happy new year

May our days in 2015 will be pure fun as it was yesterday.

 

Holiday

By a coincidence I discovered that I have a Christmas tree in my garden.It all happened when Sneaky the cat jumped from the roof. The plant is called Poinsettia and in many countries it is the Christmas flower.It also felt like Christmas or Hanuka or any other  holiday when some people from New York landed in the field near my house while traveling here.

 

blog land is quiet today

Too much food or wine or both, Or may be it is like this every year

in Christmas.Every one needs some break from every thing from time to time.

So it is really very quiet in blog land today.

I went into my small garden and saw the first rose of the year.T hose are real and old roses with the real wonderful smell. I have 15 bushes of roses but they are getting smaller every year because they are old. We all do.

 

The hedgehogs are back

 

 

Every evening after he finishes his dinner Edmund pretends that he does not see the hedgehogs who come to taste from his gourmet food which I buy for him, (he has to eat special expensive food because of the kidney stones.

the lupins are back

Our area is known for the lupins flowers.

In winter every Saturday there are many visitors who are looking for the purple flowers in the fields.

Every year we have more and more lupins in our gardens too.

I wonder why it did not happened before and it started only few years ago that the flowers came to our gardens from the fields.

The picture above was taken in my neighbor's garden. he has a lot of lupins. I try every year to get more flowers but have only few.  I  never give up and I shall try again this year too.

At least I have blue sky over my red roof as you can see.

here and now and the future to come

Now -I have the Christmas cactus in full bloom.

Only when I  entered blogland I found out about it.

And the future:

The photo was taken in the area of our local graveyard.

I was there last week with my neighbour who lost her eldest son

in a motorcycle accident.She is almost  eighty, and while we looked down to

the green valley we said to our selves that this is the most beautiful view in our place.

I heard her saying to herself " it looks like England here".

 

Spring in December

Every thing is so green around. The sun is shining and it feels like spring.

we went to the "wood" and had a nice picnic there.

I hear in the news from England about the "weather bomb" and thinking about our "bombs".

At least we knew to what to expect. "weather bomb" sounds bad.

Edmund update

He does not like his medicines even if I hide them well under the food that he loves. He likes to drink water from the water tap in the garden

and the better is if I stand there and hold the garden hose in my hand.

He is an old cat but looking young in the photos and I think he knows it.

lazy gardening

The truth is that I know nothing about gardening. I also don't know English so well

and I do blog in English trying  not to think how funny or stupid I must appear many times with

my ridiculous English.

So why not trying to grow the flowers that I so love since my childhood.

I had time yesterday while waiting for my car in the garage (45,000 km treatment, in 2 years.) so I bought

those seeds in the near shop.

It says that they have to be in water 4 hours before planting.

Those Tropaelum are invasive plants. They came here from South America and we call them Monk's hat.I know Shirley in Australia loves them too.

Stones

Poor Edmund had kidney stones so we had to take him to the vet.

He stayed there over night and now he is back with some medicines and new food that

he does not like.

I  spent all afternoon outside watching him trying to  find shelter behind my neighbors house.

The last time I went out I found that one of the houses in the neighborhood is on fire and

the fire fighters are there.

Those are too big stories that could be told in a more interesting way if I had more time.

home before the storm

Encouraged by some of you I shall tell you more about my experiences as a busy grandmother.But it will be short because of the weather circumstances.

I had to leave earlier today because every one is talking about the big storm .

Before I left we had some grandmothers activity like football and gymnastics.

The storm is not here yet  but they are still talking about it.

48 hours

I know how boring it is for other people

to read about and see other's grandchild's photos.

But for me the last 48 hours were a joy.

I did not speak to  grown up person for 48 hours.  It was only me and the 3  of them.

every time I  let them eat some sweets the 6 years boy said: "how spoiled we are".

Again

I wanted to write about the signs of normality here.

When the bikes riders are back on the road on Saturday this is one of the signs.

But now things are getting bad again.Fear is the key word.

I have to go to my hair dresser and I am afraid again. Should I come back in one piece or should I be stabbed or shot or get my head wounded by a stone.

