Elms in the Yard: May 2008

Saturday, May 31, 2008

Green Eyes, Blue Eyes

Missy and Her Ladyship.

The Friday Ark. The Carnival of the Cats.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Mama and Kittens

A mama cat and three of her four kittens.

The Friday Ark. The Carnival of the Cats.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Good News and Bad News

The good news: Karsenty has been vindicated.

The bad news: the ground is being prepared for the next expulsion, this time from the Golan Heights.

Friday, May 16, 2008

Missy in the Window

My friend’s cat, Missy, looks out the window:

In other news, my friend, the human companion of Missy and Her Ladyship, will be among several recipients who have been chosen to receive a special award on Yom Yerushalayim, the day that marks the city’s reunification. For reasons of privacy I can’t say any more than that, but I will say that my friend has earned this award and I am very proud of her.

The Friday Ark. The Carnival of the Cats.

Friday, May 09, 2008

While Strolling through the Park One Day...

I saw a lovely calico kittycat.

Turns out she wasn’t alone. Her kittens were with her:

She stood guard over them as they played.

Then, they played peek-a-boo with me.

Lovely kittens in the clefts of the rock... let me see your faces, for you are beautiful....

(with apologies to the Song of Songs)

The Friday Ark. The Carnival of the Cats.

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

When Israel Was Four

(I had originally thought that the coin pictured below was from 1942, but it appears that what I thought was a tchuptchik—a kind of separator that appears in Hebrew dates—is actually the Hebrew letter yud, the equivalent of the number ten. Hence: 1952.)

I found it this morning right where it is in the photograph, on a path near my apartment building.

It is a ten-peruta coin from 1952. (A peruta was one one-hundredth of the monetary unit of the time, the lira.)

Israel had fought its War of Independence, which claimed the lives of fully one percent of the population, only four years before. The destruction of European Jewry was still a recent memory, as was the time when immigration to pre-state Palestine was cruelly restricted. At that time, it must have seemed that there was no hope anywhere.

In 1952, there was hope. Fifty-six years later, despite everything, there still is.

The photo of the obverse is below the fold.