It is Jewish holiday season, and ideally, I would be writing a lovely post about how the Jewish holidays are related to the seasons. In reality, I feel I am constantly preparing for the next holiday (in between having more than plenty of web work). The flower above is one of the gerber daisies my daughter gave me for Mother’s Day (with my husband’s help), and I have managed to keep it alive for the whole summer. Yay, me.
The upcoming holiday this week is called Sukkot, and we do indeed interact with nature. Here is the little booth called a sukkah that we eat meals in for seven days. We cover the top of the sukkah with light natural material called schach, and through this natural material we can sometimes see stars at night. Some people actually sleep in their sukkah.
Here are some of the decorations inside our sukkah. This is from last year – on Wednesday, it will be a mad rush to finish cooking and decorate the sukkah. In New Jersey, it often rains, so we don’t want to decorate too early. Hard enough to keep the decorations going.
This was our old sukkah, that we no longer have. It took too long to put up, so my husband gave it away. We now have a pre-fab sukkah, but I can’t paint the walls. I have to decorate with this velcro tape. I don’t enjoy that as much.
As this post is related to nature, here are some not yet shared nature photos from Israel:
Those are rocks on the top of Mount Meiron. Learn about my hike on Mount Meiron.
Love these delicate pink flowers from Mount Meiron. No idea what they are. Any guesses? Update: might be a bindweed – convolvolus oleifolius.
These trees had bright red blooms in front of the Tel Aviv Museum last May. Any guesses? Flame tree (Delonix regia)? Seems quite similar to the red trees in this Tel Aviv image. Tel Aviv in late May probably has a similar climate to southern California (maybe warmer and more humid).
Getting back to Jewish holidays and nature, the holidays follow the lunar calendar. So the moon is important. Tonight my daughter noticed the moon looked quite full, but it’s not quite the 15th of the month. It’s 13 Tishrei, so I suppose that is close. This year Thanksgiving and Chanukah will coincide, but according to this post, it will not happen again until … year 79,811. Will you be around to celebrate?
For more Nature Notes:
This recipe for cucumber garlic salad is an adaption of a recipe from Mama Nazima’s Jewish Iraqi Cuisine cookbook by Rivka Goldman. It is the only Jewish Iraqi cookbook I have read, and the recipes seem simpler than those of, say, Jewish Syrian cuisine. Rivka Goldman was born in Basra, Iraq and now lives in the U.S. Her recipe does not have cilantro or basil; I added basil because I have some in my garden, and I like the basil flavor with cucumbers.
I have had quite a few cucumbers this summer as I am growing them in my front and backyards. My plan had been to make them into pickles, but they usually grow too big so I have been enjoying this cucumber salad and Israeli-style cucumber/tomato salads as well.
Ingredients
- 3 large cucumbers, peeled and sliced
- 2-3 chopped garlic cloves
- 1/4 cup chopped parsley, cilantro and/or basil
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh mint
- Juice of 1/2 lemon
- 1 tsp. olive oil
- black pepper and salt to taste
Combine all the ingredients in a bowl. Toss and chill a few hours before serving. Enjoy.
This is a guest poem post by Daniel of Adventures in Jewish Thought. The salt shaker is totally my idea. Hoping his poem will evoke some good comments, ideas, reflections.
The Lament of the People of Sodom
Because we did not see
The poor,
The orphans,
The widows
And the strangers
In our midst
We were struck blind.
• • •
As we are approaching Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, I would like to share with you these links:
Finally, a badge for Sam, who has undergone a lot, much more than any child should:
What do these photos of Jaffa Street (Rechov Jaffo) in Jerusalem and (below) one of the Moorlyn Theater in Ocean City, New Jersey have in common? They were both taken as the day moved away from dawn (Moorlyn Theater) or towards dusk (Jaffa Street shots). If you photograph closer to dusk or dawn, you will often capture beautiful, golden light. Back in 2009, a reader described, regarding a photo of the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem, “the late afternoon quality of the light.” Ever since then, I’ve been more conscious of capturing photos during those golden hours of the day.
The Moorlyn Theater is on the boardwalk in Ocean City, New Jersey. They feature both movies and live shows. This photo was taken the morning my daughter and I woke early for sunrise.
Here is another shot of Jaffa Road in Jerusalem on a late Thursday afternoon in May. Note the tracks for the lightrail and the many people walking the streets. Thursday night in Jerusalem is a bit like the American Saturday night, as people usually don’t have work or school the next day. There is a sharp contrast of the golden basking glow of the apartment buildings and the shadows of the street area.
For more skies, visit Skywatch Friday. Hoping to link this up to Toby’s Whimsical Windows, Delirious Doors as well.
On Monday morning I woke up my daughter early, and we headed from our hotel room to the beach a block away in Ocean City, New Jersey.
She took her iPad, and I took photos with both my Canon Rebel camera and my Samsung Galaxy 4 phone. It was a fun morning to view the skies. The day before had been rainy – I think that helped with the drama of the skies. The top photo was taken a few minutes before the lower one. It’s fun to watch the skies gradually change.
We tried the same experiment two days later, but my daughter was much more tired and the skies not as dramatic. I would love to photograph Ocean City sunrise again sometime. If you get all the variables right, waking up for sunrise on a beach can be wonderful.
There are lots of amusements on the boardwalk in Ocean City. We went on two different Ferris wheels, one time at night. But there is no liquor sold – it’s a dry town, so lots of families come. I took the Ferris wheel sunrise photo before the top two sunrise on the beach photos.
For more skies, visit Skywatch Friday.
