Almond blossoms

Pink almond blossoms

 It rained and drizzled all day yesterday and into the night. The wind was very strong and the temp dropped by 8 degrees. It was very cold. I was working hard yesterday in my office for 8 hours to complete an important work so that I might be free on Sunday to rest. When I returned home at 6pm the weather was quite bad. I was wet ... so I decided to go and buy bread since I was already wet and won't make a difference if I went straight home. The bakery had just baked several trays of fresh muffins so I bought some to share with our sisters and students. And since I was already wet, I decided to walk another 1km to the only florist opened at that hour, to buy some flowers for our Madonna statue in our refectory. I usually put flowers on the statue every week with flowers from our garden, but since our superior threw away all the flowers in the garden and cemented it, I have to go out and buy them. Given this weather and season, chrysanthemums are prolific so I bought 2 stalks which cost 5 shekels each. Rather expensive but I bought them anyway.

White almond tree

Today the rains stopped and the weather was beautiful. The sun was up and it was 16 degrees ... nice and warm. A hoodie jacket could be worn but after a 1km walk uphill to the New City, a T-shirt would have sufficed. I went to buy food for Buddy and JJ, and enjoy looking around Jungle petshop. I haven't been there for almost a month now. My friend Eran was there and we chatted. Then I walked down the road to buy a sandwich because today being lunch, pork is served and I don't eat pork. I bought a simple and cheap submarine that I could eat in the afternoon just to fill my stomach.

Then I decided to go to Mamilla cemetery where the almond trees are blossoming. Unique to the cemetery are several almond trees that bloom white flowers instead of the common pink. They are remarkable as they sparkly in the Spring sunlight. It's a nice alternative to the dark and disturbing news of the war in Ukraine. There's been protests at the Russian embassy in Tel Aviv but there are also many russian jews who support Putin. By expressing support for Ukraine, Israel was indirectly warned by Russia when it issued a statement refusing to recognise Israel's control of the Golan Heights. And of course Israel's greatest enemy Iran is a Russian proxy. We're watching anxiously what will happen next.