Saturday....with a Start.

The time has come to discuss where the trees are going to be placed this year. We have a new sun room than can handle a tree, helping us to reduce the ones we usually have in the living room. It will be fun to have one out in the new room as neighbor's too can see it. I walked around in the shop this morning looking at a new project on my list and I saw all the trees down at the other end of the room.

The landscapes along the Mediterranean Sea still looks desert like as the grounds are sandy and rocky. The palms grow well there with the humid air and good sunlight. This area has the great blue sky.

Walking to the sea on this road has a row of palms helping to set the atmosphere.

Back in Iowa the old silver maple has a few leaves still on the branches.  It is one of the last to drop their foliage, drying out on the branch and falling during snowstorms. My leaves at the front yard at the new place dropped leaves for me to mulch We had two windy days and the rest of them blew off the tree and down the street.  When the wind spreads them out everywhere it doesn't seem to be much of a mess on the ground. The Minnesota balsam tree is in the photo on the side.

I am keeping the feeder stalked as a few birds are still around.  I still can not attract cardinals.  Our friend south of us a few miles has numerous cardinals next to the retirement apartment. The success there is the old established trees are all around. We do still have our one squirrel.

I did get started on my new blog.  I had not set one up for many years and my wife helped me get it going.  What I have started is very rough looking and I really would like to do a better job with the writing.  There was so much going on on the trip that I am going to have to slow down and not tell the story all at once. I have found lost photos from my wife's batch of photos, taken when my battery went dead. I find photos that I had not edited among the thousand and I think that I need to include them.  The project will be done a little at a time during the whole winter.

I am so glad I got the start, started. Thanks for stopping by today. I wish you all well having survied the Black Friday yesterday. Take care.......

White Friday.......

Our neighbor dog had her person out in the yard this morning.  Molly is a cattle dog and she is being taken care of by two good people.  She doesn't like to give up the ball while playing ball.

We had snow and ice on our deck this morning. The snow in the night had melted off the roofs of houses and cars but some stuff stayed frozen to the grass and deck. I carried stuff from the back of the truck to the basement.  Going down hill on the grass hill was slick.

My neighbor's spaded ground did show that we had a dusting of snow.

The lilies in the Thanksgiving bouquet are staying in bloom for a long period of time.

We did venture out this morning and it was not slick.  Traffic was heavy around the Walmart but otherwise it was not too bad.  We picked up a salad and sandwich and then stopped in at the grocery store.  It was quiet there at the time that we were there but I am sure by late afternoon it will be very busy again.  I hope all of you are well.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Thanksgiving Day....

A Thanksgiving tradition is watching the parade/promotional sales on tv. The plane/balloon is one of my two boys grandson's favorite from the movies. I amire the table full of gourds of many colors and mum flowers.  It is just as cold there as it is here in Iowa.

There is no snow right now in our back yard but it will come. The winds have been so strong that the leaves are all blown away into someone else's yard.

It is a good day to sip coffee and stay inside. The smell of dressing and turkey is in the air.  The pie was baked yesterday so all is good for eating our meal.

The pie in the oven yesterday will be warmed up today for good eating.  Mince meat pie is a favorite tradition for us.

I shared a photo of Ella yesterday and here is the whole group in the Chicago area.

We are thankful for so many things.  Family and good health is at the top of our list.  Our walk through Israel has given us a new outlook on our lives and we are grateful to be able to do that. I wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving Day.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Confused Directions......

I immediately got lost in Israel when it came to directions.  The roads in the county are based on very old trails and there are not any north/south and east/west roads. In the cities the streets follow curves of the houses that are built around the hills as they wrap around the terrain.

The photo shown here is the sun coming up in the east of course but I was confused. The water that was in the opposite direction was the Mediterranean sea, which I thought was west of us.  I didn't remember that I had things confused until I saw this photo with the sun in it. It makes sense that all the balconies faced the water.

We walked out to see the water and took the shot of the sea with the sun lighting up the clouds. Netanya was our first Hotel on our tour and I do think I have my memory banks switched for it.

The next hotel we visited also had the water of the Dead Sea and we were on the west side of the bank of that water.

My wife made her pie this morning and I played with the leftover dough making a crisp. She makes great crust so I make great crisps.

