OK, gang, not to stir panic in those of you who observe Jewish holidays, but there are now only 16 more shopping days till Passover, and less if you keep Shabbat. Just saying…
More fun with grandchildren: We had the pleasure of having Nomi and the boys (Shlomo, Nadav, Aryeh and Eytan) on the Shabbat before Purim, while Elan was away. As opposed to the rainy weather the last time we hosted, this was a really nice Shabbat, and we spent time both inside and outside, with lots of games and fun. That week was also Nadav’s birthday, so we continued the precedent for a birthday outing with Savti and Sabi. This includes a made to measure breakfast, an activity and lunch. Nadav chose an Escape Room, which is great because there are tons of them in Israel. We went to one about an Alien Invasion of Earth, which was pretty challenging because a bunch of the clues were really abstract and well hidden. Nadav was amazing, cracking a few codes that were pretty challenging, and we escaped just under the wire! We were able to negotiate a peaceful settlement with the Aliens and averted them destroying the Earth! Boy, I wish all political negotiations went that smoothly. 
To add to the quality time with grandchildren, Gila was in charge of a 2 day hiking trip for the 7 and 8th grades of her school, so after spending this past Shabbat with Elisha, Ora and Adi, we were on pick-up and dinner duty in Petach Tikva! Monday, we made a very typical grandparent bonehead mistake; since it was 30+ degrees here (more about weather below) we decided that after school snack would be ice cream at the newly opened local ice cream place near the kid’s school. This part went very well (only one tantrum over ice cream melting too fast). The next step was dinner which followed a couple of activities, but that was served way too close to ice cream for it to be appreciated! Plus, the sugar high may have made bedtime more challenging that usual! So, learning from our errors, on Tuesday when we picked up Ora and Adi from after school care (Elisha, in grade 4 goes home alone, a 7-minute walk from school) snack was cucumbers and cherry tomatoes, activity was a super calm art project making mosaics, and dinner was a major success with no issues. That led to a super calm bedtime. See, even seniors can learn!!
World-Wide Weather Report: Yesterday my Ring doorbell app chimed so we looked at the front door of our home in Cote-St. Luc. As everyone knows, the winter has been quite mild in Canada this year and there was no snow on the ground for a few weeks. But, April 4th was hit with a vengeance! The Ring camera showed a January like landscape with people all bundled up and the wind blowing like crazy! The news reported thousands of people without power. However, just to make everyone feel better, the first Seder last year was on the evening of April 5th and that was the day of a major ice storm with people losing power for up to 5 days! We are reminded of the lovely candle lit Seder last year among very good company who were all good sports about eating room temperature Seder food.
Well, in contrast, we are heading into spring here in Israel. As noted above the beginning of the week had high temperatures of 30+ for 2-3 days. It has since moderated to the mid 20’s but obviously no complaints! This allowed up to take a couple of long walks along the beach/boardwalk this week, which was really fun. The weekend will be low 20’s and next week will continue in that pattern. I understand the temperature will rebound in Montreal and Toronto next week too, so hopefully Passover will be celebrated in spring like weather this year rather than on treacherous icy streets!
Strawberry Fields Forever: The need for volunteers for agriculture continues. I bet most of you don’t know that the area around Netanya is very fertile and is home to many farms and orchards. So, following up on last week’s experience as orange pickers, I texted the orange grove people only to learn that they have reached a stage where the only oranges that need picking are ladder-accessible. Despite many willing people wanting to help, they decided that having a bunch of amateur orange pickers on ladders was less than desirable (there are not enough safety nets in Israel for all those “willing but not so able” orange pickers!). There was, however, an urgent appeal for strawberry pickers about 30 minutes from our home, so we were out in the sun at 8:30 Thursday morning (we passed on the 6:30 start time) with a gang of about 10 others harvesting strawberries. No experience needed, just leave the green ones and the white ones to ripen and obviously ignore the mushy and eaten ones!
Allergy Practice in Israel: I bet you are wondering what we are doing here other than seeing family and picking fruit? I have been going to the Safra Children’s Hospital at the Sheba Medical Centre in Ramat Gan 1-2 times per week to work with their food allergy team and develop a lab program for the study of the immune changes in Food Allergy. I am working with a physician named Mona Kidon, and we have planned a project that will examine genetic and epigenetic changes in food allergy. This will likely be a collaboration between Safra, Montreal Children’s and Weizmann Institute although there may be more McGill collaboration as well. I won’t bore you too much with details, but we are trying to understand if there is a difference in genetic changes in older and younger children and in children who have been exposed to conventional peanuts, or a novel, immature peanut developed in Rehovot and used at Safra. Stay tuned! Next week Barbara will update you on her collaboration with Alyne Children’s Rehab Centre!
We are off to Efrat for Shabbat with Nomi, Elan and the gang so that will be all for now.
We wish you sunny times and Shabbat Shalom!
Barbara and Bruce
Refuah Shlema to Shmuel Zev ben Rachel Ita
Refuah Shelma to Chaim Tzvi ben Shaindel
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