Festival of Lights

Chanuka is tonight and there is a real feeling of the "Festival of Lights" in the air.  Store displays with brightly colored candles, oils, and many, many types of chanukiot (menorahs).








 

Yahrtzeit of The Arizal



View of Kever of Arizal


Check out this view above the kever of Rav Itzchak Luria (Arizal).  Today, the 5th of Av is his yahrtzeit and many, many people flock to his kever.  For details on the Arizal see
 http://www.safed-kabbalah.com/Arizal/Biography.htm

Pottery with Batya

Batya's Apprentice


We had a great day with Tzfat Artist Batya Erdstein www.erdstein6@gmail.com.  She offers a family workshop and was fantastic with all ages from preschooler through adult, not an easy feat!  Batya brought out the clay and plopped it on the center of the wheel.  She showed how to center the clay and how to shape it.  Everyone had a great time and made several pieces of pottery.  After the pieces air dried, they were painted with a red clay paint.  Batya also has a nice selection of kiln fired glazed pottery for sale and I bought a beautiful dish to put chumous in.  Definately worth a visit!

Safed and second chances

.


 Since I'm always in the center of the country, I decided to spend some time up North for a change of scenery and a little adventure.  We had spent Pesach one year in Safed and didn't get to explore around as much as I would have liked.  So here's to second chances!

 




 

Sunflowers for Shavuot



Shavuot


My parents are here for their annual visit and while they were out doing some shopping they found my favorite flower...Sunflowers!  They came into the house with this huge bouquet, perfect for the Shavuot table.



 

Lag B'Omer Bonfire City!

"Lag B'Omer Friends"

   



Lag B'Omer is here with music, marshmallows and LOTS of bonfires!   Usually most kids have a bonfire with their B'nei Akiva group and a few families make their own fires.  This year our town also sponsored a bonfire.  Grandparents, parents and children of all ages joined together to sing, hang out, chat with friends and of course roast marshmallows!



Setting up

Kids have been gathering wood, in anticipation of Lag B'Omer, for weeks and now the set up begins.  Some of these bonfire frames are 9 or 10 feet high!  Two houses away from my house, is this huge one.  Last year there were three generations of a family sitting by the fire, roasting meat and marshmallows, singing and talking until 2 am! 

Medura

Gathering Supplies

We just go from one holiday to the next, so it makes sense that right after Pesach we would start getting ready for the next holiday, Lag B'Omer.  Even after almost five years of living here, I'm still always amazed to see...   "the shlepping of the wood".   Kids of all sizes can be seen carrying, dragging and loading into wagons large, VERY large, pieces of wood.  Old chairs, ladders, tree branches and wooden planks left over from the many house construction sites are all fair game.  Here is the stockpile on the driveway of the house across the street from me. 




Stockpiling the Wood





Yom Ha'atzmaut aka "Mangal (bbq) Day"!  Lots of good friends, fun and food as we celebrated Israel's Independence Day.  See my BBQ menu on my sister's blog Pragmattic Attic

Toasted Marshmallows



Fireworks!

Well I tried to get my 3 year old to nap so that he wouldn't be too tired for tonight's late night event to celebrate Yom Ha'atzmaut.    He didn't actually fall asleep until 6pm!  When it was time to go, I couldn't wake him...so he missed it!  I saw the fireworks out of my 3rd floor art studio/guest room.  Here's the view...

Fireworks

Memorial Day

Today I was in a cafe in the Modiin mall when the siren for Yom Hazikaron went off. It was like being in a flash mob. All of a sudden, people put down their sandwich or their coffee, They stopped talking to their friend or working on their laptop. They just stood up and were silent. It was incredible...and beautiful.

Moment in Time

The Surprise Visit

Expecting my 1st grader home at 2:00pm, I opened my front door to see not one, but 36 girls in pink shirts and blue skirts all smiling at me.  It turns out they had come to make the blessing over flowering fruit trees.  My daughter told her teacher we had 3 of them in our yard, which is around the corner from her school and so here they all were!

Pomelo Buds and Blosoms

The Roses

The roses came out in full bloom.  As my 3 year old was watering them, one full, gorgeous flower fell onto the flower bed.  We brought it inside and I put it in a thin, tall glass on the ledge near my downstairs staircase.  The combination of the full, beautiful rose and  the light from the dining room chandelier reflecting off the glass will make an interesting painting.  Now just to decide...watercolors or oils?

Ana's Rose

Flowering Fruit Trees

What inspires me?  Well, right now it's the beautiful citrus fruit trees (pri hadar) in our garden.  The small, fragrant, cream colored flowers on our orange, lemon and pomelo trees are in bloom.  The smell is amazing!

Lemon Blosom

The Lemon Tree aka Pri Hadar

Each year we get a barrel of lemons from the tree in our backyard.  Yes, there are numerous things you can make with lemons, but our favorite is still lemonade for Shabbat.

Pri Hadar

The Banias

I just came back from Tiveria and although I didn't quite make it up to the Banias, I did buy a gorgeous panoramic picture of it by the artist Eliyahu Andy Alpern in Tzfat.  You can see it on his website  golemproductions.com/panos.html  along with some other truly beautiful photographs.

The Kinneret

For this time of year the weather was unseasonably cold during Pesach.  Not that I minded the cool air, but it wasn't conducive to going to our favorite water park in Tiveria, right on the shores of the Kinneret.
We decided to go up to Tzfat instead and I took this picture of the Kinneret on the way.

The Kinneret

Pesach Inspirations

Pesach is a time of renewal and it always seems to bring out ideas for new paintings.  I like to go up North for a change of scenery.  So far I've been to Zichron Yaakov, Haifa, Tzfat and Tiveria.  During the visit to Zichron Yaakov I stumbled along an art store and bought a great tall wooden easel.  It had to be attached to the roof of the car to get it back home!  We rented an apartment with a large mirpeset(balcony) and every evening we enjoyed a beautiful sunset, this was the view.

View From Zichron