Pictures of the kittens!

Well, I finally got some pictures of the kittens. They're still so afraid that they run away any time they even see me, so I had to use a bit of subterfuge. I cleaned the big window by the front door and I cleaned the window of the safe room, leaving the heavy rolling metal blinds open.

So, here are some of the results. In this first pictures, you can see the black one with the white nose and paws, whom we have dubbed "Pascal". He's actually pawing right at the window of the safe room. In the background, you can also see one of the calico kittens. Right after I took this picture, Pascal ran away because he was afraid of me, even through the window!
I took this picture right after the previous one. As you can see, I had put some food out for them. This is the calico with the least orange on her. We have named her "Goldie":

Here's a picture of the other 2 calicos, also taken through the safe-room window:

The next morning, all 5 kittens joined the big cats on the porch by the front door for breakfast. Here's a great shot of all of them, taken through the living room window, together with Tz'hovi, who is probably their father (at least the father of the calico ones). Going clockwise from him, we have Pascal, Goldie, Priscilla, Mr. B, and Peachy:

For a while, their mother, Beatrix, was eating with them also, but she had left by the time I took the previous picture. When I first put the food out, the 3 adult cats, Tz'hovi, Beatrix, and MiniMe (Beatrix's son and sole survivor from her litter last year), all were eating. But when the kittens came, MiniMe ran away the other direction. The following picture, taken when he returned, may explain what, or, more precisely, whom he was afraid of: Mr. B (Back off! I'm a FIERCE cat!)! Little brother wins again!

I did a little boning up on cat genetics (well, I actually I knew nearly NOTHING about it before!), and that's why I'm pretty sure of the genders of the kittens, as well as their paternity. The one thing that I HAD heard before was that calicos are all female. I learned that tortoise-shell cats are also all female. I also found out that the gene that creates red-orange-yellow cats (like Katom and Tz'hovi) is on the X chromosome and is therefore gender-linked. A male, of course, has one X and one Y chromosome, whereas females has 2 X's. Since the male's single X must come from his mother (the Y, from his father, is what makes him male), if that X happens to have the gene for red, he will be red or orange or yellow (other genes control the shade). Females, on the other hand, are only red-orange-yellow if BOTH their X's have the gene. However, if only ONE of the female's X's has the gene, she will be tortoise-shell or calico (again, controlled by other genes). Since Beatrix is NOT calico or tortoise-shell, the father of the calicos MUST be a red-orange-yellow cat, therefore almost certainly Tz'hovi. He is probably also the father of the other 2 kittens (Pascal and Mr. B), and, if this is the the case, they will be male, since they are NOT calico or tortoise-shell. Of course, they MIGHT have a different father, in which case they could also be female.

Kittens!

Just before the end of March, our outdoor female cat, Beatrix, who had been VERY pregnant, disappeared for a couple of days and then re-appeared, no longer pregnant and VERY hungry! Of course, we knew that she had had her kittens, but we didn't know where they were. We figured that they were well hidden somewhere and that she would probably bring them out in about 4 weeks.

When more than 5 weeks had passed, and we still had seen no kittens, we assumed the worst: that they must have died. In fact, Beatrix, who had been coming by to eat nearly every day, seemed a little sad and weary.

But about a week ago, I was out hanging some laundry to dry on our east patio, and, to my great surprise, I saw two kittens! They were over on our neighbors' porch next to their front door. When I went towards the kittens, they, of course, ran away. I followed a bit, and then I knew where Beatrix was hiding her litter -- behind our neighbors' shed. They were well hidden, too, under some long wood slats. Of course, I didn't want to disturb them, so I didn't move anything (besides, it's our NEIGHBORS' yard!).

At first, we assumed that she must have had only 2 kittens, since we saw these same 2 a couple more times. But then one day, I looked out and saw 2 kittens that were definitely DIFFERENT than these two! It now appears that she has at least FIVE kittens, since David saw that many all at one time. Mostly, though, we only see 2 or 3 at a time, and they are ALL terrified of us, so they scamper away whenever we happen upon them.

Today, I had opened the heavy rolling metal blinds of the security room to let some light in while I was feeding the snakes there. When I went in there later, I saw 2 of the kittens (the 1st 2 that we had seen, I think) exploring by the window. Although they did spot me, they didn't run away right away because the floor of the room is 7 steps (maybe about 3 feet or more) lower than the patio outside, where they were, so I didn't seem so big this time. Also, they probably couldn't see me as clearly through the glass as I could see them.

I left the blinds open, and later this afternoon, we saw 2 of the others playing and just having a grand time out there. By this time, the sun was shining directly on the window, so they probably couldn't see us watching them at all due to the glare.

Of course, I don't have any pictures to share at all (that window is WAY too dirty!), but eventually they'll get accustomed to us, and I'll get some nice photos of them.

The Wind Farm in the Golan

Today, we took a drive over to the Golan again, to the power-generating windmills there. The last time that we went there (a week or 2 ago) the batteries in my camera were no good (and I hadn't brought any spares with me), so I didn't get any pictures. This time, of course, I had spares, and, of course, the ones in the camera worked fine!

