Interesting things on a short walk

Today is a beautiful Spring day here, so we decided to get out of the house and take a little walk in the neighborhood. Initially, I didn't take my camera, but, only a short distance down the road, we came upon a small tortoise on the sidewalk! David kept it from "running" away while I went back to the house and got the camera. Here's its picture:

In several place along the sidewalk on the other side of the road, there are beautiful groups of flowers including some very nice red poppies:

A little ways further along the road, I saw several of these blue flowers blooming. I think that they are some kind of lupine:

We turned around at one of our usual spots, and I snapped this picture of a bug on a white flower near there:

In that same area, I caught this interesting long-legged bug on a yellow flower:

Not far from that, we came upon a group of ants. This piece of bone had somehow gotten there on the sidewalk near the ant hole, and these industrious ants were wasting no time getting what they could from it!

It's cherry blossom time here in Tsfat (well, actually I've only seen 2 cherry tree)! Our cherry tree is blooming, but these blossoms are actually on a small tree in the yard of a neighbor not far away:

The peach tree in our yard has almost finished blooming, but there were still a couple of blossoms left on it. Here's one of them:

This is MiniMe and Beatrix. Beatrix is the one closer to us in the picture, and MiniMe is her now-full-grown male kitten. Beatrix had another litter of kittens about 2 weeks ago, but we haven't seen them yet. All we know for sure is that she was very pregnant, she disappeared for a couple of days, and then she came back obviously no longer pregnant but very hungry and with lactating tits. I'm sure she'll bring the kittens for us to see when she and they are ready. In the mean time, we don't even know where they are or how many of them there are.

And, finally, here is Katom, our indoor-only cat who made aliyah with us from California:

The northern shore of Israel

We've had a weekly tradition going for some time now: we leave home quite early on Friday afternoon, go out to eat, usually in Karmiel, and then head for the northern shore, just south of Lebanon. Up until yesterday, though, I kept forgetting to bring my camera. This time, I remembered, though, and here are some of the pictures that I took.

First, we have the general view. In this picture, you can see the cliffs of Rosh HaNikra, which are at the extreme northwest corner of Israel. This is where the border between Israel and Lebanon meets the Mediterranean Sea.

Here's a zoomed view, where you can see Rosh HaNikra ("Grotto Head") more clearly. Just slightly right of the center of this picture is the southern entrance to a railroad tunnel that was built by the British during the time of the Mandate. There are actually 2 tunnels, and the one further north exits in Lebanon. Normally, we can drive on a road that follows the route of the former railroad almost all the way to the entrance in this picture, but yesterday, the last stretch of that road was closed to traffic.

In case you haven't noticed, I really like photographing flowers. Here's a nice view of some flowers that were quite common in that area:

I especially like red flowers, so here's a really nice poppy that I managed to snap:

Bees on flowers are another one of my favorites. Here's a good one:

For most of this area, there's really no beach, because there are many rocks along the shore. It's interesting to see the interaction of the waves with the rocks, and so this time I tried something new: using the video capability of my camera. Here's the result:

Seder 2009

This year, Norman and Beth Loberant, members of our Reform congregation in Nahariya, invited us to the Pesach seder at their house. We went, and we really had a very nice time. Today, they e-mailed some pictures that they took. Here's one of them:
I hope that all of you who celebrate Passover also had a great seder and are enjoying a חג שמח Hag Sameach ("Happy Holiday").

בירכת החמה Birkat HaChama

This morning, David and I watched the sunrise together from our upper balcony. On this day, the day before Pesach, only once every 28 years, there is a special blessing that is recited, honoring G-d as the Creator of the universe. So, we said it together as the bright globe of the sun came up over the Golan. Here are the words:

ברוך אתה, יי אלוהינו, מלך העולם, עושה מעשה בראשית.
Baruch Ata, Adonai eloheinu, melech ha-olam, osei ma'asei breishit.
Blessed are You, Adonai our G-d, ruler of the universe, doer of the works of creation.

A trip to Gilboa Stream and D'vorah Falls

I finished feeding the snakes quite early today, so we decided to take a drive to the Golan. We headed up the main road into the central-to-northern Golan, and very soon I began to notice quite a variety of different colored flowers along the highway, especially on the left side. So I pulled over to take some photos.

