The Great Spirit's gift to us

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SPIRIT is the City Daily Photo group's theme day topic.

This disintegrating trunk of a burnt tree on a white boulder reminds me, in a reverse sort of  way, what I read years ago concerning the Great Spirit.

Tatanga Mani, a Stoney Indian, said on page 106 of Touch the Earth: A Self Portrait of Indian Existence by T.C. McLuhan this wisdom:

 You know, if you take all your books, lay them out under the sun, and let the snow and rain and insects work on them for a while, there will be nothing left.  But the Great Spirit has provided you and me with an opportunity for study in nature's university, the forests, the rivers, the mountains, and the animals which include us.

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Winter skies, winter tree

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It's definitely winter now in Israel: rain clouds, bare branches, and jackets.
And fruit is growing on the sabras.
A picture from our trip to Zippori in the Lower Galilee last Wednesday.
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(Linking to Sky Watch Friday.)
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Sinking sun between two trees

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Sunset in the desert just outside my town.
It was 7:15 pm.
Just before and after sundown is the coolest time to hike.
The Jewish day begins at sunset, not at midnight.
Now it is Friday night, the beginning of the Sabbath, so wishing you  Shabbat shalom.
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(Linking to SkyWatch Friday.)
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A young olive tree in a roundabout

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Meitar has many roundabouts and each one has its own beauty and character.
One single olive tree.
It will grow.

Shabbat shalom and happy Earth Day.
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Sweet pair of goats

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Still have some pretty things to show you from Sonnenhof, like this sweet goat which lives at a farm not so far from the nuns.

The goats share a yard with chickens which live in this nice chicken coop.

Goats are notorious for eating (and often killing) trees so this shrewd farmer has enclosed his tree with a electric fence!

Here is the farmhouse, goat pen, and cattle stable.
The farm is also named Sonnenhof.
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(Linking to Camera-Critters.)
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The beginning of a pacifier tree

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Meitar now has a pacifier tree!
Maybe there are more in town, but this is the first one I've discovered.
Apparently the custom began in Scandinavia where children at age three give up their pacifier and hang it on a tree, sometimes with an attached good-bye letter.
This "rite of passage" spread to America and now to Israel.
Have you seen it in your country?

(The tree is a silk floss tree and it stands in a pretty roundabout.
See more about this strange spiky tree in previous posts.)
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Red and green, but not a poinsettia

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I was out hiking the desert on December 25 when these red and green Christmas colors sparked my interest.
A lone eucalyptus tree, in an eye-catching stage!

You can enlarge this photo a lot and enjoy the pretty opercula.
I'm just learning this botany vocabulary and what fun to discover that eucalypt comes from the  Greek for "well covered," just like we can see in the photo!

Wikipedia explains

Eucalyptus is one of three similar genera that are commonly referred to as "eucalypts" . . . Many species, but far from all, are known as gum trees because they exude copious kino from any break in the bark (e.g. scribbly gum).
The generic name is derived from the Greek words ευ (eu) "well" and καλύπτω (kalýpto) "to cover," referring to the operculum on the calyx that initially conceals the flower.

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Unter den Linden

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What a relief -- no more raking leaves in the courtyard.
(Can you tell it's R day at ABC Wednesday?)

The leaves have all fallen and now is the time for community members here in Austria to clean the gutters and sweep the roof.

The one tree in the courtyard kept me busy raking the grass this past month.
The linden tree is about 110 years old!

Back when people still lived in this forest

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Let's continue the previous two posts and stay in Australia's Ku-ring-gai Wildflower Garden.
Here's daughter Naomi surveying the trails before she and I set out into the wild bush country.
You can click a few times and enlarge the photo to see the topography.

The maps says that "Guringai was the language of the people who first inhabited this area."

In many locations in and around Sydney, where I was visiting,  I saw statements like the one above:

Acknowledgement of Country

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land, the Guringai people on whose land we now stand,  we pay our respects to Elders past and present. 

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(Linking this M is for Map post to ABC Wednesday.)
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An unusual (to me) tree on the street where my daughter lives, in the northern suburbs of Sydney.

  Melaleuca quinquenervia is commonly known as the broad-leaved paperbark, broad-leaved tea tree or simply paperbark or tea tree in Australia, and as punk tree in the United States.

Besides being the source of tea tree oil, the tree has many uses, especially to aboriginal Australians.  See Uses and Cultivation in Wikipedia.

It is regarded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) as an invasive weed in Florida where it was introduced to drain swamps.
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Remembering

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Cut down, burned. 
But following the conflagration, all around, tiny green pine saplings push their way out through the ash and grow toward the sun.
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Today marks the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
It is also International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
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More posts about the Shoah can be found here.
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Carob tree full of fruit

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Have you ever eaten from the carob tree?

It is fun to chew the chewy carob pod, avoiding its big seeds.

Some say it is almost like chocolate.
And even better, it's free!  
The trees grow wild in Israel.
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See more in my earlier posts:
A cold carob drink
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From carobs to teshuva, repentance
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Frap, wrap, Clove hitch, spar . . .

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Something new in the eucalyptus grove down in the wadi!

Looks like the Meitar Scout troop has been up a tree, working on their lashing skills.
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A tree weeps

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In Meitar's small cemetery a tree weeps,  sap running down fence stones.
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Tomorrow Israel will bury Arik Sharon on a hill at his Shikmim Ranch in the Negev, next to his wife.
Today TV showed the preparations for the funeral there.
As I watched a backhoe digging the grave and men lining the deep hole with cinder blocks, the reality hit home--Israel is losing "dor tashach," the generation of 1948, of "nefilim" (giants),  the Palmach generation, the founders of our State.
One by one they are returning to the earth of the Land they loved. 
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See any of the Israeli papers for more on Ariel Sharon and the state of the Nation:
The Times of Israel,   The Jerusalem Post,  Haaretz,   Ynetnews.
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A spiky tree with soft flowers

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In between cleaning my new place and unpacking boxes I ventured out in search of food.
Right in the supermarket parking lot is this strange tree with fearsome sharp shpitzim all over its  trunk. 

Its flowers are beautiful.
You can enlarge the photos 2x.
Anybody know what kind of tree it is?
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In the back you see Meitar's only supermarket and little commercial center.
The food store has a monopoly and oi-- its prices are much higher than what I was used to in Jerusalem.
Maybe I'll start to shop in our nearest big city, Beersheba, instead;  it is about 30 or 40 minutes by bus from Meitar.
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