Jordan Valley views

No pics of sukkah or lulav today. I got a cold on Shabbat, and am tired and weak. The days between Yom Kippur and Sukkot I had work reasons to go to Jerusalem, and snapped these shots.

The one with the bouganvilla is at a rest stop in the Jordan Valley. I always marvel at how much the Samarian hills look like Mars this time of year.

The moonrise was on the way home and is a view east towards Jordan. The might Jordan mountains at sunset/moonrise.

Green Olives in the Holy Land

“But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever. (Psalms 52:8)”

May everyone's year be fruitful and blessed.

Olives are an amazing fruit. While bitter and almost inedible right from the tree, when pressed their oil is prized around the world. When soaked and rinsed and then cured, their fruits can be as varied as black salty olives to tart green olives.

How great the wonders of the olive.

Elul growth for High Holydays

These palm fronds will probably be cut right before Sukkot. The lovely summer growth is perfectly timed for providing schach for the mitzvah of Sukkah. Ah, Elul days leading to the High Holydays.

If only I had time to really reflect. Just call me a working stiff.

Kever Ari at twilight

Took this picture as the sun set into darkness. The gravesite of the Arizal was hopping even at that time of day. You have to admit, in Tsfat, even the graveyard is beautiful.

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.