25.Feb.2016 continued

With a visit to kibbutz bet Alpha and the centuries-old mosaic there, and the first photos from the Bickels-designed museum in Ein Harod. It was the first to use natural light and inspired many later museum designers to do the same (as per the photos linked behind "Bickels" above).

I love the patterns here.

A zodiac? Who'da thunk?

Thursday 25 February 2016

The first of the pix from travels that day - to northern tip of dead sea pas Jericho, up Jordan rift to desert blossoms to Gilboa mountain.

Desert blooms

Arie and blooms

Jan & Arie in front of the anemones

Again with the hands

Lovely park on Mt. Gilboa

Lunch on Mt. Gilboa

Hiking on Gilboa

View from the top

Fire tower?

Mountaintop cloudscape

Thanks to Arie

For taking and forwarding these photos from my recent trip:

Gorse blossoms

One of the many vertiginous views we saw.

Me and my pot belly showing how my
sweater matched the colored sand

Jan joining me featuring what she
 considers her best feature (her hands).

The next 6 photos are from a kibbutz, Neot Semadar,
that was recommended the day before by a very sweet Israeli '
woman who'd helped me get from the Israel museum to
David Yellin College (where Jan & Arie teach).

I think this was from the wonderful Dolphin Reef, run by one of Arie's
army friends. in Eilat (the resort town at the southernmost tip of Israel
between Jordan & Egypt)

This helicopter was involved in setting up some kind of special lunch
for rich folks at a mountain top overlooking the Dead Sea.

You know who with Jerusalem's Old City in the background.

Palmachim palms

One of the many stray (?) cats who crossed our path. This one atop the
Palmachim bomb shelter.

If plants could talk

They'd most likely be saying "WTF???"

Pix taken 3.April.2016, after having had even more snow the next day. It's almost all gone from the sidewalks now, though I made the mistake of walking on the northern side of the street on the way to the subway today, slipped on the ice & scraped my knee. If I'd stayed on the southern side it would have been clear sailing. :|

More from 24.Feb.2016

Some more pix from that Wednesday trip out to see the flowers. I think the hills you see are the Judaen ones.

This again from the walk Jan takes most mornings in Bet Zait
Arie had gone ahead in the car to meet us at the end.

As Jan would remind me,
all this would be brown in a few weeks.

Cats napping at a gas station
where we'd stopped so I could get my morning cuppa.

Jordan from the Israeli side

When Jan saw how far gone most of the flowers (like the red anemones pictured above) she decided to switch our itinerary to doing the north of the country first. So the next few posts will feature pix from that part of the country. Of especial note will be when we were within spitting distance of the Syrian border above the Sea of Galilee where we heard what I thought was thunder but was actually bombing from the horrible war going on there.