VL

Lifta (Arabic: لفتا‎; Hebrew: מי נפתוח‎ Mei Niftoach, lit. spring of the corridor) was an Arab village on the outskirts of Jerusalem. The population fled during the Arab-Jewish hostilities of 1947/48. The village, which is mainly intact, is located on a hillside between the western entrance to Jerusalem and the Romema neighbourhood. In 2012, plans to rebuild the village as an upscale neighborhood were rejected by the Jerusalem District Court.

The site has been populated since ancient times; Nephtoah (Hebrew: נפתח) is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as a border between the Israelite tribes of Judah and Benjamin. It was the northernmost demarcation point of the territory of the Tribe of Judah.[4][5] The Romans and Byzantines called it Nephtho, and the Crusaders referred to it as Clepsta.

photographs made in 2000-2012.


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This entry was originally posted at http://morwen.dreamwidth.org/402641.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Hi All. I don't *think* I've posted these before but if I have you have my apologies. These were taken on my first trip to Fort Warren on Georges Island off the coast of Boston. It has since become an annual trip for me. As per community rules, if you repost these anywhere please credit me. Thanks and enjoy!




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I've posted this elsewhere but what the hell, I'm going to post it here, too.

I wrote this last year, when I was thinking about how Old Eternal was probably in her last days. Back when I was an adolescent, I wrote reams of poetry but I grew out of it. Later, I wrote reams of rhymed verse while working for Hallmark but I never thought of it as poetry. I don't sit down and write poetry. Roz Kaveney–rozk–and Earl Cooley III are two of my favourite contemporary poets. Both Roz and Earl can write sonnets, which is no mean feat. I am in awe of them.

This is not a sonnet. This is how it occurred to me, unedited, no re-writes.
(And of course, it is pure flight of fancy. I believe that we were put on this earth to accomplish a certain number of things, and I am now so far behind that I can never die.)


In The Event Of My Sudden Yet Unexpected Death

I must have had an accident, or maybe
My luck ran out, went bad, or just packed up and left,
Because it was tired of hearing me bitch
Even though
I had plenty to eat, clean drinking water, a roof over my head,
More belongings than I could keep track of
Including–especially–good books to read
Not to mention more love than most
Over the course of my funny little life,
More love than I probably deserved
Although to be honest, I feel love is the one thing
We are all entitled to.

This is just to say in passing–
Passing away, that is
(Ha, ha)–
I'm not sorry about anything I did
Or didn't
Do–
Well, not any more.
And I don't want you to be,
Either.
We did the best we could
Under the circumstances
And let's not forget all the frailties
Our flesh is not only heir to
But also colludes with. Often.

Perhaps it's the height of presumption
For me to say
Don't worry about forgiving me
But I say it anyway:
Don't worry about forgiving me,
Because now I've been forgiven
Don't worry about
What you didn't tell me
Because now I know what it was
(And probably always did).

If you're not sure this is addressed
To you,
Let me remove all doubt:
It is.
Don't worry about the parts
That don't seem to apply to you
I'm working with a big canvas here
And not all of what appears on it
Will look familiar,
Although you'll probably recognise the style.
For the most part, anyway.
But don't worry if you don't.
There are a limited number of angles
For us to see things from,
Including each other.

If it comforts you to think
We'll meet in heaven
I don't mind.
But in the spirit of
Full disclosure,
I have to tell you that
I don't think I'll be there.
Because I have had my heaven
Here with you
So I think they have to send me
Somewhere else.
(Not hell; we've had that already, too.)

All right, I'll grant that
Maybe heaven has a heaven,
Full of things we didn't get to try
Or didn't get right the first time
Or the second
Or the hundredth.
We don't know.
But
Here is what we do know:

Stars are born from the remnants
Of old novas
(All right, 'novae', if it makes you happy)
Everything that reaches the end of its useful life
Breaks down into simpler parts
Which meet again in new combinations:
New forms of already-familiar things.
If that's the case
(And I really think it is),
I'll know you anywhere,
This life, or any other.


(I can't believe I committed poetry.)

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2450

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We have two delightful new prints available in the QC Store!

VanCaf is this weekend! I will be there! You should also be there!

Originally published at ankewehner.de. You can comment here or there.

It had seemed a good idea, Maggie taking a trip, Henry staying home to tinker in his workshop. But then…

“What were you thinking?” Maggie’s voice and shoulders dropped as she took in the model train rails cutting through the hatch to the kitchen. “Does it even open still?”

“It doesn’t need to.” Henry pulled out a chair, twitching a smile. After she sagged on the offered seat, he turned a gauge, causing a train to enter. It stopped so the first wagon, with its load of triangular leaf packets was right in front of Maggie.

“Rice dumplings. Your favourite.”

Here we go starting on the rest of the alphabet. The prompt "railroad" came from Lyn Thorne-Alder, "rice dumplings" from Eliza Gebow

I'm still accepting prompts for letters after T, if you're so inclined. :)

This entry was also posted at http://anke.dreamwidth.org/217310.html. You can comment wherever you prefer.

Originally published at ankewehner.de. You can comment here or there.

Looks like it. A few things mostly to do with navigation got lost, I'll try to fix those soon.

But the content is there.

This entry was also posted at http://anke.dreamwidth.org/216887.html. You can comment wherever you prefer.

Hi all, hope your language studies are going well! I'm trying to give myself homework regularly for Japanese, I know, such a nerd = P anyway...

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Don’t forget to enter the Big Top Giveaway for your chance to win!

Tomorrow morning I will be departing from San Francisco on a ten-day Alaskan cruise, followed by a quick trip to Yosemite with my husband to celebrate our one year anniversary.  For the first time, I have entries timed for regular updates during my absence.  Assuming everything is working properly here on Livejournal, there should be no interruption to reviews and suchlike.

However, should something go amiss, updates will definitely return on June 4th, 2013

But I hope that no one will even remember that I was gone!





Peeking into the archives...today in:
2012: Fashionista Piranha on hiatus until May 24th...
2011: Bending the Boyne by J. S. Dunn
2010: Band of Angels by Julie Gregson
2009: Extraordinary Engines edited by Nick Gevers

Super-random question, so I apologize in advance, although there is actually a reason for it. Is there a French equivalent to the "gangster/mafia" dialect that exists in English? In which ordinary words have a variety of completely off-the-wall definitions when taken in that context (ex. to clip = to kill, juice = interest on a loan, to pinch = to arrest)? If so, can someone direct me to some sort of glossary/list? If not, thank you anyway!