St. Joseph feast

Echiums in bloom

The weather is still wavering between Spring and Summer. Daytime could go as high as 25 degrees now and nights are back to 9 degrees. Summer flowers though are out ... the amazing huge spikes of echiums and classic acanthus flowers. Spring flowers which are mostly bulbs are dying off quickly in this heat. Yesterday's feast of St. Joseph was beautifully celebrated because of the good weather and lots of beautiful summer flowers in church.

The heat should be good for me. My asthma usually lessens in summer but some allergies are heightened. I need to be careful.

Echium closeup

I just received a phone call from Damascus from the St. Vincent de Paul hospital telling me they are being bombarded everyday. The situation is bad. She said the priest comes everyday to bless and bury the dead. Let's pray for the poor suffering people in Syria.

It's midweek in the jewish calendar ... and the jewish passover will soon begin. It actually coincides with our Holy Week and ends on Good Friday so we can expect not only huge crowds but also huge military presence in the Old City. I guess like previous years, barriers will be set up to block roads leading to the Holy Sepulchre. How inconvenient.

Meantime police are bracing for violence as the Jewish Passover nears. After that it's Israel's 70th anniversary of its founding. And the arabs will commemorate Nakba Day ... the day they lost their land to Israelis. We pray and hope nothing will happen.  https://www.timesofisrael.com/security-forces-gear-up-for-violent-passover-palestinian-march-of-return/   and    https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5180086,00.html

Since the death of the archeologist yesterday by a terrorist stabbing, jewish revenge has begun. Destruction and vandalism of arab properties last night has been recorded. Chances of a quiet week next week sounds remote.   http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Anti-Arab-Price-Tag-graffiti-found-in-Jerusalem-following-deadly-attack-545447

And one news upsetting some people is the soldier sentenced for shooting dead a wounded arab terrorist has his jail time cut by a third. While right-wingers will be happy, the rest of the country sees another case of partiality in the judicial system.  https://www.timesofisrael.com/hebron-shooter-azaria-to-be-freed-in-may-after-sentence-reduction/

The Chief Rabbi did it again ... he and his father the previous Chief Rabbi had made on many occasions remarks and decorations on non-jews that if it were said anywhere else in the world, would have ended them immediately in court. But of course we're in Israel and they are the rulers here. This time he equated a "negro" with a "monkey" born of 2 white parents.   https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5182424,00.html