Here are 3 that I took in that area. First a lovely cluster of pink flowers. As I think I've mentioned before, we did see these in previous years, but there seem to be many more of them this year. They're everywhere, and they're beautiful!

Next, a view to give you a little idea of the diversity and the abundance in that area:

Here's another one. This is a very tall plant, and we saw LOTS of these all over the place:
After driving a little further up the road, I happened to see a sign pointing to a side road on the left that said נחל גלנוע Gilboa Stream (it was in Hebrew and English). I thought that that sounded interesting, but I had already passed the road. So I decided to make a U-turn and go back and check it out. It was a gravel road, a little bumpy in places, but very wide. Not too far down the road, we turned right, and a short distance after that we saw a lot of cars parked. This was the trailhead for the hike down to the stream and a waterfall called מפל דבורה Mapal D'vorah ("D'vorah Falls"), named after the Jewish town of D'vorah, from Talmudic times, that was located on the far side of the canyon.

David and I walked together on the part of the trail that was on the level plateau. When we came to the point where the trail began to descend (by rock steps) into the nakhal, David stayed behind and sat on a rock while I continued down to the stream. On both sides of the trail, all the way down, were all kinds of lovely flowers, most familiar but some entirely new to me! Here is a sample of some of the best pictures that I took along this trail.

First, a lovely cyclamen. I saw lots of these and photographed several, too. White or nearly white flowers are often too washed out in my photos, but this one came out pretty good, I think:

Here's a sample of a new kind of flower that I don't think I had seen before. I didn't see a great many of them today, either:
Here's another new kind of flower, but I saw LOTS of these. Notice the partly white leaves that thereby seem to be part of the flower itself. Also, don't miss the bee at the bottom of the picture, busily doing her work!

The next pictures shows a cluster of white flowers on a flowering tree. I think I only saw 2 or 3 of these trees.

Here's a great close-up of a bee working on a pinkish white flower. I'm so happy with how well this one came out!

Here's an interesting bug that I happened to notice, just sitting quietly on a plant stalk. Most of the bugs and spiders here are, like this one, quite different from the ones I was used to seeing in California. I find them fascinating!

Here's another cyclamen whose picture came out so well that I just had to post it here:

I saw quite a few tiny yellow flowers like this one, but they are also very difficult to photograph, both because of their small size and because of their bright color, which usually causes them to appear too washed out. The shape and size of these are the same as the beautiful pale orange flowers that seem to be more common this year than in past years. This is the first time, though, that I've seen them in yellow, I think.

I just got lucky when I caught this bee in flight! Even better, she's in focus! The name of the town, דבורה D'vorah, means "bee" in Hebrew, so perhaps it was named after this one. :-)

Here's the D'vorah Waterfall itself. It's quite beautiful, isn't it?

Here's a stunning example of those same blue-purple-pink flowers that I've shown you before. But I think this picture is perhaps the best yet that I've managed to get of them:

Having seen the number of cars in the parking lot, we were not surprised to see a lot of people hiking up and down the trail. As I was scrambling down the rocks to get near the pool at the bottom of the falls (and taking pictures of flowers as I went), some soldiers in uniform with their rifles scrambled past me much more quickly than I could go. As you can see in the next picture, they got very comfortable and, I think, even took a little dip in the pool. I'm sure that the water was VERY cold, though!

A little later, when I joined them on the rocks near the pool, they noticed that I was taking pictures, so they asked me if I would take a picture of them on a phone belonging to one of them. Of course, I was more than happy to do so, and I also got them to pose for a picture for me, too. A lovely bunch, aren't they? Now, if we could just get them to quit smoking! :-)

I saw a few of these purple flame flowers but not that many. I had first seen these not far from our house during the past week, when we took a nice spring walk around the neighborhood. Here's a great example from today:

And, finally, one of those gorgeous red poppies. There were quite a few of these, and they, too, are hard to capture. The red is so intense that you often can hardly see any of the details of the flower. This one came out pretty good, I think:

A pleasant Spring walk

Today, the weather has been really pleasant, so since I had some free time after lunch, we took a nice long walk around the area here. At first, I forgot my camera, but as soon as I saw the many beautiful flowers, I realized that I had better go back and get it, which I did. Here are some of the results, with minimal commentary:


Look closely at the white daisy in the lower left of the following picture, and you'll see a snail! I certainly didn't notice it when I snapped the shot!

