Stopping to smell the flowers

.

On our monthly outing last week part of the group got out of the bus and walked into a meadow to marvel at the glorious blooming wildflowers and to hear guide Dudu explain. 
Everything was so green and wet from the blessedly rainy winter Israel is finally having!
This was at Ramot Menashe, the plateau between the Carmel mountain range and the Jezreel Valley, toward the country's north.

GREEN is the topic for City Daily Photo bloggers theme day. Take a look.
Bloggers in other countries may take green fields for granted, but Israelis get really excited to see this temporary color in winter, before the long hot dry season turns things brown.
.

Meitar Night Run is on!

.

The annual Meitar Night Run is underway!

You can choose either 5K or 10K.
I always choose to stand still and take pictures.  :)

Just as the sun was setting the younger runners ran up and then back down my street.

Here's a brief video so you can hear the fun:

On this cool map you can click the arrow and see the route that goes all around our little town:
https://www.plotaroute.com/route/610820
And you can play around with the map and see where Meitar is, down here in the Negev desert.
.

Jerusalem tolerance: 2 wheels vs. 2 legs

.

Our group of 28 older citizens of Meitar was touring Jerusalem last Tuesday.
We had just exited the New Gate and were trying to get through the narrow passage between the Old City wall on the left and the tramway on busy Paratroopers Road on the right. 
We had to quickly scoot over when a string of segway riders came whirring by! 
I was delighted but one of the oldies voiced his disapproval to the tourists for usurping his space. 
Maybe it was just envy, because I see on the SmartTour website that 
"All participants must be between the ages of 16-70, not pregnant and of a maximum weight of 270 pounds."
.

Yom Hashoah in Meitar

.

Yom Hashoah, Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day, began last night.
In my small town the main commemoration began in the basketball hall.
It was packed; everybody showed up; some had to sit on the stairs or the floor or to stand.
Seven plain white silhouette human figures were evident in the background.
The message written on the wall was our imperative to somehow draw out the lines of their faces, i.e. not to see the victims as "THE six million," but rather as six million individual faces.

And while the presentation went on -- candle lighting by several survivors, prayers, a psalm, songs, a dance, readings -- all the while artistic high school students were indeed sketching in faces and clothing.
See the difference between the first and second photos?  Quite amazing, and very moving.

The talented and serious youth were in charge of the commemoration.
What a blessing they are.

In closing we all stood and sang Hatikva, feeling especially grateful to now be living in our own free and strong country.
Let us remember the lost generations in Europe who went before us.
.

Scouts do Purim

.
It's time for the happy holiday of Purim this weekend and Meitar will have lots of activities, some put on by the town's youth movements and others by Chabad. 

The first one was today, a Middle Ages-themed carnival dreamed up by our Scouts.

Their poster promised all kinds of fun and sure enough, many kids and parents showed up.

This impressive ride was called the witch hunt.

One Scout swings the "wagon" back and forth.  
You can enlarge the photo to get the idea.

Amazing how these Scouts create things like this out of only wood, rope, and rubber. 
I would never know how to lash those elements together securely enough to hold several people. 

I didn't understand what this one was meant to be.  Oh well. 

"The knights' carousel."

And inside the courtyard of the Scouts' den there were entertainers on stage singing, bouncy castles, snacks, and drinks.  
Many kids and even some grown-ups were dressed up in Purim costumes and everyone was having a good time.
Happy Purim! 
.

Hiking the forest on Tu BiShvat

.
Hello again.   Happy Tu BiShvat!
Today on the Hebrew calendar it is the 15th of Shvat, which according to ancient Jewish law is considered the birthday or New Year for our fruit trees.
In modern Israel it has become a happy day of going out into nature and enjoying the now-blooming wildflowers, and some groups plant young saplings.
As you see in this photo, the leafy trees are still in their winter leafless stage, but spring will soon come!
Our town is lucky to have the Meitar Forest right in our "backyard."
Many of us were out hiking in the hills today.

At one picnic spot we chanced to meet this couple.
They came from the American Midwest to hike the Israel Trail, which goes right through our forest.
They did not camp right here but had only put up the tent to let it dry from the morning dew while Turkish coffee was being boiled.
Good luck to these brave young souls!

Gotta love modern technology -- charging the cell phone with solar power!

