We have what you call a “high maintenance” garden. Combine that with “time management issues,” one member of the household who deals with “chronic pain” (that would be me) and “not enough money to spend on a gardener to come every two weeks to weed” and you are headed for a garden disaster.

Sure, I can mow the lawn every week, it’s not a big deal, takes a relatively small amount of effort and about twenty minutes. However, we have a two different areas where we have various trees, bushes and plants surrounded by dirt. Without weeding these areas frequently, they quickly become overrun. It got to a point where we simply could not enjoy being outside and frankly, I was somewhat embarrassed for guests to see its condition.

We needed a solution. And that solution was volcanic tuff. I envisioned the two problematic areas covered with a layer of plastic to keep the weeds out and layered with copious amounts of ubiquitous reddish tuff. It’s aesthetically pleasing and I would only have to pull out the rare weed that was strong enough to break through the plastic. Luckily, the gardener I brought in for an estimate agreed with me.

I also wanted a small garden (very small) where my daughter and I could grow herbs and perhaps some vegetables.

Two weeks – and not a small sum of shekels- later , I’m happy to say my vision is now a reality. The following photos were taken over a month ago and I’m happy to say the lawn is looking greener, my lemongrass has come back to life, my orange and lemon trees have fruit and my new lime tree seems very happy in its new home.

The rules:

1. Add a direct link to your post below the name of the person who tagged you. Include the city/state and country you’re in.

Nicole (Sydney, Australia)
velverse (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
LB (San Giovanni in Marignano, Italy)
Selba (Jakarta, Indonesia)
Olivia (London, England)
ML (Utah, USA)
Lotus (Toronto, Canada)
Andi (Dallas [ish], Texas, United States)
Todd (Louisville, Kentucky, United States)
miss kendra (los angeles, california, u.s.a)
Jiggs Casey (Berkeley, CA, USA! USA! USA!)
Tits McGee (New England, USA)
Kat (Ontario, Canada)
Cheezy (London, England)
tafka PP (Jerusalem, Israel)
Harry (Modi’in (The City of the Future), Israel)

Mordoch, Agripas, Jerusalem: The Mordoch family are Kurdish and serve the best kubbeh soup in the entire country. Kubbeh soup is a meal unto itself. At Mordoch you can get three varieties – red, green and “kubbeh shel pa’am” – Red kubbeh soup is made with chicken stock, beets, tomato paste and swiss chard. Green (commonly known as Chamutzta) is a really sour soup made with swiss chard, zuchinni and a ton of lemon juice. “Kubbeh shel Pa’am” is basically the same as broth as the Chamutzta but with a ton of garlic. The star of all of the soups however is the Kubbeh itself. Kubbeh are seminola dumplings filled with meat and spices.

Batya, 197 Dizengoff, Tel Aviv: This place has been open since 1941. Check out this origin. It used to be a watermelon stand. The customers quickly became more interested in the food that Batya was bringing her husband than the watermelon and hence Batya was born. This place is old school. You can get even order a side of shmaltz to spread on your rye bread. Their chopped liver is absolutely mindblowing and their chicken soup can cure cancer.

Moshiach Ben David, Frenkel street, Tel Aviv: Shai, of the once awesome and now defunct blog, Shaister, introduced me to this place (I still owe you five shekels) last year and I have returned several times since. It’s homemade Bukharin food. You can look at the menu all you want, but the proprietor will let you know what she decided to make that day. I’ve had incredible soup that was somewhere between a traditional Ashkenazi chicken soup and wonton soup, fried rice with chicken, stuffed vegetables with meat and more. It’s uber-delicious and uber-cheap. It’s not the cleanest establishment, but hey, that’s part of the charm.

Ta’ami, Shammai street, Jerusalem: Hands down, the best hummous in Jerusalem. I have nothing else to say. Go now and let Motti serve you.

Ethio-Israel, Jerusalem: My love affair with Ethiopian food started about two years ago. Until last week I’ve been eating it at every joint in the city except Ethio-Israel. Huge mistake on my part. Ethio-Israel is by far the best Ethiopian restaurant that Jerusalem has to offer. Ethio-Israel is located right behind Jaffa street not far from Kikar Tzion in an area which is quickly becoming “Little Ethiopia.” The food is outstanding, filling and super-duper cheap. I recommend their variety platter which features four vegetable dishes and one meat dish for only 35 shekels (about 8 bucks)!

Ofer Falafel, Modi’in: You wouldn’t expect great falafel in Modi’in. Since opening about two years ago, Ofer Falafel has become my preferred falafel stop, although I greatly respect both Yemenite Falafel and Moshiko in Jerusalem. What makes Ofer so special? Well, for one, the falafel is self-serve. You order your pita, they put in the hummous and you put in your own salads, chips and falafel balls. Falafel joints like this are few and far between. The falafel is always fresh, it never sits around in the oil for hours. Ofer Falafel is also immaculately clean and the service is great. Ofer and his merry band of teenage workers serve with a smile.

I don’t really have any friends who have blogs so I’m not going to tag anyone.

This guy comes in, sits at the bar, takes a look at the screen and says, “Which team is Ghana?”

He had this to say about ‘The View from Here’:

Harry and Ziva are a young couple who live in Modiin. They have sense of a humor and they have a weekly podcast. Their great podcast begins with a guitarist version of Hatikvah (Israel’s national anthem). They also speak about their lives here in Israel to their audience around the world. Fun to listen to and fun to read.

I’ll take it!

