First rain, promptly on Sukkot!

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This evening I climbed the big bare hill with the three mystery structures on top.

Tonight is the eve of the festival of Sukkot so, sitting on a rock under one of the wooden frames,  I pretended to be in a sukkah.

The International Space Station flew over at 18:02 but it too cloudy and not yet dark enough to see it.

Clouds sliced the sun into thirds.

Just before sinking behind the hills the sun took the shape of a UFO,  or maybe Noah's ark.

Then I turned in the opposite direction, hoping to see the full moon rise (the blood moon and eclipse and all), but the clouds were too heavy.
The street lights coming on in my little Meitar were just as pretty, though, in a different way.

Sheets of lightning started flashing in the clouds to the west.
I started down the "mountain" when I heard voices in the darkening sky.
No, not angels.  But something equally wondrous and surprising.
Black birds started arriving in groups of about a dozen each.
The big birds disappeared into the top of one or two tall trees and became quiet.
There must have been a hundred of them!
I never knew that all these birds came at 18:30 to roost in the eucalyptus grove!

As I walked the four blocks toward home, thunder started rumbling.
And then raindrops fell!!!!   The first since last May!
What a happy Erev Sukkot it turned out to be!
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Happy holiday!
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UPDATE 11 pm:  Ynet just put up some dramatic photos and video of the unexpected lightning (and fire) and rains across Israel this afternoon. 
Check out the palm tree trunk burning inside! 
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4579085,00.html
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(Linking to SkyWatch Friday.)
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Things that go boom in the night

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More rain today for the third time this week! and the Negev desert is wearing green!
Last night I tried to sleep through a thunderstorm overhead, while Israeli families not so far to the west were trying to sleep in or near their fortified room as Gaza fired rockets (over 70 in the last two days).

In yesterday's post we learned the blessing said when seeing a rainbow.

The blessing upon hearing thunder is:
Baruch Ata Adonai eloheinu melech ha-olam, sheh-kocho ugevurato malei olam.
Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, whose strength and might fills the world.

The blessing upon seeing lightning is:
Baruch Ata Adonai eloheinu melech ha-olam, oseh maaseh bereishit.
Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who makes the work of creation.
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(Linking to SkyWatch Friday.)
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Going toward the light

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Happy December solstice.
There is light at the end of the winter tunnel, and now we start moving to longer days, slowly slowly.
Yay!

Grandson Eyal climbs up the challenging slide the hard way . . .

and slides back down with glee!

The long snaky tube slide is in Rabin Park in Meitar.
The park is at the bottom of a wadi.
Normally the stream bed is dry but in last week's stormy days, water was running through half of it.
Rain water run-off is channeled down from the neighborhoods that are above the wadi, and then flows out into the desert.
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At last, a puddle

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Finally! Enough rain water for a puddle, for a reflection.

In the forested hills that surround my village.

Shabbat shalom and happy Weekend Reflections.
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Good news--rain. Bad news--no Internet.

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Hello friends.
The week of rain, plus some thunder and lightning, have taken their toll on my Internet connection for the last three days.
The Bezeq phone company should be out to my house to fix the wires on Sunday.
Sorry, but I cannot post until then.
Be well.
Shabbat shalom.

Unexpected underground stream uncovered

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I first posted about this dramatically deep hole a year ago (here and here).
Since then this new tunnel has been started on the southern side of the shaft.
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Here's the northern side.
Someday a high speed train will run between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and it will enter Jerusalem through these tunnels.
The big underground central train station will double as a bomb shelter.
It is between the busy Central Bus Station and Binyanei HaUma convention center.
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Meanwhile, a few days ago (and just in time for ABC Wednesday U-Day), a great discovery hit the news:
An unexpected underground stream was uncovered at a depth of 75 meters, five meters from the planned bottom of the shaft!
"The largest and most impressive underground water sources ever discovered in Israel," scholars say.
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The karstic cave developed as water seeped in from the surface and dissolved the limestone.
It is between a half a meter to a few meters wide, and is a few dozen meters high and at least 200 meters long.
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Prof. Amos Frumkin, Head of the Cave Research Unit at Hebrew University, said the cave also has hydrological significance because it is part of the mountain aquifer, an underground reservoir into which rainwater flows from the surface and that extends all along Israel's central mountain range. "The study of the cave can help us understand the precise mechanism by which water flows through the aquifer in the Jerusalem area."
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TV news showed him and a few lucky colleagues squeezing through nooks and crannies and crawling in mud. Brave explorers they are.
And I imagine the first humans to enter this cave!
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Frumkin says the cave must be protected as a valuable natural phenomenon and that this can be accomplished without impeding construction of the railway station.
That is good news!
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Read more details in the Haaretz article.
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UPDATE: A newer and better article has become available at JPost.
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The hills are alive . . .

