Neve Zedek Window

I haven't had too much time for photography the past few months but for the sake of both my muse and my sanity it's high time to MAKE the time, so yesterday when I found myself with a few hours free I grabbed my camera and my car keys and headed into Tel Aviv for a walk around one of my very favorite neighborhoods. Neve Zedek is a study in contradictions - old and decrepit, new and gentrified beyond the price range of mere mortals, sparkling new residential towers full of glass and curved lines (which would look fabulous in a more modern neighborhood but are sinfully out of place in this one).

Here's a glimpse of the older side of the neighborhood - look fast, it probably won't last much longer...

Tap tap tap... Is this thing on?

So, uhh, ummm... How exactly does one come back from having forgotten to blog for 3.5 months? It wasn't even a conscious decision, it just sort of happened, and then the longer I was away the harder it was to come back.

Everything's fine, I was just crazy busy with work and I guess I sort of lost my blogging mojo. Let's try again and see if it comes back. I'm game if you are. Assuming of course that there's anyone still out there after all this time. Is there? Are you?

So where have I been? Well, there was a trip to Provence with my husband way back in April. It was wonderful, everything a trip to France should be despite the fairly lousy weather. One of our hosts told us we're not crazy for thinking that it rains in Europe every single Passover/Easter week - it really does. Sort of the way it always rains on Purim here in Israel. Still, you really can't go far wrong in France, whatever the weather. Don't you agree?

Les Baux de Provence

Cassis Harbor

Van Gogh's Courtyard in St Remy

Goat cheese for sale at the Cassis weekly market

After France there was the usual flurry of spring - getting out into nature, our annual trip to the folk festival, the beach, the pool, and so much more, but I'll save some of those for another post.

Right now we're in the midst of the annual end of year insanity - an elementary school graduation, end of the year sports events, all the birthday parties for all of the kids with summer birthdays - you name it, it's probably happening. It's all good, but more than a little exhausting to keep sorted. It's a good thing I've only got two kids and two adults to keep track of - any more and someone would be leaving the house without their underwear for sure.

So that's me in a nutshell, with a few photos thrown in for fun. What have you all been up to these past few months?

Where on earth...

... has Robin been?

View this image as a framed print in my Society6 shop

We took the kids and headed off to the nearby island of Cyprus for a much needed Hannukah getaway! Just a 40 minute flight away (a wow in and of itself!) the weather was pretty much identical to that of Israel - some days were gorgeous, some days it stormed all day, and once up in the high mountains we even saw snow, to the utter amazement of my Israeli kids - much less so to their American-Israeli parents who had to drive the tiny, windy, rock-strewn slippery mountain roads in it... Driving adventures aside though it was a fantastic trip. We saw quaint villages, hiked up green mountains, saw modern cities, beautiful beaches, ancient ruins, Byzantine churches and goats galore, and so much more. Far more in fact than I'd dreamed was there, even in the off-season - we're already plotting our next trip.

This particular image, conveniently offering both a quaint window and a few red roof tiles lying on the stairs (a future renovation? a past one?) was taken in the wonderfully picturesque village of Omodos, in the Troodos Mountains. Famous for lace and the oddest carob-flavored breadsticks I've ever tasted. I've heard the views from the village are also lovely but with the weather that day we didn't see much of them. Next time...

In the meantime, visit my Facebook page and Society6 shop for more images from Cyprus (with more to come shortly).

Stained Glass Windows, Beaune Cathedral

Stunning stained glass windows from the cathedral in Beaune, France. Click over to the image listing on etsy to see more detail you can't see here on blogger - the detail on the faces is truly superb.

This and many more items are available in my etsy shop. Click on over and have a look around.

Roman Trattoria, Early Morning

A Roman trattoria prepares to open for the day.

No shortage of red for this week's Ruby Tuesday, is there? Ooh, and there are a few quintessentially Roman windows and doors there too!

Le P'tit Paradis - Beaune, France storefront

Windows, doors, even a little red sign - this image was practically custom-made for a Monday blog post. We didn't stop into this lovely looking restaurant in Beaune, France, but I sure do love its exterior.

Click here to purchase this image from my etsy shop.

Have a great day!

Post-Passover Catch-Up

Whoa, where did the last month go? We had visiting parents (mine), travel nightmares (theirs, and note to the wise, ALWAYS make sure you have more than 6 months left on your passports if you want to avoid disaster), Holidays (capital H - Passover), holidays (lower case h - trip to southern Burgundy in France), a welcome home stomach virus (don't ask) and now my long-delayed day job project is finally kicking into higher gear. No wonder I'm tired...

We had a wonderful visit with my parents once they finally arrived, spending time together but also getting out to do some hiking and enjoy Israel's gorgeous spring wildflowers, finding hidden mosaics (more on that in a future post), visiting Jerusalem's Ice World (great fun, especially for the kids, and definitely worth a visit if you haven't been yet (it's on till the end of the month), especially if you have an Isracard and can get 50% off), touring the Old City, and even taking a (touristy but fun) boat ride off the Tel Aviv coast. Even better, they also watched the kids for five days so that Jay and I could go away. Since our Barcelona caper was off we went off to France instead (did I ever tell you about that? What a mess... We had tickets on the now-bankrupt Spanair and only found out they'd gone bust by accident. We did eventually recoup our money thanks to the credit card company but it was then too late to find affordable tickets to Barcelona, so we had to quickly rejig our vacation and flew to Geneva instead, where we rented a car and drove over to France for the week. All's well that ends well, but at the time it was a huge source of stress.). The weather in Burgundy was lousy, cold and rainy, but that just meant we spent more time eating and drinking (happy sigh) and I did manage to grab a few photos in between the raindrops... ;)

Click here to purchase this photograph from Around the Island Photography

So what have you all been up to while I've been away? Inquiring minds want to know :).

