Tourist Season in Tsfat

The tourist buses are a welcome sight in Tsfat. While the average tour bus only stops for less than 1/2 hour in Tsfat, which is a pity, it does help the local economy and lifts spirits to see folks visiting our little town.

Here's a couple of shots from above the main bus parking area. You see the General Exhibition in the top photo, renovated from an old mosque. In the bottom photo you can see a tourist group walking towards the Old City. There are two alleys leading into our little mystical Old City. Some people take the path less travelled...

Summer Grapes 2007

In the Old City especially, the grape vines are like living poetry.
There's something that calls out to take a picture when you see the ripening grapes.

May we see them ripen in peace...

Tsfat Alleys

Behind the Rimmonim Inn in the Artists Quarter. Notice the oddly blue painted light covers. I dunno. Down the alley a bit further are some painted orange.

Iyar in the Gallilee

Looking South from Meor Chaim neighborhood. Looking West from Mt. Canaan.
The hillside behind Tsahal. Love those colors.

Every day is a treat for walking to work in this beautiful place.

Adar in Tsfat and Jerusalem

Oh, just too busy to blog.
This last weekend we were in Jerusalem, so a pic of the soldiers at the Western Wall.
Then back up to the Galilee for the green green green that only happens in the Hebrew month of Adar.

Winter Sunset in Tsfat

Sunset over Meron and the mountains on the way home from work.

Spring is springing in Safed

Signs of spring plants are springing up.I snapped these pics on the way to work.

This is Shepherd's Purse. The heart shaped leaves are the source of its name. Shepherds often went about their day with pouches shaped like these leaves.

Shepherd's purse is good for what ails your blood system, and for lots of female troubles. The activity dies quickly, so if you pick it, tincture it up the same day. Put it in a brown glass bottle with 45-50% alcohol (I get that nasty 95% cooking alcohol and dilute it in half with distilled water), and let it sit for about two weeks. Then filter off the tincture to a clean brown glass bottle. Helps with stopping bleeding.

This is plantain, plantago lanceolata. Edible, mucilageonous. Great for skin abrasions, also for homemade cough syrup, oil infusions against pain, and more. Infuse it in olive oil with garlic for homemade ear drops.

Day trip from Tsfat to Nahariya

I love Nahariya. It's an easy drive from Tsfat, and the sea air is a welcome change from the hills on occasion.

Pictures of Snow in Tsfat

Just a few. The morning after the snow fell. 2 out of 3 kids were meant to go to school, but one wasn't feeling well and the other has a very cold classroom. The third had school cancelled.

I still had to go to work.

Which was an excuse to shoot pics!

Road Trip from Safed to Tel Aviv

It always amazes me how I feel like I'm in a different country when I'm in the Tel Aviv area and south of there.

I did enjoy the big Azrieli mall. For a small town girl, it's a lot of fun. Most importantly, there were stores with Clinique products ;).

This week I have to go to Sheba Medical Center for an afternoon workshop.

Canaan Spa, Mount Meron, Palatine Hall views in video

Tsfat, another vantage. I was on the way home from the shopping center outside of town, Shaarei Ha'Ir (the Gates of the Town), and took these shots over a year ago. Strung them together with some free stock music loop.

Winter movie

I got inspired by my son playing with the Windows Movie Maker with still photos. There is a bit of video in this one, with the moving clouds bit.

Another one on the way of spring views north and west from a northern point in town.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood... for a shuk!

On a lovely sunny winter day, the colors, sounds, and sights of the Safed shuk (0utdoor market) awaken the senses.

Tsfat/Safed/Tzfat video

Look what I did:



Things to do on the way to work.

Yeah, I filmed it with no tripod, I was on the way to work.

December 6 update: I have closed my YouTube account and replaced the embed link above with the Google Video version. Basically, within one week I got two spam emails via my YouTube account for icky videos. So who needs them, when there's Google Video?

It's winter? Sunny winter days

If you haven't seen the way the electrical cabinets are decorated in Tsfat, do come visit.

Each is painted with a unique artistic flair that adds to the street elegance of the town.





On a cloudy day, you can't see forever, but sometimes you can see above the clouds.

I have the privelage of seeing this view every time I walk to work.

A very beautiful place.

Rebuilding the North, including Safed

Finally rememberingto post a few of the pics of the reconstruction at the corner that was destroyed the first day of missiles.

Most of the signs of the missiles have slowly disappeared. The most obvious ones are still the many blackened areas of the surrounding forest areas on the hills. Trees aren't so easy to rebuild.

