pickled lemons

North Indian Lime Pickle Ingredients

210 ml vegetable oil
1 tablespoon whole fenugreek seeds;    
1/2 tablespoon ground fenugreek    
10 dried chilies 
4 1-inch sticks cinnamon
3/4 tablespoon turmeric    
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon cloves
2 tablespoon black mustard seeds 
original recipe has 1 tablespoon ground asafoetida
12 limes or lemons ; well rinsed
150 gram salt

cut the lime into 8 pieces (or more), remove pips, heat the oil in a pan and toss in the following ingredients, as they begin to pop, pour the oil and spice mixture over the stuffed limes. set aside to cool to room temperature before packing in jars.

bones has such a unique, beautiful tail. it seems like it has a fracture somewhere in the middle, because when it points downwards it has a funny angle, but upwards, it has this perfect curve. this weekend he rolled in a cadaver, and after that we had to give him a serious round in the shower. which always makes him depressed.

yesterday i spent a few hours in the grass. laying on my back watching the almond blossom. playing with the camera and talking to my friends. wondering about the destructive nature of human being. and thinking that another year has passed, and that i am about to turn 28. what a funny number! i don’t feel 28. not that i am sure how 28 should feel like. but i imagined it would feel different. maybe i imagined i would be different.

i imagine so many things…

friday evening menu

fennel salad (from the garden)

nestle pie (from the field)

hardcore chocolate cake (won’t earn many points as local food, but at least home made)

16.25

the week continues. i sent an email saying yes to more work, and wondering if i did the right thing. it took a long time before i managed to push the ‘send’ button. my ultra sensitive mood from last weekend has stayed with me. i will give it one to one and a half month of trial. and then i will revaluate my situation. in the meantime, i am trying to find a room in tel aviv. i am sewing pillow cases for my sisters, delayed birthday gifts. and i am baking cakes.

i went to see avatar this week. timely enough,we are experiencing our own little avatar, right here were i live. to expand the kibbutz and to build new houses, they are cutting down trees from this beautiful, untouched forest. it rhymes very bad with the idea of being an ecological kibbutz, even though the trees are supposed to be replanted somewhere else. everyone is walking around in an emotional mine field, carrying their different emotions and opinions about what is going on.i went out to the forest yesterday, to see the destruction and i had to cry again.

well, i am not posting the most cheerful posts this week. however, i do try to keep my whiskers up, and hopefully so do you!

Don't you love farce?
My fault I fear.
I thought that you'd want what I want.
Sorry, my dear.
But where are the clowns?
Quick, send in the clowns.
Don't bother, they're here.

my spork is a spoon and a fork by now. but each with a short shaft. R.I.P

p.s i am still quite ‘home’ sick since returning from sweden. the biggest proof was phoning the tax office and feeling so nostalgic to speak and hear swedish.(someone, please put me back in reality, the tax office is not FUN stuff!) and the whole week i have been listening to p2. i was watching swedish documentaries on svt play. in tel aviv i bought a package of ballerina cookies. and this is the song of the week.

two boys and a few goats

 

saturday we did a forest walk with the goats. with us joined two wild boys, age four and a half. remember how important those half years were when we were young? anyhow, it was so great to listen to them, their thoughts and conversations. what scares them, and what amuses them.

and today, far away from goats and forests, i am reading your comments and i try to find my spark again. the rain is falling and that makes me happy.

goodmorning/goodnight

had a good day. visited the second hand store next doors. enjoyed homemade pizza and cake. a walk in the forest.

until….

i got an email from my work. now. it starts to sound like i hate my job, which isn’t true. i am just trying to puzzle the impossible, living approximately 3 hours (one way) away from there. not having, yet, my own place in tel aviv. and a miserable dancers salary. the combination isn’t the best, let’s say. and it makes me feel nauseous from stress. and first i try to contain it. and then it comes up like bubbles, when i try to explain it, and i cry…. usually afterwards it feels a bit better.

