what the other parents were thinking when their kids got home and told them about the danish people that are burning witches at the beach. oh dear.

corner view - noticing

reds and blues - naked children - summer fun.

notice more via jane of spain daily

corner view - daily

daily. i almost lose my breath. daily. these days. i am longing for time to enjoy the daily-ness of life.but life is filled with work, exams, a lot of thinking about some hard decisions (i will tell you more when i have more .... time), and then of course there was the operation. and we have daily hair combing because it is lice season and this whole thing with lice entered the house - and my hair - for the first time. ever. the past two weeks i have been combing the boys' and my hair once, twice or more. daily. just writing this makes my hair itch.

between all the running around there are some daily moments of bliss. like when i have time to collect the daily bunch of red tomatoes in the garden. or watch a bug with the little one. and see the light stream through the windows, through the shutters.

i also long for daily postings and visits to all the beautiful blogs i love. i am not there. don't even know when i will be able to post the next time.

for those with time, please take a look at all the daily corner views via the lovely jane of spain daily

corner view: from where i sit

i love when i sit and suddenly realize that right now is a special moment. and then if the camera is next to me, by chance, not because i was intentionally looking for a motive, giving me an opportunity to catch a moment of still and quiet beauty. in the garden, or at the beach in the tent.

for more corner views, visit the lovely jane of spain daily

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and just because it is important for me to let you know that the latest events here in the middle east did not go unnoticed and saddens me beyond believe:

"Between a high, solid wall and an egg that breaks against it, I will always stand on the side of the egg."

haruki murakami via sarapirat and her adventures

corner view - garden

a little over a year ago we still lived in the center of tel aviv in an apartment. and even if we did have the beach and a little park right next door, it still is something else with a garden. to just open the door and step into your own garden. i love the stillness that can be found there, the space and activities possible, to grow things, to follow the seasons. and i love the freedom it gives you as a family, allowing everyone to do his or her own thing, while still being at home and together. 

and most recently i loved that it allowed us to improvise a lag baomer bonfire. and since it was just our own little lag baomer event we were absolutely free to mix some traditions. in denmark you pretty much cannot have a bonfire without snobroed (dough rolled around a stick) and then baked (or burned) over fire. when done (at least on the outside) you can stuff it with whatever you like. sausages, jam, cheese or, like we did, nutella.

the boys loved this dinner. and so did i. there's something about outdoor meals, especially those you make yourself over open fire - even if it is just bread and baked potatoes.

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and now, let joyce of a perfect beginning be your guide through many more garden adventures.

corner view - animals

we have a rooster in the chicken coop, and we have no clue where he came from. after the chickens went out one day - it happens sometimes if we forget to close the door - we chased them back in. by the time we counted them  - three black, four brown, one white and the two little gray - we saw that there was now a big white rooster too. he must have joined them while they were touring the garden.

this has happened once before. suddenly we found that we had an extra brown chicken in the coop after they had been outside. so strange.

i wonder if anyone is missing them. we asked around at neighbors, but no one seems to be missing a big white rooster. or maybe that's just what they say because they are happy to be rid of him. he's a devil, this guy. he sometimes begins his cock-a-doodle-doo really early. as in before the sun gets up. or maybe he just never stops. i have heard him at two and three in the morning too. and when that happens i get violent thoughts, and seriously consider to make some chicken soup. ok, not really, but i wouldn't mind giving him to someone that will.

he looks mean, doesn't he? last time we had roosters in the coop, the chickens got all nasty and picked on each other all the time. not with this guy, they are behaving really well.- even the black ones that are usually really nasty.

by the way, i was checking what an english rooster says when i was writing this as you might have noticed above. in denmark they say kykelikyy, here in israel they say kookoorikoo. maybe they immigrated along with the eastern european jews, because the polish roosters apparently say the same. dogs around here say how how, which i find really strange for some reason. when a canadian girl a few years back told me that the north american frogs say ribbit, i was all you-must-be-kidding-me. seriously, that is such a weird thing to say. i never heard a frog say that. ever.

any weird talking animals in your part of the world? 

for more animal corner views, please visit this week's corner view hostess, the sweet, golden joyce of  a perfect beginning. joyce is stepping in for jane of spain daily while she is investigating the unique sounds of the mexican tree frog. or maybe not.

cock-a-doodle-doo, how-how and bye bye from here.

big blue

more photos from eilat. i had planned to make a corner view yesterday about water, the theme was earth day and i thought it would be a great topic. but life is really hectic here these days. not in a bad way, but all this vacation doesn't leave much time to blogging. or to flickr for that matter (such a hard life ;).

