Winter

I really love winter-the drama of the dark and cold, the excuse to knit and the wintery foods.
There are disadvantages.
Over knitting-that is once again starting all too many projects-why am I so weak? Hannah mentioned a friend who is also a solider in the IDF needed a plain black scarf-I am needed and instantly all other projects are dropped. The thing is a garter stitch black scarf does not take time-lots of the projects on the go at the moment are not difficult but it all adds up and once again I am completely overwhelmed. I will not keep adding projects to the pile-I will not. I will experience finishing.
The second problem is the cold makes me want to wee and this country is diabolical for public loos. The husband and I went to Oxford for the day-it is a lovely place but lacking in loos. I ended up squatting in the middle of a bamboo grove in the Oxford Botanical Gardens-the problem being it is somewhat hard to exit a bamboo grove with an iota of dignity when the wee you left behind is actually steaming on the ground.

winter

I love winter in this country. It is dark at 4.30pm and it all feels so cuddly-there is absolutely no guilt in snuggling down at home with the knitting needles and a pot of tea. All the blankets I have made are in use and knitting is a perfectly reasonable use of time.
I also love Christmas -as a Jew is is totally stress free-for me it means buying last minute food at the Supermarket-who cares what and watching loads of good tele. We also act as a support service for non Jewish friends who tend to make calls or visit when the extended family gets too much.
I find the whole time quite magical-in my opinion when you are cold you can get warm with more clothes but when I am hot and bothered there is buggar all I can do. Besides knitting in the heat is a little challenging.
So my beloved readers eat, knit, blob and enjoy!

a lot of ball winding

All the yarn I got is now in balls, samples in my knitting book waiting for a new battery in my scales to weigh it all. It was enourmously satisfying making up my own yarns from all these lovely threads.

I am now really determined to stop buying and start using-I really do have enough yarn to last an awfully long time.

Now is also drama group time-we put on a show each year at the end of January-it makes me feel really energised and motivated to get things done. I am now going to go and get work done for my knitting design course.

I throughly reccomend using Texere silk thread mixed with cotton to make up the most lovely yarns.

I also did the Christmas lights tour of the West End Harrods windows were based on the new James Bond movie-how tacky is that, Liberites was ho hum, Fortnum and Mason lovely-though the prices are simply unbelievable.Regent Street is simply gorgeous. Go look!

Joy oh joy

My friend and her Dad gave me free range on her late mother's wool collection-she was a machine knitter and I have had great fun mixing fine yarns together to make knitting yarn. An incredibly obsessive activity the need to finish the cone is almost too much. I am now getting space issues big time-Julie came to visit the yarn pile/me and took some home. I do not need to take advantage of every cheap/free yarn opportunity

Shiva highlights

Up to 24 men in our lounge doing their morning prayers with their white prayer shawls and tefillin-a haunting beautiful sight.
One of my dear friends going up to Clive and shoving homepathic remedy down his throat while he sat on the traditional low chair.
His friend coming down for the day from Leeds to pay her respects.
Cakes, cakes, cakes and biscuits-I have turned into some sort of mother Channukah handing out cakes to all and sundry.
Realising how lovely it is having so many visitors.
Simply stopping for a week.
Having people bring food all week and not having to cook-I tried to convince a friend she would grow as a human being if she would take on cooking for us on a weekly basis-she would have none of it.
My husband deciding to take on saying Kaddish for his Mum 3 times a day-shis means being at shul with at least 9 other men.
One morning when we had 9 men getting the neighbours teenage son to come to make up the minyan (group of ten men) this meant 9 men in suits and one half awake teenager in a dodgy yellow tee shirt.
Doing serious amounts of knitting
Getting back to normal-tele!

Sweet and sad

Israel, see above, was an amazing experience. We stayed with Hannah on her kibbutz which was a real milestone-staying at our child's home. It was lovely to be in Israel with someone fluent in Ivrit. We went to the wonderful market at Akko originally built by the Crusaders and found amongst the smutter beautiful glass balls that now hang in the garden, saffron, incredibly cheap embroidered cushion covers and stunning coffee. In the Akko market is a hummous resturant that people will cue to get into-they sell tea, coffee, coke and 3 types of hummous with various vegetables and pickles and pita. The food is almost thrown on to the table but is really lovely.

The daughter's new boyfriend is lovely and incredibly tolerant-the first time they went out she made him get changed. He cooks beautifully in this lovely simple Italian way-interestingly no onion in his tomato sauce.

The kibbutz is beautiful we has a meal with Joseph's kibbutz family-their home overlooks the hills of the upper Gallilee and to the left is Lebanon-all the homes have a bomb shelter.

The elderly members of the kibbuts all have golf carts and all 18 year olds get their own flats.

Everyone sorts of gets dressed up for Shabbat dinner but they also serve pork-all somewhat contradictory.

Hannah will be working with problem children in a boarding school preparing them for the army as her army service. Ah karmic revenge-she will be dealing with vile teenagers having been incredibly vile herself.-I will probably enjoy it all too much.

Then we found out that Clive's Mum was very ill and she passed on Shabbat. We were due to come home on Sunday anyway. The family had problems getting the death certificate and Jewish tradition requires we bury as soon as possible.

This meant finding out at 11am yesterday that she was to be buried at 2pm on the same day-I have never got food ready so quickly. Clive is sitting shiva at home. People were amazing -between the post levaya eating and the prayers at 8pm soup for everyone in the house appeared on the stove. Endless cups of tea were made and dishes washed-I have loads of meals in my fridge already and more cakes and biscuits that a small shop.

Clive is up and down but at times like this I realise how precious community is.

Election party

I will not attempt to write about the Barak Obama win-writers with far greater skill than me have written far more profound words than I ever could.
Last night we went to the Democrats Abroad party in a Bar/Resturant in Trafalgar Square. Ironically spending the evening with a load of Americans made me feel incredibly homesick even though I have spent very little time in America. Why? Like NZers Americans happily talk to strangers-such fun.
There were 2 english chappies there having dinner who did not know the party was planned for that evening. They were grumpy and sarcastic-sad sad. However this was not the norm-many of the Democrats there said that they were really touched by the number of english people who congratualted them on the election result.
Three of us abandoned knitting group for the night-such is the sacrifices of historical events