You can learn more about Tu BiShvat customs (there is even a seder meal!) in my previous posts.
And there is more about the 950-kilometer-long Israel Trail, including a map, in these other posts.
.

That beady look

.

Making jewelry with beads.
Hmm, why are the letters in English, not Hebrew? 

It was a popular activity at our recent Scouts Happening.

It was a magnet, drawing in the young girls.
.

Off and running! Meitar Night Race

.

The yearly Meitar Night Race came down my street yesterday! 
At 6:12 pm it was not yet night but at least the setting sun was at their back. 

Running either the 5 K or 10 K can't be all that easy on Meitar's many hills.

The first wave was mainly kids.
They made a circle at the cellist roundabout and headed back.
The adults ran on around our town's ring road (map here).

Police kept wheeled traffic off the designated streets from 6:00 to 10:30 pm.
That also meant no buses on the regular bus route.
And residents were asked not to park on the street.
The race takes a lot of planning.
Glad I was only taking pictures.
.

Busy pre-Sabbath buying at the market

.

Get your fresh cherries, "only" 40 shekels (!) (about $10) per kilo. 
All the other fruits and vegetables are a lot cheaper. 

Friday is a busy day in Beer Sheva's open-air shuk.

The market and all stores close mid-afternoon on Friday and open again on Sunday.

Did you notice, there are almost no women in the photos?
I think they are all at home, frantically cooking and cleaning to be ready for the Sabbath that starts before sundown.
Then the real day of rest begins.
Shabbat shalom, Sabbath peace to you. 
.

Making a mandala deep in the quarry

.

As explained in the previous post, one of Friday's Jane's Walk walks went down into Beer Sheva's ancient quarry. 
Guide Shir had us play some nature games, e.g. each of us had to find something natural that interested him/her and collect eight examples of it.

A botany student came up with a flower in different stages of development.

The geology student found a flint that had been knapped thousands of years ago.

Always attracted to spirals, I brought dry snail shells.

And then we arranged them on the earth into a mandala!
Click on the photo to see it well.

Long live this ancient quarry and long live these nice young people who love the earth and our Land!
.
(Linking to Our World Tuesday.)
.
.

The ancient, wild, huge quarry in Beer Sheva

.

A nice, comfortably small group turned out for one of the Jane's Walks on Friday morning.
Shir was our good guide, extolling the value of slow meandering, taking us through fun exercises in positive psychology, and opening our eyes to better engage with nature.

Nice boys, eh?  I think they are students at Ben Gurion University of the Negev.
One studying geology said that we were sitting in part of a canyon formed millions of years ago, the Afiq (Gaza-Beersheba) canyon.

Today the quarry is in between Beer Sheva's residential blocks.
Its area is about 8 acres and it is very deep.  And very exciting!
(With a click or two you can enlarge the photos.)

The Ottomans (who controlled our area for 400 years) quarried stone here from 1900 to 1917  to build  their city of Beer Sheva (the area now known as the Old City).

Let us pray the quarry never becomes a construction site!
I hope it stays wild, but the next-best thing is an envisioned Geo-botanical Park and Center for Environmental Education in conjunction with the Nature Protection Society.

Here is the relevant part in a 2010 Jerusalem Post article called "Blueprint for Beersheva" --

One of the more underrated projects in the 2020 brochure is “The Quarry,” which lacks, at this point, a targeted completion date. To Beersheba activist Ethelea Katzanell, that’s unfortunate.

“The quarry – a hole in the heart of the city – is really an important ancient geological site located between the Bet and Daled neighborhoods,” she says. “Lots of people don’t even know it’s there – it’s fenced off, so you’d have to make a special effort to see it.

“I’m surprised this project isn’t being pushed forward – it has a big potential for quick implementation, and doesn’t involve a tremendous amount of money.”

The influential Katzanell serves on a host of city advisory boards. “I’m on the Environmental Committee, the Historical Site Committee and both the Tourist and Beautification Committees,” Katzanell laughs, as she ticks the assignments off. “Anything having to do with what the city offers people, both residents and tourists alike. To me, the Quarry is such an important asset to Beersheba, and one so close to completion, we should be moving ahead on this now.

“The history is fascinating. It started back in the 1980s. when the BGU Geology Department studied the area and proposed turning the quarry into a geological site – you can see the strata going back millions of years. They presented the idea to the city as an educational and tourist site very much like other geological sites all over the world. Nothing happened. They couldn’t find a sponsor.

