Christmas in Winnipeg

Today we celebrated Christmas in Winnipeg - a beautiful snowy, white Christmas :)

Christmas Baking

December is here and now I can admit to listening to Christmas music and Christmas baking :)  Technically I've been listening to Christmas music since Nov. 1st, but since we are coming home mid-December to celebrate, it felt ok.  Plus, playing Christmas music in stores here is not really a thing, so there was none of that threat of accidental over-exposure.  It's what I'm telling myself.

So today, since it is basically Christmas now, I decided to give in to one of the many pinterest recipes that have been tempting me, and bake (or put-together) these cookie-dough truffles.  Oh man.  Pretty good.  Also, they are incredibly easy because there actually isn't any baking; and if you remember to take the butter out of the fridge early, you can easily mix everything by hand in one bowl.  Yay for easy to make, easy to clean recipes!  (minus the chocolate coating..luckily I have an amazing husband who is cleaning the chocolate dishes as I type.  :) I <3 him)

So:
flour, butter, white & brown sugar, salt, vanilla and chocolate chips:

I couldn't find mini chocolate chips here, so I just used regular ones that I tried to chop up - it worked fine even if it meant this one guy got a little mangled when I tried to cut it for a picture.  But whatever, you eat them whole anyway :)
One batch made almost 7 dozen of these! mmmmm sugar overdose here I come!

And here is the link to the original recipe that I found on pinterest (as usual hers look much better! But I didn't have chocolate candy coating so I had to improvise with chocolate chips and vegetable oil)

Also in the Christmas spirit we have set up our nativity set  - from Bethlehem!  Thanks Dad and Charlotte!

my favourite are the sheep.

Sirens in Tel Aviv

Well it's been rather intense over here the past week.  Hearing the low wail of the incoming rocket warning sirens, running to a shelter, and hearing missiles exploding, are not things I thought I would experience here!  I can only imagine how horrible life must be for all the people living in southern Israel who have been dealing with living within rocket range for years, and only have a minute or less to find shelter (we have almost 2 minutes).  Or for the innocents in Gaza who have no warning system and no Iron Dome defence system.  I mean, hearing a siren once a day (twice today!) is not ideal, but it's not as scary when you know that a missile defence system, with a fairly good track record, is protecting you.  So far they have intercepted the 7 missiles shot at Tel Aviv (or at least the dangerous ones; if it's going out to sea or into a field they don't try).  When I think of all the suffering on both sides it's so horrible.  Even though the news makes a big deal out of Tel Aviv being targeted, it's nothing compared to the devastation and death in the south (both Israel and Gaza).  Hopefully a truce will be reached before more innocent people die.

For some levity - here is a hilariously accurate comic of what it is like when the sirens sound here (and an example of why I think Tel Aviv is still in a bubble when it comes to this stuff).  Or maybe the joking is just something everyone does to try and be distracted from the reality of the situation which we have no control over.

Winter Fruit!

It's pomegranate and dragon fruit season again!

They are so nice and cheap here (compared to Canada anyway)

This is my fail at trying to get the seeds out.  Zach did a much better job.  The best way is to just take a wooden spoon and hit the outside of the pomegranate over a bowl and the seeds just fall out.  But when I tried, somehow it broke apart and flew all over the kitchen sending bright red juice everywhere...
Still tasty though :)  My next adventure will be to try making pomegranate martinis - the juice is sooo good (and very healthy).  I realize that a martini is not "very healthy", but with some pomegranate juice I think I could convince myself that it is.

My first dragon fruit!  It looks so much cooler than it tastes.  Sort of like a bland kiwi.  But maybe it wasn't fully ripe or something.  I'll have to try it again.  Easily wins for most awesome looking fruit.

One year in Israel

As of yesterday we have lived in Israel for a year now.  Just under one left to go! (or that's the plan for now...we all know how these things go...)  In hindsight, this year did pass pretty quickly, and I imagine the next one will as well.  Although as we get closer to the actual leave date I think that I will start to realize how much I am going to miss our walks to the sea, swimming in November, and just having easy access to sites that seem so inaccessible back home.

