Artichoke flowers
I’m fascinated with these artichoke flowers that John bought for me – they are a gorgeous bright shade of blue, about the size of sunflowers. According to a blogger in California, the artichokes that you eat are just the immature buds of these flowers. John also got me a pretty orange begonia in a white pot for the patio table, and rosemary and basil plants.
We found these treasures as we were walking up Ben Yehuda Street last night, on our way to a farewell happy hour for our neighbors Melissa and Amos. Earlier in the week, I went “shopping” at their apartment – a Foreign Service ritual. When you are packing up, you call your friends to come take the food you have left in your cupboards – I happened to be on the receiving end this time. It’s fun!
John and I have been taking early evening walks on the beach this week. The weather has been really nice, with a good breeze coming off the ocean – lots of kites out today. We’ve giggled this week as a guy has flown past our apartment at eye level in a power paraglider- it’s like he is para-gliding with a small parachute, but he has a power pack on his back to zoom him around. Click to see a photo that I found on the internet. It looks fun!
I’ve really been enjoying reading books by Jodi Picoult – I finished one this week, My Sister’s Keeper. I’ve also enjoyed Perfect Match, House Rules and Nineteen Minutes. I felt like I hit the jackpot when I found another one of hers in the Embassy lending library the other day – can’t wait to start it. Is anyone else a fan of hers?
Also, John and I have really been enjoying Mad Men, a television series about the advertising business in the 1960s. Everyone kept telling us that we would love it, and we do. We get so excited when our NetFlix order arrives in the mail!
Speaking of mail, we also really appreciate the care packages that Cousin David has been sending us! Alison tapes TV shows for him on DVD, and he has started sending them on to us – yeah! We get a pretty good selection of television shows on the Armed Forces Network, but it’s great to have something on DVD when there’s nothing on that we want to watch. Thanks, David!