Need Rain

I took these shots on 5 December, and then we had a storm that I had hoped would herald a nice wet season moving in and be able to do a "before and after" shot. However, the storm moved on after a couple of days and since then we've had very little rain at all.

Things are still very dry and the water situation is serious. Please pray for rain for Israel.

Something old, something new...

The Bridge, there's only one in town.

At the corner of Jerusalem Street

Fall may be here soon. Some slightly cool air, and it brings with it a melancholy of some unknown nature. It felt right to take the color out of the picture for a B &W shot.

She's one of my favorite beggars in town. Always has a smile for me, no matter how bad things are. This was a particularly sunny day, with lovely music heard under the bridge from a vendor selling burned music discs..

There's only one bridge in Tsfat. Hagesher.

A Photo Essay in Graffiti

The Na-Nachers write on every surface here. You'd think it was holy spray paint.

Interesting sign

Funny, I always remembered it as "The Jewish Quarter" and "The Arab Quarter", but I have never been good at history.

Now well all live jumbled up together, Sephardim and Ashkenazim.

The Caf-Bet Fountain has been on lately

This is a composite photo of two shots, since I don't have a wide enough lens for my camera.

It's rare that the fountain has been on since we moved here. Recently I saw that it was on, the week after the memorials, week of May 15.

The fountain is a memorial to the 22 high school students killed in a terrorist attack in Maalont in 1974. You can read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma'alot_massacre

Lovely alleys in Safed

A couple of views from off the main thoroughfare in town, Jerusalem St. (And yes, Jerusalem has a Tsfat St.).  Love spring!

Lovely Day in Northern Israel

MHad to go to the consular services in Haifa again. Dropped off a sample from our lab to the Rambam Hospital, and then I took the train all the way north to Nahariya. The bus ride from there back to Tsfat is cheaper and less painful than the bus ride from Akko. Plus I got to go to the beach for a few minutes to take pictures!



Behind the Rambam Hospital is a beach called "Quiet Beach". It's in the middle of a heavily industrial port, but it is quiet otherwise.

It was already hot in Haifa, and I don't know the city well. So I got back on the train and went north to Nahariya.  A far more beautiful town....

My favorite cafe, used to be you could see the surf from there, but now the boardwalk is a bit built up. Still, a nice place for a breakfast on the beach.

Then a nice bus ride home. Views of the green hills, and Mount Meron where the Lag BaOmer celebrations will be next week. The town sprawling on the hillside is Tsfat viewed from Meron.

Meron:

Green Hills:

Spring Again in the Galilee

First the flowers! Yellow daisies and white daisies. The white ones are called Seviyon Avivi.

These are called "lashon hapara", Ox Tongue, after the prickly leaves. Shoots and pre-bloom flower clusters are edible (though heavily infested, so I've never cooked them up)

These are mallow blooms. Later they close up and have edible seed pods, called "pita aravit" by local kids happily chewing on them. The blossoms are good against coughs, so gather in the spring and dry them for winter use. Leaves are edible, young ones tender enough for use in salads. Roots are also very good against coughs.

It was windy when I was shooting these pics on the hillside, so I didn't get the focus I wanted. This is an olive tree branch with the newer green growth against the older (olive green) growth.

These are wild peas, once again not the focus I was looking for. Not edible, indeed poisonous.

If you look carefully, in the foreground is an oat grass stalk with full green oats on it. The wild oats are not yet sewing their seed.

Wild wheat grass is also growing all over the place.

 Here is what the hillside looks like at a glance of riotous color and greenery. Catch it now before it all dries!

Pre-Purim costume day

A small herd of brides in the pre-school..

Too cute!

There goes the teacher, lion to the students again!

Happy Purim!

Winter scenes in the Galilee hills

 Many days in the winter the clouds look like waves in the distance. The winter rains add a green to the hillsides. Love these views on my walk to work.