I remember reading some piece when I was young, probably in National Geographic, about how the Dead Sea was drying up and could disappear.  I remember the panic I felt that I might not ever get to swim in it and how it seemed totally impossible that I would ever visit Israel before I was super old and all the cool stuff would be gone! hah, oh the things that you stress about when you're little. So in some ways it's a little surreal still that we have been able to see and do all sorts of things out here, and I know that I'll cherish that once we go back.

From our family's visit last February, floating in the Dead Sea

Oh, and in case you are as neurotic as me, don't worry about the Dead Sea - environmentalism is just as big over here and there is now a joint project between Israel and Jordan to preserve sea levels.  Although if you ask me, the motivation is tourism, not the environment.  But hey, whatever works. :)

Night Running

One of the really great things about preparing for the Jerusalem half-marathon is that Zach and I have been discovering new paths and parts of our neighborhood as we search for more interesting running routes.  The other day we were stopped on one of our regular routes at the entrance to the beach by an army blockade including rolled barbed wire across the road!  This meant we had to quickly change plans and run in uncharted territory - hah.  But we discovered a really nice road that runs along the bluffs and then came back through a fancy neighborhood - all without getting lost :)

Yesterday was the first full thunderstorm we've had since last winter - yay!  The pouring rain and cool winds made the apartment smell sooo good - I love that stormy rain smell :)  The pictures below show some of the clouds around our apartment just before the storm came rolling in.

That night, after the storm was long gone we went out for a run and what a beautiful run it was!  The beach has a boardwalk from downtown Tel Aviv to our beach (and beyond...) and as we ran along it we could see the storm far out across the ocean with flashes of lightning lighting up the distant sky.  I wish I had a picture of it!  The boardwalk is also lit for a long time just by little lights along the ground so you still get the full effect of stars in the sky without the light pollution - it's amazing :) Stars, salty wind at your back, the fresh smell of rain and a distant thunderstorm over the ocean.  Love it.

 This picture is from one year ago - just after we moved here, on the boardwalk at the Port in Tel Aviv.  The storm from last night was not nearly as close as the one in the picture was!

Grande Prairie

It seems like I've been all over the place this past month!  I was just back in Canada again and got to spend a week with my family in Ontario, and then a week up in Grande Prairie!  Although it was amazing to see friends and family and spend more time in Canada, I have to say that spending 2 weeks half a world away from Zach was not so great!  Even though I live here and know full well that media totally misrepresents this part of the world (Israel) to North America, I still followed the news on Israel-Lebanon-Syria-Iran a lot more closely ... I guess I understand a bit more how our family, living so far away, can sometimes be concerned :)

But all that aside - what an amazing time we all had at Lindi's wedding!  I am so so happy that I was able to go - we even managed to have a reunion of the Pink Flamingos - seems like just yesterday we were all housemates in London! 

These are the details from Lindi and Russ's wedding - they are so crafty/artistic/talented!  It was a gorgeous rustic themed wedding - the weather was perfect too - sunny and warm, which is amazing considering that three days later it snowed!

 Coffee favours!  And look at those cute little owls :)

  And the pink flamingo traveled on to Grande Prairie... :)  

 Jen, Alyssa and I - it was such a gorgeous sunny day!

 Beautiful bride :)

Jen, Bronwen and I got to spend more time together on the way home!  Bronwen is such a little trooper - taking the long flights in stride.

Now it's back to work and training. Funny how even taking just two weeks off from running makes it hard to get back into it :)  We'll see what happens over Christmas holidays!

Vanilla

About 5 months ago I ran into some vanilla beans in the grocery store - and they weren't super expensive, so I did a little experiment.
I sliced it open and scraped the seeds out, then put the bean and scrapings inside a little sterilized jar full of vodka.  I shook it around whenever I remembered to over the months, and then left it in the fridge.  Then, last week, I ran out of vanilla extract in the middle of making cookies.  My vodka vanilla still smelled mostly like it was just vanilla flavoured vodka - but I gave it a go and it worked!  It actually tasted great!  This was very exciting to me because I really hate projects that take at least 5 months to see results (yes, I'm an instant gratification person).  But yay!  It worked!  This means that I can make my own vanilla extract now for a fraction of the cost of the stuff in the store...I just have to plan in advance :)  Bonus - since then I was shown where to buy vanilla beans in the market which I'm sure are much better quality and much cheaper.  I think next time I might try it with bourbon too.  I've heard that's tasty. :)

To the North

We've been touring around Israel this past week since Zach's brother came to visit - it's been really interesting to see the sites in the summer - the peak of what we thought the tourist season was.  But really, I haven't seen many more tourists than were here in the Spring (maybe it's the heat!).

