Holiday flowers

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The seventh and last day of Passover is beginning this evening.
Happy Shevi'i shel Pesach to my family and to my Jewish readers and friends.

And happy Easter Sunday and Easter Monday to the Christian friends.
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For you all, some red wildflowers beneath the old grapevine just outside my window.
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Shalom and peace.
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Lara ascending

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Sweet Lara among the winter rainy season greenery and flowers.

As spring and summer approach, all this will turn brown and dry.
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The stairs going from one terrace to a lower terrace were built by the 12th century Crusaders.
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Happy Camera-Critters Sunday to you and to the animals in your life.
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The greening of Jerusalem

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Long shadows for Hey Harriet's "Shadow Shot Sunday."

The little traffic island at a busy Jerusalem intersection where Agrippas Street begins.

You can enlarge the picture to pick out (not pick!) the different flowers making their debut now in January.

In Israel, winter and not summer is the season for trees, wildflowers, and garden flowers to bloom.

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Here is the same place last October when the weather was still very hot and dry.

Only the drip irrigation pipes were in place.

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Not much blossoms in our long rainless summer season. Plants wither and turn brown.

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Yay for Israeli winter!

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Below in the darkness, but shielded

A dark flower (that appears, briefly, in the secret places of our woods always around Holy Week). For the Orthodox Christians, now under the heaviness of "Good" Friday and Holy Saturday.
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But no picking!

Correction!
After posting just now about the anemones, I realized readers might think that we still pick wildflowers as described in the song. Please note:

"Picking wildflowers used to be such a popular pastime that by the beginning of the 1960s, many of the more attractive flowering plants were on the brink of extinction. Anemones and cyclamen, which bloomed in profusion and symbolized the beauty of Israel's landscape, had nearly vanished. To reverse this trend, the Society for the Protection of Nature and the newly-born Nature Reserves Authority launched a campaign which focused on both legislation and public education. In retrospect, this turned out to be the most successful public environmental re-education campaign ever launched in Israel. Today, thirty years later, Israelis scrupulously avoid picking wildflowers and the country abounds with their rich splendor."

(from Jewish Virtual Library)

OK, now you can read the MyWorld post below. Thanks.

Anemones live on

The anemones are growing everywhere. On and even in the ancient terrace walls,

on the hillside down in the woods,

and by the trail marker.

Kalaniot they are called in Hebrew. It is hard for an Israeli to see this flower without starting to hum or sing the song "Kalaniot." It has even been called Israel's unofficial national anthem.
It was born in our pre-State days and has remained a classic. The verses progress from a little girl gathering anemones to a young lady to a grandmother. You can read the lyrics here. The concluding verse (better-sounding in Hebrew) says:

Yes, generations come and pass without end
but each generation has an anemone in a tune.
Happy is the man if between storms and thunder
an anemone bloomed for him, if only just once.
 

"Kalaniot" was made famous by Shoshana Damari. You can hear her singing it here. She has been likened to Edith Piaf. Our "queen of Israeli song" died on February 14,  2006.
In Tel Aviv recently I wandered through the historic Trumpeldor cemetery in the middle of the metropolis. I noticed an unusual grave, went over to read it, and was moved to find that it was the final resting place of Shoshana Damari.
Beneath her name on the headstone is written, simply, "Anemones will always bloom."
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Red leaves and green leaves

Latroun Monastery, home to Trappist monks, is the only place in Israel I have ever seen poinsettias growing.
These are pictures from last December.

Here's the story (from Wikipedia):
"The plants' association with Christmas began in 16th century Mexico, where legend tells of a young girl who was too poor to provide a gift for the celebration of Jesus' birthday. The tale goes that the child was inspired by an angel to gather weeds from the roadside and place them in front of the church altar. Crimson 'blossoms' sprouted from the weeds and became beautiful poinsettias. From the 17th century, Franciscan monks in Mexico included the plants in their Christmas celebrations."

The first wildflower

The vegetation is still brown and dry after the long hot dry summer. And still no rain in sight.

But down in the woods the first little wildflower has just pushed through. It gives hope!

This too shall pass

Having time before the next bus back to my village, I went exploring today in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit HaKerem.
The morning after! Just yesterday all these palms were the sekhach, the roof cover of sukkahs. Now the holiday of Sukkot is over and the sukkah-booths are being dismantled.
Flowers or birds? Don't they look like colorful crested cranes?
Even stranger than the car itself was its Hebrew lettering. On the left door it says "Gam zeh ya'avor" written from right to left (as is normal in Hebrew) and on the right-hand door the same sentence but written in mirror image and going from left to right.
At home I looked at the website. Baruch Hadaya is a 16th generation Jerusalemite. Wow! He is an artist, a storyteller, a jeweler.
He says that "Gam zeh ya'avor," meaning "This too shall pass," engraved on his rings, is based on a story about King Solomon. You can see or hear the tale here.
Hadaya says, "This story reminds you that when you have a bad day, it will pass. And when you have a good day seize the moment, enjoy it, appreciate it because you should know it would not last forever."

Here today, gone today

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I lived once in Switzerland, surrounded by farm fields and vineyards. [sigh . . .]
 Walking to Lake Neuchatel, I was delighted to see a lone sunflower left in the field after the farmer had harvested his crop (forgot what crop, something green).
The lake was lovely and the Alps were shimmering on the horizon like a mirage. On the way home, full of joy at the glory of Creation, I suddenly realized that the sunflower had been taken.


It was devastating! Who could do such a thing?
Where was this poor sunflower's Little Prince?!

"If some one loves a flower, of which just one single blossom grows in all the millions and millions of stars, it is enough to make him happy just to look at the stars. He can say to himself: 'Somewhere, my flower is there...' But if the sheep eats the flower, in one moment all his stars will be darkened...And you think that is not important!"      -- The Little Prince, chapter 7
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Flowers for Shabbat

Hey shy sunflower, show us your pretty face.

Stalks of color in a dry landscape

A brave attempt to add color to the grayness of stone and the brownness of summer.

Pomegranate

Greetings from the blooming tree outside my window. In just a few months these red flowers will become big red pomegranates. The taste of the fruit is worth the hassle of opening it.

Flowers everywhere

The wildflowers come (and go) so quickly now that it would take a month were I to publish just one per day. Here are three of the beauties discovered on my evening stroll.

Hidden beauty

Shabbat shalom. Flowers, strange ones, for Shabbat. We discovered these in a secret corner of the forest. I've never seen an almost black flower. Anyone know its name?
Our woods are full of secrets and mystery and history.

A unique pot

Somebody in Bet HaKerem had a lot of glue and a lot of patience.

Portable garden

It's a bloomin' wheelbarrow, no less!

Rakefet metsuya

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The rakefet is especially loved among our spring wildflowers, with her shy face turned earthward and her favorite growing place being under a rock. But these cyclamens took root INSIDE the high stone wall and can look out over the valley below.

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