New morning

 I really love the writer Natalia Ginzburg, born in Palermo in 1916, died in 1991. I have read every book of hers that has been translated into Hebrew.

Yesterday when I ran to the shelter at one o'clock in the afternoon I remembered a line from her book "The Little Traits", she writes about "the sirens that wounded the sky in the middle of the night and we woke the children up and went with them", something like that, that was their reality in Italy during World War II, and those are exactly my thoughts, sometimes when I sit in those minutes in the shelter, twenty steps underground, I think to myself this is an experience of other times,

Then we come out and our lives seem to be similar to the lives of everyone else in the world, but there is one part of the soul that anxiously awaits the next time.

Our nights

These are the chocolate eggs I bought today at the little store here that has everything. I'll put every two eggs in a bag, and I hope I don't forget the bags at night when I run to the shelter.

Usually the alarms are in the wee hours of the night and I'm always amazed by the three little children, ages three, four, and five, who come running with their pyjamas and barefoot to the shelter.

My heart goes out to them, and I want to give them something sweet.

They run about five hundred meters from their house to the shelter, and sit there with us until they hear the sounds of explosions, wait another ten minutes, and everyone goes home.

The other night I wasn't ready at three in the morning, I put my shoes on the wrong way around, and even when I noticed it, there was no time to fix it, so I ran with them to the shelter. No one noticed.

 

More of the same (2,3)

 Last night at 3:30 tonight at 2:11. And again the run to the shelter and the meeting with the neighbors, the children and the dog Bella.

Like the previous times, for some reason I wake up five minutes before the alarm, I know it will come and wait. Now I also know what the scary sounds of the American interceptor missiles sound like, called ahaad or something like that, they sound terrible but are very helpful against the Houthi ballistic missiles.                                                                                                                                                                  Ten minutes in the shelter until you hear the sounds of explosions, and then two hours in bed until I fall asleep again, if at all.                                                                                                                                         

More of the same

 And again the alarm sounded at 4.21 in the morning. It was a good thing I had my shoes and phone ready so I could quickly take them on the way to the shelter. We passed through the neighbors' yard and with trembling legs, while the alarm was still audible, we opened the iron door and went down the stairs to the shelter.

After that, two young families arrived with their small children, one of whom brought the blanket with him that he sleeps in bed with, and the dog Bella who is very frightened as always by the alarms.

We waited ten minutes until we heard the explosions and still with trembling legs, I returned home.

Merry Christmas to all of you, wherever you are.

Red color

 A screenshot of my iPhone. It's three forty-four. At night. All the places where the alarm sounded are colored red.

The Houthis in Yemen are still very determined and this is the second time this week they have fired their missile. The previous one destroyed a school near Tel Aviv. Luckily it was at night. This night a playground in Jaffa was hit.                                                                                                                                      There was no alarm here, but I heard it from all the surrounding towns and also the loud explosion of the interceptor. (I hope that's the right word, that's what Google suggests..), the fear is the same fear even when the alarms aren't actually here.                                                                                                   Red is the name of the app that notifies you of alarms in real time.

Where despair is more comfortable

 There is an Israeli song whose lyrics are like this - Hello, I'm leaving for London, where despair is more comfortable.

It was written many years ago, it was always a bit uncomfortable here, and we always thought it was more comfortable elsewhere.

These words ran through my head this morning, I see how much the Americans are pained by the results of the last election, how much the English are suffering from their new government, and the Dutch, who still don't understand, but they were conquered by violent people.                                                                              This morning I got up like everyone here a little before six o'clock to the sounds of the alarm, with my eyes closed I ran to the shelter where I met the young families of the neighbors with the small children and the dog Bella who was very frightened.

A ballistic missile was fired from Yemen and made its way to us.

Then I came home and made a pot full of zucchini stuffed with meat, white rice, and meatballs in red sauce. I watered the garden and thought thoughts

Meanwhile here

My garden this morning and the new door at the entrance to the house. The Blue Angels are two of many that came from my many trips to Greece years ago.                                                                                      The one closest to the door is from Tinos Islad. One of the legs is a little broken, but  I still love him/