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My daughter performed aerial acrobatics on silks at Circus Warehouse in a performance on June 26th. This is what she looked like …

… and there were other people! And it was good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Easy!!!??? Hm-m-m

 

 

 

I have one orchid, a tiny one, that just bloomed … and keeps on blooming. I hadn’t seen the flowers until it bloomed and I was surprised.

The Orchid, the big one, started growing flowers immediately … it wasn’t kosher to be upscaled by the little one …

 

 

The Urban Adventures took on a tour of the beer in Toronto and I went on it … engaging stories, laughs, and lager – what a great way to spend an afternoon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

First, we saw the sites of Toronto on our way to C’est What. We were introduced to so many beers, British, German, and Canadian.

Then into the St Lawrence Market and we went for a wine tasting. Butter Tarts for our Brazilian friends on the tour and they didn’t know how GOOD they were.  I didn’t realize that Butter Tarts are made in these part of the world … Ontario!  Along with back bacon on corn meal which they have a bunch of.

 

 

 

I’ve seen them … the little pandas. They’re just like their mom but not as big! They were sleeping when I saw them … just barely! (Just barely! That’s quite a pun.) I watched fascinated. Wow! They’re just like real bears.

It’s May so I went to the other animals in the pavilions … there are 5 of them in the Toronto zoo. And this is what I found.

Snakes!

 

 

 

 

Birds

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seahorses

 

 

 

 

 

Fish

 

 

 

 

 

Monkeys

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ducks

 

 

 

 

 

and, of course, Orangutans! 

 

 

It beautiful in here at this time in the afternoon this month … February always brings these sunny days. I can see for miles out the window; fluffy clouds in the sky.

I was at Erin’s and Jay’s party on Friday February 5th to celebrate their marriage at the Ruby Watchco Restaurant. I didn’t go to City Hall with them and the entourage (about 5 couples) and Rory and Hayley. We met them later and they told us. She was wearing a very pretty dress and Jay was in a suit that he just bought.

Maybe I can get pictures from Facebook … I can but I will enjoy them with the Erin and Jay!

 

 

Mary and I had breakfast at the Jerusalem Gardens restaurant and Naomi was expected to join us from her work after an all night shift at the El Al Airlines. The crew (5 from Kevin’s family and Sheila and Kevin) from Ari’el came down to meet us and we piled in with them going to the Jaffa Gate, the part of Jerusalem within the ‘Wall’. This is what is looked like moving past the Jaffa Gates, the Wall on the right. 

We wandered a lot, up stairs, going along narrow streets and came out on the roofs to view the Jerusalem out before us. Jerusalem extends a lot longer than ‘the wall’.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next we went to Cardo, a street a long time ago, built after Jesus’ time but half of it still remains today. Then we went to the square with the church recently built. The Western Wall (it used to be the Wailing Wall – I remember it then) was next. We (the Females) had to go in the girls section – it wasn’t as pleasant as the boys section.

I was up at 5:30 am and the air mattress that I had was partially deflated … This is a bitch! I couldn’t think of what to do with it so I went back to sleep until 7:30.

Kevin and Sheila are up when I get up. I had a cup of coffee with them. The sun is peaking out behind the mountain.

Slowly, but slowly everyone started to wake up. Breakfast was in stages along with going swimming in the Sea of Galilee.

We took down the tents and mattresses – all very fine – and we did get out before Sheila’s car went kaput. It was the batteries. We stood in the parking lot borrowing cables from another tourist. Believe it or not, the men in my party couldn’t get the cables to hook up. They were scratching their heads about it and Jack, the 17 year old nephew of Kevin had the brilliant idea of hooking it up right. And so the car was fixed!

Capernaum was the next stop around the sea. It was famous for it’s architecture. Looking at it I can see how it used to be.
We arrived at Meshushim Pool, the largest reserve in the Golan Heights, after that. I sat outside and wrote because my hip was fragile but before that I was treated to the VIEW. This is one of the pictures.

I couldn’t go down to the Pools … it was way down the stairs, and I mean that quite literally.  The stone ‘stairs’ crisscrossed down the valley. But I got pool photos from the brochure. This is it.

We were at the Jerusalem Gardens Hotel and had Sheila’s car. At 8:45 am we set out for Caesarea National Park, Israel.

During the Persian period and the Hellenistic period (until 37 BCE), the village was in Dor county called Straton’s Tower. In 103 BCE they were conquered by the Romans and in 30 BCE, the village was awarded to Herold who ruled.

 

He built a large port city at the site. It took 12 years to build the planned city and he called it Caesarea in honour of his patron Octavian Augustus Caesar. It had networks of crisscrossing roads, a temple, theatre, amphitheatre, markets and residential quarters.

The aqueducts, bringing in water from Shuni springs (a 7.5 km northeast of Caesarea), are terrific. We ate lunch under one of the aqueducts at noon – spreading out along the beach, windy and nice and sunny.

In the afternoon we went to Nazareth to a thing called Nazareth Village. With the guide we explored the Nazareth side all these years later.

We ate dinner at Younis Restaurant; Kevin favourite place. It was getting late so we got it the Sea of Galilee and pitched (a lot of) tents, in the dark. We were sleeping outside this evening …

Day 1 – Friday October 15th and 16th

I got on the flight – I had the ticket but with 250 people getting on it was a chore. I succeeded! A HUGE wing was in my way; a couldn’t see either taking off or landing and 10 hours later I was at Tel Aviv, Israel the next day. Sheila met me, I was so glad and we went off around Israel to the bakery and to buy a hairdryer (she wanted one for the house).

We went home and met everybody for lunch. I slept, walked, helping Sheila make dinner and now I’m writing … just a day in the life!

Day 2 – Saturday October 17th

I woke up to a munching of cereal outside my door. I didn’t know what time it was so I was checking my cell phone – it was 7:22 am. I slept!! and I woke 7 hours ahead, I had 11 hours of sleep. Go figure! I showered – that was really good – I hadn’t showered for 2 days, believe it or not.

My niece, Naomi, was getting married so I gave her THE PRESENT and we went to her apartment. The Ben Gurion airport was our next stop and we pick up our sister, Mary and her husband Derek, with all the suitcases.

We went looking for monkeys at the Monkey Park along the way. There were a lot of monkeys!

 

And Emu’s too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mary, Derek and I had dinner at the Jerusalem Gardens Hotel and went to bed …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 3 – Sunday October 18th

I woke up in Jerusalem! And the place provided breakfast … It was so exciting to see the place from my window. Cars rolling by … On Day 2, there were not cars; in this area the cars are parked for the Jewish Sabbath Day. There weren’t many cars, other than us.

We (Mary, Derek and I) went to the Bible Lands Museum and had a tour of the place with a little woman who talked and talked about Babylon.

Then we went home to our hotel. Mary and Derek had a sleep and I waited for Sheila. She came and we talked. Eventually Mary and Derek joined us and we went out for dinner. Sheila promised us Sharma but she didn’t find any — the place had moved. Derek found a place just down the road a bit. It was opened 5 days ago and it was so good!

It was gorgeous at Sauble Beach. My boyfriend went to his Guitar Festival (in Sauble Beach of course; he had things to play and people to learn from) and I had all day to read, write and go places until I showed up at the guitar festival at 5:00 pm.

I went to Wiarton for lunch (a little place down near the water) and then, with my boyfriend for dinner (at the Wiarton Inn and Restaurant). We hadn’t been there for a year and the restaurant was Asian and Canadian; new restaurant owners. Really it was Chinese/Thai but they had Canadian out on the lawn so we went in anyway.