Click here to see more Whimsical Windows and Delirious Doors.

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Making history come alive in Jerusalem's Jewish Quarter

This past Friday I had the privilege and good fortune to snag an invitation to a fantastically fun event - a scavenger hunt through the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City.

The event, organized for a group of bloggers by Jerusalem Scavenger Hunts, was run brilliantly from start to finish - the routes and stops were fascinating and Tali Tarlow and her crew didn't miss a thing - from the way they made history come alive with Tali's beautifully researched (and laminated! and spiral bound! and so so so well organized!) information packets and route clues to the stories they told to the directions so easy to follow that even someone as directionally-challenged (umm, that would be an understatement) as me could follow them. Heck, after the rainiest January in Israeli history (29 out of 31 days people - no wonder I was so miserable last month!) Tali even managed to rustle up a gorgeous blue sky and shirtsleeves sort of day!

The scavenger hunt itself was such great fun - and the company so stellar - that my group sort of, uhh, forgot that we were meant to be racing and took our time along the way (quality over quantity, right guys?), making sure to soak up every visual, mental and historical treat that was there to be found and finishing up a very respectable third place (out of three, shhh, don't tell...).

The scavenger hunt makes a great day out for an extended family group (I'm already thinking of the family coming over for Itai's bar mitzvah two years from now),  company fun day, or even just for something new to do with a group of friends - even those who've been to the Old City many times will be sure to learn something new and enjoy themselves in the process. Right now the scavenger hunts are conducted completely in English but will soon be available in Hebrew too, and Tali promises that there will be some great new routes added over the next few months as well.

Thanks so much for inviting us Tali, I had a fantastic day and this is definitely going into my "things to do with visiting relatives" file!

(Whoa, when did blogger start letting us format photos in line with the text? Cool stuff...) Oooh, I just realized that there are reds in the second image - perfect for this week's RT2 contribution, and windows and doors for Toby too!

PS If you're in Beit Shemesh tomorrow evening be sure to stop by the AMIT Mid-Winter Fair (Monday evening, February 6th; 7-10PM, Yeshivat Reishit/Genesis Center, 21 Rashi St.). Around the Island Photography will have a table at the fair - come by and say hello :).

Flower by a Window

Wow, it feels like forever since I've posted, I think it's been years since I went this long. Sorry to disappear on everyone like that. I'm about to launch a brand new line of greeting cards and bookmarks and sort of fell into a black hole of graphics and production and print runs for a week or so. The good news is that everything has now gone to print and should be here within the next two days, ready to launch both online and at a crafts fair I'm participating in the first week in February! Squeeeee!!

While I finish running around like a chicken with its head cut off getting ready (not to mention spending many many MANY hours fighting with the cable/internet/phone company over the fact that their infrastructure is collapsing and I've been losing connectivity for literally hours multiple days each week all freaking month long. As we speak the internet is finally back after most of the day gone but the tv is now out. Best case scenario is two more hours... I'm ready to scream and am either going to receive substantial compensation or I'm jumping ship to the competition at the end of this week. I have HAD it with them...) I hope you'll all enjoy this one from the archives. Luckily for me it can do double-duty for both Whimsical Windows and Ruby Tuesday 2, since they seem to be back on the same day again...

Oh, and if you'd like to be among the first to see the new cards and bookmarks be sure to like Around the Island on Facebook - I'll be offering a special introductory discount for all of my Facebook fans :).

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Jerusalem Courtyard

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Click here to purchase this print on etsy, or here for an iPhone case or large-size stretched canvas or print.

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I'm playing slightly fast and loose with the "windows and doors" concept of Toby's wonderful meme this week (now on Mondays - yay!), but hey, a doorway is a kind of door, isn't it? Works for me :).

This particular doorway is into a small courtyard in the Old City of Jerusalem. I love the way the light falls golden on the walls and paving stones. When the light hits just right Jerusalem  truly is the Jerusalem of Gold of song and story.

I'm going to cheat a little bit more while I'm at it (in for a penny, in for a pound) and use this as my RT2 shot for this week as well, since that one went up so early. If you squint carefully you can almost see that the branches on the potted plants are in fact red, and there's a reddish brown paint splotch on the wall too. (Hey, I never said I was very good at conforming...)

Stained Glass Window

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Jerusalem's Christ Church, completed in 1849, is the oldest Protestant church in the Middle East.

Click here to purchase this image on etsy.

This one can do triple-duty for Wordless/Wordful Wednesday and Whimsical Windows, wouldn't you say?

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My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography on Etsy and Society6 and bring home something beautiful today!

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If the photo you're wishing for is something you've seen here on the blog which isn't in one of my shops yet just let me know and I'll happily list it for you.

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Whimsical Windows, Delirious Doors - Inaugural Edition

How fun - Toby from I Wish I Were a Photographer really missed Mary's old Window Views meme, so she decided to start a new one of her own. Today marks the debut of her new Whimsical Windows, Delirious Doors - come play along!

And hey look, I've been wordful this week too - happily this photo can do double duty for both Whimsical Windows and Wordful Wednesday :).

Here's my first contribution, a pair of old windows in Tel Aviv's historic Neve Zedek neighborhood.

I'd have loved a slightly wider shot showing more of the surrounding building but the street was so narrow that this is the best I could do. It's full of character though, which is what drew me to it in the first place.

I'm off to go link up now. Why don't you come along and join us?

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My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography on Etsy and Society6 and bring home something beautiful today!

.

If the photo you're wishing for is something you've seen here on the blog which isn't in one of my shops yet just let me know and I'll happily list it for you.

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