Sorry I haven't Been Around

Sorry I haven't been around much lately. I have been visiting many of your blogs, but don't always have time to leave comments, just like I haven't had much time to write on my blog either. I have been quite busy over the past couple of weeks with a stack of work to do, plus of course house work on top of that - but the days lately have been to nice to stay inside.

The girls have been spending a lot of time playing outside on the swings and in the cubby - it has been such nice warm sunny weather. While they were out playing I discovered the weeping cherry tree is covered in the most beautiful sweet smelling pale pink blossom, so I decided to take a few photos to post - I wish I could share the beautiful fragrance with you too!

Now that the days are so nice, hopefully the nights will start to warm up a bit too!

Also, I just wanted to say Mazel Tov to Sara With No H on the birth of her cute baby girl!

.... Just another day ....

A Frosty Update

Ok, so I don't live in Canada or the USA in areas where it snows, and for those of you who read this blog and actually live in an area that recieves snow fall you will probably laugh at this post. We just don't get snow where I live, in fact there really isn't many areas in Australia where it does snows, but the other morning it was so cold, we had so much frost on the ground it looked like a thin layer of snow.
When I took the girls down to the bus stop I took my camera with me and took a few quick photos.

Good news is we have had some beautiful sunny days even though we are having really cold nights! Yay!

.... Just another day ....

Welcome to the 12th edition of JPix!

Welcome to the 12th edition of JPix!

This stunning photo is from Yossi at The Next Step...

Sorry this JPix is a day late, it has been a busy kind of week with the girls going back to school after the holidays and Aaron's Birthday on Wednesday (Happy Birthday Mr Bagel! hee hee hee!), I actually forgot about JPix. Anyway, there have been a lot of really good submissions this fortnight, but first lets start with a little bit about what JPix is.

About JPix:
JPix is a fortnightly carnival started by BagelBlogger, for Jewish bloggers and the photos they take. So if you're Jewish and you have photos you want to share, whether they be family, historical, art, funny, quirky, whatever, make sure you get them into the next edition of JPix!

Thank you to all the people who have submitted photos and please remember if you do not submit, you most likely will not be included - I only post what is submitted. (you can submit for other people)

The photos featured here in this post are just a small sample of what you will see in the bloggers posts - you need to click on the links to see all the photos!

The wonderful Submissions!:

Let's get started with Jewish Blogmeister. He presents an unbelieveable view of the flood waters at Great Neck train Station in 'Jewish Blogmiester Exclusive: Pictures from the Flood!'.

Rafi G from Life In Israel has posted a very funny photo in his 'Only in Israel' post. Very cute!

Sara with No H is having trouble sleeping and this fortnight presents us with 'Delirium' - Sara, you better get used to not getting much sleep! :P Also check out more great shots from sara in 'Losing my Memories...'

I know I usually rant and rave about A Simple Jew's Black and White photos, but this one has to be one of the best of his I have seen - 'Black & White Picture Of The Week - Matryoshka Cross Section', beautiful! ASJ also posted an amazing photo by Yehoshua Halevi/Golden Light Images have a look at it in ASJ's post 'Song Of Ascent'.

Israel In Photos have some great posts up full of beautiful photos, but their most recent is 'Rosh HaNikra ' and the picture are stunning as usual!


Batya seemed to be missing Israel even before she left! She presents us with some lovely photos of trees in Israel in 'Eretz Yisrael Yaffah, The Land of Israel is Beautiful!' and also 'Fighting the Heat'. She also shares some great snaps in 'Jerusalem, again, busy day!' and she speaks up in 'I didn't have to "stand for it" and other Jerusalem adventures'.


Sarah at Sarah's View has posted some great examples of the cold and foggy weather us Aussies are enduring at the moment in 'Sites Obscured' Brrrrr! She also posts some warmer photos of her trip to the US in 'City Square'.

David at Temunot has come up with a really cool idea - 'Where in Israel', he post a photo or two from locations in Israel and we have to work out where the picture was taken. Go and have a look at the first 'Where in Israel?' and the second - 'Where in Israel 2'. We don't normally include videos in JPix but David submitted one this fortnight which I certainly feel is worth including and that is in his post 'It Only Takes 11 Minutes - Sderot', it gives us just a little insight into the terror Sderot faces.

Mottel from Letters Of Thought is pretty busy at the moment and didn't get around to submitting this fortnight, and I no longer search for submissions myself, but because Mottel is a regular submitter to JPix I just wanted to point out two of his latest posts 'The Roving Rabbis And The Roving Doctor' and 'A Story of Two Mezuzos' which include some really cool photos, do take a look.

Aaron has just gone off at me for not including some of my own posts so if you want you can click here to see them - 'Relax...' and 'Under Construction' or just scroll down the page a bit!

