Ash Sunday in the forest

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Today I walked in ash, silent and alone and in awe, to see the toll taken by yesterday's forest fire.


The olive trees, each individual with a shape of its own in death as in life.

All of this was just 26 hours ago covered by underbrush so thick you couldn't walk through it, except on the paths worn down by jackal traffic.
Here in the late afternoon sun, the ash looks almost like snow.

A scorched ktalav.

An interesting pattern left under the burned bark.

The cables along the monastery's perimeter wall.

The Franciscans will not have electricity for the next 3 or 4 days.

This tree was both bowed down AND uprooted.

The cat was the only one who could get down or up the steep slope that goes down to the monastery buildings. You can see why planes were needed, in these places where men could not stand.

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Come back tomorrow for three hopeful pictures that came out of the ashes.

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