Picture Perfect: Horizons

© Photo: Riihele. All rights reserved

Early morning HORIZONS view of the Israeli coast taken by yours truly!

“One summer night,
out on a flat headland,
all but surrounded by the waters of the bay,
the horizons
were remote and distant rims on the edge of space...”

(Rachel Carson)

Tender Moments – before the sunset

© Photo: Riihele. All rights reserved.

I do not wish to think of snow, that we have by the bucket load!
I do not wish to think of cold, it is only freeezing!
I do not wish to think of winter …

So hence, this

TENDER MOMENTS – before the sunset –
taken in Jerusalem a couple summers ago.

Do you feel the warmth and glorious glow of the hot day that was?

Aaah… those were them days, i say.

P.S.
The photo is totally untouched even though it looks like watercolour painting.

Picture Perfect: Look-a-like

© Photo: Riihele. All rights reserved

The sky looks like the water,
the water looks like the sky,
looking like they were painted in
soft and muted watercolours…

This photo was taken by me in Ein Bokek by the Dead Sea last year. The pic is totally untouched for it is as it was.  Here is some interesting information on this spectacular spot:

The Dead Sea has a climate which boasts year-round sunny skies and dry air with low pollution. It has less than 50mm mean annual rainfall and a summer average temperature between 32 and 39 degrees Celsius. The winter average temperature is between 20 and 23 degrees Celsius.

The region has weakened UV radiation, particularly the UVB (erythrogenic rays), and an atmosphere characterized by a high oxygen content due to the high barometric pressure. The Dead Sea’s mix of bromide, potash, magnesium and salt is like no other body of water on the planet.The shore is the lowest dry place in the world. (iNFO: Wikipedia)

Picture Perfect: CURVES

My curves are not crazy. Henri Matisse(1869-1954)

© Photo: Riihele. All rights reserved.

Everything is beautiful, all that matters is to be able to interpret. Camille Pissarro (1830-1903)

Art is a harmony parallel with nature. Paul Cezanne (1839-1906)

This is my entry on the Picture Perfect CURVES.
Take ye great care. Rii 🙂

This is the side entrance into the modern part of the Cardo which is covered and full of the most fancy shops. My favourite place for shopping in Jerusalem, actually. It is the modernized part of the Cardo and a very nice place to shop indeed.

KALANIT — Anemones

This is the time of the year, as it is the midwinter here in Finland, that I do so miss these scenes of Israel.

In Israel, February is the month when the first trees start to blossom and also the spring flowers, like the Anemones aka Kalanit, in Hebrew, put their colourful show on all around the country after the winter rains.


Of the trees, it is the Almond tree that bursts out forth as the Numero Uno!
Oh – the fragrance and the feeling of giddiness that comes over one when tis life and warmth again after the short spell of winter in Israel! The winter in there is more like the typical Irish summer, or a terrible summer here in Finland.

Tis for now yet again – Rii xx.

Photos on Mosaic Israel: Riihele. All rights reserved. Kalanit picture: Wikipedia

PICTURE PERFECT: WATER

“Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink…”

It’s from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge – when the Ancient Mariner is stuck in the middle of the sea.

Planet Earth has a total surface area of close to 197 million square miles. Most of this surface is covered by water. Most of this water is salty or in the form of ice and thus is not directly usable by humans. About 97% of the total water on earth is in the oceans or salt lakes. Another 2% of the total amount is locked up in the form of ice; so that is to say that we humans only have ONE per cent of the water to use and re-use over and over again!! And, of this 1%, agriculture takes seventy per cent; thus leaving for the population on the globe just 30 per cent (of that one per cent) of the water to ‘indulge’ in!

It is estimated that at any given time only about 1/3 of 1% of the total water on earth can be used by humans for agriculture or human consumption!! (pages.prodigy.net/jhonig..)

© All photos  Riihele. All rights reserved

This photo is part of a set pics that I took  in Israel in November 2002 at the Lake Kinneret* or as it is known as well, Sea of Galilee. The town of Tiberias is on the right of the photo and the Golan Heights on the left. These boats that we had the ‘rides’ are based on an ancient model found by the lake shore some years ago.

Did you know that more than five million people die from waterborne diseases each year – 10 times the number killed in wars around the globe. (BBC online on article, Water scarcity: A looming crisis?) Here is a Quiz: World Water crisis. Go on, have a go and see how you will do on it. Intriguing information methinks. ‘

Another rather amusing article I read in a newspaper about a scientifically made testing about some of the bottled waters on the market versus the tap water in Helsinki. Guess which one came on top as the best? Tap water in Helsinki, believe it or not! (Certainly tis true that the water on tap here in Finland is both very tasty and very clean – so far, so good, that is.)

This is my contribution on the PICTURE PERFECT theme  WATER.

