Annual Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoa) in Israel

This time I allow myself to copy the post of my FB friend.

Tomorrow is the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoa) in Israel. For us Israelis the memory of the holocaust is still fresh, alive, strongly involved in our lives, tattooed in our grandparents' skins, persistently participating in our art, our literature. We can escape it. We can't forget.

But the world forgets. Some have this forgetness on their agenda. Some just don't care. But most of the world, merely doesn't know. Doesn't know a simple, amazingly simple - yet the most complicated sentence of them all: 70 years ago the Nazis decided that Jews are a problem and "solved the problem" by murdering 6 million Jews.

Dear friends overseas - we need you to join us in saying: NEVER AGAIN! We will not forget. We will not ignore. We will make sure it never happens again. NEVER AGAIN!
...
Please share. Please tell. Please mention. Please enforce Godwin's law. Remember and have others remember the holocaust. NEVER AGAIN we say. Please say it with us.

Spring in The Desert

 Spring is a beautiful time when everything is bright, clear and new. I always liked this time of the year and wanted to see how it feels in different parts of the globe.

Flowers in the Desert

 Today I want to show you spring in one of the most arid places - Timna valley,
that is located on the western edge of the southern Arava desert, about 30 km (some 17 miles) north of Eilat, Israel. 

The desert has some green color now

 The climate in the southern Arava is extreme desert, characterized by very high temperatures in the summer, minimal precipitation (annual average of 20 mm.), intense radiation and relatively low humidity. The rain comes in short powerful bursts, leading to frequent flooding in spring and fall.

 Timna’s animal and plant life are typical to arid zones. The most common tree is the acacia, an important food source for animals.

Tiny Flowers of Acacia

I will be happy to see your photos of spring and get familiar with new places :)

Purim 2013 or Warning: Flying Spaghetti Monster is coming!

 Purim is a Jewish holiday that commemorates the deliverance of the Jewish people in the ancient Persian Empire from destruction in the wake of a plot by Haman.
According to the Book of Esther, in the Hebrew Bible, Haman, royal vizier to King Ahasuerus, planned to kill all the Jews in the empire, but his plans were foiled by Mordecai and his adopted daughter Queen Esther. The day of deliverance became a day of feasting and rejoicing.
 Purim is celebrated by giving reciprocal gifts of food and drink, giving charity to the poor, a celebratory meal, and public recitation of the Scroll of Esther, additions to the prayers and the grace after meals. Other customs include drinking wine, wearing of masks and costumes, and public celebration.
 Wearing masks and costumes is main and most extincting part for the kids.  

Snowy Jerusalem

  Israel is a tiny country, however you can find there up to 18 climate zones. The weather can change dramatically within 30 minutes car ride. One thing is common though - it is not snowing often here.
 Today was one of the fairy days when almost everything stops in the Holy City.


 Snow in Israel is a rear commodity - people admire it but they are not used to the consequences.












  Almost all traffic stops when first snowflakes reach the ground. People stay at home and try to make as much photos as possible to impress their unlucky neighbors who live 30 minutes away and clearly don't have this happiness to see the snow.

They may try to drive to the place, but as I said - we don't drive in the snow, so they probably won't reach it :)

The snow won't last long - 2 days at most, and it is suitable for sculpturing only for the first few hours, so the enthusiasts in need of making a snowman must hurry!

Wildlife Woodland Christmas Giveaway - Worldwide

  Christmas is when magic happens, when Santa appears and when you find a lot of gifts under the Christmas tree.
When I was a little girl I believed in Santa and always waited for this wonderful morning to come. I waited to get something special and for many years Santa was bringing me lots of joy and fun.
I grew up and unfortunately understood that my mom was the one to put gifts under the tree and no need to wait to midnight - Santa will not appear. But the fairy Christmas mood was left with me and I want to pass it to all other people and especially to all the children.

