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Bare Trees In The Ukraine: Inspiring Photos Taken From The Car Window
On our recent trip to the Ukraine we spent many hours traveling by car, and I was mesmerized by the patterns I saw in the bare trees. Field after field after field, lines and lines and lines of bare trees that beckoned to be sketched into a pattern, to march along the fabric I was designing in my head……..I kept thinking about sketch books and the idea of recording such inspiration, and fortunately thought to just take some photos, blurry or not, from the window of the car. Knowing that I had captured this inspiration gave me great comfort, and hopefully I’ll have some time to use these images for…
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Swans On An Early Spring Day In The Ukraine
On our trip to the Ukraine this past Passover we visited the The Mezhyhirya Residence, an estate near Kyiv, in the Ukraine, where Viktor Yanukovych lived (and spent tons of money on himself) when he was Prime Minister and then President of Ukraine. The Estate is now a park open to the public, and while our visit occurred during the very early Spring, when the gardens were still sleeping, we had a wonderful time just watching the beautiful swans, and photographing them as well. For those of you who are swan lovers, or never really gave swans much thought, enjoy my photos and don’t forget to spend some time just…
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Mezhyhirya Residence Just Outside Of Kyiv, Ukraine
My son’s bar mitzvah celebrations start this Shabbat, so I am very pressed for time, and will share with you hopefully all the creativity my daughter and I are doing for the event next week. In the mean time, I am sharing with you more photos from our Passover trip to the Ukraine, so enjoy! At the end of our trip we stayed for two nights in the wonderful city of Kiev, actually Kyiv, and on one of those days, which actually happened to be a Ukrainian holiday, we took a drive out to Mezhyhira Residence which is a park open to the public on the grounds of the estate…
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Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!
Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday, thanks so much for joining me here! It is still very much a busy weekend around my neck of the woods, we welcomed more than 1/2 a million visitors to Meron (across the valley from us) for the holiday of Lag B’Omer, and many have stayed around to enjoy the things that are a part of our everyday life……..mountain views, peace and quiet, holiness and thousands of years of really impressive history. Do come visit sometime, but in the mean time, great connecting with you all here at this virtual party. And now for the features from last week’s party:
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Vernacular Ukrainian Architecture In The Western Ukraine Countryside
I love vernacular architecture and so I especially enjoyed viewing all the charming cottages in the Western Ukrainian countryside on our recent trip to the Ukraine. Most of the houses I saw were viewed either from the car or on days when I did not have a camera with me, though on our visit to Mezhybiz I did have a camera, so I took photos of all the houses on the one dirt road near the Jewish quarter of town that took up to the Historic Baal Shem Tov shul. Please understand it was still very much winter, and zero degrees with flurries, which is why the photos are so…
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The Gravesite Of The Baal Shem Tov, Medzhybizh, Ukraine
The father of the Jewish Hassidic movement was a very special and holy man by the name of Rebbi Yisrael Ben Eliezer, The Baal Shem Tov. For those who view Kabbalah as Jewish mysticism that is trendy, well I have news for you! Hassidic Judiasm is actually a way of Jewish Torah observance that includes Kabbalistic ideas. So while Hassidic Jews may look like the most old fashioned folks on earth, they are actually the ones truly living the Kabbalah……how’s that for a fresh outlook? The Baal Shem Tov is buried in Medzhybizh, Western Ukraine, and his burial site together with several hotels and historic and modern day shuls has…
