Images from Our Street

Today is Friday but we consider it to be Saturday, since it is the first day we have off in a normal school week. Oddly enough we return to school tomorrow and then take another day off on Sunday. Not having two days off in a row is tiring and can take some getting used to. We’ve attempted to cope with this new schedule by assigning somewhat familiar titles to different days. Thus we call Thursday Friday, since it is the last day before our day off. Then Friday is called Saturday which is followed by second Friday. Sunday we’ve decided to call confusion day since it feels like Saturday, having just had school the day before, but right around the corner is a new week that we must be prepared for. All that to say today is Friday, and on Fridays we crash.

Unfortunately Angel has come down with a pretty bad head cold and so she’s crashing a little harder than usual. I’ve spent the day cleaning our apartment, catching up on emails, and taking a break from thinking about school. A few hours ago I started to get cabin fever and so, armed with our little digital camera, I went out to capture some of the beauty that surrounds our new home. I hope you enjoy the following pictures!

Here is a lime growing off of the tree outside our bedroom window. I picked it right after taking this picture and brought it in to eat. Despite its size, I don't think it was ripe yet since it wasn't very juicy.

Whereas some places have stray dogs the only stray animals you will find here are cats. Most are pretty nasty looking and are frequently found in the dumpsters looking for food. This one was on our neighbor's porch and looks much more pleasant than others I've seen.

There are rose bushes surrounding our apartment building. This is one of the last roses left on any of the bushes. I look forward to spring when these bushes are covered in these beautiful flowers.

Grape vines line the gate surrounding our building. I've made a habit of grabbing a cluster off the vine every time I pass them and then munching on juicy grapes until I reach my destination. This is certainly a small pleasure I never knew I'd get to enjoy!

This is a branch full of olives. There are three olive trees inside our gates and they are all covered with fruit. Unlike the grapes, I leave the olives on the tree for the professionals to handle. I did try one out of curiosity and found that I couldn't get its bitter flavor out of my mouth the whole day. Its taste hardly resembles the olives you get out of the jar. Maybe it just needs to ripen up a bit.

Here is one of the olive trees. This tree is fairly young as can be seen by its narrow trunk. The amazing thing about these trees is that they can live for over a thousand years. Some trees in the Garden of Gethsemane are believed to date back to the days of Jesus! We've seen a few of the older trees around town and their age is shown by very thick and gnarly trunks.

Here are some of the bushes and vines that grow along our street. This picture doesn't do it justice but just in this shot there are red, orange, baby blue, magenta, and light purple flowers.

More flowers from our street