My wife's mince meat pie is looking good in the oven. We will have a Thanksgiving meal at home this year with lots of the traditional kinds of food.

We just finished have a serious conversation with our grand daughter and her dad this afternoon.  She was busy siting in a jumping kind of toy with all the toys springing back and forth. She also showed us how she could jump up and down in her toy. She has two teeth now and is six months old.

We were sharing with our son how the organization of our photos is going slow. Our tour was packed tight with so many things to visit. We are working on our actual daily tour by figuring out the sequence of our photos on four different devices.  Our very first day we now have figured out the whol day.  It was a long day and we ended up at a hotel on the Sea of Galilee. It was dark and we had to go outdoors to find our motel like rooms.  We ate late at the hotel and wandered back in the dark to again find our room.  The next morning we saw wild green parrots having fights over a fig or date tree.  I never got a chance to get a photo but it was neat to see them in the wild.

To show the City of David area where the houses, business buildings all wrap around the hills. The streets actually shot diagonally back and forth and sometimes they just took strange turns. By bus, it would take a while to get from point A to Point B even though the distance was not so great but the roads were so mixed together.

Thanksgiving day is soon upon us.  I hope all will have a great day whether you travel or stay home. Thanks for stopping by today.

 A feral cat sitting around next to the light and watching a hundred children all waiting for a tour.  The cats are wandering around in many areas of the city.

Valuted Ceilings and Stuff......

Our group sang in this church. It was common for different tour groups to got to different areas and sing their favorite songs.  One place we sang was next to the area where the empty tomb was.  As we sang a young man across the way turned smiled and just sang along.

The Roman architecture is there because Rome invades all the lands around the Mediterranean Sea, above and below.

I do want to create a blog of our total journey from Istanbul to Tel Aviv and then throughout Israel. I am still organizing my thoughts and photos.  It also is starting the new blog and going beyond the jitters of just getting started.

Some of the churches were built in the early 1900s.  This one was build on top of the site of two different older ones earlier in history. The church sits on the hill above the Mount of Olives.

Thank you for stopping by today.  We are staying at home for Thanksgiving and our weather person says we are going to be lucky to stay out of the storm. We will drive out to see our kids and grand kids in the Chicago area at Christmas time. We have had a lot of Thanksgivings alone and it works for us when it happens. We will cook some traditional things on a smaller scale. I hope all are well out there today.

Burning Bush Berries.....

We had plenty of rain and the burning bush appreciated it.  The bushes at the old place are covered with berries. More berries than normal.

The red is a welcomed color among all the rust and yellow leaves. I mowed leaves again today at the old place. I doubt I will have to do that ever again as snow is coming.

Back home the cupola doesn't look so good without all its foliage that was around it. I have a plant in front that is putting out new growth but it won't last long once it snows. The grass is really green yet as we did have lots of rain in the fall.

The lily blooms from the bouquet are really large ones.  I am sure they found just the right variety to put in cut flower arrangements. They are shipped as buds and open up once they get put into warm and some water too.

It is Monday and it was a busy morning for me mowing leaves.  My tree at home lost half of its leaves but the other half is just hanging on.  I suppose them may drop during our snowy weather.

I have been doing some grilling even though it is cold.  I can sneak out and put the burgers or steaks on and the open it up once to flip them and then bring them in to eat. It is really close to the sunroom door so I can sneak out and in easily.

Thanks for stopping by today.  I wish everyone to be well.

A Good Looking Day.....

It promises to be a warm day today. I was glad to see the sun and know that there is not rain in the forecast.

The birch tree has no leaves but its bark is still a striking form.  I will mow leaves up at the old place tomorrow as the silver maple keeps dropping leaves.

Proof of more leaves is shown in the photo. I mow and mulch as I don't like to rake them as there is no place to take them.

A warm day is welcomed as the closer we get to Thanksgiving the closer we get to cold and snowy weather.   Thanks for checking in today.  I wish you all well.

Cloudy to Sunny....

The morning starts out dismal but we do now have a sunny day. The cold air is tolerable but it isn't fall anymore.

 The front yard planter has been readied for the winter.  I cut back the knock out roses a lot as I know they will come back strong. A hint of green is still with the grass as we had lots of rain to keep it that color.

