Busy doing nothing!

Started the day with a visit to the new house of the friends I'm staying with here. It should be finished in a couple of months and will give them so much more space. Currently the 3 girls sleep in one room, which is actually the security room we all race to sit in when there's an attack.

This family was then going off to a family event away from the kibbutz, so while the others were getting ready, Lior and I were outside watching my other friends kittens playing. I took a few photos of them then announced I was taking a picture of her - she gave me a nice big " cheese "y smile! Lior means " my light ". I think the photo shows that. She has a form of autism, so there are good days and not so good ones, but today was a great one. I love that she's communicating with me in English a little bit this time ( she's almost 14 now ) and seems to be using the words she's picked up from listening to us chatting ( me and her mum ) more or less in a way that makes sense. Quite emotional if I'm honest.

Anyway, after they left, I went to the pool with my other close friend for a while, still meeting and greeting people who know me from all the yearsI lived here. I left them to get myself some lunch which I ate al fresco ( bottom right pic ) and then spent some time finally catching up on your journals!

Later in the afternoon I took a little walk with my camera to the yellow tree that I don't remember seeing before so it must have developed since I left in 2008, and flower when I'm not here. It's quite glorious, glowing in the sunshine.

The board written in Hebrew details Lior's day for tomorrow. Her next sister down is writing it for her. Both her sisters love her so much and look after her so nicely ... Not always easy if she's in a bad mood. Just typing about that brings tears to my eyes.

I had dinner with my other friend and her 3 young boys ( all under 7 ), which was quite ... challenging shall we say. She deserves a medal for her patience! Lior appeared half way through the meal, so we gave her a plate and she joined us for a while. At first I wasn't sure it would go well as loud noises disturb her, and indeed she did let them know they should be quiet, but she somehow diffused things and they did actually settle down so that their mum could get them ready for bed. Their dad was ill in bed, so not able to help. Lior was very concerned about him too. She hoped that he didn't have diarrhea! ( He doesn't, incase anyone else is worried! ).

When it came to her bedtime, I took her back next door. When we came out of the house though, we found one of the kittens had found herself a nice comfy bed in the laundry basket that had been left outside beside the washing machine!

Sorry my write ups are a bit lengthy but I'm writing them for my record, so well done if you've made it to the end!