Hi everyone,
Yep, winter is still with us here in Har Gilo, and the cats are still seeking warm spots to sleep. (They seem to favor the parts of the bed where I was a few minutes earlier, I think.....):
Even so, the sun has been out for the last three days (when I was running one load of laundry after another and putting it on the lines outside....) Rain is supposed to return tomorrow but it seems the back of winter is broken; we won't have a weekend like the last one, when we had SNOW. Not much, but enough to make the ground white and the dogs want to sleep indoors.
I haven't gotten out all week, although it's been tempting. This afternoon the Botanical Garden is having a festive afternoon with a tour of the garden and a lecture by one of the garden scholars on her work in Africa - in English, which is unusual. So I'm leaving work early and going there to pick up some sun and enjoy the flowers.
Otherwise I've had my nose to the computer all week. It's only two weeks before I leave for Brussels and then the Netherlands, so I am trying to get my lectures in order. I also got a manuscript back from review and will have to do serious revisions, so I'm gearing up for that as well. An academic life, which is funny since we're government and don't need to do that kind of thing. I guess that means I do want it.
One of my AA friends who blew up at me back in December turned up with an apology and an archeology book (Professor Father Murphy O'Connor's Oxford Archeological Guide to the Holy Land, a damn expensive book !) by way of apology. Well, she knew the sure way to soften me up; I've got that book here in the office now. No explanation of what the heck she was doing ranting at me, but she's a red headed Irish woman and maybe that's reason enough.....Bribery works very well on me.....
The new cat that my vet coaxed me into adopting, Tuli, is working out at last. I picked her up from the vet last week and she hissed and sulked in her carrier all that weekend, refusing to eat. On Sunday I gave up and was taking her back to the vet when she decided to get friendly and head butted me all the way to the vet. Maybe she saw the writing on the wall? So now she's eating like a horse, and remains friendly, but I still have a lot of scar tissue on my hands that needs to heal from her claw slashes. She doesn't bite but she sure has a wicked backhand. (I put on leather gloves and that really frustrated her those first days.....) How come I always get the problem child???
The end of winter is always depressing for me here; I hate winter (pretty funny considering where I spent my time in America) and cannot wait for spring. But the almond tree beside my house has been reminding me that it is spring already, with its lovely cherry blossom-like flowers, and the cyclamens are now coming out, our local equivalent of violets. The grass is growing, the dogs are eating grass, sure signs of spring.
And then of course I'm going to Holland which will probably kick me right back to winter weather.....despite that, I'm really looking forward to seeing friends I haven't seen in too many years. From now on I plan to get to Holland once a year; I miss it too much. It's like a second homeland.
shabbat shalom,
Linda
Yep, winter is still with us here in Har Gilo, and the cats are still seeking warm spots to sleep. (They seem to favor the parts of the bed where I was a few minutes earlier, I think.....):
Even so, the sun has been out for the last three days (when I was running one load of laundry after another and putting it on the lines outside....) Rain is supposed to return tomorrow but it seems the back of winter is broken; we won't have a weekend like the last one, when we had SNOW. Not much, but enough to make the ground white and the dogs want to sleep indoors.
I haven't gotten out all week, although it's been tempting. This afternoon the Botanical Garden is having a festive afternoon with a tour of the garden and a lecture by one of the garden scholars on her work in Africa - in English, which is unusual. So I'm leaving work early and going there to pick up some sun and enjoy the flowers.
Otherwise I've had my nose to the computer all week. It's only two weeks before I leave for Brussels and then the Netherlands, so I am trying to get my lectures in order. I also got a manuscript back from review and will have to do serious revisions, so I'm gearing up for that as well. An academic life, which is funny since we're government and don't need to do that kind of thing. I guess that means I do want it.
One of my AA friends who blew up at me back in December turned up with an apology and an archeology book (Professor Father Murphy O'Connor's Oxford Archeological Guide to the Holy Land, a damn expensive book !) by way of apology. Well, she knew the sure way to soften me up; I've got that book here in the office now. No explanation of what the heck she was doing ranting at me, but she's a red headed Irish woman and maybe that's reason enough.....Bribery works very well on me.....
The new cat that my vet coaxed me into adopting, Tuli, is working out at last. I picked her up from the vet last week and she hissed and sulked in her carrier all that weekend, refusing to eat. On Sunday I gave up and was taking her back to the vet when she decided to get friendly and head butted me all the way to the vet. Maybe she saw the writing on the wall? So now she's eating like a horse, and remains friendly, but I still have a lot of scar tissue on my hands that needs to heal from her claw slashes. She doesn't bite but she sure has a wicked backhand. (I put on leather gloves and that really frustrated her those first days.....) How come I always get the problem child???
The end of winter is always depressing for me here; I hate winter (pretty funny considering where I spent my time in America) and cannot wait for spring. But the almond tree beside my house has been reminding me that it is spring already, with its lovely cherry blossom-like flowers, and the cyclamens are now coming out, our local equivalent of violets. The grass is growing, the dogs are eating grass, sure signs of spring.
And then of course I'm going to Holland which will probably kick me right back to winter weather.....despite that, I'm really looking forward to seeing friends I haven't seen in too many years. From now on I plan to get to Holland once a year; I miss it too much. It's like a second homeland.
shabbat shalom,
Linda
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http://shabbat-shalom-jerusalem.blogspot.com/
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