Photos mostly! Lag Baomer, a sunset, assorted
Thursday evening I watched Iron Man 2, and I have four non-spoilery things to say about it: 1. Don Cheadle >>> Terrence Howard, 2. I started out not liking Scarlett Johansson's character, and then liked her a lot. 3. There is one really cool fight scene in the movie, and I would just like to remind everyone that the similar fight scene in Kick-Ass is better. 4. And most importantly, Rhodey/Pepper/Tony nao plz, kthx? (ps I'm not kidding, if you have any recs, especially post movie ones, send them over.)
Friday morning S and I ran some errands in Tel Aviv, and couldn't go to the beach as planned because of weird, inappropriate ugly weather and drizzly rain. We ended up in the Nahlat Binyamin arts and crafts market, where I bought some gifts, and we had lunch, and eventually the sun came out! Joy. The market really is a charming place, with lots of really cool craft stands. One of my favorites is a glass artist who makes colorful miniature glass statues, whose been manning this stand for 20 years at least; I remember this because as a little girl, my favorite part about going to this market was to just stand in front of his stand and watch him turn a piece of colored glass into a small animal in a few minutes. I still have a few that my parents bought me over the years.
Making a stork; adding it to the menagerie:
In the afternoon we ended up driving to my parent's home, to the airport, and finally to Haifa to spend the weekend at S's. We burned a bunch of CDs for the road -- mostly songs from Supernatural, in an attempt to expand our rock education, and those are really fun to listen to while driving. Since we'd missed the beach that morning, we tried to at least catch the sunset over the ocean, so we kind of raced the sun and made it to the Gaash cliffs just in time, ten minutes before it set.
I've posted photos from Gaash in the past, so pardon me if some of these might look familiar.
First of all, when we parked, we suddenly realized we were parked on the edges of this huge field of poppies, out of nowhere:
Then we walked to the cliffs. I love that moment when the trees and the brush clear out, and suddenly the ocean's just spread before you, blue and brilliant in the distance:
And then you walk all the way to the edge of the cliffs, and there it is:
My foot! It is high up okay?
The cliffs, facing north; the city of Netanya in the distance. I promise to do my best never to take this photo again; I've already got like five different versions.
The yellow flowers are called Candle-of-the-Night; they close during the day and open up in the evening/night, reflecting the light of the sun or moon.
Cliffs to the south; I was not the only one photographing \o/
We continued to Haifa where we spent the next day packing up S's apartment because she is my friend who's moving to the US and it is very sad :( I looted some stuff -- I will totally go fly a kite someday, okay? -- and mostly was in charge of the packing playlist. Which was important, to block out the sound of all the crows.
(I actually spent five minutes stalking from the window, waiting for a loud enough sound to scare the flock into flying. Apparently I am now an amateur birdwatcher.)
In the evening I met my former roommate, whose Lag BaOmer bonfire I'd invited ourselves to and she'd agreed and then said, "Okay, but my friends and I don't actually have any firewood, so giddy up." She and I ended up filling her entire car with branches, logs and twigs from the grove of trees behind S's house, so unexpected success! I'd always lived under the impression that there was no way to find any actual firewood on the day of Lag BaOmer itself because it would have been collected by other kids weeks in advance, but I guess maybe that law applies to growing up in a small town with no forests and sparse construction zones, and not necessarily to the city.
Another difference between my town and Haifa -- in my town, bonfires used to be built in either a few small lots in the town, or on the helicopter landing zone just beside it. In Haifa, they have their bonfires at the beach ♥.
City to the left, ocean on the right; bonfires.
Our little baby fire. It wouldn't have lasted the whole night, but it was good for warmth and light cooking.
Aluminum-wrapped potatoes wedged between the logs, later followed by aluminum-wrapped hot dog on a stick and aluminum-wrapped grilled cheese pita? I will basically eat anything wrapped in a aluminum foil and stuck on a fire. Charred and sand filled, even better.
The other bonfire must: roasted marshmallows. I've never actually eaten s'mores (other than the Pop Tart kind) and am not entirely clear on how to make them, but this is the way it's done here, mostly just skewered marshmallows, burned and well done.
I'm only adding this photo because I love the guy on the left's Sam Winchester pose. I wish the other guy were a little shorter and blockier.
Bonfires, facing the city. There was a huge moon out, especially when it was rising.
Ocean in the background. Sparks! My favoritest thing about bonfires is the sparks. I kept asking people to poke the fire for me so I could get good spark photos.
Like this :-)
Or this.
Spaaaarks ♥!
Eventually some people arrived with guitars, as usually happens...
And that was it! Oh wait, then I stopped by at lady_nimua's just to say hi and ended up stealing her Super Special Markers to sketch a lopsided drawing of Gerard Way. But he's a little lopsided anyway, so maybe it evens out! Anyway, I took a shower and no longer smell of smoke, so all around, a successful evening.