“In 1994, the project was resurrected. An English version of the proposal was written up and presented again. All the city offices signed off on it, permits were approved, everything was ready – even a sponsor had been found, a French donor.

“Just as it was ready to go, the sponsor, for whatever reason, withdrew. And the project dropped out of sight, again.

“In 2007, I heard a rumor that the project was going to be killed – that a tower was going to be built on the Quarry site,” Katzanell continued. “I was horrified. I rewrote the project for a third time, included everything that had been proposed before, and turned it over to “Earth’s Promise,” a local environmental organization. Together with their experts, geologists and environmentalists, they proposed the creation of a Geo-botanical Park and Center for Environmental Education, in conjunction with the Nature Protection Society. The Park would include all the geographical distinctions, the strata marks, plus all the unique local vegetation for teaching and study.

“I’m surprised another sponsor hasn’t been found. This is a relatively modest project in terms of cost, and the city has already signed off on it. The Quarry Project could be completed pretty easily. I’m hoping that now, in 2010, we can finally move ahead with this.”

(Linking to ABC Wednesday and Camera Critters.)
.

Sticks for walking and pointing

.

Nordic walking poles in the Negev.
At an archaeological site on the edge of Beer Sheva.
The sticks double as pointers.  :)
.
(Linking to signs, signs.)
.

Tell A Fairy Tale Day

.

Tell A Fairy Tale Day is being celebrated today!

What better time than now to tell you about a unique experience I enjoyed while staying with the Franziskusgemeinschaft in Austria last November.
The community invited Eva Meierhofer, a professional storyteller, for an evening of fairy tales!

Eva came with a thick book of  "the world's most beautiful fairy tales."

Also a strange little book, "Tales of Idiots, Poor, Beggars, Jews, and Gypsies."

Since I didn't understand all that much of the German, I could concentrate on Eva's pointy shoes and special umbrella.

The Feenhaar, literally fairy hair, played with a bow, gave ethereal music.
I think it is also called a psalter.

You can hear a sample of its music and see beautiful photos of how the instruments are made in Switzerland here: http://www.klangkunstwerk.ch/Feenhaar-Fairy-Hair

All the members of the Franciscan farming community gave it a try.
It was really a magical evening in rural Austria.
.
You can look for Eva Meierhofer on Facebook and see more of her special work.
.

Tense times in Israel

.

Yesterday I stood in this line outside the Be'er Sheva branch of Bituah Leumi, Israel's social security institute.
It was like being squished inside a microcosm of Negev society.

With the spike in terror attacks in Israel these last several months, everybody is more tense than usual.
So one older woman told off two teenagers who were sneaking to the head of the line.
In heavily-Russian-accented Hebrew she said, "You have no respect for old people standing here in the hot sun for half an hour, that you push ahead of us?!"
In Arabic-accented Hebrew the boys stood their ground and lied, "It's OK, we have a number already."  (There are no numbers at this stage.)
Then a Sabra with no accent, more well-dressed than the rest of us and obviously not used to being squished, shouted at the security guard who was regulating the "flow" of citizens, "Why do you treat us like animals?!?" (She meant why like cattle pressed into a chute but didn't have the vocabulary for that.)
The guard in tie and jacket answered her, "I only work here. For a security agency. Complain to Social Security about it, not to me."
I really wanted to (but didn't) tell the prima donna, "You think THIS is bad?  Have you ever seen how Palestinian workers in the West Bank have to line up in real chutes at the checkpoints every morning before they are cleared to go to work inside Israel?!"

Only the Ethiopians and the Bedouins stood in stoic silence, knowing that with patience we would all eventually get inside the National Insurance Institute of Israel.
(Enlarge the photo to see one Bedouin man and the woman next to him in traditional dress.)
.
The second stage, once inside the door, is to wait in another line for one of the two security guards to inspect your bag; once you walk through the metal detector you might also get wanded and patted down; once I was even told to drink from my water bottle (to prove it's not a Molotov cocktail I guess).
.
The third stage of Gehinnom is then waiting in another line, with your ID card and documents ready,  in order to go stand in front of a clerk behind a computer for a short minute.
Only rarely are you allowed to then enter the inner sanctum and talk to someone higher up who might have an answer to your question.
.
 So, for  ABC Wednesday today, T is for tension.
.