Dizengoff Square got a brand new fountain that looks like it's from the 70's - nice and colourful :)

This is from inside the tombs at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, looking out at a staircase leading to nowhere.

The shiny statue at the Israel museum:

We took a tour in Bethlehem of the Banksy graffiti - we are pretty confident that the taxi driver took us to a bunch of imitations, but this one is reputed to be authentic (though not on the wall).

Banksy is an anonymous graffiti artist who got much of his initial fame from the art he did inside Palestine on the border fence/wall.  It was really interesting to see this part of Bethlehem and hear our taxi driver's thoughts on the issues there.

The temperature has been crazy hot - it is August after all so no one is surprised :)  So we went up north to escape the heat... unfortunately, it was in the middle of a heat wave.  I have been getting used to the temperatures here, they really aren't much different from a hot Ontario summer - you just never get any rain to break the weather.  If you look up the forecast for Tel Aviv it is almost always a sunny, 34C feeling like the low 40's with the humidity hovering around a nice, wet, 80%.  Once you're used to it, and if you stay out of  the sun, it's totally manageable.  But then we stepped out of the car into Tiberius and got hit with what I can only describe as wind from a furnace - it's incredible, I've never been so hot, only to feel a breeze that is even hotter - crazy!  But as we travelled up into Upper Galilee and to our hostel in Safed, it turned gorgeously dry and cool (ish).  The north is still easily my favourite part of Israel.  

We went back to one of my favourite National parks, Nimrod's Fortress.  Since we were high up in the Golan Heights, it was beautiful weather for hiking around, not too hot at all.  And we saw maybe five people total in the park, it was amazing. This high up we were also free from a lot of the dust and humidity that is plaguing Tel Aviv right now.

An Arabic tablet from the 13th century:

I love this place!

This, to me, sums up August in Israel:

Almost as close to Damascus as Tiberius!  On top of Mt. Bental Lookout and former army barracks.  On the road back down through the Golan we wanted to try a highway we'd never driven on that went right down along the border between Israel and the demilitarized zone with Syria (hwy 98 just south of the 91).  Unfortunately, when we got there, the road was blockaded so we had to go back the other way.  According to google maps we made it within 7km of the actual Syrian border.  The night before we had dinner about 1km from Lebanon.  I sometimes forget how close everything is here.  Well, except Bagdad (sic) - that is still 800km away apparently :)  

My favourite piece of art from the crazy metal sculptures on Mt. Bental.  Clap little guy! Clap!

Catch up

One month goes by quickly on vacation!  We got back about a week ago from a really great trip to see friends and family.  It started with a week in Barbados to celebrate our friends' wedding - what a beautiful place! It almost reminds me of Israel with the vegetation (same crazy red trees) but the beaches are incredible, and varied.  We drove around the island and saw the different coasts, and spent a lot of time with friends.  The wedding was super beautiful, held with a backdrop of the Atlantic. This is from me creeping on their photo session...

After that we spent time with the Taylor family in Manitoba and the Bowering family in Ontario.  So nice to have time with family after only seeing each other on skype for so long. :)

Capturing sunset at the cottage in Manitoba:

Then we went to Muskoka with the Bowering and Boettcher clan - trying to get this bunch in one shot is not easy!

Then it was back to Bronte for a bit before heading home to Israel.  What a trip!

One Year

This time last year I was a crazy mix of excited, nervous, happy and impatient.  I know that everyone always says the cliché "I can't believe it's been a year" but I guess it's a cliché because it's true!  It's amazing to me just how much my life is different from what it was a year ago.  Being married is awesome. It is truly wonderful to have someone you love so much to share your life with.  We definitely haven't had a conventional "first-year" (but who does really?) - immediately after getting married we have sold a house, moved all our stuff to storage and then moved ourselves to Israel. Even though living out here, so far away from everything we are used to, has been tough sometimes, it has also been an unbelievable way to figure out together the whole being married thing. And that has been so great.  I just feel so lucky to have found my 'person' (for all you grey's anatomy watchers ;) ) and for the fantastic year we've had, and more fun to come :)

sunset dinner on the beach:

 

Making Gnocchi

If you've never made gnocchi you should try it!  It's not as hard as it seems, but it does take a lot of time (mainly roasting the potatoes), so I recommend doing tons in advance because it freezes quite nicely (and then is almost an instant meal).