first my friend came, then it was pesach, followed by a week of catching up with life and work. then we went to eilat, came back, had a couple of days off to celebrate yom haatzmaot, the israeli independence day, and then my little one got sick. you know, life just happened quite intensive for the last three weeks.

so, no corner view yesterday, but that shall stop me from celebrating this amazing, big, blue element.
in eilat we went to see dolphins and to the underwater aquarium. then of course we just hung out by the pool, mostly the kid's pool, and D did some windsurfing. and we went snorkeling - it is the red sea after all.

for a more serious post on the water issue in this specific (middle eastern) part of the world, i wrote this corner view a while back. and for more corner views, just go visit jane of spain daily.

i will try and get back into my usual blogging schedule and i will definitely put aside some time to catch up with all the amazing blogs on my blog roll. but first, time to have a weekend, quiet, at home. see you next week.

happy birthday, corner view

corner view has been going on for a whole year. amazing. time really does fly when you're in good company.

i think my favorite corner view was white. i remember seeing and reading so many interesting interpretations. but i also really liked love. they were fun to write about, but mainly i remember reading so much amazing stuff on these two corner views.

thanks jane, it's been a fun year. looking forward to the next :)

corner view - vending machines

it's not really a vending machine, but it's awesome. and i have not been anywhere close to anything remotely vending-ish lately, but at least it's a machine. in fact it's a super cool espresso machine, and we only got it yesterday, so my hands are still in the air.

after the spring clean (and it was a serious one, where i - after i had sorted everything and removed everything - hired two women to help me clean the house a whole day). we decided to spoil ourselves and our extremely clean kitchen (my cleaning assistants spent 3 (!!!) hours in the kitchen) with this beauty. yup, now we drink grown-up coffee around here. not that i feel so grown up about it. actually i'm more like a kid with a new toy, finding excuses to make coffee, thus drinking way too much already this morning, just so i can use it, and especially that steamer. it's so cool.

oh, and btw, i must share with you that coffee is not the only amazing drink we spoil ourselves with these days: D found a wild passion fruit tree in the hood, and we have been making fresh passion fruit juice. with crushed ice i think it might be the best drink. ever.

i still have a lot of catching up to do in blog world, but you just go ahead and check out the corner views of the week via jane of spain daily. i'll be there soon too.

corner view - spring

spring - it's pretty, fresh, young, blooming, energetic, sweet and full of promise. it's rain and sun on a blue, blue sky, it's cold breezes and warm spots in the sun. it's short sleeves and woolen shawls, rubber boots and bare feet in mud puddles, it's empty branches with dots of illuminating greens and pretty pink, purple, white pastels. full of cliches and so darn irresistible.

and right here and now, spring is a serious cleaning just finished, a house sparkling clean and filled with good times, a friend visiting, a husband who passed his deadlines, it's pesach vacation, sunny days, bbqs and children running bare feet in the garden. indeed spring has sprung.

more spring time via the gorgeous jane of spain daily - enjoy!

corner view - front doors

front doors in the old city bazaar of jerusalem, the city of gold. i always wonder what's behind those doors.

open more front doors via jane of spain daily

now, if you'll excuse me as i go open my front door to go pick up my three little ones. have a sweet corner viewing day.

corner view - coffee companion

my mom has been my favorite coffee companion for the last three weeks. she left yesterday. *sigh*. it's that thing with family and good old friends: you can have coffee, be together and the silence between the talk feels good. even if it lasts for a long while.

those last few days she was here, and i finally got the hang of the granny square crochet project, we would sit together, talk a bit, but also just sit the two of us with our crochet work, sometimes making a break for a cup if coffee, prepared and served by my dad. what a luxury of good coffee company.

she left this beautiful pillow behind for me to look at and admire. i love those granny squares, but i am also really thrilled about that perfect white back of the pillow. so simple and pretty.

i obviously also like to go out and have coffee. in fact, it feels like ages since i went to tel aviv and had a coffee date with a friend. you know, one of those coffee dates that involves a lot of talking, walking around the town, a bit of shopping, some nice food, and - of course - a cup of coffee.

anyway, i think i need my morning coffee now with my dad, my coffee companion these days. and if you're looking for company, then let jane of spain daily introduce you to coffee companions around the world.

corner view - street photography

i found this a while back in neve tzedek. besides the pretty colored dots, i think it caught my attention because, well, i could really use some arrows to point me in the right direction these days. generally speaking.

there are many more streets to go - jane of spain daily knows the way.