Beautiful sunny weather brought us out into the open for a leisurely stroll in the park.
Enticed outside by the squirrels we put our best foot forward….
to stand and stare uuuup at the very tall trees…
before tracing them doooown from top to bottom!
Discovering around the corner a carpet of tiny cyclamen….
penetrating where the sun didn’t shine, but still managing to be so perfectly formed…
Crunching through the leaves and conkers…
before wending our weary way home…
for a nice cup of tea!
Well, here we are again! Time to show you some shots of our garden. I have been spending quite a bit of time pottering around it and the flowers are now coming out a treat!
The strawberry pots are blooming and producing our first crop of strawberries.
The irises are very majestic and magnificent.
The foxgloves are home to the bumble bees.
The peony flowers are so big and blousey.
And the canterbury bells are the tallest I have ever seen them!
So from pots…
to paths…
to rocky areas…
and golden birds…
to hooking!
The backs have been carefully sewn.
The flowers positioned and embellished.
But why so many brooches?
I am making them to raise some money for the Sun Shine School in Israel. This is a small Christian school in the Arab area just outside Jerusalem. The teachers have 59 children from 14 different nationalities all aged between 2 and 6 years. The children are taught in English and are very bright and cheery, despite the physical size of the school. It is in the ground floor flat of a small building. The newest teacher has just graduated from Cambridge and she looks after 6 little 3 year olds in what was the stock cupboard! If I had been living out there I would have helped in the school, but I am not, so all I can do to help is fund raise and that is what I am doing! I am very grateful to Lucy of Attic 24, who has let me use her posy pattern. Sun Shine goodies will soon be packaged and ready to go to their first venue. Brooches, cards, note-lets, sewing kits and eventually a series of little books where a bear visits the sites of Israel! Now where did that idea come from………??
Yes, we have been to York! A few days in the sun shine, soaking up the heat (and a little bit of rain!) and relaxing with friends. We have done this every year for the past 15 years – relaxing with friends that is – visiting different places as long as they are within 2 hours driving time. It is good to get together for a laugh and a chat and some quality time. So where did we go…
well into York and a visit to the Minster. We stood here to watch a noisy, colourful short parade.
The National Railway Museum. I liked the way the light was catching this very old engine. Contrast it to the gleaming one beside it.
Then in the Shambles we met this colourful character…
and a window full of smiles!
Put them together and you have my favourite flower, a purple Pansy.
This one is reminds me of Georgia O’Keefe.
At the entrance to our camp site we oooooooooooooed and aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhed over these lovelies.
There must have been 6 or 7 foals.
I’m not really a horsey person, but you have to oooooo and aaaaaahhh, don’t you?!
The relaxation took the form of a magazine…
and lots of hooking…
Flowers in red, and
yellow and green, and
blue.
A primary colour spectrum. Very satisfying!!
Our walk around to the Garden Tomb followed the outside of the walls of the Old City.
Out of Jaffa Gate, passed New Gate and beneath these marvellous palm trees.
Across the road from the Damascus Gate, the Garden Tomb is in an oasis of calm in a garden. In the hustle and bustle of a busy noisy city it is amazing that you can cut it all out and relax.
The path meanders through the garden believed to be that of Joseph of Arimathea, and leads you to a fence over looking a cliff face. It is known as Skull Hill.
“And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means the place of the skull)…. they crucified him.” Matt.27 v33
“And Joseph took the body. and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock; and he rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and departed” Matt. 27 v 59.
As you enter the tomb you step over the gutter in which the large stone was rolled and stand in the large weeping chamber. This area is typical of a tomb of the 1st century CE, and as with many before me I cried! I cried that he died for me, but then I smiled that he was not there, that he has risen!!
“The angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid; for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has risen, as he said. Come see the place where he lay.’” Matt 28 v 5, 6.
This shows the head stone inside the tomb.
Many people visit the garden including Barnaby,
He came with us wherever we went…
to Ceasarea..
to Megiddo National Park..
where both King Solomon and King Ahab built palaces.
Driving along in the bus..
through Nazareth to the Sea of Galilee..
Visiting the Jesus Boat..
and the Western Wall in Jerusalem..
Down the Jordon valley to the ruins of Masada..
and David’s Waterfall in the middle of the desert at En Gedi..
and lastly, Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls..
