Thursday, September 30, 2010

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"ALL I DID WAS LISTEN"
by Rachel Awes

Check out her blog - she makes you think!

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

WE HAD A VISITOR TODAY IN THE GARDEN





This Specht, wood pecker, Nakar Suri - נקר סורי loved our already leaf less  fig tree!
And of course my husband hurried to get the camera!

Monday, September 27, 2010

OCTOBERDAYS

These are not resembling Israeli October days, I made this wall hanging for my daughter Carmen while living in California, and I have fond memories of everything related to autumn there, the flaming maple trees, the pumpkins, the turkeys - those golden days...



Cotton and decorator fabrics, machine pieced, hand quilted (in the ditch), hand appliqued - 131cm x 112cm
Zoom in to see the lovely details!
If you are somewhere in the world, where it is fall right now, enjoy this wonderful season, where everything quiets down and goes to rest!

Photos taken by Ran Erde

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Friday, September 24, 2010

I AM TELLING YOU A STORY WHICH IS RELATIVLY TRUE

It happened once upon a time in a small village where poor and god fearing people lived. The houses were very small, one room, really more like a hut, with the floor stamped out of earth and the roof decked with straw. In this one room the whole family lived, the parents and many children, a lot of children usually. They slept there, cooked and ate there, summer and winter, all the same. One day one father could not stand anymore how crowded it was and he went to complain to the Rabbi. Rolling his cap in his hands and bowing his head he started to blabber:  "Oojojoijojoi, Rebbe, I am a poor man and I believe in god and I am observant and I keep the food kosher and pray on Shabbes, but may I be helped? My house is so small and full of people, there is no space, it is too crowded, there is no place to put my feet up and rest, the children fill every corner! And the bad smell, oh it always smells bad, the air is sticky! And the noise they make, oijojoi Rebbe, it is too much, it is unbearable! I am going out of my mind! Please Rebbe,  help me, tell me what to do!"
The Rabbi listened quietly, nodded from time to time, stroked his long gray beard and finally said: "From tomorrow you will bring all your goats to live with you in the house. Come back to me next week!" The poor man started to whine: "But honorable Rebbe, what are you saying? There is no place for those filthy goats!"
But the Rabbi only waved his hand and said: "Do what I told you and come back in one week!"
So he went home, lamenting all the way and not at all understanding what the Rabbi wanted from him. But he did obey and brought the goats in to live with them - oijojoijoijoi and again ojojoijojoi - it was impossible, it was horrendous! The mess was ten times bigger, the smell twenty times worse, the noise thirty times louder, and there was no place to lie down to sleep, they all slept sitting up!
When the week was over, the poor man returned to the Rabbi: "Dear Rebbe, I did what you told me to do, but this is ruining my life and  my wife threatens to run away!"
The Rabbi was smiling silently into his beard and then he ordered: "Take the goats back to their pen and come to me again in one week!"
He went home and gladly did as he was told! Oh, oh, oh, how wonderful life was all of a sudden, how spacey the house was and how clean it smelled and how fresh the air was!!! So much place! Up with his feet to rest! No more loud bloating of the goats, only laughter from the children! And he got hugs and smiles from his wife!
He paid a visit to the Rabbi after a week, he kissed the Rabbi's hands, put a schissele full with goat milk on the table and said: "Thank you Rebbe for your wisdom and your advise! My life is wonderful again, and in my home is a lot of place!  May the Rebbe live a long life!"

The goats photographed by my husband in Turkey.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

BLISS IN DA HOUSE

I have no time for a post, so I show you more tote bags.

Bliss in da house,
So do your duty,
Bliss in da house,
Just shake your booty,
Bliss in da house,
Now throw your hands up,
Bliss in da house,
Feelin' is not enough,
Bliss in da house,
Now leave your chair,
Bliss in da house,
Like you just don't care,
Bliss in da house, 
Now move around,
Bliss in da house,
Till you fall right down,
Bliss in da house,
Say you can feel it,
Bliss in da house,
Forget the pain,
Bliss in da house,
Just play it again.

Sparx Nasir
The wonderful ceramic bird by Margaret Lamdan

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

THREE LITLLE GLAZED OVER BUTTONS...

a message, some strange decorator fabric, a few left over flower petals...
and a model from Malta...
http://www.etsy.com/shop/glazedover

OF BE COLA - CHICKEN WITH COKE

We don't eat junk food, but cooking is not a priority in my life - although no one will go hungry in my family. So whenever I can grab a recipe which is simple and quick I go for it! I have some favorites. One is a five minute preparation time cheese cake (okay ten minutes!) and another one is the malt beer bread I posted a while ago (what? you still didn't try it?), and the pecan cookies from an earlier post are fast and easy to make as well. 

