NICE PRESENTS

I put some more of those lovely lavender angels and lavender hearts in my holiday shop. Open the above link and have a look! (11.12.2011 The shop is closed now - till next year!)

Sehava

Hedwig

 Julie

 Olga

 Pippa

 Frizzy Lizzy

HOLIDAY SHOP

I decided to open a little shop for the holidays with small sweet items, all under fifty dollars and under forty Euro. Have a look at the above link, maybe you find some presents for yourself or your loved ones. (11.12.2011 The shop is closed now - till next year!)

Ich habe mich entschlossen einen kleinen Laden fuer die Feiertage aufzumachen, mit netten Geschenken, alle unter vierzig Euro. Durch Anklicken des obigen Links wird der Laden geoeffnet.

This is Frilly Lily, the naughty sweet petite angel - and she has some lovely sisters! They have poly fill and a generous handful of lavender in their belly - each time you hug and squeeze them you surely will go Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhh and breathe deeply! :-)

FIRST CYCLAMEN

My husband brought home today the first photos of cyclamen - shot during a rainy day at the Golan Heights. They are wearing their prettiest dresses!

LAVENDER HEART

I participated in a short fabric printing workshop two weeks ago, and I took home the cleaning up tissues - wow, never throw them away, little wonders can be created with them!

The beautiful lamp work glass bead at the bottom is from here: www.etsy.com/shop/stringythingy 
Have a lovely Sunday!

THE MONKEYS ON GIBRALTAR

Actually I did not like them. They were filthy and very naughty. They would even jump on people.

But these two pinched my heart!! How lovely!

Photos by Uri Eshkar.

SMART GOLDIE

You remember Golda, the kitty from the Negev desert?

She turned into a big healthy marvelous cat. She is strong and headstrong, full of energy, always hungry, in addition to her cat food she will eat almost anything! She still plays with me very roughly, but she will never deliberately hurt me. AND she is very smart. There is always the danger of a cat's head get stuck in a container of yoghurt or cottage (never give it to them unsupervised!).  They all love to lick it clean. Goldie loves that too, but she has her own ways. If the container is small, she will never stick her head in, but nevertheless she gets the last good morsel out of it! 

Have a look!

We had such good laughs yesterday morning sitting in the garden and watching her, about half an hour she was busy licking her paws - she is awesome! 
Look she is here too:
http://youtu.be/RMcuokKP1JY

Have a funny Sunday everyone!

QUINCE MARMALADE - ריבת חבושים

My friend Hilde, the garden fairy from Norway has inspired me to make marmalade. Please browse through her wonderful blog. 

 http://granheim2.blogspot.com

It is about many issues, but all of them are related to nature. She will take you to spiritual places and let you hear the whisper of ancient times. She will teach you about fruit and vegetables, herb plants and trees and flowers and berries, and she explains to you the healing power of stones. She works her big and beautiful garden mostly by herself and shares photos from it throughout the year. She dyes wool into soft and lovely colors with natural material, like leaves, vegetable and fruit, and then knits and crochets it into wonderful mittens, shawls and blankets. She is just amazing! I already learned so much from her. All the produce from her garden she turns into something, be it a salad, or a stew, or a cake, or cookies. She makes marmalade, juice, chutneys, cider, dried fruit, dried herbs, creams, ointment and healthy alternative medicine like liquid extracts from plants with curing attributes. I visit her blog almost every day and enjoy her stories, her teachings and photos.

So, when some days ago I saw quinces at the market, two things jumped into my head, a childhood memory of how I loved quince marmalade and the spirit of Hilde. I bought six of the pretty big sunny yellow fruit and six nice glass jars. At home I searched via the Internet for the easiest recipe. It said one to one rate fruit and sugar, and lemon juice, that was all. I washed the quince thoroughly, I did not peel it, quartered it, took out the core, cut it up into small cubes, mixed it with the sugar, added a bit of water and cooked it for about an hour and a half on low flame with no lid on the pot, then I strained it, mashed the fruit, put it back into the liquid, stirred and let it boil for another two minutes - and spooned it into the jars. 
Here are the three stages, from golden to orange to almost brown - each time a pretty color.

During the process the whole house smelled wonderfully! The marmalade turned out very tasty - Shabatt breakfast will be great!

Have a nice weekend - if you are around our home tomorrow morning, please step inside to join us for coffee and quince marmalade breakfast!

IT IS RAINING - IT IS RAINING

Wow - we have heavy rain and a big thunderstorm right now! Many of you may not understand this happiness - BUT this is the first rain since the beginning of May! 

FERTILE SAND - MARVELOUS PRESENT

Last Shabatt was a wonderful day, pleasant warm weather, blue sky, lovely sun, light breeze. We drove to the Negev desert to visit the ancient Nabatean city Mamshit - I still want to write about it. But today I  show you what we found on our way, just along the road, in the dry brown sand...

The beauty of those flowers is just so MAGNIFICENT! 
Thank you Mother Nature!

Those grow in the Judean desert, the Dead Sea valley, and in the Northern Negev desert. They are called in Hebrew Havazelet haNegev, חבצלת הנגב and their botanical name is pancratium sickenbergeri. I could not find how they are called in English, but there is another similar variety, growing at the Mediterranean coast, called Sea daffodil, pancratium maritimum - Havazelet haHof, חבצלת החוף in Hebrew.

Nevermind their exact English name, (maybe they should be called Desert daffodils) - they are just wonderful! White and soft, like many princess brides parading on one stem towards the sun...
And I think my husband captured their beauty splendidly!

Photographs by Uri Eshkar.