I thought I would share this beautiful photograph that one of this Summer's house guests took of our new path from the main house to the swimming pool and summer house at our property in Spain. Just looking at it makes me long to go back especially as I am sitting in my office looking out at the drizzling rain and grey sky. Today I again suffered tube troubles. The Piccadilly Line had signal failures, we were shuttled between stations and a twenty minute journey took over an hour. The joys of a working woman!
Since returning from Spain I have only had three working days as last Thursday and Friday was the Jewish New Year - a time for synagogue and family get-togethers and naturally food! We missed the wonderful Honey Cake which my late Mother-in-law used to bake for us every New Year. She died just under a year ago and is very much missed. I think my sister-in-law was given the recipe and I am under orders from my grandchildren to acquire the details so we can make it ourselves next year.
At the end of this week is the Day of Atonement, a time to reflect on the past year and pray for forgiveness for actions that I regret and commit to being a better human being in the year to come.
Whether you are Jewish or not may I wish you all a Happy and Healthy New Year.
I'm not Jewish (or religious at all), however I very much like the idea of the Day of Atonement: we should all take time to reflect on our actions and commit to being a better human being. I also love Jewish cuisine. If you get the Honey Cake recipe I hope you'll pass it on, here.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year.
Fascinating stuff. We can all learn from one another. Can't think of another jewish person I know so will learn all sorts of things from you!
ReplyDeleteThank you for visiting my blog and for deciding to be a follower...you are the 38th person in three years who has made that decision and I am extremely grateful for all 38 of you rara avis.
ReplyDeleteI recognized at once what an excellent writer you are, and I have just finished reading every last one of your posts (in reverse order).
Bob Brague (rhymeswithplague)
Canton, Georgia, U.S.A.
Thank you for your New Year wishes, but I wonder how the Jewish New Year came to be at a time when everything is either dying or going into a season of reduced activity. Of course, my new year starts on January 1, which isn't a great time either, but I suppose the date was for some reason moved from the time of the winter solstice, which would have been connected to an event in nature. Our mutual friend, Rhymes could tell us the reason for the move, I am sure. I know this because he uses words and phrases like rara avis, which I don't recognize. I could look them up, I suppose, but it's easier to guess what they mean. In this case, I think he's referring to the Avis Rental Car company here in the U.S., and the rara probably means that Avis is raring to go. Since (if I understand the term correctly) rara avis is completely disconnected from anything else in your post or in his response, I think he might have just been trying to show off. That said, he is horribly, horribly intelligent.
ReplyDeleteI must say that most of what I know about Judaism came from Isaac Singer, although I did just finish an interesting book ("Nothing" by Nica Lalli) which contained a fair amount of information about the various holidays. She didn't mention New Years though.
By the way, I will have been married 39 years this December.