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.
Among the wildflowers
As Rachel wrote last week, wildflowers are in full bloom as the “rainy season” ends. The Modi’in area is saturated with beautiful flowers and one of the city’s greatest treasures is Givat Titora, a 140 acre green space with hiking trails, ruins, cisterns is currently the city’s main attraction and a popular spot for locals. Shockingly, contractors have been trying to get a hold of this land for years to build apartments. This site, set up to oppose construction on Titora, outlines the rich history of the hill. Titora is one of Modi’in’s greatest assets and the very thought of construction there sickens me.
On Friday I took my daughter to Titora for what we call an “adventure” – which is my way of branding something that she might not be able to get her head around. Right before her nap I told her when she awakens we were going to go smell the flowers. She was pretty stoked when she got up and starting screaming “FLOWERS! FLOWERS!” so I immediately threw her (well, placed her actually) in the car and took off! Here are a couple of photos from the afternoon.
Foto Friday – Wildflowers
Filed under: Environment, Foto Friday, General, Israeliness
The rainy season is almost at an end and the country is a-flower. Everywhere you look – the side of the highway, the vacant lot behind your building, and of course, the fields and hillsides – are a riot of red poppies and yellow daisies.
The website, Wild Flowers of Israel, a labor of love aimed at plant aficionados of all walks of life and all ages. It was started by photographer Sara Gold, Prof. Amram Eshel, a professor of botany at Tel-Aviv University, and programmer Abraham Plotnizki, using materials donated by some very talented volunteer photographers.
Photo: Mori Chen
“Flowering Times” is one great feature the site offers. This is the high season for flowering plants — including desert tall grasses like this:
Photo: Mori Chen
The site includes information about plants for herbal or medicinal uses, toxic plants, flowering seasons, protected species and more. Special emphasis has also been given to the linkage between the plants and the Jewish traditions and scholarly literature
Photo: Sara Gold
The red anemone — calanit in Hebrew — is a favorite in Israel, having been immortalized in song by the legendary Shoshana Damari.
Photo: Amram Eshel
Another is the bashful cyclamen — or rakefet — which hides between the rocks and blooms only briefly. The song Rakefet, as sung by Esther and Avi Ofarim is another classic.
Photo: Eli Livne
There’s still time enough to get out and see some wildflowers for real, and of course, there are large format images to enjoy online, too.
Sea fall
Filed under: Environment, General, Holidays, Israeliness
It’s the last ten days of summer vacation, and the news is all about parents at their wits’ end with bored kids, schools still seeking teachers and last licks for the summer.
Check out this particular sign of fall, throughout the mountains and the desert. The hatzav, urginea in Latin, or sea quill, is making its presence known now, with a tall, regal stalk, hundreds of buds and a 24-hour deadline of just 24 hours for each individual blossom. According to Uri Sapir, the chief scientist at the Hebrew University Botanical Garden, the sea quill blossoms as the days begin to shorten, peaking out of the dry ground at the end of August, eventually developing its large, fleshy leaves, but disappearing as the rains approach.
In Greece, it was believed that sea quills planted in front of a house protected its inhabitants from all harm. There was also a tradition to put sea quills throughout the house during Rosh Hashana, to promote fertility. But feel free to check it out as a sign of a new season.
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