That's it for the 12th edition of JPix, I hope you have enjoyed it and sorry again for being a bit late.

If you would like to host an edition on your blog click here to contact BagelBlogger. It is really quite easy and fun to host and I believe a host is needed for the next edition.

July 05, 2007 Baleboosteh

Jun 22, 2007	Mr Bagel
Jun 06, 2007	Letters of Thought
May 24, 2007	Life in Israel
May 10, 2007	Temunot
Apr 26, 2007	Baleboosteh
Apr 12, 2007	Baleboosteh
Mar 26, 2007	Life of Rubin Blog
Mar 11, 2007	me-ander
Feb 26, 2007	Bagel Blogger
Feb 08, 2007	Bagelblogger

And don't forget to submit your or someone else's photo posts to be in the next edition of JPix!!

Have a great weekend!
Shabbat Shalom!

.... Just another day ....

The 50,000 Edition Of Haveil Havalim Is Up At Yid With Lid!!

Yid With Lid has done a wonderful job of putting together a giant sized 50,000th edition of Haveil Havalim. Make sure you pop on over to YWL and check it out...

If you are wondering why this edition of HH - formerly known as the '125th edition', is now known as the 50,000th edition , well, that is because it was recently Sammy's 50th Birthday and this HH post is the 1000th post on his blog! So 50 x 1000 = 50,000 and hence the 50,000th edition... anyway if you go over and take a look you will know what I am talking about!

Happy Birthday Sammy! ....And Mazel Tov on 1000 posts!



.... Just another day ....

Relax...

The gently tapered wings of swift lake swallows, cut
through the air like soft whispering sighs, while they
dart in and out of a clustered hovering mass of
mayflies, that drift just inches above the shimmering lake
that reflects the orange hued light of the setting sun.

On a floating dock, worn in spots by the rubbing of
moored boats, I sit in a weathered adirondack chair
with the purpose of only to relax to the rhythmic
rocking caused by small rolling waves from cruising
pleasure boats, with people waving as they pass by.

Looking down through the clear jade tinted waters
I notice the octagonal amber markings on a small box turtle
that seems to be ambling, rather than swimming through
the still water as it passes by, seemingly without a care
for anything but its mysterious unknown destination.

These moments pass fleetingly, but remain ingrained in
my mind for those times where I feel the sides pressing
in, my escape is into these simple moments, where all that
the world requires of you is to sit back and take in what
is offered, without asking for anything in return.


by James Bowie


.... Just another day ....

Under Construction

It seems the cold weather has brought our landlords building activites to a holt. The old wheel barrow and cement mixer just sit in the rain now where they were left one warm day long ago.

It is the second week of school holidays here right now and the whole family is sick. We all seem to have some sort of flu, Jade has had it for over two weeks now and Amber still hasn't kicked it since her stay in hospital. It doesn't really make fun school holidays for the girls.

I am looking forward to warmer weather when the kids can go outside to play and not get sick from the cold. I never thought I would say this, but.... bring back summer!


.... Just another day ....

JPix - The 11th Edition!

Welcome to the 11th edition of JPix!



A view of the country near Bantam, Connecticut

'Picture of the week' - Letters Of Thought

JPix is a fortnightly carnival started by BagelBlogger, for Jewish bloggers and the photos they take. So if you're Jewish and you have photos you want to share, whether they be family, historical, art, funny, quirky, whatever, make sure you get them into the next edition of JPix!

Thank you to all the people who have submitted photos/posts and secondly I hope I haven't forgotten anyone!

The photos featured here in this post are just a small sample of what you will see in the bloggers posts - you need to click on the links to see all the photos!

Let's Get Straight Into It!...
No one takes black and white photos like A Simple Jew. He has a special talent and an eye for beauty like no other 'Jblogger photographer'. This fortnight he presents to us two beautiful black and white photo posts 'Winter Shadow' and 'Wrinkles'. I hear he has broken his camera, lets hope he gets a new one real soon!
He has also posted 'More Through The Eyes Of A Space Cadet' - not black and white photos, but an example of ASJ's creativity and talent in taking beautiful colour photographs too.

Muse over at Shiloh Musings shares with us 'Just wondering...'. Have you seen the size of the Arab mansions lately? Or have you seen just how many are being built? Muse wonders just how big it will end up being? And I think that is a really good question!
With a rough start to her trip it seems Muse had a big day in 'South of Jerusalem Is...'.
Make sure you pop over and have a look at all the photos she posted of the day, and while you are there, Muse has another wonderful post 'What a beautiful Land!'. She wonders why anyone would ever want to travel away. Beautiful it is!