One amazing holiday!! We hope you have enjoyed the tour!!
Now, crocheting. ONE…
TWO..
THREE..
little gnomes from school!!
Across the road from the Guest House is the marvelous sight of David’s Tower/Citadel. At the end of the 1st Century BCE Herod the Great built a large palace on this area. It is probably to this palace that Pilate sent Jesus to Herod Antipas.
“When he (Pilate) learnt that Jesus was from the region ruled by Herod, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at the time.” Luke 23 v7
The bottom courses of stone are from Herod’s time. He built three large towers to rise over the city and the view today is breathtaking. The old city of Jerusalem is small and can be seen in its entirety from the viewing platform at the top of this tower. We just stood and marveled at the sight.
You could say we were ‘gobsmacked’!!!
The photos do not do the view justice. The sun was extremely bright and the first thing you saw was the dome on the Temple Mount.
Behind are the seven golden onion domes of the church of Mary Magdalene built by Tsar Alexander III in 1888. Even Barnaby was stunned!
Today, the citadel that you see dates from the Crusades, and houses a museum of 4,000 years of the history of Jerusalem. Imagine being in and surrounded by so much history!!
These two pictures show the inside walls of Herod’s palace, with newer stones on the top.
The exhibits, completed to a very high standard, show the work of the Romans
and their mosaics and standards,
The Crusaders,
the Temple Rock,
the Ottoman period,
when the minaret was added,
and goes on to record the declaration made by General Allenby at the British capture of Jerusalem after the First World War. It was following this that a lot of the archeology was discovered, for example, the stones for the slingshot..
They are SO round!!
My feelings? One of wonderment, and of being over awed. Here was I staying in the Guest House at Christ Church opposite to Herod’s palace, sitting drinking coffee in a courtyard that was on the possible site of Herod’s lower palace, the place where Jesus was questioned. The last days of His life was played out in and around these walls – boy!!! I feel very small.
On another note, I actually did some crocheting last night and made my first little man……
just five more to make!
That’s the only thing when you have been away, it is difficult to find the time to catch your breath when there is washing and ironing, cleaning and dusting, sorting and tidying to be done! It is now a week since we arrived home and I am still washing and ironing, cleaning and dusting, sorting and tidying!! Trying to make the time to sit and craft has been - well – impossible! So what have I been doing in my spare time? LOL!! Sunday I walked around the garden. Another area for me to sort and tidy – but no. Look…
The Jacobs Ladder has appeared. I love the little droplets.
The Piris is just as delicate…
and the white Clematis is full of blossom..
Four pots of green…
a hosta..
strawberries..
a fern and geraniums beginning to grow.
A change of colour..
a pink Hebe and then..
purple Borage and Rosemary too..
And I have no idea what I planted in this pot, but it is very unusual!
The crafting? Well my 86 year old Mum has been knitting and hooking on my behalf. A duck..
and two little chicks for my Easter box.
Thank you Mum!
Galilee is where most of the stories in the gospels take place, and we followed the road a round the Lake to visit many of these locations. The area is beautiful. A lot of it is wooded and green at this time of year.
The River Jordon enters the Lake in the north….
small isn’t it?! Near to here we visited the site of a synagogue at Chorazin.
‘Jesus went all over Galilee, teaching in the synagogues, preaching the Good News about the Kingdom, and healing people who had all kinds of disease and sickness.’ Matt.5 v23.
Barnaby pointed the way to the ritual bath, before leading us to the actual site of the synagogue.
After sitting first at the base of this column, he sat down in the Moses seat where the preacher would have sat to give his talk on the chosen passage.
Lunch time beckoned and our first taste of the St. Peter’s fish or Tilapia. Be warned!!!
It looked a bit like a plastic dinosaur fish! It is caught and gutted, and fried whole! Peeling back the skin exposed the flesh but also huge bones, and this process was repeated on the other side. We shared one, and Barnaby tucked in too!
We journeyed on to the area, or complex as it is now, where Jesus delivered his Sermon on the Mount to his disciples.
‘Jesus saw the crowds and went up a hill, where he sat down. His disciples gathered round him and he began to teach them.’ Matt.5 v1 – 2.
I had always taken this to mean he taught the crowds, but it plainly says he began to teach them – his disciples as they gathered round.
