Caution WHAT crossing?!?

.

Click any photo to enlarge

.
I spotted this little red sign at the top of an Old City (Jerusalem) alleyway, just inside the Jaffa Gate. Odd place for a "tractor crossing" sign I thought to myself, and quickly snapped a photo. It was more than a little incongruous, since the alley in question looked like this:
.
(alley shots were taken from the bottom looking up)
.

.
Imagine my surprise a few minutes later when I saw this:

.

.

.

What you can't see in this shot is that this little tractor was also pulling a small trailer behind it too. Turns out, this is how garbage is collected in the rabbit's warren back alleys of the Old City. Ingenious and quite unexpected. I didn't actually see him go up the steps so perhaps he just backed out again, though I can't imagine it would be all that much easier to try and back that rig up and around in those tiny streets.

.

Heh. You learn something new every day. Jerusalem is just full of surprises.

.

Stylized Lampshade

Click to enlarge

.
This is a closeup of a painted lampshade I saw in a Jerusalem restaurant a few weeks ago. The actual fixture was painted a somewhat sickly shade of green, fairly unattractive in fact, but the abstract lines struck a chord in me and the original photo held on and managed to avoid landing in the circular file (can we still call it that now that it's all just electrons zipping invisibly around inside a plastic box?). A bit of playing around in photoshop and it's got a new lease on life as a monochrome abstract.
.
Still not great art (I'm not sure any amount of photoshopping could elevate that ugly a thing to that status) but intriguing in its own way. I'm not sure I'm quite done with it yet. I think this little scribble still has more to show me. Perhaps, in time, it will.
.

Summer Stock Sunday #2 - Swimming, Swimming...

.

Click to enlarge

.
We had a great day at the pool today. The kids were especially happy for a day to just mess around - no swimming lessons. And yes, since I know many of you must be wondering bathing caps are required at most community pools in Israel for anyone with long hair, which is pretty much every girl in the country. Luckily they don't bother the moms too much if your hair is up and you're not actively swimming (laps or underwater). I really REALLY hate wearing mine (it's uncomfortable and makes me look remarkably like a weeble (remember them? they wobble but don't fall down? big round heads? yup, that's me in a bathing cap.) so I only wear it if I'm swimming laps, which I don't do all that often. I also really need to find the time to pick up new goggles for both kids - Maya adores her little flower ones but they're much too small, making her scrunched up eyes look swollen, as if she's got a raging case of pink eye, and Itai's have started leaking enough to be annoying.

.

Oh, and while we're on the subject of slacker mothers who don't buy their children properly fitting goggles, I obviously don't take them for haircuts often enough either - if I don't get Itai a haircut soon they're going to start making HIM wear a bathing cap, a transgression for which I suspect he'd never forgive me. (Luckily you can't see Maya's bangs under that bathing cap, because she too is in the running for at least a bronze medal in the Sheepdog of the Year competition.)

.

So what have you all been up to this fine summer week?

.

Come play along - add the link to your own Summer Stock post below to join in the fun.

.

.

Another Old City Window

.
Geez, is this woman ever going to run out of Old City shots to post?
.
Answer: Not for a while yet - it's just too photogenic, I couldn't help myself, I probably shot 300 photos in an afternoon. (Not to worry, I won't subject you to all most some a few of them.)
.
I took this shot with Window Views in mind, but the old stones seemed a natural fit for Sepia Scenes as well so I tried the shot both ways.
.
.

.
Personally, I still like the full-color shot the best. I think the grime and the rust keep that element of reality and contribute to the feeling of the image as a tiny corner of the world that time forgot.
.
Which one do you prefer?
.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summer Stock Sunday is off and running - see you there!
.

Jerusalem's Old City - A Study In Contrasts

Click to enlarge.

.

Look here for more photos of Jerusalem's fascinating Old City as well as some very surprising Mediterranean scenery, and then visit Wordless Wednesday to see what other people aren't saying this week.

.

Church of the Holy Sepulcher - Interior

.
Yesterday I showed you a tiny piece of the Church's interior - today it's time to fill in the blanks a bit.
.

(Click to enlarge all photos except this first one - I have no idea why this one alone is not clickable)

.

.
.

.

These lamps (at least I think they're lamps) hang over the stone you see in the previous photo.

.

.
I love all these small hanging lamps in the Orthodox section of the Church. I don't know if they have a particular religious significance (if you know please tell me, I'm curious) but they're certainly graceful to look at, especially when they're hung in large groups like these.
.

.

.

.

No matter what your personal belief system, Jerusalem is sure to delight. Wherever you go there is something wonderful just waiting to be discovered around the next corner. Come see for yourselves one day - and then tell me about your discoveries over a cup of coffee around the island.

.

Visit Mary the Teach for more ruby red goodness.

.