Holy Tuesday

Today solemn mass was celebrated at our place with lots of people ... to commemorate the Passion of Christ. The narrative from John was sung as the gospel in 3 voices. Meantime endless groups from local parishes and tourists are coming to make the Way of the Cross. Total chaos in the streets. There's hardly any space to walk.

One good news is my best friend Vasile is back! He's here for a month to finish his thesis, while doing studying for another MA in Durham U. (England) and has been accepted by Oxford for his PhD. I'm so glad for him. Too bad his wife Maria couldn't come along. They just got married half a year back.

Echium at last!

Yesterday I had to accompany Buscemi to go buy geraniums for his terrace boxes. And in the shop there were 10 marvelous bushes of Echium Candidans "Pride of Madeira". It was fantastic! First saw them flourishing in San Francisco and just loved the huge spikes of deep blue flowers. Absolutely incredible. And since the shop was selling each for only 140 shekels - a steal - I quickly picked the smallest bush: about a meter high. Planted it in our huge but empty flower pot (a monster 1 meter high) and now it sits in the middle of the sisters' courtyard. Everyone is talking about it!

Huge spikes of flowers

Birds and bees like the nectar so we're expecting lots of life this summer in the courtyard. And as echiums require a dry hot climate, Israeli summers are perfect for this bush! It doesn't need alot of water so we don't need to spend money watering it. Now if only we can fill the courtyard with echiums! Less gardening and watering, and lots of lovely flowers and butterflies and birds!

Dirty raindrops

And talking about weather, this weekend (Easter) we're expecting a heatwave. 30 degrees and above is predicted. The night before there was a hamsin (desert sand storm) together with rain - absolutely dreadful because the dust and sand get caught in the raindrops and dirty everything it touches. Just look at this car! Each raindrop is a little bomb of sand and dust.