Grandkids in motion

.

Grandson Dean jumped nearly into the winter rain clouds back in 2013 when my Australia family was here in Israel.
His younger brother and sister were also in harnesses and bouncing off the big trampoline in a Beer Sheva shopping center.
You can see all of them jumping in this post.

We City Daily Photo bloggers have our July 1 Theme Day on the subject of MOTION.
See what other photographers are adding to today's CDP gallery.
.

Our yearly Night Run (in the sun)

.

Our yearly Meitar Night Run got underway just after 7 pm. 

Some parents ran together with their sons and daughters. 
Long shadows in the setting sun.  

The runners rounded this roundabout and ran back to the center of town, up hills and down hills. 

On the uphill, into the strong still-hot glaring sun, some of the less-inexperienced participants had slowed to a walk. 
The other, marathon-type, serious joggers would run for hours into the night on longer routes.  
I was happy just to stand still and take pictures and admire other people's endurance. 
.
(Linking to ABC Wednesday.)
.

Die goldene Medina

.

Every spring when these Israeli trees shed their flowers, turning the sidewalk a bright yellow, I am reminded of the Yiddish expression Die goldene Medina.
The Jewish immigrants disembarking at Ellis Island probably did not expect to see America's streets literally  paved with gold  in "the golden country," but they knew that with hard work and patience they would rise out of poverty.

The trees responsible for my reverie look like this, with rough bark.
.
(Linking to Camera-Critters meme, for the sweet black cat.)
.

I want a Russian dollhouse!

.

The most delightful booth at last week's Jerusalem International Book Fair was this Russian one with do-it-yourself scale models! 
I visited on the next to the last day and as you can see, eager Israelis had just about emptied the shelves.   
All that was left to buy was a small church, a truck, and a bridge. 

The nice sales rep from St. Petersburg was quite proud of the little wood-burning stove that goes into the fantastic dollhouse.    
See a close-up of the stove at the russia-best.com website. 
And here you can read all about the dollhouse. 
The "Clever Paper" publishing house makes a zillion different models--there is even a medieval series.  And not expensive.   Take a look! 
Amazon sells them too, under the name UMBUM. 

Soon the engineer, whose brainchild all this is, came over and they showed me how the UMBUM construction works--you just snap the pieces out of a flat card made of hard, solid binder board  and put them together (they call it "splicing the details") per the printed instructions. 
It is supposed to be for kids over three.  
I think WAY over three!  I would love to build some! 
.
(Linking to OurWorld Tuesday.)
.

A very long autobiography

.
More from the Jerusalem International Book Fair which ran last week.
(See also the previous post.)

All these books are by Norwegian author Karl Ove Knausgård.

He was awarded the coveted Jerusalem Prize on opening night of the Book Fair. 
At the ceremony he said very welcome and surprising things about how he learned about Israel as a schoolboy. 

You can see a short TV report about him and about the fair. 
His autobiography spans I think six volumes and thousands of pages and in Norwegian is entitled Min Kamp. 
Fortunately neither the German nor English translations carried that title over as Mein Kampf. 
More about his My Struggle here. 
.

Jerusalem International Book Fair

.
Every two years many foreign publishing houses flock to Jerusalem to talk and to exhibit at our International Book Fair.
Yesterday I traveled up to Jerusalem to sample their wares.

You wouldn't know it from the photo, but the pretty Austrian representative is hidden at her desk behind the flowers.
Sometimes, even more than the books, it is the people who leave the nicest and most lasting impression.
I loved hearing her accent in English, and I told her how I loved my month in beautiful Austria.
She gave me a booklet and a big map of the country.

The booth of the Esperanto League in Israel was pretty quiet.

A slideshow of Italy drew me in and made me really really want to go there.

Hopefully these program objectives are clearer in the original Russian.

For the first time ever, the fair took place inside the Hangar next to the First Station.
In previous years the venue was the more solid and impressive International Conference Center (Binyanei HaUma).

I left for my long homeward journey weighted down with four new books, but my wallet was a lot lighter.

More about the Fair in the coming posts.
.

The books are calling

.

International Book Week has started!
Tomorrow or the next day I'll be taking this train from Beer Sheva up to Jerusalem.
It's a long way there and back "just" to see a few thousand books and their exhibitors, but who can resist! 
.
(Linking to Our World Tuesday.)
.

People of the book

.

Tomorrow the annual Hebrew Book Week will be starting in many cities and towns.
And on Sunday the big International Book Fair will open in Jerusalem.
It is the first time the two are at the same time and that should be great!
I'll take the train up to Jerusalem in hopes of bringing you some exciting photos from the events.
.
UPDATE:  If you just can't wait, take a look at my posts from Book Fairs past.
.

A tongue of fire?

.

In the dim recesses of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a priest and his reflection.

Enlarge the photo and you will even see the light reflected in his eyeglasses as well.

What almost looks like a flame above his head reminds us that this Sunday is Pentecost for some Christians.

The Book of Acts says that the Apostles were gathered together in one place [Jerusalem's Upper Room] when suddenly a sound came from heaven like a rushing wind, filling the entire house where they were sitting.
Then tongues of fire appeared and one sat upon each one of Apostles!
They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as directed by the Spirit.
.
Happy Pentecost to all the Christians celebrating it today!
There is a surprising and beautiful blessing for you here, by the modern poet Jan Richardson. 
.
(Linking to the meme inSPIREd Sunday.)
.