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It's only April 6 and Israel has already received more than the whole average amount of rainfall for April.
The wildflowers on the sides of our hill are obliterating the narrow paths.
The honey bees are having a field day too.
In fact, just after I snapped this picture of a friend walking down to her house, I heard a buzzing over my head.
Oh no! I turned back and ran through the thick flowers as fast as I could, which was not very fast but fast enough to get rid of the bee.
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There's nothing quite like spring.
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Wet fur coats



Wet mother and daughter at dinner

 For six  of the last eight days it has been raining.
The aquifers and the Sea of Galilee, the plants and the earth all love the long-awaited water.
But my neighbors'  outdoor cats hate the wet and cold.  

The clouds sit not just on top of the mountains, they creep down to the valley and into  ravines.

I know Israel needs the rain, but like the cats, I will be happy to see and feel some sunshine again.

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My  feline  friends are posted for Camera Critters weekend meme.

Wild weather in the Middle East

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"Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
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The events in Israel over the past twelve days sometimes made me think of Robert Frost's poem. A few days after our forest fire inferno, winter suddenly struck the country with snow, rain, gale force winds, and a sandstorm.
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The photo, albeit from December 2008, shows how weird and dark the sun gets over Jerusalem during a duststorm.
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From Friday until today I shut myself into the house, but still the fine particles entered.
They entered my eyes and nose and throat. Oi .
Jerusalem suffered with ten times the "legal" amount of air pollution until this morning when some rain washed our air.
Ahh, so nice to breathe again.
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The 9-meter waves battered the Mediterranean coast and did great damage.
A Turkish ship sank 8 miles from Ashdod Port, with all crew members rescued.
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Everything that could blow over did so. Huge damage to agriculture. And the hothouse flowers meant for Europe's Christmas markets.
Thousands of trees down. On people inside their cars, and on electric wires. Thousands of residents are still without electricity.
Trees on the railroad tracks stopped the trains. No visibility closed airports for a while. The waves were too dangerous for ships to dock. Winds gusting to 110 km/h were too much for cars on the highways.
Flooding of streets and houses.
Schools were closed in the northern Golan Heights due to snow.
Mt. Hermon already has 120 cm of snow.
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Land mines from previous wars in the Golan Heights have washed down or shifted positions.
Future hikers are warned to stay on marked trails.
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The homeless (2000 known to the welfare authorities and ~ 1000 not known) are being offered shelter and hot meals and showers to save them from the freezing cold.
Jerusalem, the coldest city, is down to 7-8 degrees C (about 45 F).
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But our neighbors are also suffering. We are all in this together!
The low pressure zone and SW winds blew sand from Egypt and wild weather into Israel, Cyprus, Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. In Egypt 18 are dead from the storm.
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May we all make it through this latest trial, and soon.
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Such is our world in the Middle East, these last few days, for That's My World Tuesday.
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Rain helps end the fire

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In the week since last That's My World Tuesday Israel has been through trying times.
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We are mourning the loss of 42 men and women in the service of their country; all burned because a bus was engulfed just after the forest fire started on Thursday.
Some 250 housing units burned either totally or partially.
50,000 dunams (12,500 acres) of the Mt. Carmel forest, 5 million trees, were on fire.

Photo: Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson

The good part is that many nations came to Israel's aid.
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In the photo, in orange and blue, are just some of the fire fighting aircraft crews that came from ten countries.
Israeli pilots accompanied them in every sortie over the flames.
In 82 hours the fire was stopped.
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Yesterday and today 4 Israel Air Force bases held ceremonies for the departure of the international teams. IAF medals were presented to 192 foreign crewmen, and all the delegations received a certificate of gratitude from the commander of the IAF.
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But before leaving, they were taken around the country to visit the holy places.
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The water-dropping planes that Turkey graciously sent us flew up to Lebanon to battle the fires that are burning the majestic cedars.

The other good news is that for the first time in 8 months RAIN started falling all over Israel last night! Just in time to cool down the smouldering ground in the Carmel range.

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Above you see the welcome clouds over Jerusalem at 4:18 pm today, as seen from my village.

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The Boston Globe has incredible images of our fire online today, including the airplanes.

