Birds Feeding Frenzy

It is Fall here and the dogwood trees are covered with tiny red berries. The birds have located this buffet and can be heard during their feeding frenzy from early in the morning until sunset! Between the birds on the trees, the deer eating the crab apples off the tree in the front of the house (haven't been able to get a picture of them yet) and the bunnies running around it is like an annex to nature's classroom! We also seem to have a family of garden snakes, I try to stay out of their way!

I haven't posted the sukkah in its final stages as the cross branches have not been taken out of the woods yet! I'm sure this will be done by the end of the holiday, or not!

Sukkah Construction

Well, it is that time of year...Sukkot! Every year we go through the debate about whether or not to build a sukkah; this year David decided to bite the bullet and buy a "real" sukkah! The kit he bought had the sides and brackets to use to hold the whole thing together. You had a choice in construction; you could purchase everything from them or buy the wood yourself. David decided on the later option and he did a fantastic job of purchasing the lumber; cutting it and, eventually putting the whole thing together! As you will see from the final picture WE DID IT! It looks great! With less than 24 hours to go the only part left is to put the branches across the top and the decorations! Promise, a final picture when it is ALL done! The premise of the sukkah is to build a portable hut similar to what our ancestors used when they were traveling in the desert! There are some who sleep in their sukkah, not sure if we'll go that far! The other thing that was interesting about building the sukkah was that we worked on it for so long it was totally dark out, so, believe it or not David agreed to put the outside lights on! Wow!

Yom Kippur

Well, Yom Kippur is fast approaching (I think I have just made a pun by using the word fast!) Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement; it is the day we specifically repent for all the not good things we have done in the past year. There are two parts of this process, first we communicate with God and pray for his forgiveness. This is daunting itself, however, the part that can be just as threatening if not more so, is the process where you must go to all your contacts and ask for their forgiveness! Not an easy thing to do! Well the other part that is always stressful is getting to the synagogue the night before in time for the Kol Nidre prayer. This is a very emotional prayer sung by the cantor. The pressure is to finish eating and get to the synagogue for the start of the service. Sounds easy, however, is always a challenge. This year the service starts at 6:40 so we're planning on eating at 5:00; we'll see if that happens!

Putting together the menu requires careful thought. You don't want to eat anything spicy or salty since you can't drink or eat for the next 25 hours! Well the menu will be chicken, stuffed zucchini, salad, challah and pumpkin bread pudding. The bread pudding is an attempt to use up the leftover challah for the past few weeks!

Well, that's what's going on here!

Fresh Mint Tea

We have fresh mint growing like weeds in our garden; before we left for Scotland David did a major "de-minting". Well, what did we get served by the potful in the Highlands...you guessed it, pots of fresh mint tea! It was delicious and Amy and I were probably the best customers they ever had. So, starting Friday night I've been making fresh mint tea. Rather easy, however, my teapot has one of those "press" pieces. The first time I made the tea I pressed the leaves immediately, not a good idea. The tea just stayed watery. Now I know that you let the tea sit and steep and then press it. It is delicous. The chore today will be to pick as much mint as possible and freeze it! I picture fresh mint tea into the winter! I've also been putting a tad of mint into my green, Sancha tea, lovely!

Time out for Rosh Hashanna

Well, needed to spend two days in synagogue so now it's time to talk about the Scotland trip! There's lots to tell so it will probably take a few days to reflect on all of it!

We left from Newark airport and flew to Manchester...the plan was an hour layover in Manchester and then on to Edinburgh. Well, you know the best made plans...there was a medical emergency so we couldn't land in Manchester on schedule. That meant, of course, that we missed our connecting plane, so arrived in Edinburgh at 5:00 instead of the scheduled 10:00.

Jean and Craig (Stephen's parents) were our gracious hosts! By far the best B & B we've ever been to! After partaking in some delicious sandwiches and Jean's delicious gingerbread we took the local bus into old town and went to the musuem. The entryway to through the old part of the building was breathtaking! There was so much to see we felt certain you could go back many times and still find new things to see! Just to make sure you're always surprised by the exhibits they change them as well! I was surprised to see an artist that specialized in languages using Hebrew letters in his work! There was an Andy Warhol exhitib in another museum hence the Campbell soup motif!

The organ is from St Giles, in Old Town. What a lovely organ with pipes that reach to the ceiling! Very impressive!

Then the bus back to the Duncan's for a lovely dinner of Jean's special fish pie. Similiar to our Shepard's pie but with smoked Haddock. Very, very lovely!

Early to bed with a mid morning departure to the Highlands!

We're back!

Well, what a wonderful experience we had in Scotland...that is after you forget about the problem of coming into Manchester too late to make our connecting flight into Edinburgh! Well, the good news is it was the airlines problem, not ours! There was a medical alert and a plane had to land that kept us from coming in!

Rather than do a quick post now I will wait until the weekend to start a description of the trip. On another note, tonight I was able to figure out how to show our pictures on the tv. Jean Duncan showed us her pictures of their latest safari on the tv...it was such a pleasure to see the pictures in such a large size! Well, after umpteen attempts, I was finally able to get the pictures to play! The only bad part is that they are not edited! Oh well, still fun and the Grands definitely enjoyed them! Will start posting some of them in the next few days!

Lorraine

Leaving for Scotland tomorrow night!

Well, it is time to get our "kid fix"! We haven't seen Amy and Stephen in too long! So, we are flying to Edinburgh to meet them tomorrow night; arriving Friday morning. We will be going to the Highlands to do some hiking and fishing. Stephen and David will be doing some intense hiking while Amy and I will do "our thing"! Can't wait. So, it's 11:30pm and I've decided it's time to do some packing. Must do the packing tonight as I have two meeting tomorrow! This is usually the crunch time when I KNOW I'll forget something! Not a problem, either I'll do without whatever it is or I'll buy it there. Not sure if I'll be able to post while I'm away; if not I'll have lots to write about when we get back!