Drive to the southern Golan

We took a nice drive this afternoon to the southern part of the Golan. Sorry, I didn't take my camera with me, so I don't have any pictures to show you this time. There were LOTS of flowers blooming, though. The most common, as in Southern California about this time, was mustard -- many areas were just covered with these ordinary yet beautiful yellow flowers. However, I also saw many other kinds of flowers, even though I didn't even get out of the car!

A short walk on a warm afternoon

Yesterday, I went for a short walk in the afternoon, taking my camera with me. It was a beautiful, warm day, and here are some of the things that I saw.

First, our peach tree is blooming. I actually was trying to get a picture with the blossoms in the foreground and Har Khermon (Mt. Hermon) in the background, but I couldn't get both in focus at the same time. So, here are some of the peach tree blossoms:

One of the outdoor cats that we have "adopted" was hanging around wanting some attention. After I had petted him a little and held him, he settled down in one of his favorite spots in our yard. So I snapped a nice picture of him. Here's Tz'hovi:

A little ways down our road, I was able to get a picture of the mountain with some mustard flowers to frame it in the foreground. Since the flowers were a bit further from the camera, I was able to get both them and the mountain reasonably in focus.

In a field not far from here, there were a lot of little flowers blooming close to the ground. I think they might have been clover or something similar. In any case, I heard, and then saw, quite a few bees buzzing around them. I managed to get a great picture of one of them:

There were also quite a few butterflies around. It was a little hard to photograph them, but I did get a good shot of one. Here it is:

Very near that same spot, I saw this caterpillar:

Walking a little further, I came to a building that was intended to be a hotel but was never finished. I went inside and up to the top floor. Here's a great view of the Kinneret (the "Sea of Galilee") from what would have been the window in a guest room. The birds that you see were some that flew away from inside the structure when they heard me coming!

Here a view of the front of that same building, complete with its sign, which says מלון ריג'נט פאלס Malon Regent Palace (since "malon" is the Hebrew word for "hotel", the name means "Regent Palace Hotel" a rather pompous name, I think, especially for a hotel that they never even managed to finish building!). Although it did provide me with a nice vantage point for a picture, this building really is an eyesore in the neighborhood. On the other hand, if it hadn't been built, the buses might not come halfway up the hill to the bus stop that is right by it and is the nearest bus stop to our house.

Walking along further, on the way back home, I came upon these lovely little pink flowers:

Here's another view of the irresistibly photogenic Har Khermon, this time with a couple of cows in the foreground:

These flowers are not wildflowers. They were actually deliberately planted in our yard. Still, they're very beautiful, aren't they?

This butterfly is sitting right on the outside of the vertical wall of our house, near the kitchen window that is by the refrigerator. The view in the picture is actually quite a bit better from what I could really see with my eyes, thanks to the zoom on the camera (and some cropping, of course!).

Excellent animation

As I've mentioned before, we have recently been watching the afternoon kids' shows, mostly animations. One that's for somewhat older kids is called ממלכת אוקיאנה Mamlechet Okiana ("The Kingdom of Oceana"). It's a continued story, much of it set under water, with a number of interesting characters. Yesterday was clearly the final episode, where the main evil character is defeated, and the kingdom returns to peace. Although, in a way, this whole series (or at least all the episodes that we saw) is about an epic battle, but it is almost totally non-violent! The worst that even the most evil character, גלייל Galeil, can do is to zap people, leaving them stunned for a bit but obviously not even seriously injured. At the end, Galeil is defeated by הנסיכה נרי HaNsichah Neri, ("The Princess Neri"), who is clearly the heroine of the whole show. She does this by thinking, together with all the other "good" characters (which is everyone except for Galeil and his main sidekick, Elgar), about the message רק ביחד ננציח rak b'yachad n'natze'ach ("only together will we win"). And, in fact, the previous failures were all clearly due to selfishness on the part of the various characters. This time, they all have the same goal and the same attitude, and Galeil is finally defeated by their cooperation.

The story is engaging and varied enough to keep one interested (even, as in my case, when you don't understand a fair amount of the dialog!), the music is brooding and beautiful, and the settings are imaginative and fanciful. We're hoping that, although yesterday was obviously the final episode, the show will repeat. In fact, with a few more times through the various episodes, I'll probably pick up most of the dialog. There ARE subtitles (in Hebrew), and they help a little, but mostly I can't read fast enough.

One more pleasing aspect of the show: as I mentioned, the heroine is a beautiful princess. Her sidekicks are her little dog, מיקרו Mikro, who has some magic powers and sometimes is really helpful, and her consort, צ'ובה Chuba, who occasionally does something but is actually mostly useless! It's such a refreshing switch from the usually story lines, where the handsome prince does nearly everything, and his female consort is mostly there to look beautiful!

Migrating birds

We went for a walk this afternoon since it was a nice day, albeit a bit cool and breezy. As we were walking down a road not far from here, we heard squawking sounds, causing us to look up. There was a huge flock of cranes, flying north in formation, honking as they went. There were probably about a hundred of them. Before they were even completely out of sight, along came yet another flock, of similar size. What a beautiful sight to see!

Flowers in the Jordan Valley

Yesterday, we traveled to Jerusalem for the bar mitzvah of a friend of ours. We went through the Jordan River Valley, along highway 90. In the narrower part of the valley, we began to see fields of flowers everywhere. Finally, I just HAD to pull over and take a few pictures. Here are a couple of them.

First, a view over one of these fields. All that white that you see is little flowers, thousands of them!
Here's one flower up really close!

Trip to Park Adamit

Yesterday was a beautiful, warm day, so we decided to take a drive to Park Adamit. Here are some pictures that I took.

This first picture was actually taken from our driveway. It's a picture of snow-covered Har Khermon (Mt. Hermon), at the north end of the Golan, in the extreme northeast corner of Israel.

The rest of the pictures were all taken in Park Adamit, not far from the extreme northwest corner of Israel.

Here's a lovely white flower with a yellow center.

The next picture shows one of the main attractions of Park Adamit, the Rainbow Bridge, which is a natural arch along the edge of a cliff.

The next picture is a view of Har Karmel (Mt. Carmel) from Park Adamit. If you look very, very closely, you MAY be able to see that there is a tall building on Har Karmel, a little right from the center of the picture. This is Migdal Eshkol (Eshkol Tower), the main building of the University of Haifa. Incidentally, on a clear day, this building is also visible from Tsfat, from a point (actually MANY points) only a short walk from our house!

Here's a bird who stayed perched in one place long enough for me to get his pictures. Thanks again to the zoom on my camera (and some cropping, of course).

We saw quite a few of these lovely flowers. Perhaps they are irises, or some kind of orchid?

A short walk near our house

Today is a nice day and considerably warmer than it has been recently. So, I grabbed my camera, and we took a very short walk near our house. Here are some pictures that I took along the way.

First, a beautiful orange flower. This one seems to be more common this year than in previous years. It is a very small flower, not even as big as this picture!

Here are some nice little blue flowers that we see occasionally but not too frequently.

Here's a different kind of blue flower.

We see plenty of these lovely yellow flowers.

Here's a nice ladybug that I spotted on a leaf. We see these from time to time here.

Here's a כלנית kalanit (anemone). These are VERY common all over this whole part of the country. With their intense red color, they are also very beautiful!

Here are a horse and a donkey in the newly fenced pasture quite close to our house. Isn't this a nice pose?