Sleepy Sunday

Mild sunshine beckoned me outdoors today. To take my mind off worries rising from the current situation here, I took a walk to the shuk at around noon, even though there’s never much to buy on a Sunday. There was warm sunshine and a chilly breeze. Neglected corners were green with weeds that have bravely popped up.  I expected there to be a lot of people in the streets, but the streets, and the shuk, were strangely quiet. Nothing ominous, just sleepy.

The shuk was half-empty. Shoppers know that Sunday is when the produce gets picked and sorted, with distribution starting only on Monday.

But there were great mushrooms. I bought some.

What shall I cook with them, folks? I discovered an entire website devoted to the fungi here, and a bunch of links here.

There were broccoli, fat parsley roots so good for soup, and Swiss chard. And the first really sweet strawberries of the season. Some of each went into the shopping cart. But it was getting late, and my family would be hungry by the time I walked home.

So I crossed over to the little place with the delicious grilled chickens. They give you a generous portion of roast potatoes, or potatoes mashed and laced with fried onions, or rice, plus chilis and fried eggplant and salads. I’m fairly snobbish about other people’s roast chicken, but I must say, this particular chicken is tasty.

The young woman who runs the place has a toddler whose picture smiles down from the wall. I know she thinks of him all day long.

Maybe it was already past the lunch hour, but there were only two guys sitting down to eat. One or two other people came in like me to take food away.

I started the walk home. Just outside the shuk there are all kinds of shops selling liquor, household goods, foodstuffs marketed to the Russians and Philippine workers, cheap toys, electronics.  A nice elderly man usually mans this stall, from which he sells kippot, but not today.

Where was everybody?

I guess this lone soldier had just been called up: he looked too fresh to have been on duty over Shabbat.

No customers in this hair salon.

And the shops on the main commercial street displayed their wares in vain.

It just looked like life hadn’t finished winding itself up for the week. I put my camera back in its pouch and  was almost at my door when I saw something I couldn’t resist. My husband raised an eyebrow when I told him I’d snapped a couple of cute guys, but smiled when he saw this: