One born every minute

Since Yom Kippur the thwack of hammer on nail has been ringing throughout the land. Whether in a garden, the corner of a parking lot or perched precariously on a balcony, Sukkot, the ritual booths, have been shooting up everywhere you look in preparation for yet another festival.

This is the first time that I've built a Sukkah - quite simply, none of my previous places had the requisite space so I always maanged to wangle invitations and make do as best I could. This year however, with my own sparkly garden, I can build what I like!

There are two main options for building your sukkah; buying the pre-packed version from one of the Sukkot Nachalim stands which have sprung up like mushrooms all over the city, or building your own. I chose the latter option for a number of reasons, most importantly the ability to dictate the size, price and not least, the fact that I like building things - the little boy never leaves.....

Friday morning, I left Mrs G in the kitchen (I'll hasten to add that I made soup and dessert the night before) and went off with my Kablan friend to purchase wood for each of us. Having a Kablan (contractor) as a friend is an extremely useful thing not least because he did the renovation on my apartment (and if you ever need someone look no further - just drop me an email) but also because he knows all the right people to get decent prices and has a big flatbed to schlep wood with.

Having loaded up, we headed back to my place and got straight down to work with hammer, nails, tape measure and spirit level. An hour later a sturdy 3 x 4 metre frame was up and we headed over to his place to build the same again only a little smaller.

Sturdy frame in place, I headed up to Bayit Vegan where they close of the road and have a Sukkot market to purchase walls and check the price of reusable S'hach for the top. Having heard the price I decided against and just came home with walls - fortunately I have trees in my garden and overhanging from the neighbour which were in need of pruning and will have grown back in time for next year - nothing to store but more of a hassle to prune.

So now I have a huge and solid sukkah outside, just waiting for our Sukkah party on Thursday night - if you're around let me know and pop on by.

Gilly