Category Archives: Toronto

The Pressure of the Name

I need your help.

Mary has these flowers growing in her kitchen:

They look like plastic and velvet to me

Oh what a lovely velvety beauty

Their buds look like plastic to me:

What is this thing hanging quietly behind the curtain?

What is this thing hanging quietly behind the curtain?

My sister has the same plant on her balcony in Yafo, Israel.  I think she had this plant for a long time with only one miserable leaf; It didn’t want to grow and he didn’t want to die until she moved it to another place that it liked better! (or maybe this memory is of the same plant in my place in Tel Aviv, I really can’t place the memory)

Mary’s plant is hanging in the kitchen and in its search of light it went behind the curtain. An occasional bud or flower peeps at us from behind the curtain but if you go look for them you can find more buds and flowers growing happily completely hidden between the wall and the curtain:

This little beauty is completely hidden

This little beauty is completely hidden

Does anyone know the name of this plant? Joseph says he knew it but can’t remember it no matter how hard he tries. Extra points if you know the source of my header (with a tiny change).

Almost Ulmus

I think I write this post just so I can use this header, it sounds so nice to me.

I have this much yellow yarn left:

Can I squeeze 10 more rows out of this?

Can I squeeze 10 more rows out of this?

To knit 10 more rows on this:

Almost Ulmus

Almost Ulmus

I think I will have to patiently wait the arrival of the second yellow meadow skein and hope the color will be close enough that I will not have to reknit the whole edge.

Too little yarn, too many rows to go

Too little yarn, too many rows to go

It is raining in Toronto and the rain washes the green and makes it even greener,  I enjoy it so much.

I wish there was a way to pack some green and a lot of water and send it to my family and friends in Israel, they need it really badly. After a few years of drought, the water shortage in Israel is reaching a crisis level:

When I watched this advertisement on TV during my last visit to Israel, I found it quite disturbing, I wonder how effective it is.

Me? Gardening?

Unlike some people I know (my mother in law and my sister – to name a few),
I have brown fingers.

When I tried to raise plants in my apartment in Tel Aviv, they always looked miserable (I think there it was mostly a matter of not enough light, although a more diligent watering plan woudld most probably been helpful too…)

In Arizona, we tried to raise vegetables with very little success, the only thing that grew was some catnip oh and some parsley too (a few basil plants managed to survive but those were planted by Joe),,, and except one variety of small roses that caught up and resist dying despite all my efforts, we mainly had wild desert vegetation in our yard.

I really like those colorful flowers they offer here in Toronto, all over town these days,  and I want to have my own herbs but seeing the little strawberry plants in one of the stores the other day, made it for me:

Planting My Strawberry Patch

Planting My Strawberry Patch

You see,  looking for the first fruit in my mother’s  strawberry patch in Shoresh so many moons ago, is one of my fondest childhood memories.

Do you think the greenness of everything here in Toronto will catch my fingers too?

And on the knitting front – I am 17 rows from finishing my Dandelions/Ulmus shawl but the yellow yarn is runing out faster than those rows.  I just received an email today from the Green Mountain Spinnery that my other yellow skein is going to be shipped today, so I hope it will arrive on time and that the color will be close enough so I can finish that shawl before the birthday girl arrives home and this present will  be all ready for her (aren’t I lucky she is not going to be here for the actual birthday?)