Middle of the Week.....

Travel buddies for ten days.  We were told to take a change of clothes with us in case the luggage gets lost. Cameras and personal items plus snacks keep us moving along.  Water bottles or coke were necessary and even with all that we drank we still got dehydrated. These bags have traveled the entire tour from southern Israel to the far north part of the country. I never ever carried a backpack before but I had a purse for the entire time we traveled.

Taking a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee was a very memorable voyage. The sun did set while we were out.  Tiberius was on the western shore and En Giv was on the opposite side. It is a beautiful area even though it is an arid climate.

The sun sets and the evening is cool. The ride on the boat is smooth. Our young minister gave a sermon in the middle of the voyage.  Later, I teased him, asking him when was the last time he spoke in the middle of the Sea of Galilee? He smiled and said, never.

My first cousin Janet ,just called sharing that her husband had died in his sleep yesterday. He had been ill for a couple of years and he had been in a nursing home. She brought him home for his last days.  He was not very old compared to me. He had been my neighbor boy when I was young back on the  southern Iowa home farm.  They live in the White Sand Dunes area in New Mexico. He served in the Air Force there when he was younger.  Janet is my youngest first cousin on the one side of the family. She is going to have a summer funeral service for him back in Iowa.

I need to shovel walks at the old place but I am not doing so for a couple of reasons.  It is extremely cold.  It also is going to start snowing again by noon.  I will have 24 hours to clear it after it stops snowing.  I have all of my photos edited from my cell phone.   I now need to selectively edit the over one thousand shots from my camera.  I am slowing down with it all and will pick the prefect photo first.  We both are still dealing with jet lag, or a virus caught from someone or more on the plane full of hundreds of people. We are stronger today and did sleep through for the first time.  The nine hours difference still effect our sleep as we want to wake up at three in the morning.

The cats were everywhere living along beside tourists and residences.  This on was in the ruins area of Kind David's palace. Some let you pet them and others love to just claw you.

Thank you for stopping by today.

Clouds...a Theme.

Des Moines International Airport had views of clouds like this a couple of weeks ago. It had snowed the night before but not much was still around.

The clouds below as we head to the Chicago Airport. Back when this was taken the weather was pretty good.  Today, the Arctic blew in snow and cold air. Flights are being canceled.

The clouds seen from the plane as we were heading to Istanbul.  The next flight would head to Teleavive where today the Gaza Strip is sending bombs down onto the city. I am glad we missed that.

The clouds show up in the early morning sun, above the Mediterranean Sea.

Clouds above the border of Isreal and Lebannon. No bombs coming our way on that day.

 The city of En Giv were found in the middle of the rolling hills with more ruins probably would be found in that field if they had time and money to dig.

Clouds over the Sea of Galilee.  It should have been the raining season while we were there but I am glad that it wasn't.

There is no end to the number of photos I will be using.  I can't use them all but I am glad that I took photos of everything that did not move.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Veterans Day.....

I honor all veterans this day who did give up time in their lives to serve our country.  I had a bother and many uncles that were in the service.  I lost a school friend in Vietnam. Also a former childhood classmate died of the problems of bad health from being in Vietnam.  There are just too many to mention.

My dad suffered daily from his experience of being in the Battle of the Bulge.  Eighty thousand American soldiers died in the whole process to shut Hitler and his soldiers down.  I just recently learned of a new reason that my dad should have been so proud of what he had done. He and his  fellow army men crossed that river on the last bridge left standing on the German border. beginning the invasion.  My tour guide in Isreal talked of her Aunt who was released from a concentration camp because the U.S. soldiers had taken Germany.  My dad did not know that he was a part of the humanitarian rescue of thousands of people because he was there in that country. I wish now I could have told him that he was a hero and not a forgotten broken soldier. The Aunt was always grateful for what the United States had done to save her life.My dad would have cried when being being told that.

Thank you to all who are serving and have served.

Monday's A Given.....

The sun shines in spite of the 18 degree F. temperatures. I just shoveled a meager path on my sidewalk as I am not ready to use my snow blower. Maybe later as the day goes on I can clear my driveway.  I am still experiencing jet lag and really don't feel well. The cold air does wake me up as I was just living a different warm climate zone.

