Cold rainy day

Row of birds at teh 1st Station

What dreadful weather! Rain every early morning. Very cold at 8 degrees before the sun rises. And even during the day, the skies are terribly overcast and the winds are very strong and cold. People are wearing their winter clothes again. And I saw a very strange sight ... a row of turtledoves and sparrows sitting on a rail at the 1st Station of the Cross. There were many other rails but all the birds around decided to sit on only one .... enjoying the sunshine that warms in spite of the blustery winds.

Cakes and coffee after the barbecue
on the balcony overlooking
the desert

This morning was no different than the past 10 days ... waking up at 3am. This time I had to go see the doctor in far away Ramat Gan. Got an injection shot but the reactions were strong ... had stomach cramps and diarrhea. Felt very sick and weak the whole day. After 10 full days of waking up at 3am and sleeping at midnight, my body is screaming for a break. I am utterly exhausted. If only I can find time to rest. Well to be fair, I did spend 4 hours last afternoon at my friend's new apartment for Independence Day. It's traditional for Israelis to spend the holiday barbecuing so my friend had a sort of house warming barbecue with me and 4 other friends. The view was fantastic ... overseeing the desert and Dead Sea. It was a relaxing 4 hours ... but then it was back home again for work and more work.

And talking about deserts - plans to rebuild King Herod's palace and "tomb" at the Herodion were lambasted by archaeologists and academics. Well firstly it's not proven that the recently excavated site was actually the "Tomb" of King Herod the Great. Secondly no one alive knows what the palace looked like above it's foundations because what has remained for this 1900 years is only the foundations. And in any case, the archaeological site would simply be reduced to a theme park of grossly bad taste. Conservation and preservation is the word ... not innovation and reconstruction.