Fall rainy days in Tsfat

One cool thing about working in a lab is that there are other women who appreciate cool bugs. Yes, that's right, one of my XX coworkers pointed out cool bugs and suggested a photo shoot the other day right outside the lab. I couldn't get exactly the focus and macro I wanted, but it was fun.












Same day it looked like this when I was leaving work. Not like that today. Today it rained and rained (I saw it from my window, really), and when I left, it was almost dark. Winter time is coming in.











Another cool bug, actually I hate moths. I was able to disassociate enough from my moth phobia to enjoy photographing this lovely specimen. However, when it flapped around I did have an uncontrollable shuddering fit. There is a reason that Godzilla's prime evil enemy was Mothra.













This is another common site this time of year. The flocks of cranes flying south for the winter. They are really quite lovely and graceful.

Last year they were the harbinger of Avian Flu, however. The outbreaks were considered well contained last year, and none of the strain that is contagious to humans was detected.

Still, it affects how I relate to the flocks of birds flying overhead twice a year.

Workshop at Herzliya Pituach

So I got to go to a workshop yesterday for my job at the Sharon Hotel in Herzliya . It was run by Medicguide, and although not exactly what I had expected (the main presenter was full of himself), it was informative, helpful, and a nice way to get to the sea for a day.

One of the things that was most interesting was meeting people. So many interesting medical devices being developed in Israel, so many bright people. Guy named Asher Zilberstein from SLP brought up particularly interesting problems he's having with a German CE audit, but the guy running the workshop felt most of his questions were "too practical". Hrmph, the title of the workshop was "CE Registration of Medical Devices -- A Hands-on Workshop ". What better hands-on than problem solving?

The hotel site makes it look really luxurious, which isn't totally a lie. The funny thing is, the hotel is really old. The public bathrooms in the wing where we were situated were all tiled in old blue ceramic tiling, with plain old white toilets and Kimberly Clark paper dispensers. Hah, not the lap of luxury, but very clean.

Back in Tsfat today.

Simchas Torah already

You'd think I'd be posting more, but all I do is w*rk, w*rk, w*rk. Finally a really cool perk is in from all that w*rk. I'm typing this from my new laptop (okay, it's not really mine, it belongs to the startup that I work for under the auspices of the hospital, but I'm #1 personnel in that project).

Don't have a lot of data yet, so it's a good thing I'm getting toys! I also don't have any vacation days. This was a major drag during Sukkos vacation for the kids. So I made sure that on the second day of Chol Hamoed I had to travel to Jerusalem on business. Of course, I took the whole family with me. The Old City was packed, and it felt very festive. After davening at the Wall, we had pizza and ice cream, then tried to go to CheaperKol, but it was closed. Then the ride home. Hey, it was my only day off.

Next week I have a whole day workshop at the Sharon Hotel in Herzlia Pituach. I went to see if they have kosher certification, and am wondering if I can sneak away to the sea water pool during a break. Check it out www.sharon.co.il/
Here's a pic of some of the rebuilding that's going on at the building that took a direct hit in the war this summer.

Some Damage Pictures of Safed

The first two are building 10 of Tsahal street on the left, and building 9 on the right. I know the gal who lives in the first of three apartments that the building 10 katyusha hit. The damage on building 9 looks more like the "Grad" missiles, which are a lot bigger and carry a larger payload than the Katyusha.







Here's a closer shot of the building 10 entry hole.














Then in that "path" of destruction is the Ulpanit, a high school whose windows were blown out when a katyusha landed on the kindergarten right next to it. All of this is a direct line to the local hospital, a cachement hospital serving the whole Northern Galilee region.

A lot of pictures were taken of the damage that first day when rockets fell right in the middle of the commerce area of town. This sign over the "Beit Maimon" furniture store which was right next to a direct hit and lost windows, says "In spite of the rocket, we're continuing as regular".

A shop owner of one of my favorite household goods was hit at home directly by the third rocket of this same volley. Thankfully, she and her family, including a grandson in the home, were not harmed. However her house was left open to the four winds by the hit. She and her husband remained in town during the summer rain of katyushas for another two weeks before she was so sick from stress that they left for a week to family. Worried about their home, they returned, then left again, and are now finally getting the house repaired enough that it's not just open to the world.

This impact killed a man. There was a bizarre tropical storm hours before I passed by the spot, cleaning up the dust, dirt, and debri. Looks like nasty little gouge now. Deadly thangs.