The cat with only one ear

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Happy International Cat Day to this wary one-eared long-tailed cat.
I locked glances with him outside a Beer Sheva restaurant.
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Dear readers, I'm sorry for the long time since my last post.
Guess it was a combination of sudden busy-ness, procrastination, long hot summer laziness, and bloggers block.   I'll try to do better now.
Happy August to you.
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So many saddles!

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The guided tour of Vienna's Spanish Riding School takes you into the impressive tack room.

Some 70 Lipizzaner horses live in the stable and each has his own Baroque dressage saddle.

The Spanish Riding School has 170-175 riders.
It takes years of training and they start anywhere between the ages of 16 to 25.
In recent years a small number of horsewomen have been admitted to what was always an all-male academy.

Stirrups are fastened up behind the saddle.
Riders need strong legs because some of the riding and the airs above the ground are done without stirrups.

Above each bridle is the stallion's name.

For more information and links about this wonderful place in wonderful Vienna please see my previous posts. 
For those of you reading this on "PhotoManiac Daily pictures," a Blogspot "blog"  that steals real bloggers' posts and publishes them without permission or attribution, you can find me at Jerusalem Hills Daily Photo.
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Shalom, bon voyage

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I knew their seven months in Meitar would go too fast.
I knew the day would come when daughter Naomi, Guy, Dean, Eyal, and Libby would have to return to their home in Bondi, Australia.

So, through my goodbye tears I sat us down for a rare family photo.
I tried to smile; little Libby was more honest in showing her feelings.

And then the family waved and drove away to the airport. . . .
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Faithful readers, thank you for your patience during these months when there was little time for blogging and thanks for looking at dozens of kid photos.
I will now try to get back to finding and posting something (hopefully interesting) about Meitar, the Negev, and Israel  every day.
Shabbat shalom to you all.
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From there to here

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Click a few times on the photos, the better to see the cyclists.

Several hours' walk from my place in Meitar, the road to the north runs alongside the Israel National Trail for a while.
So you could say these guys on bicycles were riding the Trail.

Little did I think, exactly six years ago today, when I began blogging about Jerusalem and the hills around her,  that in 2013 I would move south to the Negev desert.
Life is full of surprises!
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(Linking to SkyWatch Friday.)
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It lives! The blog lives!

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Shalom again friends! The blog and I are back! We missed you!
I am in heaven again after a "week from hell."
No, not really; I didn't let my mood get that bad.

But it was disconcerting to see the screen (above) saying, "You are not the author of any blogs."
And elsewhere to see Blogger using ominous language like "This blog has been deleted."
And "Google has detected unusual activity on your account."

I imagined the worst -- hackers, connectivity issues, being locked out forever in blog exile. . .
I wrote to Google via their online support form and today, a week later, still no reply.
So I got down to work on it and with friends' patient help, regained my blog this afternoon!

Thanks, old friend Kay in Hawaii, who today published my e-mail to her about my blog problem.
Her "Musings" blog post is getting helpful comments.

Thanks to Israeli friend Robin of "Around the Island" blog for encouraging me and for accepting and forwarding my Verification Code from Google today. It was as easy as asking for this code to be sent in an SMS in order to get back in to my blog.
It is not easy, me not having a cell phone and having my home telephone out of order for weeks, plus having the Internet connection unreliable right now.

Thanks to blog-friends who got worried and e-mailed to ask.

Thanks to God who tested me and taught me lessons through this week's trial.
I never panicked but lived in hope; I did not slander Google/Blogger or Bezeq phone company or "curse them in my heart."
I kept the faith, knowing my labor of love of four years for the Holy City Jerusalem should not disappear.
I prayed for help.
God rewarded this attitude.

I am grateful for all of you!
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"I am the door"

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Here's a very tall door for Monday Doorways and some words of explanation for Our World Tuesday.

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Enlarge* the photo to enjoy the Latin words in gold.
Latin scholars out there, can you translate? I think the words are based on passages from the Gospel of John.
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I'm just guessing here, but maybe it is

EGO SUM OSTIUM + DICIT + DNS +
I am the door, says the Lord,

SI - OVIS SITIT VENIAT + AD ME ET BIBAT +
if the sheep thirst, let them come to me and drink.

Here is the door from afar, to the right of the smaller door.

The church is from Crusader times, 12th century.
We have talked about this church and Benedictine monastery in Abu Ghosh quite often lately.
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*UPDATE:
Dear readers, I am sorry the photos no longer enlarge when opened.
Blogger has changed the photo viewing system just recently and everyone hates it.
See the discussion here:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=73493b0be3a4116d&hl=en
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UPDATE 2: Thanks to blogger Martus for solving the mystery of what is written on the door. Please see his comment near the end of the Comments section.
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Mega mister

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Israel is starting our 4th straight week of ridiculous temperatures averaging ten degrees C above the normal.
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At Yardenit, near the Sea of Galilee, it was well above 43 C or 109 F in the shade; so the management turned on a big mister fan for the poor tourists.
I think that's what you call it.
It made shpritzim in a huge wind.