WARNING: On Photo 6 they give you a choice whether to open it; please PLEASE skip that difficult one.

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Thank God it is over.

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Showers of blessing

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RAIN! It's raining in Israel, at last, after eight hot dry months!
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Just in time to cool the simmering ground near Haifa at the end of our four-day Mt. Carmel fire.
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Temperatures in Jerusalem have suddenly fallen from the recent 70s and 80s F down to the 50s and 60s (= 11-16 C).
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Now, with the forest fire behind us and the winter rain ahead of us, hopefully we will be able to enter the mood of Chanuka and celebrate a bit.

Thank you, dear readers, for your expressions of support during the difficult days of fire.
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Unproductive clear skies

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Another sunset in the Jerusalem Hills for SkyWatch Friday.
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November and Israel still has clear skies and abnormal warm temperatures in the mid or high 20s C.
No rain since last spring.
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Groups, interfaith groups, rabbis, and individuals have been going to mountain tops, onto the Sea of Galilee, or next to graves of long-dead tsadikim to pray (and even fast) for rain.
So far, beseeching God to open the heavens has not brought the much-needed showers.
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Shabbat shalom
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First shy rain

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Finally! Clouds on the horizon last night!
And at noon yesterday a whole minute of sprinkles, the first rain we've seen since last spring.

For the first time in a month, the day temperature dipped a few degrees below the 30s C.

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For SkyWatch Friday, things are looking up.

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Water over the dam

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When you take the bus from Jerusalem westward to my village, this is what you see from the window.
Click to enlarge this March 2008 photo and some blue will appear at the center.
That is water in the reservoir near Beit Zayit

The large reservoir is dry in the summer and dry in some winters too.

But the phenomenon which happened over the last few days is something the old-time residents here have not witnessed for many many years.
It rained so hard in the Jerusalem Hills from Thursday to Sunday that the water started flowing over the dam!
It flowed through the dry watercourse of Nahal Soreq like a mighty stream.

From up on the western side of our hilltop moshav I could actually hear the rush of the water and even see part of the river down in the valley. This was a first for me. An exciting first!
It even made the TV evening news.

For four straight days we had torrential rains, thunder and lightning, and even hailstorms.
The Jerusalem Hills got several times more than any other part of Israel, well over 200 mm (more than 8 inches).
This is equal to one third of the normal rainfall for an entire winter!

The reservoir collected rain as well as water from Motza Spring, Halilim Spring, Nahal Halilim, and other streams that fill up with winter rains.
The water captured in the reservoir will help to recharge the thirsty aquifer.
But the rains of last week came down too fast and furious with no time to percolate and mostly they became run-off.

The water over the dam made its way through Nahal Soreq clear across the country, discharging into the Mediterranean Sea at Palmahim.

On a personal note, for a few hours it rained so hard that for a short time part of my yard became a pool. My poor little house must have been sitting in it because water started to trickle in from between the ceramic tiles at the base of the kitchen wall.
The owner said that in all the house's 60 years standing, that had never happened.

I fought bravely to stem the tide on the kitchen floor, but I never want to do that again.
It is very unsettling.
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Thanks for listening. Here is a gift for you. The traditional mishloach manot, the food goodies that you give to friends on Purim.
Today Jerusalem celebrated the holiday of Shushan Purim.
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Happy Purim to all who come for this edition of That's My World Tuesday!
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Rivers in the desert

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After a warm sunny winter the rain is finally hitting us today, all across Israel.
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The south is particularly hard hit, with dry wadis suddenly becoming raging rivers.
Roads have been broken up. Drivers who try to cross the flooded roads have been rescued with helicopters. One woman is dead and one man is missing.
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Just last Thursday a friend and I were hiking in two canyons of the Judean Desert--Nahal Arugot and Nahal David.
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Enlarge the trail map and you will understand the danger that rainfall, even far away, poses.
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The Ein Gedi Nature Reserve is sandwiched in between the Dead Sea (which is more than 400 meters below sea level) and the steep Fault Escarpment, the cliffs which rise to +200 meters above sea level.
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Rain up on the Desert Plateau, even as far away as Jerusalem, sends the water rushing down the narrow canyons.

The water takes with it rolling boulders, rocks, trees, mud . . . .

It makes a powerful sound.

Hikers must always plan their hikes according to the weather forecast. Announcements of possible flash floods in the low places, the desert, are always made in advance if there is any rain expected.

The sudden streams in the desert rush down to the Dead Sea, cutting up or flooding the highway.

