Rosh Pina Window

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I'm killing two memes with one (half-sepia) stone (arch window) today.
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I've had this photo kicking around since our visit to Rosh Pina this winter waiting for it's day in the sun, and today seemed like as good a day as any, since none of my recent shots fit either of these prompts very well.
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Enjoy.
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Happy Independence Day

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We're too busy having fun for a big long post today. After we've recuperated (i.e. cleaned up the house) from last night's festivities we'll swing by our town's celebrations for an hour and then out to a barbecue with a bunch of good friends.
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All in all, a great way to spend one of my favorite holidays.
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Happy 61st birthday Israel.
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Israel Mourns, 2009 - Only the numbers have changed

133 Israeli soldiers and civilians died during the past year either in the course of military service or as civilian casualties of hostile activity.

133 new graves, new families struck down by a blow that can never be healed.

133 people lost in the year since I wrote this post.

198 since my post the year before.

And for what?

What have we learned? When will it end? We're no closer to peace now than we were a year ago.

The siren will sound again at 11:00 today, and again we will remember, and we will mourn, and we will pray that there will be no more.

Tonight we will turn our faces toward the future made possible by those who paid the ultimate price as we celebrate our Independence Day, but today we mourn.

There has to be another way. A way we can work together for a better, safer, more peaceful region. A way where the deathmongers on either side will be marginalized, no longer able to inflict their twisted visions and hatred on their fellow citizens.

A way that is TRULY a way of peace. Not the peace given lip service by those who fear it, but a real, true, just, lasting peace.

Let it begin today. Let it begin with me. Let it begin with all of us.

It's a palm, it's a succulent, it's a...

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Actully I haven't the faintest idea what this is, but I find it's bottle brush appearance quite striking. It reminds me of a porcupine, or at least how a porcupine might look if it were a tree. I think it's some type of palm, but my googling hasn't turned up anything even remotely similar, so I can't be sure. Heck, I can't even be nearly sure. Or even slightly optimistic.

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Any budding herbologists out there want to take a guess? (Get it? budding herbologists? I crack myself up.)

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More monochrome shots can be found over at Aileni's - swing by and have a look.

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Change on the horizon

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We've got some big news about Maya.

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This past year Maya has been in what is called a "communications" kindergarten - a program for children with high cognitive abilities but other challenges, such as emotional or social difficulties, speech problems, etc. She is in a class of just eleven children with a teacher (trained in special ed), an aide, and a host of professional support staff (art therapy and occupational therapy once a week and speech therapy twice a week, in addition to weekly gym and music classes). In addition, she also has weekly sessions with a developmental psychologist and a (different) speech therapist who works with her on communication issues - "how" to have a conversation as opposed to how to pronounce various sounds. She has been working her little ass off, and it shows. She has made so much progress she's practically unrecognizable as the same child who entered the class last September. She's still got her challenges, but that light at the end of the tunnel is shining brighter by the day.

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For next year, Maya has been referred to a regular mainstream kindergarten class, out of the special ed system. (Because of her October birthday and her circumstances, she is entitled to and encouraged to take two full years of kindergarten. She will benefit tremendously from having an extra year before she enters full-on elementary school in first grade, and this way instead of being one of the youngest in her year she'll be just slightly older than her classmates.) She'll receive two half-hour in-class aide sessions a week (normally for cognitive issues, but in her case for social skills) and possibly, hopefully, one in-class therapy session a week, if such a thing is funded in our city next year. She'll still see her psychologist once a week (that we do privately) and will also continue with the afternoon speech therapy sessions one afternoon a week, but other than that it's head first into the deep end of the pool, complete with a mainstream class of 35 kids. (Yes, sadly 35 is the norm here - with just one teacher and one aide.) The particular class we're sending her to is in a fairly small building, so when possible they do try to keep it a bit smaller. The year Itai was there they had "only" 27. The good news is that that particular teacher and aide are wonderful, and we feel they'll work really hard to see that Maya acclimates well and doesn't get lost in the shuffle.
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We're cautiously optimistic. Thrilled that they feel she's ready to return to the mainstream, but more than a little concerned about how she'll react once she's out of her very small, very nurturing special ed class with all the extra supports and staff.

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We did have an option for a halfway point, a small special needs 1st grade class, but since her biggest challenges are social and emotional we all agreed that having her move programs and schools three years in a row would be unnecessarily difficult. Better to go in now with the same group of kids she'll go all the way through elementary school with, and perhaps even all the way to high school, and with a kindergarten teacher and aide that we know and trust. A harder transition now, but hopefully an easier one into the chaos of first grade (the first year of elementary here - kindergartens are in small freestanding, one-class-only buildings), since she'll be moving up with a large group of kids, hopefully friends.
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So all in all a somewhat stomach-churning change, but one that will hopefully prove itself to be a very good one.
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Inside looking out

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Click photos to enlarge

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This week is the inaugural edition of Window Views, Mary the Teach's newest photo prompt and one that is sure to inspire all sorts of wonderful creativity. My first entry isn't a fantastic photo technically, but I love the joy in Maya's expression as she pauses momentarily to give a quick mid-play smile. The second entry was taken from the other side of the same play structure, with it's open tunnel replacing the round bubble window. It's not a window shot per se, but since both shots highlight the round shape of the tunnel I'm cheating and having them do double-duty for both Window Views and Carmi's Thematic Photographic, whose theme this week is "round".

