A(nother) day in the life

 

    This is one of the beautiful kinds of bird that have been frequenting the area around my deck in the last few days. They all sing so melodiously - and yesterday a gorgeous little honeysucker just wanted to get inside my apartment and be close to me. I heard him (or her) hitting his or her little body against the glass a few times. Fortunately, he or she didn't hurt themselves. It's such a wonder to see them fluttering around in the trees in front of my French doors.

    Today was no different - with regards to the birds, that is. But very different in regards to everything else!

    I had one Hebrew and one Afrikaans class slated for today and both of them were cancelled due to different reasons, so that left me the whole morning and a large part of the afternoon free. So I decided that I should go outside and pay some close attention to my plants, which I did. Shjoe, but it was hot! 

    I cleaned out all the weeds I can't eat, along with everything that I didn't plant and now my pots of food plants look a whole lot neater. I went back out later to water everything - I must say I feel very blessed that HaShem is allowing me to make so many things grow!

    I have aproximately 70 baby Etrog trees in pots, still some Quince trees left as well as sprouting Avos. My own Avo that I planted for myself is now almost 30cm tall! The Quince, Apple  and Etrog trees I kept for myself are also doing very well. Praise the LORD!

    Tomorrow I shall be potting my thirty or so Date pips that now have strong root systems. I have quite a large collection of pots, located in my lounge in an old Checkers delivery bag, and I am sure I will use a lot of them tomorrow. If you live in East London, South Africa and you'd like one (or more) of my baby trees, please contact me. I'm not selling them per se, just giving them away for a donation to cover my time and the potting soil.

    Two friends and I hooked up on Teams at 1.30pm to do an hour of Torah study - we are currently reading Rabbi Benamozegh's commentary on Leviticus. The connections he makes are very interesting, and sometimes quite controversial - to the point that some Jewish Rabbis and scholars wanted to burn his books when he wrote them a long time ago - but fortunately, some did not, and so we still have them today. It was a very lively and interactive session today - it's wonderful when the text comes alive under our eyes and brings about unity in discussion!

    Then we prayed Mincha at 3 - always beautiful. Yesterday afternoon was Yom Kippur Qattan Mincha - those prayers are so beautiful - I always cry. What a privilege to be praying the prayers of Israel.

    My heart is content that I had the time today to attend to the needs of my plants and to cool them down with a generous watering after the heat of this day. We aren't having rain for another two days, so I will probably need to water them again tomorrow - they dry out so quickly in pots when the weather is so hot and humid.

    My Radishes are flowering and I will soon collect the seeds for another planting. My Banana tree is now over 6 foot tall and has yet to provide me with ONE Banana! I will have to get some fertiliser for it - SeaGrow doesn't seem to be enough!

    I have a phonecall to my grandson later - he's writing exams now. After that, we will have our monthly ladies' Rosh Chodesh gathering - we will read the four Psalms for Rosh Chodesh Kislev and pray for each other tonight. Something different every month.

    It is well with my soul!