What a day

It was again a sunny day here. Shorts, tshirt, and sandals. It seems Autumn and winter have forgotten us this year :(. Between April and October it normally never rains, but in October the rainy season should start, to water our crops and fill up our drinking water basins. Not so this year. It has only rained once and very little too. Sky news reported:

An unusually dry autumn has left Israel and the Palestinian territories perilously parched.

Authorities are deeply concerned about the impact on water supplies and agriculture, after years of insufficient rainfall. Forecasters expect another dry winter.

So, imams, rabbis and priests gathered in the West Bank village of Walaja to hold the unusual ceremony.

On a dry, dusty hillside overlooking the outskirts of Jerusalem they bowed and chanted prayers, each calling on their own Almighty to end the drought.

I decided to get more out of the house sinse I lost my job 2 months ago, so in the morning we went over Haifa's downtown fleamarket. It was very crowded, but most of the booths were selling junk and at high prices too. My mom bought some flowerpots for her "container garden". I only bought these two guys.

The seller said they were very old stairposts, but I tend to think they were a pair of table legs and perhaps there were four? Not sure though.  They costed me 25 dollars the pair and I want to use them to build a fireplace mantel (a pair of new resin plastic corbels would cost me 50 dollars!). They don't sell fireplace mantels here in Israel. I have a small electric fireplace and it just doesn't look good on an emtpy wall, so I thought to build a mantle around it like something in the image below? What do you think?

After the flea market we had a birthday party for my niece who was 8! My brother- and sister-in-law held the party at the poolside, although the pool was emptied of water now.
Dunno why the kibbutz did that because it was 30 degrees Celcius (90 something F).

During the party, Michal called from her navy base and I was so happy to talk to her again. Didn't speak to her in 8 days and we mommies always worry :) It was good to hear she is doing ok and she gave me a list what to send in our next parcel. Coming Monday is her 18th birthday and it's the first time she won't be home for her birthday.

When we got home after the party we had time to check out our new baby, a male kitten that just walked into our house this morning. I didn't see any mother cat or other kittens around anywhere and he didn't seem anxious on finding her either. He was just very VERY hungry, so my guess is, this might be another abandoned cat. I don't think he is older than 2 months and we named him Jacob.

I hope you are all enjoying a great weekend!