these days, though, i am not sure i feel much better after crying. perhaps cause i didn’t find the solution. or perhaps, cause i am not convinced enough of what i am going to do.

i love dance, the creative side of it, the chance to express myself, ventilate my feelings, explore my body and it’s possibilities etc etc etc. but still, sometimes it bothers me that the world of dance can be so narrow minded. so self indulged. and i ask myself, is this simply something i do to caress my ego? am i contributing anything meaningful to this world? is it only staying with what i know, with what is familiar to me? big questions for a saturday evening. just had to let it out.

now, i am going to have a night cap. cheers!

my top 6 sandwich combo’s

 

1. sourdough (or any other tasty bread) with peanut butter, sambal badjak and cucumber. i just ate a whole loaf of bread with this combo. unbeatable. spicy and with a flavor of suriname.reminds me of good old squatting days in the netherlands.

2. toast with avocado and miso paste. the salty flavor of miso and the fatty avocado goes so well together.

3. sandwich with yellow cheese, mustard and sprouts. to make it more unhealthy, but even tastier, i like to add some potato crisps on top.

4. white bread with yellow cheese and blueberry jam. savory+sweet=♥

5. knäckebröd with tartex and swedish pickles. childhood memories.

6. toast with butter and a spread made of tahini and honey. semi nutritious, but still sweet…

 

what are your favorite sandwich combo’s? i would be happy with some new inspiration!

i wanted to do yoga at home this morning. (but the pictures are from another occasion) i decided to start only once there would be some peace and quiet around.first of all, i needed to call the tax office in sweden, and the swedish embassy in israel. you know the drill, waiting in the phone line, getting transferred from right to left before you achieve what you needed to do. then i made the starter for my sourdough bread, cause it needs a lot of hours to rise. but for it to rise, it needs a nice, warm spot. and when i got out of bed this morning it was around 13 degrees indoors, and pouring rain outside. not the optimal climate nor for the sourdough, nor for me. hence, i needed to make a fire. so i went outside to chop&staple some wood. back inside, i could not manage to get the fire started. i tried all my tricks. in the end, i even fell for the cheapest one, which is to throw a little bit of oil onto the logs. which made the whole house smell like barbeque. by the time i had the fire going, i jumped out of my pajama into something warmer and more suitable, and made sure to put up the ‘please don’t disturb’ sign on our door. i managed to get through some sitting meditation,cat stretches, a few variations on the sun salutation & trikonasana when someone knocked on the door. i waited a second to give whoever was outside the chance to read the sign, and by the end of that second the door opened. in came one of my neighbors and her son, looking very guilty she explained ‘i only saw the sign once i opened the door’.

well, this is a little bit how it is to live here. for good and for bad. a constant practice of yoga, because life is very dynamic and you never know what will happen. and apparently the little i managed to do was enough to feel my muscles like jelly and my mind a bit calmer. have a good day!

our chickens started laying eggs. still very few, but oh what a joy! and they are running happily around, screaming and singing all day. i like the fact that when it gets dark, they simply return to their chicken house, without any fuss, and just go to sleep. no need to chase them around& hunt them down. and of course, we are convinced that they taste very different, ‘our’ eggs…

my tuesday was much better than monday. at work we finally had the guts to open up a discussion about the working process, about the rehearsals and things that haven’t been going the right way. it was like releasing the vacuum in a jar of jam. afterwards, things felt a bit easier and more hopeful again.

