weather – Miriam Drori, Author

This was one of the rhymes I used to recite to my children:

Whether the weather be fine
Or whether the weather be not,
Whether the weather be cold
Or whether the weather be hot,
We’ll weather the weather
Whatever the weather,
Whether we like it or not.

So what did those little green messages mean in my posts this past week? And how dare I be only partly present for the last week of the A-Z Challenge?

Well, sorry about that, but it just worked out that D and I spent the week in Hong Kong and we loved every minute of it.

I will write more about this experience, but I’ll start with the weather. We left Jerusalem in unseasonably cold and wet weather and returned to typically hot summer weather. We missed Lag B’Omer, the bonfire-lighting festival, but as our children are now grown up we wouldn’t have participated anyway. Most of the country did, of course, and unfortunately, due to hot weather and strong winds, several fires got out of hand.

Hong Kong, as expected, was hot and humid, although the evenings were quite cool. At the end of our first day, the heavens opened for one of the famous thunderstorms. Fortunately we were just about to exit from an underground station. We waited until the rain subsided and then hurried into a shopping centre. The next day, rain was intermittent, but after that there was no rain to speak of until we were safely back at Hong Kong airport, where we watched the downpour through a glass wall and through a window of the plane.

So we were lucky with the weather, especially considering what we did. Can you guess what that was? I’ll tell you about it tomorrow or the next day. And I haven’t forgotten my A-Z summary post.

It’s Snowing!

Snow is falling in Jerusalem. I can see white flakes coming down silently as I write this.

OK. I know. Many of you are so used to snow that you don’t see it as anything special. But in Jerusalem it’s very special. We don’t get snow every year. Last year it snowed a bit one day, but it had hardly settled when it melted. This time, we have real snow.

And besides, how many of you have seen a palm tree in the snow?

Most homes in this country never see snow. People travel to Jerusalem to see it – if they manage to get here when the roads are closed.

So forgive me my excitement on this unusual day. Tomorrow, when the snow has melted, we’ll think about how to clear the path to the front garden.

Where's the path gone? — Where’s the path gone?

Update: I had to add this photo of our pond taken by my son.