Seeing this was a shock even though I knew it was coming.  We left Iowa with a thin layer of snow and now we have this. I did notice as I scooped the front sidewalks that it is melting under the snow as the ground is still warm. The winds do keep blowing it all around.

This Thanksgiving cactus was in full bloom when we got home. It had been in bud for a month or so but I didn't expect it to just bloom. It had been kept dry from neglect but that does help them to bloom.

I had filled the feeder right before we left and it apparently was not bothered too much. The sparrows and the juncos are eating at it this morning. Notice the tree is lightly covered with some snow.  I still have lots of leaves to rake that is under this snowfall.

It is not written in stone yet but I am thinking about creating a new blog just to cover the trip to Israel.  The whole subject and thousands of photos would be used to share the stories. My fascination of architecture and archeology would be better served on a separate blog.  I learned so much about history and the old testament.  Our tour focused on the areas of where Jesus walked verified by the Bible and evidence found in all those sites. I could then be left to be free to cover the snow storms and birds on my same creative zone.

Thank you for stopping by today.

I would tell you where the Roman column photo is but I have to get out my maps and papers to best identify it. It was a huge area uncovered in one valley including a large coliseum.

Random Shots from Far Away.....

The daytime transport that took us everywhere. I am glad our's was so decorated and most others were all white.

Jerusalem street venders all along the way. Buying pizza on a busy night street. A man waits for my pop can to put into his rolling suitcase.  I almost didn't get it finished but I did and then just handed it to him. He was happy.

Original arches that framed the entrance to the Temple Mount. The age of everything is a couple of thousand years old or more.

The polishing of the stone platform of the temple mound is made by the shoes or sandals of people for 2000 years plus.  The age of things is so unbelievable.  We live in such a young country.

The flowers that bloom in a desert like climate.  The decorated wall is outside the front of a Catholic church.

I have just begun to edit my photos on my iphone.  I am so glad I took so many photos but it is overwhelming. I have almost a thousand that I also took with my good camera. You will see some of them but it will be awhile.  Thanks for stopping by today.

King David's Homeplace......

I am working backward on the photos from our trip.  Things that I learned as we visited Jerusalem was ruins are everywhere on Mount Moriah and they were preserved by building on top of them.  For example, Kind David, the one who slayed Goliath, build a palace on the edge of the mountain. His palace is beyond two thousand years old. As the city developed they built on top of the ruins of the past. This example shows that they built the building above it and it is all on pillars or stilts leaving the old buildings untouched. A large multi story building is sitting at the same location. As we walked about we took a stairs and down we were in a historic place of foundations and partial walls.

For the many years of history, the archeologists restructured and preserved the area.  Rooms could be identified as their use and baths and storage area were identified.  The use of large stones for their choice of material really mad them permanent even stores of the walls could be removed and reused in other buildings above.

Many floor mosaics were discovered and can be seen as one walks around the ruins. The tiny tiles ae all in tack helping to show the artworks made during their construction.

Having been a potter in my past I was very interested in seeing the examples of the pots that they did find.

I really overwhelmed with the number of photos that I have and it will take weeks before I get everything processed. I will share more from our visit but I know that things can get too much and will blog on other things too.  Thank you for stopping by today.

A Journey through Israel.....

Two men recreating the time of Abraham, stand in from to the tents of hospitality.  We ate a meal of authentic food and good times. The guy who played Abraham was originally from Michigan and then lived a few years in Des Moines.  He was glad to see our group as most of us were from Iowa and he now lived on top of the hills with a few other families. They have their own schools and raise livestock including camels.  The Abraham banquets support their way of living and they have tours coming to them during the warmer days of the year.

While traveling north to Jerusalem our tour stopped to visit this hilly area. The roads wind around until the reach the tops of the hills where people have made their homes.

I have a few thousand photos of Israel with many areas of historic places. The entire nation is 70 years old established by the United Nations.  Restoring the Jews back to a country that was where they originally lived a few thousand years ago. The history and archeology shows the many towns of where they originally lived back when Jesus and the disciples did walk. I will try to share the best of the bunch and the explanation of its special county. We are tired from being on planes for most of one day.