OH WAIT. For more holiday-appropriate campfire fun, have some (mostly former) Teen Titans at a campfire:
PS. I was not kidding about those Rhodey/Tony/Pepper recs.
comments on Dreamwidth.
Friday morning S and I ran some errands in Tel Aviv, and couldn't go to the beach as planned because of weird, inappropriate ugly weather and drizzly rain. We ended up in the Nahlat Binyamin arts and crafts market, where I bought some gifts, and we had lunch, and eventually the sun came out! Joy. The market really is a charming place, with lots of really cool craft stands. One of my favorites is a glass artist who makes colorful miniature glass statues, whose been manning this stand for 20 years at least; I remember this because as a little girl, my favorite part about going to this market was to just stand in front of his stand and watch him turn a piece of colored glass into a small animal in a few minutes. I still have a few that my parents bought me over the years.
Making a stork; adding it to the menagerie:
In the afternoon we ended up driving to my parent's home, to the airport, and finally to Haifa to spend the weekend at S's. We burned a bunch of CDs for the road -- mostly songs from Supernatural, in an attempt to expand our rock education, and those are really fun to listen to while driving. Since we'd missed the beach that morning, we tried to at least catch the sunset over the ocean, so we kind of raced the sun and made it to the Gaash cliffs just in time, ten minutes before it set.
I've posted photos from Gaash in the past, so pardon me if some of these might look familiar.
First of all, when we parked, we suddenly realized we were parked on the edges of this huge field of poppies, out of nowhere:
Then we walked to the cliffs. I love that moment when the trees and the brush clear out, and suddenly the ocean's just spread before you, blue and brilliant in the distance:
And then you walk all the way to the edge of the cliffs, and there it is:
My foot! It is high up okay?
The cliffs, facing north; the city of Netanya in the distance. I promise to do my best never to take this photo again; I've already got like five different versions.
The yellow flowers are called Candle-of-the-Night; they close during the day and open up in the evening/night, reflecting the light of the sun or moon.
Cliffs to the south; I was not the only one photographing \o/
We continued to Haifa where we spent the next day packing up S's apartment because she is my friend who's moving to the US and it is very sad :( I looted some stuff -- I will totally go fly a kite someday, okay? -- and mostly was in charge of the packing playlist. Which was important, to block out the sound of all the crows.
(I actually spent five minutes stalking from the window, waiting for a loud enough sound to scare the flock into flying. Apparently I am now an amateur birdwatcher.)
In the evening I met my former roommate, whose Lag BaOmer bonfire I'd invited ourselves to and she'd agreed and then said, "Okay, but my friends and I don't actually have any firewood, so giddy up." She and I ended up filling her entire car with branches, logs and twigs from the grove of trees behind S's house, so unexpected success! I'd always lived under the impression that there was no way to find any actual firewood on the day of Lag BaOmer itself because it would have been collected by other kids weeks in advance, but I guess maybe that law applies to growing up in a small town with no forests and sparse construction zones, and not necessarily to the city.
Another difference between my town and Haifa -- in my town, bonfires used to be built in either a few small lots in the town, or on the helicopter landing zone just beside it. In Haifa, they have their bonfires at the beach ♥.
City to the left, ocean on the right; bonfires.
Our little baby fire. It wouldn't have lasted the whole night, but it was good for warmth and light cooking.
Aluminum-wrapped potatoes wedged between the logs, later followed by aluminum-wrapped hot dog on a stick and aluminum-wrapped grilled cheese pita? I will basically eat anything wrapped in a aluminum foil and stuck on a fire. Charred and sand filled, even better.
The other bonfire must: roasted marshmallows. I've never actually eaten s'mores (other than the Pop Tart kind) and am not entirely clear on how to make them, but this is the way it's done here, mostly just skewered marshmallows, burned and well done.
I'm only adding this photo because I love the guy on the left's Sam Winchester pose. I wish the other guy were a little shorter and blockier.
Bonfires, facing the city. There was a huge moon out, especially when it was rising.
Ocean in the background. Sparks! My favoritest thing about bonfires is the sparks. I kept asking people to poke the fire for me so I could get good spark photos.
Like this :-)
Or this.
Spaaaarks ♥!
Eventually some people arrived with guitars, as usually happens...
And that was it! Oh wait, then I stopped by at lady_nimua's just to say hi and ended up stealing her Super Special Markers to sketch a lopsided drawing of Gerard Way. But he's a little lopsided anyway, so maybe it evens out! Anyway, I took a shower and no longer smell of smoke, so all around, a successful evening.
OH WAIT. For more holiday-appropriate campfire fun, have some (mostly former) Teen Titans at a campfire:
PS. I was not kidding about those Rhodey/Tony/Pepper recs.
comments on Dreamwidth.