AUTUMNFLOWERS

Found last weekend at the Golan Heights at Mount Hosek. (Sternbergia, Colchicum and Crocus)

Photographs by Uri Eshkar

נרקיסים בהר כרמל

The first wild daffodils are blooming here...

LITTLE GIRLS DELIGHT

I was asked to create presents for little girls - and I gladly did - I had some real fun days with it!

And I made some more of those - the little beds are made from tea boxes.

The crochet pattern for the sweet petite fellows is from
http://www.irenestrange.co.uk

PERFECTION

Have a nice Sunday!

WELCOME HOME GILAD

WELCOME HOME!

CARMEN Y JOSELITO

Flamenco performance, Ronda, Andalusia, Spain.

Photos by Uri Eshkar

VIKTUALIENMARKT - MUNICH

I was in Germany for a week to attend my niece's wedding, and among other places visited the Viktualienmarkt in Munich, a 200 year old market in the inner city, which is very beautiful and rich, ever so colorful, with good smells. It offers a big variety of fruit, vegetables, herbs and spices (and cheese, meat, bread, wine, etc.). Everything was so orderly and pretty displayed. The spotless fruits were arranged in little boxes and baskets, always only a small number of pieces, like they were counted, the stalls looking very artful.

How different from the fruit and vegetable markets here in Israel. Everything is piled in high heaps in huge quantities at the market tables, but in good quality too.

The exotic fruits in Munich were mostly priced a piece each, something that won't be seen here, where it is always per kilogram, and if you would ask for one piece, the vendor would laugh at you and shoo you away or give it to you for free.

And while looking at the prices I realized how lucky I am. Many of those fruits, being so special and very expensive there, I have in my garden, like pomegranate, passion fruit, feijoa, lemons, figs, even olives. And often we have so much of it, that we can give some to our neighbors, and the one on the right presents us in return with kumquats, and the one on the left gives us papaya, guava and mango. I saw in Munich khaki fruit (persimmons) for 3.95 Euro a piece, I can buy more than a kilo here for that money, and cactus figs (prickly pears) grow wild everywhere here in the country, including behind our garden, and we can pick as much as we want, if we don't fear the tiny pricks too much, or we can buy them along the roads from Bedouin boys at very low cost.

Then I could understand why my relatives were so happy and excited about the pomegranates, feijoa and passion fruit I had brought with me to give them, they are a real luxury there.

Photos taken by me.

DURMITOR NATIONAL PARK - MONTENEGRO

This country presents you with many goods and we had a lot of them: swimming in the ocean, hiking in the mountains, relaxing at the lakes, dressing in short sleeve t-shirts one day, and warm sweaters the next in another region, wearing sandals and boots, bathing in the sun and getting wet in the rain, enjoying mild warm breezes, and  brazing ourselves in strong icy winds.

The Durmitor park is a natural wonder of beautiful landscapes and views. It is utterly rich in fauna and flora, with thousands of different species. One could spend a whole vacation only there and not get bored at all. One day we decided to explore a small part of it and drive higher into the mountains. We started in Zabliak, a little town with funny houses in many colors, strewn over a large area. 

We soon felt the chill of the altitude and the scenery changed and got very secluded and lonely. 

Pretty thistles appeared along the road in the otherwise plain meadows. 

Sheep were grazing in the pasture with a friendly shepherd herding them and smiling at us when we stopped to photograph. He knew no other language than his own, which is completely strange to us, but we managed a conversation using hand gestures and facial expressions - it worked perfectly.

The higher we drove, the more ragged and bare the mountains got, displaying no trees but only low bushes and shrubs. And it started to get really cold and windy. 

Our aim was to reach lake Valovito. We found it, but it was almost dry now before winter, nevertheless the view was taking our breath away.

And there in the middle of nowhere stood this small solitary hut, a tiny mountain restaurant with an energetic owner, who spoke to us in high speed servo-croatic, but we "understood" his whole speech :-) and told him we don't want soup, but coffee. He made us the best and hottest coffee ever, which we had outside on his terrace near the wood logs for heating the stove, warming our hands on the cups.

Then the clouds broke and rain started heavily pouring down and we slowly headed back to our hotel.

Much more is to experience in Montenegro. There are the monasteries, Dobridovina and the lovely Moradca, and Ostrog being the most spectacular, suddenly appearing after a scary drive on a very narrow road through a wonderful landscape high up the mountain, glued to the rock, clinging to the cliff.

But I will finish the trip with this post, it was a long journey. If you are still hungry for more just visit once this precious place on earth, or enjoy all of my husbands photos at:
www.picasaweb.google.com/uri.eshkar

Photographs by Uri Eshkar.