Little Frumhouse on The Prairie has some gorgeous snaps posted in ' North Park Village Nature Center' and also 'Montrose Harbor'. If you love stunning scenery and pretty flowers you should really take a look! I love the Harbor photos, very soothing.

Personally, I think Mottel from Letters of Though takes the most breathtaking landscape and scenery photos, and he has done it again with 'White Memorial Photo Essay', photos from his trip to the White Memorial park and also in 'The Farm' which he visited after White Memorial park.
It seems Mottel has been travelling a bit lately, I believe he is staying in 'Litchfield' for a few days.

Sarah over at Sarah's Images presents us with an interesting photo post of 'Still Life: Summer Scent' and also a colourful photo from downtown LA - 'Garment District'.

Seems David over at Temunot is 'Driving his Wife Crazy' after the adventure they went on to return a hire car in Israel!
If you are looking to take on a challenging team in ten pin bowling ...just ask 'Team Linn'! They are defiantly up to the challenge in 'Bowled Over'. Very cute!
David has another beautiful picture in 'No Fancy Title, Just the Kotel' - he's right, it needs no fancy title, the picture speaks for itself.

SoccerDad points out some 'Yerushalayim anamolies' in a great photo post. I am guessing these are photos he took on his recent trip to Israel?

Pity I wasn't quicker in visiting Cosmic X this week, I might have been the winner of this weeks 'Mystery Tree' - it is the first one I have known! Jacob seems to be getting all Cosmic X's competitions right at the moment, he also got the 'Blood And Cola' one right too! Cosmic X also has another photo post - 'Death To Capitalism!', see what it is that Cosmic X is sure the Stock Exchange members would be on the run from!

SWFM has a very calming set of photos posted - 'Beauty and the Beach', make sure you hit play on the piano music too!

Batya at Me-Ander presents us with 'Shavua tov, what's new?' - seems she is as quick as a flash with her camera!
She has also posted a stunning dawn shot in her post 'Gentle Dawn' - really pretty, have a look.

Last of all, don't forget to have a look at the photos I posted this week of the local foreshore and also of my little angel and 'The Fluffy Bunny'.


That's it for the 11th edition of JPix, I hope you have enjoyed it.

If you would like to host an edition on your blog click here to contact BagelBlogger. It is really quite easy and fun to host and I believe a host is needed for the next edition.

And don't forget to submit your photo posts to be in the next edition of JPix!!

Past editions can be found at:

Jun 22, 2007	Mr Bagel
Jun 06, 2007	Letters of Thought
May 24, 2007	Life in Israel
May 10, 2007	Temunot
Apr 26, 2007	Baleboosteh
Apr 12, 2007	Baleboosteh
Mar 26, 2007	Life of Rubin Blog
Mar 11, 2007	me-ander
Feb 26, 2007	Bagel Blogger
Feb 08, 2007	Bagelblogger

.... Just another day ....

8 Things About Me

I have been tagged by MizEllie, Jewish Blogmeister and Batya to do this meme, so, I guess it is about time I did it!

Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.


So, here are my 8 things, some of which you may or may not know about me already.

1. I was very naughty and rebellious in High School which resulted in being suspended on many different occasions.

2. I have lived in 15 different houses in 2 different states and would love to not have to move ever again.

3. I was the lead singer and guitarist in a reasonably well know Melbourne 4 piece grunge/punk band for 4 years (1994-98).

4. I used to regularly pierce my nose and lips with just a few ice cubes and a large tapestry needle.

5. I was invited to compete at state level swimming when I was 6 years old. I didn't because I was to shy and now looking back, I wish my parents had encouraged me more to do it.

6. Although I was raised as an only child and have always thought of myself as an only child, I actually have 2 older half sisters who I have never met.

7. I trained at a very strict karate dojo for about 4 years and with a lot of hard work gained my purple belt (7th 0f 9 belts) and was in training for my brown belt when I moved away and never took it up again.

8. My husband and I have known each other since I was a very little girl (our parents were friends) - When I was about 3 I remember hoping to marry someone like him when I grew up!


That ended up being a lot harder than I thought it would be! I know a lot of people have already done this meme, so I tag anyone who has not already done it who wants to do it.

.... Just another day ....

The Fluffy Bunny

Ruby, Mum's little angel will go nowhere without her fluffy bunny. Even if we are going to the bus stop to pick up the girls after school... bunny has to come, if we go shopping... bunny has to come. Where ever we go... bunny has to come. It makes me wonder what will happen if bunny ever gets worn out...


Also, don't forget I am hosting JPix on Thursday, please make sure you submit your photo posts as I will not have time to search for extra posts. If you do not submit, you will not be included.

You can submit your photo posts here.

If you would like to host an edition of JPix please contact Mr Bagel.



.... Just another day ....