A little bit of sunshine

One of the Zodiac alleys of Old Jaffa, a slit of sea and sun

Have no mistakes, I'm not complaining. I am very happy it rained almost every day the past couple of weeks. It is nice to experience a touch of real winter. The temperature has plummeted so in the ungodly hour I go out to work it's in single digits; a rare phenomenon where we live. The sky is gray with low purplish clouds, my favorite weather. I enjoy the rain even when I need to walk almost 10 minutes to my car while my eyeglasses get covered with steam and droplets. The road leading to the lab is very pretty, twisting among mountains laden with woods mist covered like a scene from "Lord of the Rings".

winter sky

As much as I enjoy the winter gloom there are times that a little sunshine is welcomed, like in our last excursion to the old city of Jaffa. We love once in a while getting lost in the narrow alleys and feel the sea spray. It was a cold day but the little bits of sun that came out here and there illuminated all in a nearly magical way. I had a wonderful time taking photos while inhaling salty cold air.

Sun bath for the seagulls 

Like a picture painted by Turner

There will be a serious post one day on Jaffa, it's an amazing city that is as ancient as human civilization, but for now just let us relish a bit of sunshine. 

The first weekend of 2011

The past couple of weeks and weekends were spent in a similar way to the one I've already described a year ago, when I reflected about getting myself a tattoo of a washing machine. 

This last weekend was a really pretty one. The sky was grey and rain drizzled from time to time and finally we were all feeling well.  We decided that no kind of weather will deter us and we'll get out of the house. Our plans for some grand hike were cancelled when we discussed the issue with some friends of ours who wanted all of us to spend the Saturday together. We went instead to the big city Tel-Aviv. Actually it was closer to Jaffa because we went to wonder around the old train station that led from Jaffa to Jerusalem.

The place was recently renovated and reconstructed and now it's a yuppie shopping center with some nice cafes, but it still holds a nostalgic charm. 

  

We mostly run around the old tracks with the kids and admired the architecture because of our  friend Shiri who is an architect. 

Shiri's favourite: old wood shutters holders in shapes of human heads.

There were lovely shops that we liked looking at but they were quite expensive. I liked the interior design though

A pretty store for utensils

Even inside the shops they tried to keep the old decoration.

After a short burst of rain the sun came out and we decided that we must go down to the sea. The children wondered what is the sense in that but Shiri explained it to them by declaring that "the sea in winter is not the sea in the summer", which I found to be a very Zen saying. So we went down to the board walk to watch some crazy surfers. It was quite beautiful.

Sea in winter

One crazy surfer

We ended the lovely tour back home with a great diner of steaks and fries. 

A wonderful start for a new year.