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I'm sneaky that way.

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Besides, who could resist a chance to show off those gorgeous eyes. I did absolutely nothing to that shot other than add the frame, it's straight out of the camera. If I were going to photoshop it, I'd have done something about that beach-blown rat's nest Maya's got on top of her head (can you believe those are were actually two pigtails in there?), not to mention the odd cast the red tunnel gives to her skin, but the eyes were so perfect that I left it exactly as it was. Enlarge the photo and you'll see what I mean - her eyes are so clear they're spooky.

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Both of these photos were taken this past Saturday during our afternoon at the beach. I'm getting a lot of mileage out of that one afternoon, photographically speaking. I'll have to bring my camera along more often.

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Have a great day everyone. Swing by Window Views too and join in the fun over there. The more the merrier.

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Springtime at the Beach in Tel Aviv

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Taken last Saturday, the same day as this one.

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Click to enlarge any of the photos on this page,

and visit Wordless Wednesday to see who else isn't talking today.

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Never Forget - Never Again

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Tonight marks the beginning of Holocaust Remembrance Day here in Israel. All places of entertainment will close, radios will broadcast only soft, quiet music, and the whole of Israel will embark on a day of quiet contemplation, remembering all those lost to the evil and the madness, among them most of my father's family, all the relatives he never got to know, the cousins he didn't get to grow up with, because his grandparents, aunts, and uncles, and their families, friends and neighbors, were murdered by the butchers in a world that had gone insane.
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Tomorrow morning at 10:00 a siren will sound, and for two minutes all of the country will come to a standstill. Cars on the highway will stop driving. Meetings will cease. Shopkeepers will stand silently at their tills. Pedestrians will stand quietly where they are. No music will play, conversations will halt, and all classes will stop, as we remember the six million and those who fought to save them, and vow "Never Again".
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When the siren again falls silent activity will resume, but at a quieter, softer pace, at least for a while.
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Never forget.
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Never again.
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Tel Aviv Beach, April 2009

Click to enlarge (and to see a lot more detail)

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The beach in Tel Aviv yesterday afternoon, looking south towards Jaffa

(If you're not familiar with Israeli geography, this is the Mediterranean coast)

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It was a beautiful sunny afternoon and people headed for the beach in droves. We spent the afternoon in our favorite beach bar drinking happy hour cocktails and gorging on Mexican food walking along the beach. I took this (and many other pictures that I will probably soon subject you to) after Maya decided that enough was enough and headed straight into the still a bit chilly water, followed soon after by her "there's no such thing as too cold" father.
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Visit Aileni (at his new home!) for more monochrome madness.
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Nearly back

My parents are leaving for the airport late tonight after a great (and very busy!) two week visit, so we're busy enjoying our last day together until we head to New Hampshire this August.

If any of my regular readers are left out there, normal posting will resume tomorrow :).

Dan Fogelberg's Retrospective Interview - Virtual Blog Tour

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I've been a fan of Dan Fogelberg's music ever since Leader of the Band first made me cry so many years ago, so it's a real treat for me to have been asked to review the new compilation CD Dan Fogelberg: A Retrospective Interview as part of Promo 101's virtual blog tour.
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Dan left us at the much too young age of 56 on December 16th, 2007 after losing his battle against prostate cancer. After his death Fred Migliore, the host of the FM Odyssey radio show, compiled this 2-CD set from an interview he conducted with Dan in 1997, where they spoke about Dan's many years in the music business. The Retrospective CD contains 13 full-length songs as well as a lot of the stories and thoughts behind them.
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The way the interviews and the music flow together it's almost as if Dan were sitting right there in your living room with you, talking and playing on into the night, letting his reminiscing guide the way through a virtual house concert.
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What makes Dan's music, and this CD, so special?