UPDATE: Lisa over at “On the Face” writes:

I’ll avoid the blow-by-blow translation, since it’s late and I’m far too lazy, and just give you the general idea. It seems that last month a columnist for Ma’ariv wrote an article complaining that there are no good Israeli blogs, the kind that discuss politics and society instead of “pee pee and kaki.” In response, Hanan Cohen wrote the piece I linked to. According to Cohen, the best Israeli blogs are written in English. True, he admits, it’s not so easy for Hebrew speakers to read in English, but “Anglo Saxon” blogs frequently offer “surprises and wisdom.” He explains that all of the bloggers have blogrolls, so it’s easy to click through to lots more surprising and wise Anglo-Israeli writers.

The blogs specifically mentioned – and summarized – in the article are:

Moi (duh) (Quote: “I’m not sure what she does for a living, but she seems to move around this area a lot so maybe she’s a journalist.”)

Dutchblog Israel (Quote: “Writes in English and Dutch. It seems that most of his readers are Dutch, and he feels the need to explain ‘what’s going on here’ to them.”)

Balagan (Quote: “A week ago she got stopped at the Knesset, where she works, because she was wearing orange shoes. The security guards thought she was making an anti-disengagement statement. She is pro-disengagement.”)

The View From Here (Quote: “Harry and Ziva are a young couple who live in Modi’in. They have a sense of humour, and they have a weekly podcast!”)

Orthodox Anarchist (Quote: “Ever heard of an Orthodox anarchist? There’s one living in Jerusalem, and based on his blog he’s a super cool dude.”)

Ari Lives in Israel (Quote: “A leftist asshole. (the kind I like).”)

Five Years Later (Quote: “She shares very personal feelings that make me…feel alternately like a participant and a voyeur.”)

Israelity (Quote: “A group blog that describes life in Israel and tries to avoid politics. Lovely writing.”)

I have to admit, I’m pretty chuffed.

I just want to thank everyone for all the good wishes and the concern for my safety. The more I think about it, the more lucky I realize I am that I wasn’t wounded in this attack. And to those of you who are concerned about me changing my world view, this moderate will continue to be moderate but I am now more certain than ever that a divorce is needed between the Israeli and Palestinians and not a marriage. Now check out this simplification. Think of Israel being Denise Richards and the Palestinians being Charlie Sheen. Or vice versa. Now picture them married.

It just wasn’t meant to be. Charlie Sheen likes whores.

I was cruising down the road listening to the new Death in Vegas greatest hits album (disc 2, song: Scorpio Rising, Polyphonic Spree remix) when the car driving about 100 meters ahead of me slowed down considerably. At this point I saw there was a large amount of debris in the road and then it clicked. Fuck. That car just got stoned and I’m next. Stopping wasn’t an option. Who knew if these fuckers had guns? My instincts told me to gas it. So I did, as fast as my Honda Civic would take me. I quickly turned into the left lane and pulled my left arm up to guard my head and my face. Better a broken arm than a head wound. Unfortunately, the mini-terrorists were standing practically on the road and launched a huge stone at my car. I saw the fucker and he must have been thirteen or fourteen. Thankfully, they either had bad aim or I was just driving too fast but the huge stone hit the side of my car. If I stayed in the right lane it would have probably have gone right through the passenger side window and well…let’s not go there. I immediately called the police to report it and stopped at the roadblock a couple kilometers down the road.

The car in front of me was lucky as well. The stone hit their windshield and went right through but thankfully neither of the occupants were wounded.

I am irate right now. My years of political moderation might be over. I’ll post a photo of the damage tomorrow and you can decide whether stones are lethal weapons or not.

UPDATE: As you can see from this photo, I wasn’t the victim of a childish stone throwing. This was nothing more than an attempt to seriously harm me. The rock thrown was the size of a grapefruit. The velocity and the weight of the stone were enough not only to severely dent my car but throw the entire panel off it’s track. Look how close it is to the window. Damn!

Also, this wasn’t my first incident on the road. Back in December of 2003 a rock was thrown at my car as well. You can read about that one here.

Needless to say I was kind perturbed to read this story in Ha’aretz that says the air quality in my town of Modi’in is now worse that Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

The air in Modi’in contained extremely high levels of particles which when inhaled, can pose a health risk. The ministry attributed the high levels of pollutants to the large scope of construction and quarrying carried out the area.

They started quarrying (is that a word?) a couple of weeks ago literally across the street from our place and the dust is tolerable because it’s winter and the windows remain closed but the incessant noise from 6:45 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. is doing my damn head in.

I’m sure Nefesh b’Nefesh handing out massive sums of cash from Evangelical Christians provided the impetus for many to immigrate.

When I made Aliyah back in 97 I was 22, had a couple grand in my pocket, a guitar on my back and a dream. No money was forthcoming from any organization and certainly not from the government. I mean, all Americans are rich, right? I spent the first couple months partying like it was 1999 (although it was 97) went into Ulpan and waited tables at the most disgusting restaurant in Jerusalem with an even more disgusting clientele. The restaurant closed after the buses stopped running. One thing I always remember is the walk home. It was just me and my disc player. Listening to the sounds of Ben Harper’s Welcome to the Cruel World and Elliott Smith’s Roman Candle as I walked through the silent city is something I’ll always value. Modi’in just doesn’t have the same flavor as J-Town. Alas, times change. Ben Harper’s has long abandoned his soul infused neo-folkism and Elliott Smith lyrical death wish made the leap from lyric to life. Blah. What the hell am I writing about?