I think I shall go.

1700 years after

When ever paving road near my place,there is something new being discovered.

This time is a Mikve (small pool) fool of cooking pots. candles and more things that were used 1700 years ago.

On the walls of the pool there are signatures of 2 Australians soldiers who were there while WW2.

( the photos are by Asaf Perez).

I discovered those amazing news while I was  in the gas station that I am visiting once a week and only by chance I was looking to the other side of the road. How many more things I miss when I am not looking carefully.

 

Under the Pine tree

So we have our mushrooms too. Almost like in France...

I had to look under the Olive tree in my garden and there they were.

Those are the only mushroom that I know here that can be cooked.

This is the first and the last day that they can be found. After the first or second rain in the

begining of the winter.They are called after the Pine tree which they are suopose to grow under, but for some reason I have them here under the Olive tree.Somtimes they get like sponge while being cooked so may be this is the reason why only few in my family like them.When I was a child we used to spend hours looking after them in the forests of the north and came home with empty baskets.

I think this is one of the few things in my life that got beter with the years.

Edmund the cat again

I never had cats before Edmund. It was always dogs since I was a child.

We were told as children that we should avoid passing by black cats because of bad luck.

Than we were told that the Japanese believe that black cats bring good luck. Something was balanced

and black cats were just cats.

Edmund choose to live with us . He just came one day a year ago and  than he brought Sneaky the street cat and they are both seems happy here.

Edmund is the one who takes the time for the meals and calling me loud if I am late (slowly he get used to the time change with the winter clock.

Every morning he sits by the water tape waiting for me to let him drink fresh water.

He lets Sneaky do the hard work of catching the mice on the roof. He  is watching the humans instead and when ever he sees neighbors standing and having a small talk he gets closer and just listening carefully.I got told by several that that what he does many times.

 

 

 

the day of the snail

I saw the first snail to day.

There was a lot of rain here lately so the snails went out.

I saw somewhere in the FB that people who cars make snail more welcome

to the community by building house  or putting extra things to the humble snails.

Also there is snail extract that reduce wrinkles,and can do wonderful things to the old human skin.

Sandwich Day today

November 3rd is the birthday of Jhon Montagu (1718-3.4.1792).

Who became the first Earl of Sandwich in 1729. Popular myth cradit him with

having invented the sandwich.

That what I found when I googled how long I have to cook the bolognese. I found out

that I am doing it so wrong all the years. So tomorrow I shall do it right.

Tomorrow 4 november is the Mustrad day, I read, so I cook the better bolognese some other time.

RAIN

It is raining.  A real rain for the first time this year and even a small thunderstorm.

The sky is gray and it looks like the winter that I so love.

I am so happy that the roof is not leaking (yet) and hope that this winter I shall have not leaking walls and roof.

I am so pleased that the war was in the summer. Can not imagine myself running to the bomb shelter in the rain.(Especially after the visit to the hair dresser).

things I did not know about cranes

 

Pair cranes will never parted.

If one of them dies the other will not find another partner.

They are very loyal to the family,all day they are with the family

only toward evening they join the flock.

The Japanese choose them as a symbol for hope, peace, happiness and longevity.

 

Each year they are coming to stay in the north of our country.

I know they've started the journey..

first fruit from the garden

I have only 2 fruits trees. The Olive trees which i don't like

and this sweet pommel's which I LOVE.

to day I picked the first fruits.

exposed

I listened to the radio in my car yesterday night while waiting to my son to come back with the train.

Someone was talking about our being exposed in so many ways and situations nowadays.

most of the streets are covered with cameras. Our smartpones tell where we are what we are doing and with whom we are talking.Our photos are in FB,  Pinterest, Instegram and more.And Google knows everything.

I belong to a generation that cherished privacy.Sharing your private life was a right that reserved to famous people and for other it was like hanging your dirty clothes outside.

I was thinking about it as I thought about blogging and the new generation of"" old" blogers who are not afraid to tell the world who they are.

 

 

Today was another day of chasing builders and all other kinds of interesting workers-