We did lighten up and the clouds are now fluffy. We had frost early morning but it is almost above freezing now. It is Saturday and we are home today.  I don't have any outside work to do other than sweep more sand into the cracks of my paver patio.  The leaves on the front trees was mowed and mulched on Wednesday and the leaves still on the trees are n ot falling.  When they drop another load onto the yard I will mow again, as long as there is no snow on top of them.

The colors of summer and fall are in the bouquet on the dining room table. The lily is a great burst of color reminding me of all the daylily blooms that I did have this past season.  I didn't plant any new plants this year except for the one knock out rose.  I wasn't inspired to plant more bulbs so I didn't buy any of them.

My travels memory today is one of the pottery that was dug up from all the ruins in Jerusalem. I find it fascinating that the shapes are universal and I to can make pots this same size and shape. Clay has a limited but useful way to make containers to hold things. These of course are a few thousand years old.

Thanks for stopping by today.  I wish you all well.

Friday's Memories.....

Open markets in Jerusalem line the streets of the city everywhere.  I never saw a supermarket but some open markets were used to sell everything, including meat and vegetables.

We were along with our minister and his son to eat pizza.  The son's birthday was that day and a few of us went with him to celebrate on the streets.

This is late evening and the streets were packed with people going home from work, tourists, and pop can beggars.

Traffic is so crowded and more honking of horns take place to find your opening through the crowds. In some areas there are not street lights or stop signs. Aggressive driving will get you to where you want to go. The tour buses do posture themselves as bullies with the right of way. There are hundreds of tour buses.

In the city of Nazareth the traffic was the most snarled and almost a comical kind of scene. The streets are right close to the sidewalks and it couldn't have been more congested

The cities are is  old.  The biblical history is thousands of years old and the people who live around the are make do with the structures that have been built many years ago.

Indoor mall areas are created inside some of the largest existing buildings. One can shop for many things that are like our modern malls.  I bought doughnuts at one of the stores while our birthday guy was buying another piece of pizza. 

The photos are still being edited as I go through them all from our eight day visit. It is Friday here and it is going to be cold.  It is gray skies but no rain is in the forecast. I wish everyone to be well.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Thursday.......

One squirrel is out and about having some breakfast.  I saw him walking the fence going by the property.  I didn't see him return but I did have my camera available. I fear for his life as my neighbor shoots everything if he thinks no one is watching.

I have had this plant for years.  I have memory problems with its name.  It hasn't bloomed at the new place so it has been just sitting there in the pot. I had it out all summer and now it is blooming after I brought it inside.  I guess I will repot it with new soil. They sell this kind of plant at grocery stores with a little ladder to  show that it is a vine.  I do have the name of it buried in my older blogs but I don't put key words on my individual blogs.
Yes, it is a mandevilla.  I should have remembered that.

I know it is time to plow my gardens when my neighbor gets his plowed.  I won't do that today though as it is cold and wet out there.  I will probably go out and mow up some leaves in the front yard to try to stay ahead of them.  The wind is blowing from the north so I can keep them in my yard. Mulching them is the only answer as I do not like to bag leaves. I did bag three loads of mums, rose bush scraps and asparagus greens.

Looking out at the backyard I still have green grass. The lawn people were here one last time and put down a lot of fertilizer. I was gone but the signs posted said that they did. I put a lot of sand on my new paver addition yesterday.  It took a lot of sand to fill the cracks and I can see that if it were dry, I could sweep some more new cracks full. It will make a huge hacienda but I do think I will add to the blocks by at least three or four tows. I will remember the process easily from laying the last thirty blocks.  It just will have to be spring when it is warm again.

A photo from the other side of the world. It is a market plaza that is west of the Temple Mount area.  It took many flights of outside stairs to get up on the hill.  As we would finish one flight we thought were were there and then the top took a turn and there was another. We bought a hamburger in the area that was a huge bun with a small flat piece of grilled hamburger.  I ended up eating the meat and only half of the bun. They offered chopped cucumber as the relish for the hamburger. I can see a slight blur on this shot but the whole feeling of it is wonderful. There were shops all along the different openings in the main floor of the buildings.

Thanks for stopping by today.