  I decide to give this set of hear pins to the lucky one who will be chosen randomly at the 1st official day of the winter. Hopefully the post will work perfectly and the gift will be delivered before the holiday :)

  So three amazing hair bobby pins crocheted by me from pure cotton are waiting to be won. The prize will be sent to worldwide.

Enter to win!

Top 10 places your dog must visit in Israel

 It is so important to plan your trip carefully, so you can enjoy the new country. Experienced tourists advice is always appreciated. This is 'top 10 must to go' places from one of the Israeli experts in dogs attractions - Jarna, the Great Pyrenees.

 Historical and cultural sites:

1.  Knesset of Israel: A very important political site, pool and jogging tracks are open to the visitors at all seasons of the year.

 

    2. Mishkenot Shaananim neighborhood: This is quite a boring place, however it is good if you need to walk your family out.

 

Discover Israel: Beauty of Kineret

Few last weeks were full of holidays and we had a lot of days for traveling. Though we used only half or even less of them, we really enjoyed the places we did visit. One of such sites was Lake Tiberius. We spent two days camping there. Lake Tiberius is a very popular tourist attraction, so I will not tell about it (I simply don't have anything intriguing to add to the well known facts about Sea of Galilee), but I want to show photos that I took at night and very early morning.

Night fishing and stunning view of city of Tiberius:

 This is the same view just early in the morning:

P.S. Children slept much better in the tent than they usually sleep at home :))

More places to visit, find here. 

Discover Israel: Salt Desert

There are a lot of places in our tiny country that are worth visiting though they don't appear in a tourist guide. I met my husband in one of those places, and we visited together many other stunning sites. We used to climb mountains and descend into caves which became almost impossible for us after our first child was born. It is quite a hot place even at winter, and at summer I can travel there only during the night hours, which makes it even more difficult for visiting with small children. Our dog Jarna also never had been at Judaean Desert.


This is why we were very happy when our friends organized a small BBQ between the salt rocks and invited us to join. It was late and we wisely decided to take only Liya with us :)
Jarna was mad about everything and galloped from one hill to another,  but only in the morning I could really understand how high she had managed to climb. This view is zoomed in, since she was really far and I wanted to see her on the picture :)

Liya slept well in the tent (she is 2 month old here :)) Can you see her there?:)

 In the early morning we walked towards the mountains while it was not too hot.

We spent the hot hours in a deep gorge with just enough shadow and even a small pond, where some of us could even swim :), others slept or climbed. Unfortunately not me this time :(

More places to visit, find here.

Rosh Ha Shana

When I came to Israel, I was fascinated by the amount of holidays here. I knew theoretically what Jewish holidays are, but didn't realize their impact on everyday life of the country. Much more further I counted the actual amount of non working days and understood that it is not that many, it is just that most of them are at fall and in spring. So it makes impression of almost not working season, especially when all the holiday days fall on working days of the week.
The first September holiday is Jewish New Year. I will not tell about it in depth, since all is written many times (for example, in Wiki). It was difficult to get used to the fact that you celebrate New Year somewhere in the middle of autumn, but I overcame it, and now I am fully enjoying these beautiful three days of eating apples dipped in honey, pomegranates and sounding the shofar.
For this coming 5773 year, I wish all of us one of the best greetings I've ever got:
I wish all of us peace in the soul and in the sky. Be happy.

Artists Fair

While I am working on the long Bulgarian story, I will tell how we spent last Friday. It was quite a hot day as usual, but it was special. We were at an artists fair in TA.
It is the second time I participate in such an event, and I have to say the results were better:) So I will definitely join it next time.
At the beginning there were  almost  no visitors at all and all we did was meet and talk to the colleagues.
My dear mother was babysitting Liya while I took a few pictures of my friends.
Liya got this beautiful headband from Shirel at BonbonLand:
 

Toma from MagazinIL and her beautiful baby accessories:

 Vlada from VladaHom and her stunning felted toys: