Our friary here in Jerusalem

Another thing that's kept from posting much recently is that I'm now busier with various tasks in the house and garden. Which reminds me that I've not posted anything much about the friary here.

Luckily, someone else has done a lot of the work for me by producing this video:

One thing not mentioned in the video when they look at the church is that the twelve stones set in the front of the altar represent the twelve tribes of Israel, and each stone in fact comes from that part of the Holy Land assigned to one of the tribes.

With regards to the garden, a fascinating thing for me is being able to enjoy fruits from it like grapefruits and oranges.

Japanese oranges - you eat them whole

This one tree brings forth oranges, lemons, and mandarins

(so I've unofficially named it 'The St Clemens Tree')

Although the olive harvest was over before I arrived, I'll still have to wait a little while longer to taste the olives from our garden. I had always thought that olives were put in brine to preserve them; but now I find out that they need to be soaked in brine for at least three months to make them edible. Olives fresh from the tree are very bitter. I had no idea.