This chicken recipe was given to me a long time ago by a dear friend, much older than me, who would always call me "Bubale" and who's name was Uri, like my husbands. He sadly passed away already, but this recipe stays with me and reminds me of his wonderful personality and kindness every time I cook it. It is very simple with few ingredients but it comes out tasty and delicious:

1      big chicken, divided into eight or ten pieces
2      big onions, quartered
8      or more cloves of garlic, cut up a bit
1/2   cup ketchup
1/2   cup soy sauce
1/2   cup coca cola
1/2   cup apricot jam (marmalade)
1      teaspoon hot pepper (paprika)

Put the chicken pieces in a pan, mix all the ingredients and spill them over the chicken, cover the pan with aluminum foil and keep it in the oven by 220 degrees C (preheated) for an hour and 15 minutes or so, rotate the pieces every half hour and pour sauce over them. Take the alu foil off, increase the temperature to 250 C and let them brown and the sauce thicken. Good with rice! BeTeavon! Guten Appetit!

Sometimes I make a whole meal out of it and add to the pan cut up potatoes, carrots and mushrooms - everything will soak up the sauce and taste yummy!  
Don't be mad at me - THOSE are roosters not chicken!! Aren't they beautiful?
Photographed of course by my husband Uri at the Dan Reserve in the Galilee.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

IMAGES FROM THE DESERT

We went for a long melancholic drive through the hot and bone dry arid Negev Desert this weekend - and we found beautiful views with muted colors...
 A lone tree under the cloudless sky...
A sweet bird on thorny branches...
Stepping out of the car getting engulfed by the immense heat, the soul gets calm, drained and cleaned of worries and filled with quietness... - hm and instant yearning for the air condition in the vehicle... :-)

Thursday, September 9, 2010

FROM THE ZOO TO THE MALL

If you had a giraffe
and he stretched another half …
you would have a giraffe and a half...

             Shel Silverstein

Monday, September 6, 2010

SHANA TOVA - שנה טובה

The Hebrew year is ending  and the Jewish New Year arrived - Rosh HaShana, literally the 'head of the year'. 
It begins on the first day of Tishrei, the seventh month of the Hebrew Calender. If Rosh HaShana does not fall on Shabatt it is celebrated with the blowing of the Shofar, a trumpet, made out of a rams horn. There are special prayers, services and blessings associated with this holiday and it is a day of rest. The greetings are usually 'Shana Tova Umetuka', a 'Good and Sweet Year'. To ensure that the year will be sweet, apples and honey are eaten and for receiving plenty, pomegranate kernels are served. The last day of the month Elul is Erev Rosh HaShana, the eve of the New Year, which will be celebrated with a festive meal. This year it will be tomorrow evening.
So I wish to my family and friends and to everyone to whom it concerns: Shana Tova Umetuka!!!
 
Pomegranate crowns in spring
            The fruit ripe and juicy to eat at Rosh HaShana!

All the information about the Jewish New Year can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosh_Hashanah
First photo by my dear friend Aiva!

YAEL - What's in a name?

I was not always called Yael. I chose this name for me together with my husband upon my arrival in Israel almost thirty years ago. Why? Because I liked its sound and its connotation and it suited me fine! The name given to me by my parents had the meaning of strength and power. From early childhood on I did not like my name at all (actually I hated it!) and I did not identify with it.  When I had the opportunity to change it I gladly did!
So how about "Yael"? There is an opinion circulating regarding this name which says it means something like "strength of God", or "God is", or "God does" referring to the syllables Ya, as in Yaweh (God) and  el as in Elohim (God). This is a mistake because of the Hebrew writing of Yael, it is jud, ain, lamed יעל which has none of the above meaning whatsoever.  An Ibex, a Mountain Goat, eine Bergziege, this is the simple and beautiful meaning of my name Yael.
I was inspired to write this post by my blogger friend Inbar Bernstein - her birth name is a Hebrew name as well!  
The photographs were taken by my husband near the Dead Sea.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

CANTATA IN TREE MAJOR


126 cm x 126 cm - cotton, bleached cotton  
machine pieced - hand quilted
First three Photos by Ran Erde