Smoosh a bunch of roasted starchy potatoes so they are smooth (we had to use a sieve since we don't have a ricer here), mix with some egg, flour, salt and pepper and a pinch of nutmeg, and roll into snakes.  Then cut into little pieces and boil for a few minutes and voila!  The pictures of the cooked gnocchi looked totally gross so I didn't post them....but it was actually amazing!  

This is the view from the patio of one of our favourite restaurants at the Port called Nimrod's Cafe.  It also serves delicious tri-colour gnocchi in cream sauce.  But mainly we go there for the burgers (with cheese!) or fish and chips and beer :)

Language Fun

I know, two posts in one day.  Whoa!

Fun with Hebrew:

Today I had a meeting downtown (in a government building) and forgot that the guards at this building don't usually speak English (and being government they care why you're there).  I thought of avoiding eye contact and just going to the elevators, but that usually isn't a good move in Israel...so this is what happened:

Guard:  "something I don't understand"
Me (in Hebrew): ummmm.. I don't speak Hebrew, do you speak English?  (best sentence to learn - but kind of weird when you are saying, in Hebrew, that you don't speak it)
Guard (in perfect English) "No, I only speak Russian and Hebrew.  Do you speak Russian?"
???????
(the more I think of this, the more I realize that he had probably just learned this sentence in English like mine above.  Either that or it was a slow day and he was just having fun)
...so what followed was me trying to explain that I had a meeting on the fourth floor, realizing that I only know the verb "to meet" (at least I hope that's what I said)
" I am meeting...ummmm....... 4......ummmm....pointing up at the ceiling"

Luckily he had pity on me, figured it out, repeated something in Hebrew to which I nodded and smiled and said a lot of "todah's" (thank you) and he let me through (even though I had forgotten my passport, so lucky day for me)

Biking to Jaffa

The weekend before last was Shavuot, the long weekend that marks seven weeks after Passover, it's like Israel's version of May 2-4, so we decided to spend our free day renting bikes and riding down to Jaffa.  The bike rental system here is great - it's like Bixi bikes (which I've never actually tried) but they did a great job in Tel Aviv because there are stations everywhere, not to mention the entire city is flat, and it's roughly the same cost as taking a round trip on a bus. 

The day started out slightly less than desired. As we were figuring out how to pay, I felt something hit my shoulder and immediately thought - someone just egged me!!  That's how much impact I felt, like an egg thrown from an apartment building.  Turns out it was one of our friendly (gigantic raven) neighborhood birds...soooo gross.  I can't even tell you.  But the day was much better after that!  Unfortunately I didn't think of taking a picture so you could share in my disgust.  After recouping we got some bikes and headed out to the beach near our place.  The entire coast is lined with a boardwalk from Bat Yam in the south to Herzlyia in the North which makes it amazing for biking.  

I forgot to take any nice pictures of the coast...but here is one of a parking lot...(the sea is to the left)

The rest of the day we spent exploring the old city in Jaffa (one of the oldest cities in the world-  people have lived in the harbour since the bronze age!)  We ate shwarma and falafel for lunch and had ice cream near the docks.  

This is me exploring an alley:

Then we saw a very colourful wall:

And some pretty buildings (the first picture reminds me of St. Augustine, Florida):

And then we biked back along the coast (this is from a hill in Jaffa, looking toward Tel Aviv - our beach is another few kilometers past the farthest point)

I promise the view was better than this -  the majority of the ride is along the beach:

Whoa - I almost forgot one of the most significant happenings of the day.  We had our first full Hebrew exchange with an Israeli!  (like other than thank you and hello).  I ordered drinks (in Hebrew), and he didn't tell us the price in English!  He said it in Hebrew and I understood!  ok I also looked at the board before hand and could see how much it was going to be, but still. I know I'm impressed.