4xprofile

spend my sunday evening with these four creatures. which one does not fit into the picture, and why? (have a wild guess!)

i had an emotional monday, let’s hope that tuesday will be better….

it happens oh, so early this year. the almonds are already blossoming, even without having reproduced their leaves. weird. hey global warming!

but this night came the rain again. makes it extra difficult to get my ass out of bed and jump on the bus down to babylon.

so long folks. wish you a nice monday.

the westbank

taybeh is a palestinian beer, from the taybeh brewery close to ramallah. tasty…

what can you do, in a region which has so many difficulties? we keep asking ourselves this question. well, one thing which seem important, is to focus on positive projects. like planting trees. trees are investments. in this case, they could improve the soil of an area which is heavily troubled by erosion. aswell as give fruit. the permaculture project we visited, bustan qaraqaa is planting trees and they also develop systems for rain catchment among others.

in the orchard, i found this lovely scare-crow.

we went for a long walk in the neighborhood. and with each few houses that we passed, another pair of kids would join the walk. in the end we had quite a group of them following us around, practicing their english…

meet david bowie. the farms newest memeber. he chewed on every little bit of me.

there’s so much more i could write about being there. it is an intense experience. and it triggers so many thoughts and feelings. you can end up feeling hopeless or miserable against a powerful system, or you can try to focus on the things you as an individual (with another bunch of individuals) actually CAN do to improve the situation.

i found this quote at the farm, easier said then done, but i guess this is our challenge in life. no matter where we live, or what we do…

‘peace. it does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. it means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart’

lovely surprises

arrived back home to this amazingly beautiful bag! in my favorite colors… i love it! and it is so much me, imagine that i got it from someone who never met me?!

you made me extremely happy toril, thank you so much for this gift!

tjicktjack

this week i spent almost no time behind the computer. as you might know, it is kinda new for me. luckily, there's such a thing as scheduled posts.
but i feel behind, i didn't have time to read my favorites as often as i usually do. ohoh. what an addiction, this blogging..

well, this is just a quick note for goodnight, tomorrow jericho!

kisses&misses

 

i can miss the smell of a darkroom. of all the liquids. of taking time, so much time for each picture. one film was usually 36 little treasures. you never really knew what you would get, once developing the film. of seeing a picture slowly growing out of complete whiteness.of shading and working with your hands to get the wanted effect. hmmm. those were the times.

old signs

 

i keep collecting them, these old signs i find here and there. those little souvenirs from a time before this. when things felt and tasted different. i’d love to take my glasses to dan optic. he has this little hole in the wall, some dusty shelves with a few models of glasses in the window. no big flashy brand posters. and i am sure he is a reliable optician. and if i was that kind of girl, id probably pay a visit to institut de beauté, i imagine sitting in a red leather chair listening to the gossip from the ladies around me while the radio is playing some nice tune in the background.

a few moments in tel aviv

   

i spend so much time walking in tel aviv. dragging my feet and bags around. sometimes enjoying, all these beautiful images on the street. little secret corners. something painted on the wall. clothes and furniture abandoned. and windows, i love windows.

and sometimes i enjoy less. the traffic, the level of intensity, the noise, the rush. i feel lost within it. especially, since i don’t have my own place here, yet. and discovering more and more, that i am a country girl after all.

these days, strolling in tel aviv felt so different. i was still so extremely busy with coming back to myself after one week of intense time in sweden. this time, i felt even stronger than ever, how two different worlds they are. the life in sweden, the life here. i don’t manage to remove the gap between the two. usually, i more emphasized the essence of living being the same, everywhere we go. people with fear and love, trying to live life to the best of there abilities. which is usually quite similar, no matter where we go.

and yet….so different. that’s where i am at right now. in that gap in between two realities.

goodmorning

and now, back down again. on the bus, and of i go.

a few days of tel aviv, and on thursday we are going to the westbank! i am excited! i hope i can stay connected….

have a lovely day you all!

birthday picnic

 

 

we did a birthday picnic today, in the kibbutz i used to live in before. it is always very special to return to there. that’s the place i lived in for the longest, after i moved out from my parents. i guess therefore, i became extra attached to that place.

it was a day with loads of laughing. and even after the picnic, it continued back home with other friends. i am on the verge of collapsing from tiredness, hence i find everything extremely funny….

also, it was a day of dealing with confrontations/ or dealing with the confrontation of someone not wanting to be confronted. still, you end up with a feeling of confrontation, even when it is stays unspoken. oh.oh. oh.