I'll follow the sun

A lovely sunset on the Jerusalem mountains

These days I spend most of my time in the lab trying to make my humble contribution to science. Unfortunately I'm missing out my favorite season: the blooming of the almond trees. This year the weather has been kind to us and it rained quite a lot the past month. The unusual amount of water brought with it a blossom that we rarely see in these areas. Anemones by the thousands cover the hills behind my hometown creating lovely red carpets. Last year I had a lot of free time to wonder around the hills like Julie Andrews in the "Sound of Music" but now I take what I can get. At present I don't have a lot of spare time except for  weekends that provide me and my family the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful outdoors and catch up on some photography. The last two weekends were gloriously sunny so we went on some very short hikes in the area not far from where I live. We were delighted to find every place we visited lush, green and adorned with flowers. I want to share with you some of the splendor of this winter. Too bad  it is so short lived. 

Almond tree blooming

A few of the thousand of anemones currently blooming near my house

A very short Israeli Spring

Anemones, cyclamens, Iris, and asphodels in the Judea Hills, Israel

At this point in time horrible disasters are happening to people, both far away in Japan and very close to us here in Itamar, Israel. We are flooded with terrifying images of what nature and what human (or non-human) nature can cause. I am taking a break of that for a while and try to find consolation in the beauty nature brings to us sometimes. I don't write about politics in this blog so I'll just share with you my hopes that the dark days will be over soon for all the suffering people.

Israeli Spring is like a magician performing the disappearing act: now you see it, now you don't.  There are a few (so very few) days that are warm but not too hot, when the sun is pleasant but not scorching and the light is gentle as opposed to blinding. It is a time of beauty when one feels that this is indeed The Promised Land. At this time of year many types of trees, bush and herbs bloom. Their blossom is beautiful and intense; as if the plants know that soon they'll wither and they must take advantage of this short period of grace when there is just enough water and not too much sun.  I am always thrilled to go hiking this time of year because I know I'll almost always find something wonderful like rare orchids, wild tulips or even meet a nice lazy turtle.

wild orchid

wild tulip

At this time of year even the unimposing low hills not far from my town are magical places of color and lush green. I don't even need to drive in order to see lovely green pastures dotted with the red of a thousand anemones, just take a nice few minutes' walk from my doorstep.  All this loveliness will disappear soon enough when April's Eastern winds will desiccate the land and by June all will be yellow and dusty again for a long while. So for the few weeks left I'll enjoy those pretty colors, hope you will too. 

The Turtle

Some more almond blossom before it'll disapear

Almonds on the hills in the afternoon

I've discovered a very pleasant fact on the area I'm living in. It is surrounded by hills that are covered in almond trees and they all bloom right now. In addition to that there are cultivated almond orchards in the settlements 5 minutes' drive from my door step. All this beauty is intoxicating. I got addicted to taking pictures of almond blossom. I found myself taking pictures in the rain because the light on the flowers was a bit different from the light in the afternoon or mid-morning. I've also found out that taking pictures of this loveliness has a therapeutic effect.  For example someone made me very angry, in fact full of rage. So instead of shooting that horrible person, I went almond tree shooting.  I know I'm in danger here of completely exhausting the subject, but look how pretty is everything.

Almond orchard in mid-morning

 

Almond orchard in the rain