I'm getting sick

of all these freaking rocks.

Britt at Megiddo; Marzipan

A few days ago we went to visit Megiddo. As always, there were exciting things to see, among them UE student Britt and a newly-uncovered, huge EBI temple. Britt gamely posed for some shots (gazing at baulk; scraping mudbrick).

On the way back home, after stuffing ourselves at Yehuda Avazi in Afula, we stopped at the Marzipan Museum at Mt. Tavor. We were here 3 years ago with Lilah, and not too much has changed. This year Lilah was old enough to make her own marzipan treats in molds, but only after watching an idiotic movie about the history of almond cultivation at Tavor. This is what a still chocolate fountain looks like; I don't know who that guy with the mustache is.

There are many beautiful works of art in the Marzipan Museum, among them biblical scenes rendered in marzipan,

along with creepy marzipan portraits of Israeli heads of state, and even a nearly life-size Elvis.

Here we are making little cats and dogs in marzipan, most of which did not survive the trip back to Degania.

For some shameless self-promotion ...

Check out Yo and Mo's blog -
http://adventureswithyandm.blogspot.com/
(thanks Yo!)

Handicapped parking (for aliens?)

Yiftah; digs

Have a bit of pity on me if you will. This is part of the ground stone storage room for Hazor, located at the kibbutz across the street from the site. I have had nightmares about this for months, but my few days spent cleaning it up and working on the last few seasons' worth of stuff actually went ok. I'll only have to go back one day this week to finish.

Before I got to work M and L helped sweep and generally clean up for me as it was just too gross for words (thick dust and debris, bugs, rotten boxes, you name it). I wound up working outside here in the front (that's the entrance to the storage room) on this random piece of furniture that L is sweeping around because it was too hot and smelly inside. This looks primitive, but literally right around the corner is the kibbutz supermarket, which provided AC and bathroom breaks as well as cold bevs and snacks.


Back to our lovely weekend at the relatives' up north. Here are some pics of L at the pool, eating Bamba with Maayan and mimicking Yael in her new flowery bathing suit. She also got all bedecked our last evening there in necklaces that Yael made and a new dress.

There are pine nuts just waiting to be cracked open all over the playground area at the kibbutz. Here is M demonstrating not only the expedient use of a random stone to open pine nuts, but also the before and after. They were yummy.

Yesterday we went to Kabri before returning to Degania. Assaf and Eric are working on the Middle Bronze Age palace with a small team this year (which includes Alex) and we went to check it out. The excavations are among avocado trees - can you imagine?

A view of one area of the palace from very afar. L to R: Assaf, me (behind Eric), Eric, and Alex.

Young archaeologist at work.

And the same look as with the ground stones in a previous post. Despite the lollipop and opportunity to do some fieldwork, she just didn't last long. However, this pic is also of interest because I'm holding the contract for our household archaeology book in this envelope - thanks Assaf!

A walk through the fruit trees

This past weekend was great. After spending a few days working on the stone from Hazor, we all went up to Kibbutz Yiftah in the far north and spent a few nights with M's cousin Tsvika's family. They are wonderful, the weather was fabulous and L had a great time with her second-cousins. The first day we were there we went for a long walk in the kibbutz fields to admire and pick the endless nectarines, apples, pears, etc. I like the above pic because you not only see most of the members of our party - Yael, Maayan, Rina, L, Frida, Shuka (the dog) and me - but you can also see the photographer's shadow.

We had to pause frequently so L could dump the dirt out of her fake crocs.

It is now clear that L likes small dogs, and she would not stop bothering poor Shuka then entire time we were there.

Tsvika and Maayan. Tsvika is one of M's two cousins and he looks more like him than anyone else in the fam I think.

A pear.

Eilat, Herzliya, Degania

Eilat is not yet over. A few more pics to go ... one proving that Lilah warmed up to the dogs by the end, and one very cute picture of Sue and Maya.

After Eilat we drove to Tel Aviv to drop Frida at the Central Bus Station and M and L were just totally overcome. The place is like this huge 8-story maze or something that is a bus station and a market with all kinds of cheap shoe stores, food, and randomness. We loitered for far longer than I want to admit. After, we continued to Herzliya and spent 2 nights with Shlomit and Ilan in their fabulous apartment. The topiary in front was very cool.

Lilah demonstrated her Cinderella tendencies again by washing the walls and floor of their balcony.
Then we left, but not before meeting Dod Omry at the Ramat Aviv mall. More malls ... but this is among the swankiest in Israel. I used to stop by here on the way to Tel Aviv U when I did ulpan there and used the library while we lived in Herzliya 2000-2002. It's even fancier now than it was then; here we are having coffee.
We then stopped at Ikea on the drive home to the kibbutz. Yesterday was a really good kibbutz day. We went for a long walk in the evening when the weather is more tolerable, and visited horses, nearby Kibbutz Kinneret, and other places. We took tons of shots of flora, but they will have to wait ... except for this one of L picking olives. There is this little grove of olive trees next to the parking lot and a couple of the trees have olives that are nearly ripe (it's early). Brian - I don't want to ruin a surprise, but you're getting some chunks of wood from one of these trees as a couple of large branches split off while we've been here.

Here are sun-dappled Abba and daughter in the beautiful bamboo-filled entrance to the area with the horses here on the kibbutz next to the Jordan River.


And lastly, in keeping with my recent artistic shots of smashed cups on sidewalks, here's a good one from outside Yardenit (the baptism/tourist trap here next to the kibbutz - right next to the horses). Mollie - I may enter this in a future show.


Now I'm off to Hazor for a few days - the rocks beckon.