I think it's part of Dan's magic that he was able to do things like turn something as minor as a chance meeting with an old flame in the frozen food aisle of the grocery store into a song that touched millions, making them both smile and cry at memories of times long past and roads not taken. Or perhaps it was the way his heartfelt vocals and soft acoustic guitar chords bypass your mind, heading straight into your heart, into your very blood.
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There are so many favorites on this album - Same Old Lang Syne, Run for the Roses, Rhythm of the Rain (YouTube clip from an appearance on the Carson Show, and so much richer than the original Cascades version from 1962), but just as it did so many years ago, it's still the Leader of the Band that makes my breath catch in my throat. Listen for yourself and see what I mean:

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Retrospective, available from the FM Odyssey Store, would be a great addition to the collection of anyone who loves Dan Fogelberg, easy listening, or just beautiful ballads and sweet sweet guitar. Even better, $3 from each sale will be donated to the Prostate Cancer Foundation in Dan's name, so that perhaps someday we won't have to lose so many to this terrible disease.
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If you too treasure the gift that Dan Fogelberg left us as his own legacy be sure to leave a comment here - the promoters have told me that there are about 45 minutes of “lost segments” from the CD which have never been likely never will be released to the public, but each person that posts a comment on this or any other participating blog during the virtual blog tour will be entered in a drawing to win a free copy of this one-of-a-kind CD with the remainder of the interview! In addition to the random drawing winners, the most unique, insightful, special comment will also be chosen to win a copy, so be sure to warm up your typing fingers!
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Soft-shelled sea turtles and nutria at Nahal Alexander

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We braved the Passover holiday crowds and some pretty gray (as you'll see from the photos) and windy weather today to visit Nahal Alexander, one of the only places in Israel where you can see soft-shelled turtles. These turtles can grow to a length of one meter (3 feet) and a weight of 50 kg (110 pounds)]. The ones we saw today were probably close to that size, don't you think?

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After watching the turtles for a bit we headed into the park to pass through what you might have mistaken for a very large parking lot full of picnickers escape the crowds and walk along the nahal (river) towards the sea. About halfway along we stopped to see the view from Khirbet Samra, the ruins of a mansion owned by a 19th century watermelon merchant.

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On our way out of the park at the end of the day we were happy to see that two of the local nutria were paying a visit, stopping on the bank to eat matza some idiot had thrown in plants and the occasional grapefruit that had rolled down the hill from a nearby orchard.

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We had a great day out, though I'll be sure to schedule our next visit for a non-holiday weekend.
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On heatwaves, matza, and other meanderings

Another spring sharav came through today, bringing with it soaring temperatures (well up into the nineties) and dessicatingly dry air. There wasn't that much dust with this one though, thank goodness. The sharav finally broke this evening and as we speak (err, as I type) gale-force winds are whipping through the neighborhood, shaking my windows and rattling my walls, and with no disrespect to Bob Dylan not at all figuratively.

In other meaningless news Jay and I managed to stash the kids with the visiting grandparents for a few hours this morning so that we could head into Tel Aviv to finally look for a new light fixture for the living room. Our old one exploded (yes, quite literally, blowing the circuits for the entire house with it) about two months ago and we've been living in semi-darkness ever since, unable to find the time to head over to the South Tel Aviv street known for an abundance of lighting stores all on the same block. After visiting every last store on the street we finally found something we both loved in the very last store. It's custom-made so we won't have it until next Friday, but what's another week after all this time. It's a very cool fixture, definitely worth waiting for - somewhat like the way all of you will have to wait for the photos, since I'm suspecting it will make a great monochrome shot.

In other news I am now officially utterly and completely sick of matza. The holiday ends tomorrow night here in Israel - and not a moment too soon. I have had quite enough of eating cardboard for one year.

We're off on a tiyul (trip, and in this case nature hike) tomorrow, so hopefully my next post will have more photos and less meaningless drivel.

Perhaps not, but we can always hope, right?

Gooey Geyser

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(Sorry for the scarce posting, my folks are here for another week. We're having a great time but it's not leaving me much chance for blogging.)

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This was actually a fairly icky sweet and sticky but not at all gooey geyser, but Maya had a very well-developed obsession with Dora the Explorer when she was younger so geysers are inevitably tied with the word gooey in my mind now.

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My parents brought over a kit (basically just a plastic tube, a string, and a package of mentos) to do the famous " exploding diet soda" experiments, and much fun was had by all. We've already exploded several bottles of diet soda and will probably have to do more once more mentos can be procured (i.e. once I remember to buy them).

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A very happy Easter to all who are celebrating today.

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Tel Megiddo

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A few quick pictures from our visit to Tel Megiddo this afternoon, or as it's known in English ever since an early Greek scholar mistranslated it - Armageddon (the actual name in Hebrew is "Har" Megiddo, or Mt. Megiddo). It's got a history 7,000+ years long including over 25 different conquests - history buffs can check out the link above for more. The ruins are from the site itself, the views out from the site are the fields of the fertile Jezreel Valley.
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Happy Passover

A very happy holiday to all celebrating

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Out of Time

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I'm quite literally out of time this week since my folks just got into town this morning, so here's a quickie Ruby Tuesday from me.

