A not-as-sweet New Year 🍎🍯

I didn't go to the farmer's market this week, because I decided to take a break for the High Holy Days.

Speaking of, last weekend was Rosh Hashanah and things were much different than in previous years. Mishkan's services were all online, so on Friday night sashagee and I went over to britshlez's place for Rosh Hashanah dinner, and while we ate the chicken and vegetables and challah and hummus and beets, we watched the mostly pre-recorded service. It just wasn't the same--the real joy of High Holy Days services is being there, in hearing the singing all around you, in feeling the connection with everyone as you sing the Unetaneh Tokef. You can't get that when it's all on the screen. There's no joy in the Torah being brought out of the ark when it's not physically present, regardless of the rabbi's call to reach out and touch the screen. It's not the same, and while I watched the morning service the next day, I didn't watch it on Sunday. It was better with a small group, but even there, we didn't sing along.

I had a pomegranate as my new fruit, along with the apples and honey from our apple-picking excursion. sashagee made apple bread and some apple tarts, and while the latter was delicious, I didn't get to try the former since it had dairy in it. We forgot to pick up any of it before we left, and I'm not sure anyone else had any, so I don't know how it tasted.

No fish heads. Maybe next year.

What was really nice was on saturday when arsduo and I went to Horner Park to hear the shofar being blown. Unfortunately, I underestimated how long it would take me to walk there, and while I met arsduo and his friend in time, we walked up to the park right in time for me to catch the last תקיעה גדולה tekiah gedolah and when we arrived on the hill where people were gathered, they were already dispersing. There was some talk of a second shofar blowing for the benefit of people who arrived late, but it didn't materialize, and after waiting around for ten minutes or so we walked down to the river to do תשליך tashlich.

We spent an hour there, watching the ducks eat the bread and swim up and down the river, before the setting sun started to make it pretty chilly, and then arsduo and I took the bus back and his friend rode her bike back home. It was a great way to celebrate the holiday in a year not full of much celebration.