Optimizing my Garden

One of the things that endeared us to the apartment we purchased here in Modi’in back in 2003 (wow, have I been living in suburbia for that long?) was the lovely garden. I didn’t know at the time but I was quite delusional about my ability to give the garden the attention it needed to avoid it turning into a jungle.

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.

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Construction

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Bang bang bang bang bang

We moved out of Jerusalem because we couldn’t breathe, the streets were disgusting, it was noisy and it stressed us out to no end. 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. [...]

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Channukah Shmanukah

Happy Channukah to everyone. I happen to live in the town where historically the Maccabees originated. In fact, I live Channukah every day of the year. I always thought that Modi’in’s city slogan should be “Modi’in, where it’s Channukah 365 days a year.”

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No to the brown people!

“Checkpoints? Why not? Roadblocks? Yes, definitely. Tire burning? If necessary, sure. Violence? Who knows?”   Yitzhak is ready to fight back: “We will now take things into our own hands and prove that the `hoity-toities’ are no longer like that. Don’t get us wrong. Everyone here dresses in white shirts and ties, but we intend [...]

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Chief Rabbi of Modi’in a demonslayer?

If there is something strange in your neighborhood….who you gonna call? Not Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd, Harold Ramus and Ernie Hudson. Apparently the correct answer is former Modi’in Chief Rabbi David Lau (son of former Chief Rabbi Yisrael Lau. Rabbi Lau was called in recently to lead a prayer ceremony in the Prime Minister’s office. [...]

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I was threatened.

My wife threatened me today. She said that if I don’t start blogging again we are going to have to discuss canceling the hosting fees. Fair enough. I guess that is impetus enough to start writing again. It’s unfortunate that I haven’t been into writing so much but the problem lies with our big move [...]

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All politics are local

Next week there are municipality elections throughout the country, including in my town of Modi’in. My wife and I have been following this election very closely. It’s the first time I’ll be voting where the “situation” isn’t an issue. It’s quite refreshing actually weighing candidates on issues such schools, city expansion, economic growth etc. We [...]

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Back online and now in Modi’in

Wow. FINALLY back online. This blogging break was totally unintentional. I was without a TV or internet access for about a month and a half. It wasn’t easy. I did sleep a lot more which was nice, but I’m thankful for technology. We were living on Abraham Lincoln street or as they say in Hebrew [...]

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Moving to Modi’in

While America was celebrating their independence on Thursday we celebrated our independence from landlords. We finally signed a contract and purchased a beautiful home in Modi’in. Modi’in is a relatively new town smack between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. If your interested you can read about it here and here. Modi’in is the ancient home of [...]

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