R2BC - Running Into Spring

I kept the blue tub. It sits in a cupboard, perfect for collecting stuff to donate.

Reasons 2B cheerful as some of the local signs of spring appear. Namely the Yedidya Bazaar, signing up for school for September, and checking the Sea of Galilee for the final water 1evel before the end of the rains and the spring run off. In truth, because of the snow on Mt Hermon, the level will continue to rise until the end of April but we're already excited about this year's position. 

1
Declutter for Yedidya
The annual Yedidya Bazaar came and went last week. I took out all the stuff that had accumulated over the past year. The samovar and the wok were on a previous declutter post but were then forgotten at the back of a cupboard. Happily they both got to the bazaar his year and were both bought.

This year was also the first time I was able to go on the Saturday night before the Sunday opening and help set it up, because DD is old enough to stay home alone for a bit. It was an amazing show of volunteer spirit. About 60 people turned up and got through two rooms filled to bursting with donations in about 5 hours.

I bought a pile of books for the school's English library.

In the past I've gone on Sunday morning to sort the last minute donations and left before the 4pm opening time to collect DD from school. This year I was also able to be there to help during the actual sale time. It was quite something to see hundreds of items (at 3 shekels each, about 70p) fly out of there. There were good clothes and shoes hardly worn, whole dinner sets, duvets and blankets, a room full of toys, and so many books that we had to keep most of them in boxes below the display tables.

2
Junior High
We signed DD up for junior high School. It's called junior high and you can change schools again after two years. In reality most schools are junior high and high school together so hopefully we'll be happy enough to stay in the next school until 18. You can put down between 3 and 5 schools on your list and rank them according to preference. I'm pretty sure we'll get our first choice as it's the closest school to where we live.

3
Sunny Respite 
We've had a few days of sunny weather before the rain returns tomorrow. We're grateful for the sunny respite and also grateful for the much needed rain.

As I don't have a dryer, as soon as the sun comes out I rush to do two loads of laundry. I'd do more but my drying rack only holds two loads. I leave it out all day and bring it inside in the evening, hoping that the heated apartment will dry it off overnight. Often it takes a couple of days of this in the winter, or longer if it's raining and the rack can't be pulled outside again in the morning.

Yes laundry can pile up a bit in the winter. Otoh, a load of laundry dries in about two hours in the summer. Shame it's not like firewood that can be stockpiled for the winter.

4
The Sea of Galilee 
Monitoring the level of the Sea of Galilee (we call it the Kinneret) has been a national pass time since the days when this freshwater lake provided most of the water for the whole of Israel. In the past decade Israel has built a number of desalination plants so now most of our water comes from the Mediterranean. This has definitely helped the Kinneret but years of drought or near drought kept levels low even so.

Last year we had a rainy winter which replenished the Kinneret at lot but it was still way below the upper red line. The upper red line is when they open the flood gates and let the excess water flow down the Jordan to the Dead Sea. The last time they did this was way back in 1992. This year we've had so much rain that we're nearly just 1m below the upper red line. We're expecting more rain this week and there is still all the snow on Mt Hermon to melt and run off down.

I look up the level of the Kinneret every day online as do many people I know. When there's a big rise people post it on face book and get very excited. And my 5th grade pupils at school ask me for an update every lesson. I'll keep you posted.