 Have a grand weekend and do keep so well. Rii

* The name may originate from the Hebrew word kinnor (“harp” or “lyre”) in view of the shape of the lake.

This is a video of a bunch of kids dancing the Israeli folk dance called ‘Mayim, Mayim‘ aka ‘Water, Water’. I dance it meself as well, by the way.

HOLOCAUST Memorial Day 27.1.

The photo is part of The Names at the Yad Vashem* Museum in Jerusalem by me.

January 27, aka today is the annual official day for the remembrance of the victims of the Nazi-era worldwide and here is the what the UN has decreed on the same:

“International Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27) is an annual international day of remembrance designated by an official resolution of the United Nations General Assembly on November 1, 2005.

The resolution urges every member nation to honor the memory of Holocaust victims and encourages the development of educational programs about Holocaust history as part of the resolve to help prevent future acts of genocide.

“There can be no reversing the unique tragedy of the Holocaust. It must be remembered, with shame and horror, for as long as human memory continues. Only by remembering can we pay fitting tribute to the victims. Millions of innocent Jews and members of other minorities were murdered in the most barbarous ways imaginable. We must never forget those men, women and children, or their agony.” — United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, January 27, 2006. (Wikipedia)

I was wondering as to ’why’ this day of January 27, until I realized that this is the day that the Soviets entered/liberated the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camps in 1945 where some 1,1 to 1,6 million people perished; 90 per cent of them Jews. My dad visited these camps about five to ten years later after the events and his comments were ‘that it still did smell very nauseatingly of burned flesh’ – amazing when one thinks of the time-lapse. He also had black and white photographs of the ovens, the barracks, the imposing entrance at Birkenau and generally of the camps. I did find these pictures very haunting to look at, by the way.

A further quote off Wikipedia:

“…about three-quarters of the total, went to the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau within a few hours; they included all children, all women with children, all the elderly, and all those who appeared on brief and superficial inspection by an SS doctor not to be fully fit.In the Auschwitz Birkenau camp more than 20,000 people could be gassed and cremated each day. At Birkenau, the Nazis used a cyanide gas produced from Zyklon B pellets, which were manufactured by two companies who had acquired licensing rights to the patent held by IG Farben….

At the Auschwitz complex 405,000 prisoners were recorded as slaves between 1940 and 1945. Of these about 340,000 perished through executions, beatings, starvation, and sickness. Some prisoners survived through the help of German industrialist Oskar Schindler, who saved about 1,100 Polish Jews by diverting them from Auschwitz to work for him, first in his factory near Kraków and later at a factory in what is now the Czech Republic.”

In my entry on Amsterdam some time back, I mentioned that I visited the Anne Frank House Museum and this is what I said then: ”The horror of the Nazi era came alive in the Anne Frank House where we spent hours looking, thinking and going from room to room in the Annex as it still looks like it was when the people and Anne herself were hiding in there. The bookshelf – so familiar from the book of Anne’s, ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ – is still there…”

In Israel, the day for the Holocaust Remembrance, Yom HaShoah, is in the spring which I have witnessed there myself for a few times; the Wikipedia puts it like this:

“On the eve of Yom HaShoah in Israel, there is a state ceremony at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes Authority. At 10:00am on Yom HaShoah, throughout Israel, air-raid sirens are sounded for two minutes. Public transport (including virtually all highway vehicles) comes to a standstill for this period, and people stop and stand silent. During Yom HaShoah, public entertainment and many public establishments in Israel are closed by law. Israeli television and radio channels broadcast mourning songs and documentaries about the Holocaust, without commercials. All flags on public buildings are flown at half mast.

Also during this day, tens of thousands of Israeli high-school students, and thousands of Jews from around the world, hold a memorial service in Auschwitz, in what became known as “The March of the Living“, in defiance of the Holocaust Death Marches.”

Additional information: Oliver Lustig’s Presentation of Historic Holocaust Photograps @ I Survived.org/ Holocaust Remembrance Network.

Tis for now. Riihele xx

Holocaust; the literal meaning of the word is: Completely burnt.
The Holocaust (from the Greek ὁλόκαυστον (holókauston): holos, “completely” and kaustos, “burnt”).

* YAD VASHEM: The origin of the name is from a Biblical verse:

“And to them will I give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name … that shall not be cut off.” (Isaiah, chapter 56, verse 5) In Hebrew, “a memorial and a name” translates as yad va-shem. A literal translation would be “hand and name.” (Wikipedia)

(Re-entry.)

PICTURE PERFECT: ANTICIPATION

The act of anticipating, taking up, placing,
or considering something beforehand,
or before the proper time in natural order.

”But if we learn to think of it as anticipation, as learning, as growing,
if we think of the time we spend waiting for
the big things of life as an opportunity
instead of a passing of time,
what wonderful horizons open out! ”

Anna Neagle

Do you notice the ANTICIPATION with the knife and the fork all poised to tackle this delicous meal because paparazzi Da Blonde yelled:

“Wait, wait I want to take a photo!”