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I was out of shooting, or rather breathing, time when grabbing this photo too, since the alley it was lying in had a broken pipe and stunk to high heaven. I'm also out of actual packages of Time cigarettes, which I smoked for a few years before quitting my 17-year pack a day habit a decade ago (they were harsh and dry and I hated them, but they were half the price of the Marlboro Reds that I preferred).

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Reclining Man

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Untitled (or at least unlabeled) sculpture in the niche of an outer wall of local sculptor Dov Barda's home. I've always loved this piece, and others he has mounted outside his home, so I was delighted to find out that he was hosting an open house this past weekend. The pieces inside were absolutely wonderfully - many reminiscent of this style, but many others with more organic, fluid lines that seemed to flow and move under my duly admiring gaze. I would have taken photographs inside but it didn't seem all that appropriate.
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Better yet, I should have taken out another mortgage and brought one of them home with me. If I ever win the lottery I'll be back to do so before day's end.
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This photo is naturally monochrome, being a black statue against a white wall.
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Visit Aileni for more monochrome magic.
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PS My parents arrive for a visit in the morning so computer time over the next two weeks will be a bit scarce. I'll catch up with everyone eventually, but it may take a while.

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Around the world in 80 clicks - a motherhood journey

Hannah from A Mother in Israel tagged me for the latest meme circling the blogosphere. I don't do memes all that often but this one, started by Catherine of Her Bad Mother (a a wonderful and insightful writer - go check her out if you aren't already subscribed) and David of It's Not a Lecture (a new to me blog that looks very intriguing, I'll be back for a good read after I finish this post), definitely speaks to me. (As a small egotistical aside, I read the original post announcing the creation of this meme and was secretly delighted that it took only one day to arrive at my blog. Go me.) The idea is for mothers around the world to share five things that they love about motherhood.

I like this - this forced stepping back for a bit of self-serving introspection, taking time to not only live my life but to examine it and distill it, or at least the part of it that revolves around my being a mother, down to its essence. Motherhood can be full of lofty heights and stomach-churning lows, often spinning dizzyingly between the two over the course of a single day, with random stops at the utterly mundane.

Which of all these parts do I love most? The act of choosing seems an impossible task, but a few highlights did spring from my mind of their own volition.

I love the way my daughter, at nearly five and a half, still launches herself at me from across the playground when I come to pick her up each afternoon. I love seeing her grow and change and begin to claim her place in the world. She hasn't always had the easiest path to walk, and my heart swells with pride when I think of how far she's come and how far she has shown she can go.

I love the way my son, at age eight, still asks to snuggle on the couch - when he's not busy being Mr. Independent and making plans to go visit any one of a multitude of friends. His social life is infinitely more successful than that of his father and I and he is speeding towards self-sufficiency. I treasure these fleeting moments of little boyness even more for knowing that their days are numbered.

I love the chance to experience magic, actual magic, through their eyes with each new experience. To be the one to open new worlds to discover.

I love getting to know the people my children are becoming, both because of me and despite me, as I walk alongside them on their journey.

And I love what motherhood has done to ME - how it has made me more loving, more patient, more giving. Less selfish. More vulnerable. More accepting.

And just like that I've reached five, with so much still left unsaid. It's an impossible task of course, but I've made my dent in it.

Now it's your turn to make yours. To honor the international spirit of this meme I'm going to pass this task along to mothers in five completely different parts of the world, as well as to anyone else out there who wants to participate:

Meredith from Poppy Fields (France)
Vanessa from Daffodil Campbell (Maui)
Grace from Sandier Pastures (Dubai)
Elizabeth from Planet Nomad (Morocco)
Stacey from Is There Any Mommy Out There? (Pacific Northwest)

Playin', playin' in the band

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A Dixieland band that is.
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One of the more tongue in cheek traditions of this annual musical retreat is the Brass Band Ensemble. What is so tongue in cheek about a brass band class you might ask? (After you got over asking yourself why they have a brass band class at a folk music weekend in the first place, and the answer to that is I don't have the faintest idea. It's more than a bit odd.)
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What makes this particular brass class unique is its musicians. To attend, you must NOT actually know how to play any brass instrument. Only those who've never touched an instrument (or at least not since last year's class) can participate. Personally I sit it out but my son Itai, the eight year old trumpet virtuoso you see in the photo above, loves it. He positively flew back from lunch so as not to miss even a minute of instruction. The guy who runs it has a large assortment of old beat up brass instruments which he passes out to whoever wants to publicly humiliate themselves perform with the band in that evening's concert. They spend about an hour learning, sort of, how to actually play a note, or in a good year two, and then a few hours later they make their big debut. Shockingly, the sounds they made this year were actually (almost) recognizable as a song. I wouldn't go so far as to say music, but it did bear faint resemblance to a song.
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The whole thing is a scream, though I think seeing them all come out in costume is the high point of the performance...
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Visit Sepia Scenes for more of that old time music religion photography.
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