Here are some of the pictures I took. First a full-length view of one of the windmills. Our car is parked right beside it to give you some idea of the scale:

Here's a zoomed-in view of the turbine that, I'm sure, actually generates the power:

Here's a view of the row of turbines, including all but about 2 or 3 of them. By the way, the peak right behind the 3rd one from the left is Har Bental, one of our favorite view spots. This view is in approximately the northwest direction.

Here's a view from near the same area as the previous picture, but this one is zoomed somewhat and is looking roughly northeast, down into Syria. You can see that the Syrians have constructed a pretty large reservoir:

What's wrong with this picture?

The other day, I was walking along the sidewalk not far from our us when a military vehicle with 2 young soldiers in it pulled up beside me. The reason? They need directions to the base - the MILITARY base! Uh, isn't this THEIR base? Hmmmmmm.....

A trip to Tel Dan

Today we decided to take a trip to Tel Dan. Here are some pictures that I took.

First, a pretty lavender flower, which, I think, is different from any that we've seen before. There were many of them today at Tel Dan, however:

The hollyhocks are blooming all over the place now. This one had gotten bent over so that the stalk was horizontal rather than vertical as usual, but that didn't keep it from making a gorgeous flower:

I saw lots of these beautiful pink flowers. This one caught the light just right to make a great photograph:

The Dan River is amazing! It rises from hundreds of small springs, all in the Tel Dan area. Later, it becomes one of the main sources of water for the Jordan River. Already at this point, though, the amount of water flowing in it is impressive, especially for such a generally dry country as this:

I also took some short movie clips of the Dan River, so that you could actually see the water flowing. I used the iMovie program to put 3 of them together into this short movie:

A hike to Rosh Pinna with Carol

On Shabbat, our next-door neighbors, Shimon and Patricia, invited us to lunch at their house. Patricia's sister, Carol, was visiting from England. We had met her 6 months ago when she had visited them before, and we had taken an immediate liking to her. So we were glad to hear that she would be visiting again.

During lunch, Patricia and Carol told us that they had taken a short walk a little way down the nakhal near us. I told them that it was possible to walk all the way down to Rosh Pinna that way and that I had done it once. As we were sitting around and talking a bit after lunch, Carol mentioned that she would really like to take that hike, and I immediately agreed to walk with her. Nobody else really was interested in the hike, so just the 2 of us headed out.

First, we walked along the trail that is the extension of our road (after the pavement ends by our house). We passed through a V-shaped gate that keeps the cows from coming through, continued a little further, and then turned right on the jeep trail that heads down the nakhal.

Here are some of the things we saw along the way. First, a purple thistle, which is probably the most plentiful type of flower currently seen all over northern Israel:

Here's a beautiful black and white butterfly, obviously the same type that I had seen the day before at Park Adamit:

Here are some delicate, tiny white flowers:

Part way down the valley, we encountered several cows, including some that were in a sort of shallow cave on the left. Here, you can see a calf nursing. Of course, I used the zoom on my camera!

Most (if not all) of the cows had tags in their ears with numbers, but this one sported a PAIR of earrings! Aren't they fetching? :-)

We also saw a number of these interesting ball-shaped green thistles:

Here are some purple flowers that I saw which were just too lovely to pass up:

As we got near Rosh Pinna, we began to encounter trees, especially olive trees, that must have been planted by people at some point, although they seem to be pretty much growing wild now. This clump of small figs was one of hundreds that were on a very large fig tree (or maybe more than one -- it was hard to tell):

Here are some lovely lavender flowers that also may not actually be native to the area:

When we got to Rosh Pinna, we found a small restaurant right along the main road that comes down from Tsfat, just after it make its final sharp curve. We weren't hungry, but we WERE a bit thirsty, so we ordered "mint lemonades". Here's a nice picture of Carol with our mint lemonades in the foreground (they tasted as good as they look!):

For those of you who are curious, David drove down with the car, so that we did NOT have to walk all the way back UP the hill! That would have been WAY too much for either of us! :-)

A trip to Park Adamit and Rosh HaNikra

Friday, after eating lunch at Art de Coco in Karmiel, he headed up to Park Adamit and walked down the trail to the Rainbow Arch. Here are some picture I took along the way.

First, a pretty yellow flower of a kind that I don't think I've seen before:

Here's a nice pale blue flower that may be flax:

This picture isn't as good as I would like, but it's the best I could get of this interesting green-yellow butterfly:

I saw quite a few of these beautiful butterflies:

I also saw quite a few of these black and white butterflies:

These brown butterflies with a small dark spot near the end of each wing were also quite common:

Here's David, sitting and waiting patiently while I flitted about taking pictures of flowers and butterflies:

As I've mentioned previously, white flowers of many kinds seem to be more abundant this year than in previous years. Here's a nice picture of one that I took:

I saw several rather large bushes covered with these tiny yellow flowers:

Here's a nice yellow daisy:

After Park Adamit, we drove back down the narrow winding road (10 switchbacks, plus various other, less severe, curves!) and headed to Rosh HaNikra.

Here are 2 pictures that I took at Rosh HaNikra from the same spot. In the first, we are looking west-northwest, directly towards the run, whose light you can see reflecting off the Mediterranean Sea. Lebanon is just out of sight on the right, less than a quarter of a mile away.

Here's the view from the same spot, looking south: