Whimsical Windows, Delirious Doors!

How exciting! This is my first week of participating in Whimsical Windows, Delirious Doors! without actually hosting it! Pretty cool :) Here goes!

Today I'm sharing something close to home, actually, all the way in my home :)

Here in Israel, as you've probably noticed, a lot of our windows are covered with strong bars, both to keep bad guys out, and also to keep good guys in! When we bought our apartment, which is a few flights up, we decided not to cover our beautiful mountain views with bars, since the likelihood of someone climbing all the way up to climb in seemed unlikely, and not worth the cost of ruining the view. We found a way to lock most all the windows so that our then-toddlers couldn't fall out, and all seemed good. But there was one specific window that swung out, and so couldn't be locked as the other were. Since it happened to have a four-flight drop below it, we quickly decided to cover it with bars, but wanted to get the prettiest ones that we could. And here they are!

Nice, right?

For more architectural photography, go and check out Whimsical Windows, Delirious Doors! over at Ralph's place, you'll be glad that you did! Thanks for stopping by everyone, have a great week!

Whimsical Windows, Delirious Doors! #167

Welcome back to our little meme!

There's talk of snow again this week! I personally have a hard time believing it - just a few days ago I was comfortably wearing sandals :) But the weather is indeed much chillier than it was then, so I guess you just never know. Anyway, all this talk made me realize that I never posted any pictures of our neighborhood in the last snowstorm. Truthfully, that's mostly because there wasn't much snow to speak of, and it melted almost immediately... but still: with no further ado, here is the view from my window, just about a month ago:

Here are the statues of sheep at a park not far from my house - I really like this photo :)

Then, later that night:

The next day everything promptly turned to slush. But a day later, we got another lovely sprinkling:

I know, I know, for those of you who live in areas that actually get snow on a regular basis, this is a joke. But for us, it was a lot of fun! Please feel free to click on any of the photos, if you'd like a closer view - that last one is particularly sparkly :)

Now it's your turn! Please play along with us here at Whimsical Windows, Delirious Doors! Just post your photo of a window, door, or anything architectural, link here, and sign up in the widget, below. Then go and visit the other players, that's the most fun of all! Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a wonderful, whimsical week, everyone!

52Frames - Week Four: Complementary Colors

Here's my photo for this week's challenge. I called it My Favorite Winter Fruits:

 

For more cool photos, check out the whole album, here. Enjoy!

Skywatch - catching up :)

Well, it's getting to be winterish, and that's the time of year that I'm blessed to be inundated with beautiful clouds at all times of day. Yay! Here are a few sunrises, sunsets, and random beautiful sky views that I've found over the past few weeks (buckle up, there are quite a few... :)

I decided that the electric lines here kind of added to the composition :)

Here's a rainbow peeking out from behind a raincloud :)

As always, feel free to click on any of those, if you'd like a closer view. Now go visit Skywatch Friday, to see even more sky-oriented photography! Have a lovely, peaceful weekend, all of you - thanks for stopping by!

Skywatch!

Here is the amazing sunset that we had last night:

And here are the skies from my window this morning:

 which soon exploded into:

For more sky-oriented photography, go check out Skywatch Friday, right now! Have a beautiful weekend, everyone!

Whimsical Windows, Delirious Doors! #150

Welcome back to our little meme!

I'm taking a short break this week to share some local window and door news from here in Israel. These past few weeks have been a major holiday season in Judaism, kicking off with Rosh HaShana, the Jewish New Year. We then rolled into Yom Kippur, and a mere four days later, into our less-worldwide-known harvest festival, called Sukkot. In a few days we'll have Simchat Tora, which is a very fun and festive grande finale to this action-packed season.

But back to Sukkot - as you may recall, we build small huts, and each one is called a Sukka (the word Sukkot is the plural of Sukka). The walls of a sukka can be made of almost anything; I've even seen sukkot that were built out of bales of hay! Talk about good insulation :)

I'd say that the majority of sukkot here in Israel are pre-fab - they're generally metal poles that fit together, with cloth walls surrounding. These are lovely, airy and breezy, perfect for sitting outside and relaxing, just now, when summer is winding down and temperatures are comfy. As an example, here's the very basic sukka that we have here at my office:

The roof of the sukka, as you can see, is a trickier thing - it needs to be made of something natural, like leaves, or bamboo. It can't be solid, and it can't be man-made. When we sit in a sukka, we commemorate the 40 years that the Jews wandered in the desert, without roofs over our heads, completely dependent on God.

Anyway, since my family lives with direct exposure to a valley (as you surely recall) which provides serious winds, we make our sukka out of wood. We just semi-enclose our already existing balcony. And this year, I added another small window! As my brother pointed out, at this rate, our entire sukka will soon be transparent :)

My son, who is now almost a full head taller than me, asked that we not hang too many decorations from the ceiling this year, as he'll just bump into them :)

Thanks for joining me on this quick holiday tour! Please join me again next week, as we continue to see photos from our North American vacation, this past summer.

And now it's your turn! To play along with us here at Whimsical Windows, Delirious Doors! just post your photo(s) of a window, door, or anything architectural, link here, and sign up in the widget, below. Then go and visit the other participants, that's the best part. Worldwide we are so different, and yet so similar - and it really shows in our architecture!

Have a wonderful, whimsical week, everyone!

Dew Drops - A Macro

Well, not really a macro - I don't have such a fancy lens. Let's call this a close-up of these early morning drops on the chairs of our balcony:

I especially like how you can see the bars of the railing in the teeny tiny reflections, all distorted... (feel free to click on the photos, if you'd like a *much* closer view!)

I've found a Macro meme, right over here at Shine the Divine. Go check it out, if you'd like to see more super-close photography. Have a great week, everyone!

Skywatch! Moonset in the fog :)

It sure has been a while since I participated in Skywatch Friday! But a couple of mornings ago, when I found the moon peeking out behind the morning fog that we've had for the past few weeks, I just couldn't resist grabbing my camera!
First, here's the fog, across the valley from my house:

 and then, suddenly, look who took a last bow before setting below the hills!

That was totally unexpected, and a lot of fun :)
For more sky-oriented photography, go check out Skywatch Friday, right now! Thanks for stopping by - have a great weekend, everyone!

Whimsical Windows, Delirious Doors! #138

Welcome back to your favorite little meme!

I was actually out of the country for the past couple of weeks, at my brother's wedding festivities in the US. Yay! We had a wonderful trip, although it was very strange to be away from Israel during these crazy times.

Anyway, I'm back, and it's still pretty crazy! Please, wherever you are, send some good karma over here for a quick and peaceful solution to this disastrous situation, and for our dear soldiers - our husbands, brothers, sons, cousins and friends - to come home safe and sound.

All that said, here's your weekly dose of Israeli architecture, and I must say, I think this one is pretty cool. It's an apartment building that's going up right near my house, and you can easily see a bunch of the stages of building in action. First there's the bare concrete. It's sprayed with a tar-like substance, to seal out moisture. Then it's got a layer of yellow insulation stuff, and the Jerusalem stone goes on top of that. Kind of wacky looking, don't you think? I'll be sure to post a photo when it's finished and prettier :)

Maybe it's just me, but I've always enjoyed looking at the insides of things :)

Now it's your turn - please play along with us here at Whimsical Windows, Delirious Doors! by posting your window, door, or anything architectural, linking here, and signing up in the widget, below. Thanks for stopping by, have a wonderful week!