Fri, January 7, 2011 7:33:48 AMshabbat shalom 07.01.11 ...
| View Contact | ||
| Linda Olsvig-Whittaker ~Linda.Whittaker@npa.org.il; Linda Olsvig-Whittaker |
| Hi everyone, The clouds are gathering and we are getting our second real rainfall of the winter here in Jerusalem. It's a drought winter so we are all hoping this is a good rainfall; we need it desperately. So, even though the weather makes my joints ache, I hope we get a good hard rain - and then back to blue skies and warmth. How I survived Minnesota winters is beyond me today...... It's flu season here in Israel too. Radio news announced hospitals are at 200% capacity as the weak and elderly succumb to viruses. It hit me as well this week but I kept on going....although I did take cold tablets to get through a three hour staff meeting. I forgot that antihistamines make me sleepy, and ended fast asleep during someone's powerpoint presentation. That wouldn't be so bad, but I was snoring! Old age creepeth up on me, alas. (Although I remember falling asleep in class a lot when I was young too, especially in genetics and organic chemistry. And a plant taxonomy prof in grad school was the best cure for insomnia I have ever encountered; he conked me out within a quarter hour in a class that started at 10 am....) Anyway, my staff meeting nap did me good and amused my colleagues....the speaker was probably mortified though. Field season begins. I was in the Negev on Tuesday to inspect a study site at Be'eri (try Google Earth if you don't know that place). It's a beautiful little steppe reserve, right on the Gaza border. Quite peaceful when the missiles are not flying. The western Negev has its own charm; it is rolling agricultural country of big fields and open horizons, growing wheat and other field crops, and a lot of hothouses now too. Big sky country a little bit like Minnesota or the prarie states, but with a more impoverished population. It was a settlement area for new immigrants who really didn't have a background in farming and became a welfare area, but it has potential to be really prosperous and beautiful someday. The deep soils and gentle hills are a bit of a change when I am used to the mountainous terrain around Jerusalem. So, I like that spot and wonder if I can persuade some student to join us on work there. I wouldn't mind a week on the kibbutz doing field work in the reserve myself, and missiles from Gaza don't faze me after surviving 18 months of shooting around Har Gilo in 2002-2003. Next week I go on to visit the second of the five sites we think to use for pilot studies. The next one is Samar sand dune reserve, way down south next to Yotvata, a bit north of Eilat. My colleague and I are getting too old for the long drive, so we will fly down, and return the same day. It turns out to be about the same cost as two nights in a hotel, so it's cost effective. I look forward to seeing a bit of desert sand dunes, which are in fact my favorite Israeli habitat. I worked on them for a decade in the south, and it's one landscape where I can't hurt myself if I trip! Other news.....I had to put another cat down today, with kidney failure. That's three for the year. It's hard, but I recognize that kidney failure is basically incurable and is usually what kills cats in the end. My first set of cats that I acquired when I moved to Jerusalem are now well over ten years old and age is taking several of them. I expect to lose more in the coming year as chronic illness takes them. It's part of life, and they had a pretty good run of it in my house, so I don't feel too bad about it. Mainly I have to be alert that they avoid suffering. It is rather a relief not to have to fuss with infusions and medications for a while until the next one goes down....I've resolved not to take on board more cats in replacement. I've still got a dozen of them and don't want to have so many when I retire because caring for them gets expensive with the food and vet bills. Two or three cats and no dogs would be just fine, compared to the current three dogs and dozen cats. I guess that is about all the news. Dead of winter, this is the season to huddle down, eat hearty soups and watch old movies, and catch up on backlogged work in the office. Soon enough the spring season begins here, usually in mid-February, when we start again with field work and the first flowers appear. shabbat shalom, Linda |
http://shabbat-shalom-jerusalem.blogspot.com/
1 comment:
That's funny. I can almost see you nodding out during the lecture.
Post a Comment