A letter from Israel

The wild mustard is growing yellow and everywhere in Israel at the moment. But not the kind of mustard that you eat with ketchup on your hotdog! Wild mustard as in wild mustard plants! :) I am talking about  Sinapsis Arvensis , a tiny yellow flower that grows in masses in fields, along road sides and abandoned building sites. Up close the wild mustard flower does not look like much - a bit on the puny side actually. But just come across a field filled with mustard flowers and you will be enchanted - just as I am every spring.

Photo by  Ken Bosma   Israelis are often described as prickly pears - thorny  on the outside but sweet on the inside! It is the first day in an ulpan (Hebrew class) in Israel and one of the new immigrants raises his hand and ask: "Excuse me teacher, but can you please tell me how to say 'Please', 'Thank you' and 'I apologize' in Hebrew." The Israeli teacher (clearly baffled) looks at him for a while and then asks, "Why?" One does not hear the 'magic words' too often here in Israel. And yes, Israelis can also be quite rude. Let me count  the ways: They elbow you out of loosely-formed "queues" They steal parking spaces right in front of you If When they get mad they yell and/or swear loudly Their dogs do its 'business' in front of your house and nobody picks it up They love to interrogate you about your salary, religion or why you aren't married. And if you are married they ask why you do not have children. Or

©Flavio  Is it the kids who like to be dressed up for Purim or the mommies who like to dress up their kids? One can still buy "oznei haman" in the supermarkets in Israel and so I thought that: 'Well, Purim may be over by now but one cannot have a blog about Israel without talking about Purim! "Oznei haman" (Haman's ears) by the way are special triangular shaped cookies that is eaten during Purim.

An orchard covered in snow Yeah, snow in Israel. I know that sound totally oxy-moronic. People are supposed to be like flash-fried here whenever they stand outside for too long, not frozen into ice lollies!