Sky Watch Friday is a photo meme with photos of sunrises, sunsets, blue skies, gray skies, pink skies, dark skies and any other kind of sky posted by bloggers all over the planet.

Klara gave me this simple recipe two months ago. Since then, I have made it at least 5 times. There are only two ingredients: red radishes and umeboshi paste. Since many of you are going to say, What’s umeboshi paste? Where can I get it? I did a little research. In Highland Park, Anna’s Health Food Store sells this delicious condiment. Others in the U.S. can buy it at your local health food store. Eden makes umeboshi paste with an O-K kosher supervision. Here are some store locations in France that may sell umeboshi paste. Klara tells me there is a health food store in Ma’aleh Adumim (Israel), and the owner delivers in Jerusalem once a week. Feel free to add other locations in the comments.

Why use umeboshi paste? Not only does it taste good, it is also healing. Here’s one site on umeboshi: “Modern day diets tend to create acid conditions within the blood which is more likely to cause illnesses. The strong alkalising effect of umeboshi can help to counteract modern day excesses, including alcohol. ” More here.

Ingredients

• a bunch of radishes, nice red round ones
• 1-2 cups of water (depends on how many radishes)
• 3 Tbsp. umeboshi paste

Slice all the radishes. Bring water to boil with ume paste. Turn down flame, add radishes, simmer covered for 20 minutes or until radishes are tender.

Another version: After boiling the ume paste in water for ten minutes, pour over radishes and let sit for about an hour. (Note: this is the more “proper” version, which is the pickling method. My cooking version is OK, but not as healthful as leaving the radishes in the ume paste broth. I’ll try pickling method tomorrow).

All the radishes get nice and pink and have a lovely flavor, lose sharpness.

You may drain when pickles ready(optional). When they are room temperature, put them in the refrigerator.

We had exceptionally warm weather on Sunday, and so we traveled with the traffic to the top of the New Jersey shore to a wonderful beach called Sandy Hook. More Sandy Hook photos coming on Thursday, as part of Sky Watch.

Have you ever been to the Jersey Shore? Where did you go?

For more watery posts, visit Watery Wednesday:

The month after Pesach has a string of modern (and one not so modern, Lag B’Omer) Jewish holidays. Last week was Yom HaShoa, Holocaust Memorial Day. Some Jewish groups prefer not to acknowledge that day but instead insist on adding the Holocaust to other Jewish catastrophes commemorated on Tisha B’Av, the Ninth of Av, which is in the summer. I strongly prefer the Holocaust has its own day, as it is arguably the worst catastrophe the Jewish people has ever suffered.

Today is Yom HaZikaron, Israeli Memorial Day. There is a commemoration tonight at RPRY; however, due to family constraints, we will not be attending. I do hope to attend the little march around the block tomorrow morning, pictured in the photo, for Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel Independence Day. Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem Day, is the last of these modern Jewish holidays.

Some bloggers write powerfully about Yom HaZikaron:

• Mimi: Grief, then Joy (about how the happier day, Yom Ha’Atzmaut, immediately follows the sad mournful memorial day)
• Lady-Light: We’ll Always Remember
• Jameel: Israel Memorial Day
• Dina: Day of Remembrance
• A Mother in Israel: Mother Mourns for her Son
• Baila: 22,570

This post is a teaser. Please don’t tell if you already use Twitter. If you have tried Twitter out and found it confusing, then you are welcome to guess. So…

What is the meaning of RT?

Primetimeparent was interested in the talks we are giving at Three Libraries on Three Thursdays in Central New Jersey. Since she does not live in Central New Jersey, I thought I would give a taste of some of the talk in blog posts.

The first slide I put up was this:

Any guesses? What does the “R stand for? The “T”? Why would you want to include RT in a tweet?

FYI, I call this the hakarat hatov method of Twitter. Hakarat hatov means “recognition of the good”, and that is my first hint as to what “RT” means.

Coming soon: the handout of Twitter links and blog urls that I created to distribute at our social media talks. And I’ll include a link that gives even more reasons to understand and use RT.

I appreciate grape hyacinths, small cone-like flowers that grow from fall-planted bulbs, more now that I have whole bunches of them popping up in front of my home.

The grape hyancinths go nicely with the creeping phlox blooming in patches of my front yard.

For more flowers, visit Today’s Flowers: