Rain, rain, rain - for half an hour :P

Yesh! After having laughed my head off on Friday about the weather forecasters in Israel who promised us a stormy, rainy, very cold winterday while all Friday the sun was shining and it was hot.... FINALLY(!) this morning the rain started pouring exactly when H. and I were starting our walk. It was such a joy. Such a refreshment. I so thoroughly enjoyed it. It can't be expressed in words.

H. came on Thursday evening and stayed the weekend. It was nice. I always enjoy her company.

Following the photos with captions...

First Klaas who got wet:


and then tried to shake off the water:


He then made a grimace that I was lucky enough to catch on camera:


The leafs dressed in diamonds from Nature:






And the refreshed flowers:



Even a stray feather had drops on it:


We then went on to the 'animal prison'...

two turtles taking care that their species won't get extinct:



and a drooling ram - who didn't have success in his courting game...


poor old thing :(

A beautiful black duck that made the saddest, softest sounds:



and Mr. Emu again:


Four birdies in a tree (needless to say that after a half an hour of rain the sun was out again so as not to let us forget him)


so far for the animals in this post.

A strange flower that looks like the continuation of the leaves on the branch, but is not:


These are some kind of nuts I suppose and I'm trying to figure out their name in Dutch, English and Hebrew:


and the Foxtail... (I learned that's their name)


That's all. For this weekend.

Unique deceit-after-summer... afternoon

Met up with one of my best friends. Sometimes one feels there's a special line of connection on the most basic emotions in life (tho on other fronts things might differ, which I don't really think is the case with this particular friend, but one knows the basic is the same).

And so... before setting out with one of the very few people I know personally who connects with me on such basic front (the "understand without words" kind of people) S., I first had to be retro-active making good on a mistake I made before leaving this week... (leaving = not only leaving work, but obligations - whether because of society's - and thus means for living - but also emotional obligations as well)

I forgot to take the Halah my daughter had baked and had given to me from work Thursday. One of my co-workers had set up a time I could come and enter the office (because I had given my keys to another co-worker who had been presented with a frantic job that had her have to come back in to the office on a Friday). It was 09:00 a.m.


Wayyyyyy before that (being who I am and wanting to be sure I let nobody down in the process of obtaining the object and formed a problem for their time-schedule) I started phoning both of them. Needless to say that, when I got no reply from both, I entered into a frenzy.

But, things turned out OK in the end and finally I was on my way to a "day off" (as I call the careless days I spent with S.).

Following are the photos...

Jaffa on a Friday afternoon:




A famous graffiti in Israel publicizing the tel. # for the 'rights for men' (during divorce cases and such) with the ruins of a beautiful house right behind it. Thus me calling this photo: "but what about the right to live decently?" - because in that respect there is a lot of injustice in Israel (for both Jews and other ethnicies but somehow this is distracted away from the public indoctrination here) than there is in any other country in the world:


We tried to get to a restaurant not pretentious enough for us to feel uncomfortable in. I suggested a restaurant that's not very nice with respect to the people performing its representative duties but very nice because it's located on the port of Jaffa. Right near the water. No place for us there.... So we didn't wait in line (which seems to have become a status symbol pretending to be 'in' ) but ventured out around the other side of the hall this restaurant is located in and in my Beachdiary (link to it in my previous post) I reported it was used as a fishhall where the daily fish collection was being placed) - This hall was turned into something else (arty now, as the prevailing rules) but connected to it I found this (much more interesting than the so-called 'exhibition' next to this hall):


After having visited the exposition of Ziv Koren: click here-- I found this striking and thought I would bend a twist to it:

Israeli security in the Gutters, I called this pic.

Now comes a series of photos that can only remotely relay the ambiance of the sunset yesterday evening..

Twilight Zones:




Staking out (as a real predator, behind the shades of a shack, having its (his) rod thrown out as bait... Gorgeous, no?


Some photos of the skies on fire:



Reaching high (the sea drops that is)


Some views of the nof (which means view, hahahaha)




And, a flower that seems to thrive near the sea front (though I also found it on "Rabbit's Hill"

Couch-potato

I have taken some time away from the computer (except the necessary things I had to attend to) in order to not become a couch potato. Symbolically that is, because it should be -sitting on a chair in front of computer potato...

and also because I was first thoroughly enjoying the holidays and spent money without thinking twice and then got worried and feeling totally insecure about my future in respect of being able to upkeep myself financially if making the sum of my expenditures and income. If I have to rely on my income I won't be able to pay for more than my rent and electricity bill. Now, I have been gaining an incredible amount of weight, but such drastic diet I am not really looking forward to (tho I've done it many times before... eat nothing at all - but then it was out of choice, I think).

I simply HATE it that such materialistic issues keep me busy. I have no patience for finance and expect that the means to conduct a basic life should be readily available for someone who's worked all of her life. Unfortunately what the institution in Israel think is "basic" differs a WHOLE lot from my perspective. In that respect Israel is a real blood-suckers country. Over the backs of the people who really work and not those who are cuddling up to the lifestyles of treading over corpses to fatten one's own bank account and that of those already possessing heavy-weight accounts.

OK. Done complaining for now. Though this issue is like a red-line through my life currently in Israel. All the ideology and unification I was so pleasantly surprised to find when I immigrated into this country has gone. It's MONEY, MONEY, MONEY... now - with no niche for a humanely based society (there is but in the form that you first have to bend your head and accept you exist by the mercy of the rich - who don't earn their money on a fair basis anyway).

Photos since my last "appearance" here are following along with the captions.

Grasshopper at the duck's pond:


Finally found a frog - though he thought I couldn't see him. At that same duck's pond:


At the park in Shikun Havatikim (millionair's -and status- paradise) - I found this palm tree climbing up to the skies while growing gorgeous Bird of Paradise:


At the Duck's Pond I can view something and become totally immersed in its beauty. This hedge had that affect on me. It is very large (way taller than I am) and I couldn't get away from its beauty..


The Velvet flower (as I call it - tho it's not its name, which I knew but forgot) is exceptionally 'different'. When I walked a hedge showing the process from beginning until the full blooming of this flower I had to capture it, obviously;
The beginning:


Phase 2 :


Phase 3:


Phase 4:


Phase 5:


Final stage:


Waterdrops on the grass at the entrance of the park in Shikun Havatikim can make me feel so terribly grateful I'm alive - especially when right above is this tree making the most delicate noises letting go of its seed-resembling growth:


Arriving at the Duck's Pond and looking up to find a Kingfisher high up on a branch of the tree I am seeking to cool off at under makes my heart go weak. It's such an endearing sight. Though, perhaps, the photo doesn't really express this?


I have developed neurotic disease during my years of marriage because I usually didn't know I had done something wrong and then was accused of a wrong doing (by 'ex') while the circumstances pointed like I really could have had that at heart. So, even now, when entering shops for example, I am very much showing I am returning a garment to its place instead of placing it in my bag in order to shoplift it because I think I am accused before showing I'm innocent. The same with this photo. Shikun Vatikim is a 'rich mens' heaven' and burglars might think it's profitable executing their 'profession' there. So, when they see me photographing all around I find that perhaps people might think I'm photographing 'opportunities' ... Who knows??
When I shot photos of this incredibly gorgeous bird I found the people who were around there were watching me with intention. Suspiciously.

I know this is a mental disorder I'm having but I have been accused of having done something wrong so many times and selected out to be questioned (like when a group of over 20 people crossed at a red light and only I was picked out by the police to be questioned and warned) that I have learned to be suspicious of the suspicious...

Anyway, the photo:


This is a little hide-away within a much visited place (the Duck's Pond) - where not many people thread. I find solace to know that I can let go of all my shields and dive into my surroundings there. Still..... all animals (including fish) quickly run (and swim and fly) away soon as they see me :-(


I did manage to catch this Pied-Kingfisher (the other photo is of a White Breasted Kingfisher) before he hurriedly flew away:


I tried to lean against a tree there and right before placing my hand on its bark I saw something moving away from that spot real fast. It was this beautiful spider.


