Feast of Santa Lucia, snow in Jerusalem

It rained the whole night and everything has been washed clean from the desert sands. There was even a bit of snow in Jerusalem. http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/winter-storms-snow-in-jerusalem-and-a-boon-for-the-kinneret-1.330350  and http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=199183  But like clockwork, it stopped at 6am. The sun is back up and the winds are less gusty. It's 5 degrees today and Sinead our school secretary is wrapped up in so much clothes, she looks like a Christmas present!  What we dread now is cleaning our rooms as the sand has seeped through any opening in the windows and doors. There's a layer of sand on every table, chair, shelf ... even the floors. Every house, office, building has been affected. There's a major cleanup in Israel today.

The canaries were so cold, one died yesterday morning. They were thrown from one side of the cage to another by the gale-force winds yesterday - pretty battered. So last night the rest of the guys here told me to put them inside the house. Managed to catch them all while they were asleep in the night and kept them in a small cage - nice and warm for the night - inside the house. There're only 17 left.

Today is the feast of St. Lucia - the patron saint of Sr. Lucia the superior of the Faustina nuns who care for our kitchen and chapels. She's very happy and I think they'll bake a cake to fete her.