Why am I not happy? The smallest, tiniest things make me happy, so why can I not just look for and think about those tiny things? The problem must be simply that there is noone to share them with. So I will share one of them with you, whoever you are.
Today I saw an interesting and impressive sight. It will be hard describe if you've never wandered along residential areas in Jerusalem, but I'll try.
Everything is on a hill. Actually, multiple hills. Everything is sort of dusty and neglected looking. But there are lots of plants. Neglected-looking plants, but someone at one time, for a time, put a little bit of effort to plant things. After that they walked away and left it all to chance.
Diverging a bit, interesting things happen when things are left to chance. My favorite almond tree died completely. A bougainvillea that was left alone climbed up a tree as tall as a three-story building. Hard on the tree, but the bougainvillea was glorious. Then it died. Or maybe someone cut it at the base to save the tree. I'll have to go back and look at the tree and see how it's doing. Now a nice dark-red-leaved bush with small clumps of tiny gold flowers is dying. I don't know what is needed to save it. A small shamrock has survived for over two years in a hollow between three rocks. In dry weather it disappears for several months, and then comes back again.
But what I saw today was some interesting and impressive cactus plants. I was passing a building that was a half-story down from the road I was walking on. Down on the patio I could see lots of plants that probably haven't had any special attention for years and years. On the patio, next to the sidewalk I was on, were a few cement posts that reached almost to the level of the sidewalk, and there were half-gallon pots on the posts containing huge-huge cactus plants. One cactus plant, in its half-gallon pot, had a thorny trunk about three inches thick at the base, and was about 15 feet high with several branches. I don't know what kept it from tipping over or cracking the pot. All together the cacti and other plants created a wild and wicked-looking hedge-canopy around the patio.
I don't love cactus plants. But I respect and admire them. Even the most harmless-appearing ones are very capable of shooting hair-like barbs at me whenever I pass within three feet of them.
On a less prickly subject, I have recently heard a very loud bird chirping musically overhead. It would have to be some sort of parrot, but not squawky like a parrot, -- something tropical and exotic.
Now that I'm done talking about prickles, I think I'll go eat some pickles--a good change from chocolate. Hmmm. Chocolate-covered pickles?
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