We next spent some time on the edge of the Lake at the spot where it is said Jesus appeared to the disciples following his resurrection. It is one of the most serene and calm places I have ever been to.
The fishing boat reminded me of his call to ‘come follow me.’
A brief stop in Capernaum before climbing onto the boat for our trip across the Lake,
and I will let the pictures tell the story.
Although we didn’t visit Nazareth until the middle of our holiday, I think it is right that I should start here at the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth. It was extremely hot in Galilee and as you can see we needed sun glasses.
The Basilica can be seen behind Barnaby! The complex is built over the entire area of old Nazareth, which at the time of Jesus was a very small place. It roughly stretches from the trees at the end to where I am standing..
and then, again from where I am standing to the old house in the centre of this picture…
The whole area is given over to contemplation and is very quiet. It is a strange place. Countries have given pictures or mosaics of their interpretation of Mary and the baby Jesus. Some of these pictures are beautiful in their own right, but none of them portray them as Jewish. Their faces are appropriate to the country, e.g. Japan has a Japanese Mary and child. These pictures are all around the complex both inside the Basilica and out.
You enter the Basilica into a dark space which leads up to and focuses on a small house, believed to be Mary’s. At the time we went in a small service was taking place around this house. I had all sorts of feelings but the overwhelming one was that I was REALLY standing near to where Mary found out she was to have Jesus. I have read the story so many times in different forms, to children and to adults, but to actually be in that place was mind blowing. Needless to say I cried!!
To get to the main part of the church you leave by another doorway the stairwell of which was flooded with light. Not only did I loved the colours here, but I found it quite symbolic, for Jesus is the Light of the World and these photos just state that fact.
As I went through the door the light was soft, but it just flooded through the window and the colours grew and grew. I think you will agree it is stunning.
I felt bathed in Jesus’ love.
This is the window through which the light came.
They were small but the colours were so intense.
Upstairs the Basilica had a completely different feel. A different light flooded down from the dome, which is a beautiful piece of architecture.
It was crisp and cool in contrast to outside which was HOT! They have also built over the remaining other old houses, therefore offering a bit of protection.
It was an amazing place, and if you look past all the buildings and focus on that first story, a place you can really feel close to the Lord.
I have been trying to make a tea cosy a month for this year’s challenge and I never thought a tea cosy would present itself in Jerusalem, but it did!! My host took me and several other ladies out for High Tea. Where do you go for High Tea in Jerusalem? Well to the Olde English Tea Shoppe of course!!! Yes I jest not, there really is an English Tea Shop! A tea shop with a twist. It has chandeliers….
Bright aren’t they?! Beautiful silver tea strainers…
Yes, they serve tea made with loose tea. Trays of tea cups and milk jugs and bowls…
Shame about the sugar packets, but can you see the cake fork? Then came the tea pot…
with it’s cosy. It was crocheted – I had a good look – with charming little tassels around the bottom and the top. But it didn’t have holes for the spout and handle, it had splits and it just plopped on the top of the pot! Definitely one to make. The best bit was yet to come. Remember the cake fork? I bet you are expecting cucumber sandwiches and cake, well… voila!!
The bottom two tiers are the sandwiches! Each one a work of art. Cream cheese rolled in freshly chopped herbs with salmon twirls on top. Biscuity bases – savoury of course – with shredded vegetables built up like meshes. Sweet touches with fresh peaches cubed and placed delicately in the centres. It was amazing!! Then there were the sweet bites on the top tier. Little ginger stars, the taste of the fresh ginger was out of this world! And the scones, served with little tea cups of cream and jam… mmmmmmmm!
And as it came we sang songs. Anything to do with tea – Tea for two, and I’m a little tea pot, both songs and others, sung with gusto by all twelve of us!! Before we started our treat we also sang our thanks with Shabbat Shalom. I said it was an English Tea Shop with a twist!!
Over the past few weeks my blog buddies(!) have been sharing their photos of Amaryllises (or is that Amaryllisi??). The courtyard pots at Christ Church in Jerusalem are full of these beautiful blooms.
They are very delicate, with the stems being slightly thinner, but they bloom in abundance outside.
This pot was my favourite. Each stem had three or four blooms. Can you see how the managers have put in a small palm?
From now on I shall plant more than one in a pot and see what happens!
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