13 December 2019

Left Israel this morning.  Here are a few final glimpses.

From the day Austin and I did an adventure walk on Mount Carmel:

A cactus with fruit.  Austin picked one off the ground to taste it – and it squirted all over the left sleeve of my sweater.  He says it was sweet and tart.

A surprise on the sidewalk.  I thought this snake had an injured head, but those are its markings.

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I loved the olive trees.  Every tree is so distinctive – feels as if I could greet each one by name.

There were so many ripe olives!

All over the ground under the trees.  I pulled an Austin and tasted one.  Yuck! Very sharp and bitter!  How on earth are these turned edible?

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And here’s a bit of Merry Christmas from Haifa:

for my secular friends

And for the more devout – with you-know-who .

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Off to London.

Happy week, Everybody 😊

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5 December 2010



I’m in Haifa, Israel as a Baha’i pilgrim.  I’ve been before – several times actually – and every time the beauty of the gardens stuns me.  This is one tiny sample, a petite cactus garden around a potted tree.

I will give Austin my camera to choose more shots for next week.

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Slice of Israel:  they know how to do public transport!

Must have GPS chips on the buses, because as you wait – an electronic board updates you on how many minutes until each bus will arrive!

We were waiting for a 136, and knew one would be there in 8 minutes.  Makes waiting stress-free!

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HEBREW WORD of the Week

Everybody knows “shalom” (peace) and “mazel tov” (congratulations) … and here is one more I (re)learned last night:

Toda (toe-DAH)  means  “thank you”

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Happy week, everyone!

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