pecans

this week, while it was still rainy and cold, we did manage to go out now and then. one of those times we went hunting for pecans. not much hunting needed, though, as the storm had brought them to the ground, where we just needed to pick them up.

it was a cold and dark afternoon, not much light to take photos. i was expecting rather grainy photos, and they are. but i really like this peculiar light and texture.

so, did i tell you that we were expecting a heat wave after the awful weather? we did. and it arrived! 25 degrees celcius, sun and flip flops on again. which means that the double up 4 years birthday celebration we canceled last weekend due to the rain and the thunderstorm, will in fact happen this weekend. which also means i have a ton of stuff to do. alas, i am off.

happy weekend to you all, may you find something worth celebrating this weekend as well, big or small.

just a week ago

when mud was still something you had to work for. before the rain started. that said, we actually had lots of sun and blue sky yesterday. and we are even expecting a heat wave by the end of the week. yeah!

we recently made a sandbox with an old electricity pole we got from D's brother. cut it into four pieces, made a square and filled it with sand from the nearby beach (not sure that's legal... don't tell anyone). they can spend hours playing with mud. it's messy, but it seems to have an almost meditative effect. and i will choose dirty, happy and calm outside over clean, restless and noisy inside any day. so good we got the sun back.

corner view - contrasts

"i know corner view is always on wednesdays. in fact i thought about it several times in the past week, but still i didn’t prepare a corner view."

a linguistic contrast describes the relationship between two segments in a discourse. It is often characterized with the use of a contrast marker such as but, however or yet.

so, a linguistic contrast could be, for example, to say that someone (say me) knows of a certain event and therefore it is to be expected that he/she (also me) will be prepared for it. nevertheless, by introducing the linguistic contrast marker "but" and stating that he/she (me again) did in fact not prepare for such an event (like a corner view, for example), a linguistic contrast has been established.

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by the way, i really didn't have much time this week. blame it on the drops of water and the work and baking problems that followed.

and the image of a chameleon is not only to show you that we have awesome wild life in the garden. i figured it is also a nice example of how the lack of visual contrast, resulting in effective blending in with your surroundings, can be very useful sometimes. though he is not really doing such a good job, is he? say if you don't look at him with the green trees as a background, but look from below against a blue sky. then he's pretty much green against blue.

i guess everyone sticks out in some way or another, it just depends on the angle.

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for more contrast, visit dana, who has been such a wonderful host of jane's corner view these past few weeks.

more drops

today the rain seems to be taking a break. we have had blue sky and no rain since early morning. i needed a break. it's good for the country, but i need a break. because it's not fun to be stuck indoor while it hails and the thunder storm is making the day as dark as night, which results in restless kids, the house being an utter mess and me slightly irritable.

and it didn't make my mood any better when the roof started to leak yesterday. yup, nice drops in the living room, the guest room and in the end, even in the dining room. israel is not build for the rain, or should i say, israel doesn't build for rain. streets get flooded, train stations under water, and our roof starts to leak. there are four places where the water is supposed to run down from the roof, but sometimes they get blocked by leaves and stuff, as they did yesterday. i called D to tell him about the indoor rain and he asked if i couldn't just put a bucket to catch the water. i was like "a bucket? you must be kidding me, i need a bath tub!" it wasn't like one place, more like long cracks where water dripped along the entire stretch. for some crazy lucky reason they moved around and exactly missed television, couch and bookshelves.

so, i had three kids running energetic around the house, trying to direct them away from our living room covered in towels . and as much as i love the open plan with no doors between kitchen, living room and dining room, it is not easy to create a no-trespassing zone when needed. i eventually put the tv on in our bedroom, but the weather made the satellite shaky, so every few minutes the signal disappeared, which made the kids pretty frustrated, as you might imagine.

oh, and the electricity tends to disappear too. every now and then it went out for just a second. not bad, but just enough to shot down the computer (as i was trying to work last night) and the oven (as i was trying to bake a cake for the late birthday party in the kindergarten today). i had candles lit on strategic places all over the house in case the electricity would go for a longer while. it happens a lot in this weather. and i was alone with the kids, so i needed to be able to get them together fast since they get scared if they are alone in a room and the light suddenly disappears.

so, what was i saying? oh yes, i need the rain to take a break. please!

all that said, it's still pretty, the rain and the rain drops. so indulge me. i had to show you a few more drops of water (but i will spare you the miserable sight of drops flooding my living room floor).

and see! we have fresh lemons coming. there are still some older ones left on some of the trees, but they are getting a bit dry. so these little darlings are the new batch that will add some freshness to a warm cup of tea in january and february.

rain drops keep falling...

thank you so much for sending all this rain :) because it must be all the rain you guys sent me after reading the water post, right?

we pretty much had thunder, dark clouds and rain, rain, rain through the entire weekend. which is good, because, as i wrote, we really need it.

but. we had to cancel the boys' birthday party. didn't want the guests to drive in this rain. it really is scary to drive when the rain is being serious about itself, like this. you cannot see many meters ahead, plus the roads are especially slidy after the first rain. and also, now that we finally have a huge garden, and we live in a country with beautiful weather 95% of the time, we really didn't want to cramp everyone up inside. next week...

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but even the rain needs a break now and then, allowing us to get a glimpse of blue sky as we get out there to enjoy the fresh air and the lush green. it's beautiful, and if you look really close, it's magical.

jaffo

jaffo, more than 4000 years old coastal city, just south of tel aviv. now a part of tel aviv, but still a city in it's own.

the flea market is super amazing. really. with the the best little cafe in the middle of it where everything you sit in, eat from and drink out of is for sale.

and there's plenty of gorgeous old wood, bright colors, scary pieces of fur, sellers with golden shoes, white clouds on blue skies, and old buildings falling apart/being renovated, but still looking gorgeous. i love jaffo.

beautiful little things

beautiful little things from out there :: light feathers, soft stones, sea shell mysteries :: have a gorgeous weekend, my friends