 

 

 

The restaurant we had this fabulous meal* is this:”Located off the courtyard of Yemin Moshe’s Confederation House, Te`enim**
is a charming, quiet corner in one of Jerusalem’s classic neighborhoods.
Oversized windows provide exquisite views of the Old City,
and the inner courtyard is decorated with Armenian-tiled tables and stone benches
— perfect for parties and family celebrations. The restaurant offers a unique vegetarian menu,
including seaweed soup, tofu skewers and more.

Local tip:
Save time to wander through the alleyways of Yemin Moshe.
It’s one of the capital’s most picturesque, and historic, neighborhoods.”
Go Jerusalem online

“Yemin Moshe
is a picturesque, beautifully restored neighbourhood
– an architectural treasure
and one of the most elegant addresses in Jerusalem.
There are no shops, but the views are spectacular.
It’s a fascinating place for an early evening or winter afternoon stroll.”

Source: Frommers.com

This is my entry on the theme

“ANTICIPATION”

on

PICTURE PERFECT.^^

Tis for now, Rii xx

© Photos: By Riihele. All rights reserved.

*The black shrivelled tingies are Char-grilled Aubergines!!
Delicious it was apparently. Mine was a different very delish vegetarian dish as well.
** Te’enim means’Figs’ in Hebrew.

^^ Picture Perfect works so that we are given the ‘title’ in a word and we have to match that with a photo.

On A Wing and A… Slide Show

 

The slide show is a story of the flights which I took in May

on the way to & from Israel via Vienna

– the first few photos with the evening sky –

then leaving Israel in the morning haze

and landing on again in Vienna midday.

The next flight is totally un-photographed simply

because a concert cellist sat besides me all the way to Copenhagen,

and the cello had the window seat. Ahem – though, it was booked for me.

From Denmark it was off to Helsinki landing there late afternoon.
Tis for now. Riihele xx

© Photos: By Riihele. All rights reserved.

Looking Good: HAIR

“I’d luv to kiss ya, but I just washed my hair.”

Bette Davis
(American actress 1908-1989)

All of the females know the saying: ‘To have a Good Hair Day’ when everything of you and on you looks absolutely a million dollars! The opposite is also so familiar to us. I came to think of this subject because my hair is showing signs of needing a good crop, a sprucing up and a re-styling. Planning to get it done ASAP; i.e., the hairdresser will have a time slot for me.

Talking about hairdressers; the worst ones ever to cross my path were in Sweden, who simply had no clue as how to cut hair. I went to several highly recommended ones but to no avail. Disaster after disaster, I am telling you! My hair is silken in texture but thick and naturally curly – I keep it as straight as I can manage it, so when a hairdresser sees it, they think ‘ooh, easy-peasy…!’ But it isn’t, and shocking hairdos are dished out to me time after time.

My approach to a new country, to a new town and a new hairdresser therein is with the outmost caution these days – after so many woeful shocks what else could I be?! The very best hairdressers I have had, have all been in Ireland, in particular. Even there anytime my familiar hairdresser moved on or changes to another town, I bid them a sad farewell, thinking:

‘ Where to next?!’

In Israel the early adventures of my haircuts there were not positive so while living there the last time I fine combed – – an enormous amount of them before I trusted anyone to touch my hair. Why? Well, the last haircut I had in Eilat one time before travelling back to Scandinavia was the one where I was given a happy zig-zag all around the head in the various lengths et cetera. More of a very, very bad hair day in a nightmare. So this time while there my caution paid off as the ‘research’ – which was letting them wash my hair at the most in places, sometimes not even that, but it did give a feel of the place.

Finally I walked into a very stylish and posh looking place thinking that this could be it and saw four hairdressers sitting there and asked them in a friendly but no nonsense style:

Me: “Are you all hairdressers?

They : “Yes.”

Me: “Who is the best of you to cut hair?”

They: “Zvi is.”

So that was that. Zvi, the owner, became my hairdresser and Hanan, his sidekick, too, as they were both equally talented at the art of haircutting and styling. The salon gave Lattes, Cappuccinos and sodas on the house. Nice touch. My beverage of choice there was Espresso, which was done in a real machine, no instant packet stuff there. In Ireland one could have a cup of tea or the instant coffee-powder coffee. In Finland not even the packet stuff is offered in any of the salons that I have been in. (Anyhow, offering an instant coffee to a Finn would be considered an insult. This country takes its coffee very seriously.)

Now I am back in Finland and here again the research was done with a comb so fine that I thought that there was none to do the hair until I found Lea. And does she know how to cut, indeed, she does, and with such a flair to boot!

Do Have A Good Hair Day!

Tis for now. Riihele xx.

© Photo: By Riihele. All rights reserved.

Tips on hairstyles and such like in this link and this here.