In the Red South
Filed under: Environment, General, Israeliness, Life, Travel
After consecutive weeks of rainy weekends, Israelis flocked outdoors this weekend to feel the nature.
Several went to the beach. Some headed north to the Galilee and Golan Heights. But based on the traffic jams we encountered, the majority went to the North Negev to the Red South Anemone Festival.
Red South Anemone Festival (Photo: Viva Sarah Press)
With cameras at the ready you could hear “cheese” in just about every language.
The Anemone Festival is my favorite event of the year – and it takes place every weekend in February. These little red flowers carpet the northern Negev area (and can usually be found in the western part as well) and make getting in touch with nature all the more fun.
There are hiking options, biking routes, four-by-four tracks, guided tours and cultural activities.
Our group opted for just sitting down and enjoying a picnic. Our kids loved running and jumping among the flowers.
Jumping over anemones at Red South festival. (Photo: Viva Sarah Press)
And though there were thousands of other families at each field we visited, the flowers managed to keep the spotlight. It truly was a great day out.
Bizarre buds
Filed under: Business, Food, General, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life
Like any good Israeli, I tend to do a run of errands on Friday mornings, hitting the supermarket for last minute weekend purchases, the bakery for challot, kadeh — incredibly tasty semicircles of dough filled with feta cheese — babka and any other necessary treats, the weekend newspapers and, depending on the time of year, flowers. I say time of year because I’m a serious fan of Israel’s winter flowers which are more wild in nature, but not so much in the spring and summer, when the pickings are much slimmer.
But yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised to find a much wider array of flowers being sold by the teenager outside SuperDeal — Friday flowers are often sold by enterprising teenage boys outside supermarkets, gas stations, and more often than not, on random sidewalks and sides of highways. He sold me these bizarre-looking buds, and told me the name, which I promptly forgot, being laden down with packages and reminders of what I had to buy next.
The orange-y ones look like round orange peppers to me, but may be a completely different variety. The pale green ones have the look of nothing I’ve ever seen before, as these delicate-looking feathery bulbs that are sort of ugly yet compelling in their otherness. The question is, does anyone know what they’re called? I’d really rather not wait until next Friday.
Please chime in with answers!
Foto Friday – Painting Feb Red
Filed under: Art, Environment, Foto Friday, General, History and Culture
It’s February which means only six more weeks of winter, or maybe just six minutes more, given the freakish weekend hot spell. The JNF-KKL has declared February a month-long Festival Darom Adom, or Scarlet South Festival, in honor of the wild red anemones now dotting the fields all over the country, but particularly the northern Negev region where the local residents have organized walking tours and entertainment.
Photo by Hirshfield, courtesy JNF-KKL
The red anemone or calanit, is a favorite of Israelis and one of the success stories of Israel’s campaign to save its wildflowers.
Photo courtesy of Free Israel Photos
According to website Wild Flowers in Israel, an excellent resource, “the Hebrew name ‘kalanit’ is related to the Hebrew word for a bride ‘kala’, referring to its beauty,” and is mentioned the Talmud.
Photo courtesy of Flowers in Israel
Hebrew University’s Flora of Israel Online has plenty of scientific articles and lots more photos of this beloved flower.
Photo courtesy of Wildflowers in Israel
For those who can’t be here right now to see these red beauties at their peak, we present a few images to enjoy. And please visit the JNF-KKL website to download their amazing screensaver of Israel’s wildflowers.
Photo by Gil Soffer
Nostalgia Sunday – Pressed Wildflowers
Filed under: Environment, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Nostalgia Sunday, Pop Culture, Travel
Last week’s freakishly warm weather sent the almond trees into bloom. Although it was a false spring, residents of the entire country went out for their annual wildflower trek.
Yes, Israelis love their wildflowers. Well, at least they know not to pick wildflowers. In fact the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) did such a good job of brainwashing the past few generations of schoolchildren that you will never catch an Israeli picking a wildflower. They’ll throw garbage on it, pee on it, build an ugly edifice next to it, but pick it?! Never.
When I was a child, a bookmark with pressed wildflowers was one of the more charming tourist trinkets you could pick up (hard to find but still charming today).
Back in the pre-TV days, before the ban on picking wildflowers took hold, Israeli schoolchildren were encouraged to not only to pick but also to collect and study the different kinds of flora native to this land, and press them between the pages of a book.
Later on, commerce got into the act and albums were made available as promotional items like this one from margarine manufacturer Telma Gold Band.
And of course, the Israel Postal Authority (today’s Israel Post), did its part by issuing stamps of our most popular wildflowers.
Competing margarine manufacturer Blue Band also took on the cause as part of an advertising campaign bossily entitled (in the command form) “Know Our Country’s Flowers”. This ad is for the caper (Capparis spinosa L.). I’m not sure why all these margarine makers were so interested in educating the young people about wildflowers but I’m guessing it had something to do with safflower oil.
Today, you’re more likely to find cultivated flowers, rather than wild ones, pressed and waxed or laminated into bookmarks, candles and jewelry. I’m not sure, however, what the SPNI would make of this set of nails, but you’ve got to admire the work put into these tiny purple petals, lacquered and bonded onto synthetic tips, the handiwork of manicurist Ronit!
Foto Friday – Robert Gorsoun sees Israel’s beauty
Filed under: Art, Foto Friday, General, Travel
Robert Gorsoun is a photographer who takes pictures for the love of it. Wherever he travels, he snaps pictures and Israel is beautiful through his lens…
…the Banias in Israel’s north…
…a rainbow, captured in mid-storm over the Herzliya beach…
…a field of flowers by the roadside, stretching on forever…
…a water lily…
…or flowering cacti at the Utopia Orchid Park…
…and on through to the crater at Mizpe Ramon.
More photos by Gorsoun — including some spectacular panoramas that don’t fit on an Israelity page but should be seen — are posted on Panoramio.
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