Some photos of views and things that caught my eye because I thought they were exceptional:
A Vinous Starling standing out in the sunlight:


A kind of duck or whatever it is who looks real strange to me and had the term "vreemde vogel" (in dutch very much pun) creep up in my head, his punky head is so adorable:


A branch within a whole network of green bushes and hedges - appealing to my eye - as to wanting to be the representative of the whole lot of them in showing their beauty:


The remnants of what I think is a flower but could be almost anything in my unprofessional view. It looks like a natural lantern and that's why I called this photo that name:


Some poor snail who was adventurous enough to slip over to the walking path and somehow got killed.


What surprised me very much is the amount of fluid it released. Such a small snail (and snail house) and, comparatively, such a large amount of fluids it released)


Yesterday I set out to the shop whom I paid 25 shekels to for sending my merchandise by shaliah - Little did I realize I was going to enter a heatwave-hell. It started very nicely. It was hot but not humid. So we walked to that shop... On the way we (Klaas and I) saw:

this disturbing sight:

who read my Beachdiary Blog (just click) - will see numerous photos of this stream. I still haven't figured out whether it's the Yarkon or Ayalon stream (blush, no patience for such things) - but it looks sickening. Unless....... they're building to improve the stream. Keep it clear from pollution where nobody in Israel who really can make a difference seem to care about.

We then reached what I used to call "Rabbit Mountain" - But again, I couldn't detect any rabbits there (anymore). I hope the foreign workers haven't eaten them all :-( There was a suspiciously looking man diving up out of nowhere while I was there (and I must admit I fled away because he really looked ominous) - But, not before I took this photo of what seems to me looks like a symbol sticking out against the concrete prisons -who are promoted to look like 'upper class all you ever dreamed of' penitentiaries -
Nature WILL victor. I am sure of that. This fake "God" who's nothing but a puppet on a string of the real powerful people - will face defeat. I just must keep believing this.


"Nature" - in this case Klaas - 's behavior such an exciting thing to be aware of. While we were walking towards the Nemaal yesterday Klaas suddenly turned right (in the middle of the path) to a place we usually were sitting at, right at the end of the concrete and almost in the middle of the water. I followed him, of course. Sometimes following a good friend (and he IS a good friend, tho I am very much aware that he's a dog and NOT a human being) - can lead to good things.

We sat down at where he led me to and when I looked up saw this very lustrous looking Egret resting right above me high on a tree:


I also saw, at that place, right in front of me, this Kingfisher watching the cat who -in turn- watched her/him. A wonderful moment to be caught in picture, I personally think... If only the photo had turned out better, quality wise, the way I wanted it to.


Because I thought I wasn't far from the Nemaal I decided to walk on and have a look at the place that served as a place of refuge for 2 years during my life and in my feelings held the sentiment of being my home during that time (because I had no other place to call home0.
Well... first of all... it wasn't all that close to the Nemaal - and I even think I would have walked the route from home faster than that I did from the contact lens stop. But then.. when I got there!!! The sea who used to gush the balustrade on times and on more relax times just sang upon the wall there had retreated so far away :-(

It gives me the creeps thinking how man can work hard to make believe he can control nature - until nature has enough of it and erupts in order to completely destroy. This photo -again compared to the photos I placed at my Beachdiary Blog -click) is so sad.

On the side of the sea passage going into the Yarkon river was this exquisite nightingale. Trotting away as if no major changes were being forced upon her habitat's place --- that will influence her sooner or later.


Of course Mr. Egret was there. I seems Mr. Egret's species have certainly multiplied or more since the first day (again watch my Beachdiary to see this) I ever laid eyes on him.


The Boardwalk was practically isolated. Sure,there were people around - but they mostly took to the shade and air conditioning machines at the caffes and restaurants at the boulevard. After experiencing this 'solitude' I took courage and descended to "MY MEZAH" (again... see my Beachdiary).


A few more photos of yesterday's heatwave hike:










Now a subject that I think holds a personal message (as if in the context of nature sending me greeting cards) - NO! I'm not pretentious - I think everyone can receive Nature's greeting card if only the recipient is open enough to recognize it as such:

STARS ON THE WATER: (or........ in simple words: 'someone' knowing what can make me happy and sending these 'kisses' to me)