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Ein Gedi is famous as an oasis because it has springs and waterfalls and vegetation all year.
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These are the waterfalls in Nahal David in normal times, i.e. last Thursday.

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Scroll down a few days if you missed seeing the animals of Ein Gedi.

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We certainly need rain, but not all of it in one or two days.

Let us pray for all who are in harm's way right now, including the nomads of the Bedouin diaspora who still live in tents and huts in the desert who have lost much today, including many of their sheep and goats swept away by the floods.

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For photos of overturned vehicles, a bus half-covered with water, trapped cars, the helicopter rescues, etc. see Ynetnews or Haaretz.
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That's it for That's My World Tuesday.
More blogger-guided tours await you at the meme's website.

Praying for rain clouds

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For SkyWatch Friday here are some non-rain clouds above the Sea of Galilee, the lowest fresh water lake on earth.


This 5 meter high stainless steel visual display at the seashore promenade measures the level of Israel's national lake by means of advanced digital technology.
In Hebrew the lake is called the Kinneret, from the work kinor, which meant harp or lyre. You can see that shape in the cut-out.
The openings of the top and bottom represent the Jordan River.
The lake has been shrinking for the last five years due to drought.
This little harbor used to be full of water.
The digital figures in the fancy display did not show up well in the photo, but I can tell you the lake is 214.29 meters below sea level (roughly minus 703 feet) at its surface. That is 5.4 meters or about 18 feet short of being full (or "below the upper red line" as we say).
Now the boats in the former cove are rotting on dry land.
We Israelis are quite obsessive about following the level of our beloved Kinneret. Twitter even has KinBot, a Kinneret bot.
If the level drops about one more meter, we will have to stop taking water from the lake . . .

and start importing water from Turkey and quickly build more desalination plants.

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Let's pray for a rainy winter that will save the Sea of Galilee.

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Pottery washing in a Roman bathhouse

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P is for POTTERY washing.
Please take a look at other P words and pictures at ABC Wednesday.

At the Tiberias dig we normally wash potsherds two afternoons a week, under the semi-porous black shade cloth you see above.

But rain was falling Friday morning, making digging impossible. So we did pottery washing instead, in the only covered structure around--a 4th century Roman bathhouse.

So well-built is was, that it functioned as a bathhouse for 800 years.

The roof put up by the antiquities people in the 20th century to protect the colored mosaic floors already has holes.

Sa'id is the watchman who sleeps at the site every night for the whole month of the dig, rain or shine. During the day he does archaeology with us.

Ten hired Bedouins also work at the dig.

See the buckets lined up? We were catching run-off from the roof to use as our clean water in which to brush the shards.

Most of the volunteers spread out and work in silence.

Hmm, pottery washing as a meditative practice?

But the young people sat in a side room of the bathhouse and no doubt had a good conversation.

Sometimes I wonder what the Romans would think if they could hear and see us modern folks working in their buildings. Maybe they can . . .

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BTW, for readers of previous posts who asked how to join a dig, I added some links in yesterday's Comments. Hope to see you in the field someday!

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Hayoreh--the first rain

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Rain already on Rosh Hashana?! Unheard of!

But this afternoon the sky quickly went from blue to gray.
Rain fell for the first time since last March!!

See the drops falling?!

I took shelter under a metal roof. What a sound, what a smell!

The ten-minute rainfall was enough to make a mud puddle.

Drops in a puddle never looked so good!

What a blessed way to start the new year. Let's pray for a rainy winter that will end our five-year drought.

More rain is predicted for tomorrow. Let's celebrate! Id mubarak to the Muslims ending Ramadan, shana tova to us Jews starting year 5770, and bon dimanche/good Sunday to the Christians.

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Update

Shalom to all.
The link to Rabbi Dan's blog that somehow did not appear in my story yesterday is this: "Walking with the Desert Fathers." Well worth a visit.

And for those of you who asked about the mud bricks of yesterday, that answer is here.
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Guess what! Rain came down on us for two whole minutes this morning! Rain in summer is like a miracle here. It smelled and felt and sounded so good!
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World Water Day in the village

World Water Day never seemed so important as this year. Israel, like so many countries, is facing a huge water shortage due to continuing drought.

So I was happy to discover that a couple in our village, just two terraces down the hill, took matters into their own hands. Whenever it did rain, the water used to go streaming down the road above their little house. With a simple method and inexpensive materials they built a channel to divert much of the water down into a tank. Now they can water their vegetable garden for free and with the good feeling that they are harnessing nature's resources.