On the other hand, I really WAS trying to photograph the bee in this picture:

Isn't this a beautiful flower! I don't think I had seen this kind before today.

A trip to Kokav HaYarden ("Belvoir")

Yesterday, I didn't have any classes until 3:00 p.m., so we decided to visit a national park that we had not been to before. The main feature there is a large Crusader fortress, known both as כוכב הירדן Kokav HaYarden ("The Star of the Jordan") and as Belvoir (from the French for "beautiful view"). It's quite an impressive fortress, but at this time of year, everything is trumped by the millions and millions of wild flowers of dozens of species, that are found everywhere around the Galil (northern Israel).

To get to Belvoir, we drove down and around the Kinneret (the so-called "Sea of Galilee") and then further down the Jordan River Valley. As I usually do, I drove on the east side of the Kinneret, even though it's probably a little further, because it's less populated and I avoid having to drive right through downtown T'verya (Tiberias).

Not far before we got to the road that goes up from the valley to Belvoir, I stopped by the side of the road for 2 reasons. First, I needed to to make a pit stop! But there were also many beautiful flowers in that area, and I wanted to get some pictures of them, too. Here are some of the best ones I got, all within a few yards of where I parked the car on the shoulder of the highway:

These yellow flowers make a nice picture, together with the small pinkish white ones:

Here's a really intense red flower:

I saw quite a few of these interesting flowers, which I had seen before and which we saw more of up at Belvoir. They seem to change color, probably with time, and you can see various shades of blue, purple, and pink. Also, as you can see here, they're somewhat ill-defined, blending in with the greenery:

Here's a tiny pinkish flower:

Look at this beautiful thistle! We have some of these in our yard, too. Yes, I know, they're weeds, and rather nasty ones, at that. But they sure do have pretty flowers!

I think that I saw more white flowers on this trip than I had before, including a number of different species. Here's one kind, with a couple of bugs in the picture, too:

Here are some more. These are really small:

Here's another beautiful thistle, seen from a different angle:
So, that's all the pictures from that pit stop. After that, we continued on our way. There's a narrow paved road that goes up from the Jordan River Valley highway (route 90) up to Belvoir. It's several kilometers long and rises from below 200 meters BELOW sea level up to 312 meters ABOVE sea level. There's barely room for 2 vehicles to pass, but we only encountered a couple on our way up and none on our way down.

When we got there, we found that there is a trail that goes around the fortress itself, passing a little way below it on the hillside overlooking the Jordan River Valley and the mountains of Jordan on the other side. We decided to hike that trail first, before checking out the castle. Here are the pictures that I took on that walk.

First, a lovely tiny blue flower, which I think is a neon. There are actually quite a few of these, but it's very easy to miss them even though their blue color is quite intense, since they are VERY small:

Here's an orange-red flower of a type that I'm not sure that we've seen before:

I've been seeing a LOT of these beautiful pink flowers all over the place this year. In previous years, I saw a few, but now I see large groups of dozens or even hundreds of these in many places all over the Galil:

Here are 5 pictures of more of those blue-purple-pink flowers that I showed you above. These were all in one small area along the trail, just below the castle:




That's all the pictures from our hike on the trail.

Next, we went up into the fortress itself, which was surrounded by a moat! I don't know if there was ever water in it, and, in fact, I rather doubt it, both because it seems to open to the valley and because it would surely have been difficult to find enough water to fill it in this dry country. In any case, it's quite impressive.

At the northeast corner of the castle, there is a view (across the moat to the north) of a vulture feeding area with an explanatory sign. There has been a precipitous decline in the number of vultures in the country as it has developed. This feeding area is helping to save the vultures and is also used for research about them. According to the sign, there are a couple of injured vultures who are kept there all the time, which also helps to attract other birds. Here's a pictures of them (taken at my camera's maximum optical zoom):

OK, so the real focus of the national park is supposed to be the Crusader fortress. I did take quite a few pictures of its various arches and so forth, but I thought I'd just show you just one picture, of the bridge across the moat. Of course, this is a modern bridge, but perhaps we could imagine a fairly-land draw bridge. No, you don't think so? Whatever!