Jasmine Sandstorms and Passing Out
Jasmine (Jasminum, from old french Jasmine which is from the Persian yasmin, i.e. "gift from God", via Arabic)
Its the season of the Jasmine flower, a time when occationally one will walk by an inconspicuous patch of tiny white flowers and suddenly feel that both the nose and the head are filling up with a gentle perfume. For me the scent of Jasmine will always remind me of the large bush my mother proudly let grow wild in our backyard. In the spring she would walk out onto our back porch, stretch languidly with a large grin on her face, and heap compliments on the white flowers. I wonder if it reminded her of home or if the sweet smell just pleased her.
I noticed the flowers during the two day gloom that passed over Israel last week, the sky continuously covered by a patchy membrane of grey clouds. Nothing can throw back a bent-down head faster than a row of perfumed bushes. The next day there was a sandstorm across the land, mainly from Sinai. From my window the sky looked like someone had taken a mixture of sand and vasaline and smeared liberally. The air was hot and muggy and around me people were adding complaints to the already heavily laden air. In the afternoon fat cleansing drops of rain made the ugliness disappear. I have no quarrel with the sandstorm, I know that it will pass and that its sands carry metals and minerals to nutrient poor areas of the ocean. In satellite images you can see giant plumes of Sahara sand eagerly puffing out over the ocean.
Unrelated, I had a lovey moment this weekend. I went to see Hamlet in hebrew (and was delighted to discover that I could understand quite a lot and that Hamlet was a hottie) and after feasted on bland but tasty enough Indian food. When I made it back to Assaf's I was happily bloated but cramping from my period. Assaf brought me one of those pillows you can heat to put on sore muscles and I stuck it in my pants. I curled up against his side while he did work on his computer and between his warm chest and the warm pillow in my pants I passed out within seconds. Nothing like napping on soft flesh to rejuvenate the body.