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photo page 19 |
Kitten Amitsa generates a flood of pictures and stories, and we decide to create her own diary, in Dutch (sorry):
Amitsa.html
. Meanwhile, other events continue to happen, but the website
has not been kept up to date for a couple of weeks. Sorry about that, please
put the blame on the cat! Anneke, who has lived in Eilat for many years, has decided
to continue her pediatrics career in Holland, and will move in July, with
husband and kids. Sonja, visiting her to get some books, returns with a hortus
botanicus. Four rather unusual plants: an Aloe Vera, a big cactus, a cotton
plant in full bloom, and an elephantsear. They come straight from the
garden, and need considerable TLC. Sonja gets a bag of soil, and Henk starts
a technical project.... | 
....because plants need water, and we will leave Eilat shortly for 2,5 weeks.
A garbage can is converted into a watertank, the shower pump from the car
sees new life as a watering pump. Add a timer, some tubing, and all the plants
are on the drip.
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Rudie remarks that her PC got so very slow. Not really
amazing, considering the 12 virusses, 3000 adware files and all sorts of
highly suspicious software installed. Moreover, the PC had a chronic shortage
of memory. Cleaning all the viruses took 2 days of constant scanning and
cleaning, and finding the right kind of memory was even more daunting. But
it all worked out well, and the PC is now up and running as never before.
Rudie brought these nice flowers to show her appreciation!
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Evelyn comes to see Amitsa, and her daughter Rivka
and son Nathan fall in love at once. We have another of our famous barbecues
on the balcony. Next time we will pay more attention to the kashrut, so that
you will be able to enjoy Henks shoem sause!
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Marianne come to stay with us for a week and a half. Despite
a night flight with no sleep, and a long transfer through Sde Dov airport,
she still looks bright and shining.
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We travel by car with Marianne and Amitsa to Mitzpe Ramon.
Somewhere along the way we stop for a picknick to feed to cat. It is a lovely
oasis in the Negev Desert, with lots of trees, birds and huge bumble bees.
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At the edge of the crater, looking down,
we see a pair of bee-eaters flying along the cliffs. One of them flies
over us into a tree. Flashes of bright colors, a long beak, unfortunately
just too far away for a nice picture.
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Marianne at the Carpentry, a vulcanic rock formation where we made our christmas card last year.
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A visit to Eilat is not complete without a desert
trip. We found ourselves lucky that Yuval was available, and we make a trip
to the Amram pillars just aside of Eilat. Yuval is a treasure of information
and knowledge about the environment, the plants and the animals. We spot
a couple of ibex, and one gazelle in the distance, finding shade under a
tree.
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The last part of the trip is on foot, to the Amram pillars, red chalk rock that looks like the pillars of greek temple.
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Marianne goes swimming with the dolphins at Dolphin
Reef. She is very lucky, as she is accompanied by 2 dolphins for most of
the trip. One of them even swims with her all the way to the beach.
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Marianne bottle feeding Amitsa. This will be
one of the very last times, as we have to return to Holland, for work, family
and visa. It has been a very busy 3 months, but we have enjoyed every minute
of it!
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One more present from Marianne, apart from all the books and the stuff for
Amitsa, she bought us a big lump of Eilati stone, polished on one side. The
stone is very special in its combination of azurite (blue) and malachite
(green). And this particular one is even more special because of the clear
borders between the dark and light layers plus the mixed "heart". The salespeople
were heartbroken aswell to part with it.
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Back in Holland, the stone for the columbarium is ready just in time for
us to join the ceremony of placing the urn of Henk's farther in the columbarium wall.
A picture of dad has been baked into the stone, and it has a vase in which
Mom places another branch of the orchid that was also on the coffin. |
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