Epiphany

Our beloved
orange tree

 It's Epiphany today ... and we had solemn sung Mass at 7.30am. Celebrations in Bethlehem were celebrated yesterday evening because the Greek Orthodox celebrate Christmas today in Bethlehem and we don't want a clash.

Anyway this Christmas period under lockdown has been good. We had peace and quiet ... and Masses could be celebrated at 7am or 7.30am without clashing with pilgrim groups coming to celebrate Mass. So all of us could wake up a little later than usual. And our lonely orange tree in the courtyard has not only blossomed but it has fruit ripening on its branches. That's a rarity as all these 30 years it's been mauled and vandalised by tourists, and its fruit plucked while only a few centimeters big. This year is a Sabbath year for our orange tree ... it's got ripe fruit. It's such a wonderful sight.

Bad news. The govt has agreed to enforce a total lockdown on the country starting midnight Friday. Infections have shot to 8300+ and the new strain of the virus is spreading rapidly. Ultra-orthodox communities continue to hold huge wedding events and the police are avoiding clashes by letting them go on till towards the end when the crowds are told to disperse. Scuffles still break out. 

Cloth protest: photo
from newspaper

Meantime the announcement of a total lockdown has led to protests by many shop owners around the country. In Tel Aviv, cloth merchants rolled out their bales of cloth into the street. We'll see if the total lockdown will work, if the police will enforce it, and of the shop owners will observe it. 

I had been trying to call our Finance Dept to collect the salaries of my workers and since there was no reply, I walked up to the office 1km uphill only to find out it's Epiphany, a holiday for our diocese, and no one was working. Anyway I went to the New City to buy bird food for Buddy and JJ, and some dried food for myself to stock up for the total lockdown. My plantar fasciitis was killing me every step I took, but I managed to reach home after the 4km walk. I've been doing massages on the heel which help for a while. But I think I'll need something more permanent that that.