Blogger friend Robin* started a meme called Summer Stock Sunday.
The theme is activities and memories of summer.
I think the hottest August in recorded history is what we Israelis will remember about the summer of 2010.
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Wish I had that huge misting fan at home . . .
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*Robin and her family drove up to visit my village last April. That was a sweltering day too, but fun to meet them for the first time.
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Moon dwarfed by pines

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Hey, how did the moon get so small?

:)

Hundreds of weekly participants are celebrating the 3rd birthday of SkyWatch Friday today!

Bloggers from over 80 countries have been getting to know each other by sharing their skies.

Mazal tov to the meme's founder, Dot. And thanks to those who followed her in leading the way: Tom, Klaus, and team Sandy, Wren, Fishing Guy, and Sylvia.
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1,001

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A thousand and one nights, Alf Layla wa Layla

Tonight sees post number 1,001 of Jerusalem Hills daily photo.

Mabruk, ya blog!

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Black shadows of black basalt, all in a row

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The Spring 2010 Tiberias excavation ended yesterday.

I'm back home in the Hills of Jerusalem.

But my memories (and photos) from the dig are still sharp in my head.

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Passing this curb on the way to and from the dig site everyday used to make me laugh.

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Something about the surfeit of basalt antiquities in Tiberias . . . . The municipality sticks the pieces anywhere they can find room (e.g. impaled on iron fences).

Something about the stubby little shadows of mid-afternoon just waiting for Hey Harriet's Shadows on Sunday.

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And it made me smile that as a photo blogger I now am on constant look-out for interesting skies, benches, bridges, and critters for the various memes.
Funny how blogging changes us.
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Two bloggers meet

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The Shabbat before last, one of my blog-friends became a RLF, a real life friend!
Robin and her husband and their two kids drove half way across the country (45 minutes) to come up to the Hills of Jerusalem to visit me.

Robin is the photographer and author of her always-interesting blog "Around The Island."

At the local monastery, sweet Maya drank cold water emerging straight from the rock.
Ein el-Habis is most likely the spring that John the Baptist also drank from.

Itai and Maya took a seat next to the friars' new aviary.
The bench is new as well.
 You just have to weld some scrap metal posts, saw some wood and attach it, and voila--a bench that cost nothing.

Thanks for your visit, Robin. I had a great time with you and your family.

It's really fun to know you all in person now!

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The one other blogger-friend who became a RLF is Ann of "Sydney Meanderings."
A year ago she took me on "a wander" through her wonderful city. Thanks Ann!
That seems so far away now and like such a long time ago.
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I wonder who the next will be . . .
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Vive la France!

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Today Jerusalem Hills Daily Photo is flying the French Tricolor in honor of Eric Tenin.
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City Daily Photobloggers are celebrating the 5th anniversary of Eric's blog, "ParisDailyPhoto, the blog that started the City Daily Photo community."
Click here to view thumbnails for all participants in this special Blog Day. We are all trying to post a picture imitating the Tenin technique/perspective.
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Consulat Général de France à Jérusalem stands proudly at 5 Paul Emile Botta Street.

The writing of the iron fence announces territory of the République française.
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The Consulate's website has photos of the interior and the more ornate side of the grand old building, built in 1930.
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(Other posts of French interest are about Paris Square in Jerusalem and Ben-Gurion Square in Paris.)
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Mazal-tov to Eric Tenin and many thanks for inspiring 1,178 of us to begin blogs about our hometowns. Together we are making foreign countries less foreign and more friendly.
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Ben-Gurion Square in Paris

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Bust of David Ben-Gurion at Hebrew University, Mount Scopus

We CDP bloggers are getting ready for tomorrow's Blog day: The Tenin Technique.
It is a 5th anniversary tribute to Eric of Paris Daily Photo. Eric started the "city daily photo blog" idea, and it has grown to 1,178 members.
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And what luck! Just in time! A Paris-Jerusalem connection!

Ynetnews writes that the French have decided to name a big central Paris square after David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, and that the inauguration ceremony will be on March 13. [Hmm, on Shabbat?]

The Yediot Aharonot daily says, "The square, which has a large fountain at its center, is located on the banks of the Seine River opposite the Quai Branly Museum. A statue of Ben-Gurion is expected to be placed in the square.
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Come back tomorrow for a look at France in Jerusalem.
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Comments and cannonball

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You see this? It is a heavy old Turkish cannonball.
Not that I want to hurl it an anyone or anything, BUT . . . Blogger is making a mess of our comments for the last week or so!

