Well it's been a long, been a long, been a long

. . . been a long time (you can take the girl out of musical theatre, but ya can't take the musical theatre out of the girl!)

I know, I know (as my pal Kia pointed out) Feb 4th, what the heck. Well, it's been a month. First there was preparing for the semi annual sale at the Point. That was a scene I did not anticipate. We put the entire store on sale (20% - 75% off). I asked Leia, one of the women who works at the Point, "do you think a lot of people will come?". She replied only "are you kidding?". The Saturday of the sale was not to be believed. They were hanging from the rafters.

Sunday afternoon David and I headed off to Israel. We were going for a week for his nephew's Bar Mitzvah. We didn't really have time to do much planning (or any) so it was all a little last minute. We arrived late on Monday exhausted. Tuesday morning we woke up to a sight not seen in Jerusalem for five years.



SNOW!

It took a bit of figuring to decide what to do next. You see Israelis don't know what to do when it snows, and start to shut everything down. Our nephew Carmiel is a tour guide, and he planned our day. First he took us to these very cool caves. Since the snow turned into pouring rain he thought it would be good to run from cave to cave. Here's a few cool pics

(burial cave)

This was the translation of one of the more bizarre inscriptions:

(The bell caves)

Here is the version of the main post office. The holes in the walls are for carrier pigeons


A BRIEF break in the rain affords a glimpse of the countryside.


Next we went to a Bedouin Village to see the women spin and weave. When they spin they go right from the fleece, with all the straw etc.


Here's the yarn hanging out to dry after the dyeing process:





Here's the weaving:



I bought some yarn just because. It's terribly rough and overspun, only suitable for a rug. I may try to take some of the twist out, wash it and hang it out, then knit up a little throw rug.


The next day we headed off to Haifa. We saw the Bahai Center at Haifa. Gorgeous!

(The view of the harbor from the garden on the hill)

The next day we went to the old city at Acco.






After a lovely day in Acco we headed back to Haifa for a great meal and to enjoy the garden lit up


Next morning to was back to Jerusalem for family time. The next few days were all about hanging out with the nieces and nephews and about the Bar Mitzvah. It was fun to spend time with everyone since we don't get to see them all that much.

Sunday we did a bit of bumming around the old city. Checked out the markets, etc.









Sunday night was the party. Lots of food, music, family and fun. We were so tired, but the party was great. After that we got in a cab to the airport at 1:00 am (ugh), two planes and 19 hours later, we were home!

As for knitting, I left the scarf I was working on at home (it was on US 4 Knit Picks and I was afraid they'd get taken away). I took my Fitted Knits sweater on my plastic Denise Needles instead.

Here's how it's coming along:


When I got home I finished the scarf out of the yarn that one of our reps gave me. I love this yarn. The color changes are so subtle and beautiful. We are going to order it in lace weight and worsted. Here is is:

I forgot, I finished Mr Greenjeans before I left, but I didn't get any pics of it.  Next time