My blog's list of your beloved comments goes crazy somewhere in between Comment Moderation and Publish.
AND, many of the comments that I have left at your blogs have disappeared.
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So please do not think I am ignoring you, dear friends.
Hopefully Blogger will fix this soon. According to the Help Forum, many are encountering this problem right now.
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Leading forward

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Leading Forward
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"You do not need to attain perfection in order to lead.
You need only to discover which way is forward
and begin moving in that direction."

A Daily Dose of Wisdom from the Lubavitcher Rebbe
-words and condensation by Tzvi Freeman
Tishrei 30, 5770 * October 18, 2009

I will be "following" some young Hebrew University archaeologist leaders northward today, to Tiberias on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, for a few weeks of excavations.

Some automatic posts will appear but I will check in with you all only on Friday and Saturday, back home.

Tiberias is in the second lowest place on earth (after the Dead Sea). The lowest part of the hillside city, near the Kinneret lake (Sea of Galilee), is 212 meters or 606 feet below sea level.

The temperatures this week are 40 degrees (high 90s F).

A hot time to be doing archaeology.

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Hope to bring you some good pictures of the expedition. Shalom!

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Post-Day of Atonement post

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Yom Kippur ends with the Ne'ila (= locking, closing) prayer. You can feel the heightened intensity in the congregation in this last hour of a long day of prayer. We stand before the holy ark and plead

"OPEN UNTO US, O GOD, THE GATE OF MERCY, BEFORE THE CLOSING OF THE GATES, ERE THE DAY IS DONE. THE DAY VANISHES, THE SUN IS SETTING; LET US ENTER YOUR GATES!
We beseech you, O God, forgive, pardon, condone; have pity and compassion, grant us atonement, and subdue our sin and iniquity."

Thank you all for your expressions of solidarity and blessing for this long day of fasting and introspection.
This morning I woke up to a surprise. Father Adam created a lovely post of Yom Kippur wishes for his Jewish friends, complete with a closing (or opening?) stained glass gate!
Thank you, FA. God bless you and all the new possibilities of interfaith learning that blogging opens for us.
FA is a Carmelite monk and priest in California and his Monastery Daily Photo is a welcome look behind the monastary walls. And he answers comment questions too!
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Switching off, tuning in

Abstain from Internet, SMS texting, iPod, etc. for a few days during Lent??
That's the big world news today, that a few dioceses and bishops in Italy are recommending that Catholics give up one or all of such practices for the next month. Well, maybe only on Fridays.
(There is a report here and an interesting opinion piece here.)

A friar phoning
A monk checking messages

Why do I always need to surpress a giggle when I see a monk or nun multi-tasking with a cell phone in Jerusalem? Something about the monastic habit coupled with high-tech gadgets just looks incongruous to me. But it shouldn't. It isn't.

Well, if you happened to read my posts about the Pope as blogger and about the Vatican's new dedicated channel on YouTube, you know I have some kind of fascination with this.

What do you think about the Italians' idea of switching off? Could you do it?

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P.S. I don't even have a cell phone to turn off.

Into a new year of blogging, with appreciation

To shine even a little bit of light on this little part of Israel--this was the goal when Jerusalem Hills Daily Photo was born one year ago today.

  The predicted snowfall with which I had hoped to launch the blog never came, so I made do with a more typical local February scene--Lara the Cat with her winter fur coat walking under a rain-soaked shining tree. A humble first post.

 

Blogging has changed me. I look at things now from the viewpoint of how best to share them.

Reading your blogs for the past year has been such an enrichment.

Getting to know you, readers from many countries who make yourselves known by kindly writing comments, is the greatest reward.
 This feeling of community gives us such hope and joy, like a shining star!

Thank you for your friendship and blessings to you all!

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Turkey or terror?

A blessed Thanksgiving Day to all who celebrate it today.
We don't have this holiday in Israel. I daresay most Israelis have never seen a whole roast turkey and have no idea what cranberry sauce is.

Photo of a Heifer Ranch turkey by friend Kristine S. in Arkansas

Photo from Chabad.org News

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But what is weighing heavily on me and all Israelis for the past 18 hours is the chaos and drama going on (and on) in Mumbai/Bombay. Pity on ALL the dead and wounded. But many of the hostages are Israelis. And the Jewish couple pictured above, Rivka and Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, directors of the Chabad House in Mumbai, are reported to be unconscious, with terrorists controlling the house. The nanny managed to carry their child out to safety.

Rivki's father was on the radio this morning, asking everyone to say Psalms, to pray, for the rescue of all. God help them.

The horror of it all drains me of energy. I try to put it aside for a few moments and to post on some neutral or even happy subject, but it doesn't work. It is a dilemma for me as a blogger. Forgive me for often posting gloom. Can any of you give me advice?

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