Hi everyone,
Winter returned with a howl today after some balmy early spring days this week in Israel . Right now the rain is pounding and we got some hail; the last gasp of winter, while almond trees are already in full bloom. The last gasp is noteworthy though; the weatherman predicts snow on Saturday; if we get it I'll be snowbound on Sunday morning since our village at 1,000 meters elevation always gets it if any snow falls in the Judean Mountains .
Most of the week I've been racing to get the final report for our EBONE project done, but I finished and sent it to Holland yesterday. It concludes four years of work on the project.....strange to think of not having EBONE going on. It's been such a constant that I even put it in my signature file as
Winter returned with a howl today after some balmy early spring days this week in Israel . Right now the rain is pounding and we got some hail; the last gasp of winter, while almond trees are already in full bloom. The last gasp is noteworthy though; the weatherman predicts snow on Saturday; if we get it I'll be snowbound on Sunday morning since our village at 1,000 meters elevation always gets it if any snow falls in the Judean Mountains .
Most of the week I've been racing to get the final report for our EBONE project done, but I finished and sent it to Holland yesterday. It concludes four years of work on the project.....strange to think of not having EBONE going on. It's been such a constant that I even put it in my signature file as
the EBONE website: www.ebone.wur.nl , and I've watched our scientists grow and develop as a team during these four years under my leadership. I've developed grey hair while doing it too!
Monday was a day off from writing, though. I had to go to a lawyer in Tel Aviv to dissolve an NGO, where I had been on the steering committee some ten years ago. This was just a small formality, and one of the steering committee members arranged for his lawyer to handle it. What he didn't tell me was that the law office was on the 24th floor of the Azrieli Round Tower in central Tel Aviv. When I got there, I gasped at the stunning view of the city and the harbor.\
Monday was a day off from writing, though. I had to go to a lawyer in Tel Aviv to dissolve an NGO, where I had been on the steering committee some ten years ago. This was just a small formality, and one of the steering committee members arranged for his lawyer to handle it. What he didn't tell me was that the law office was on the 24th floor of the Azrieli Round Tower in central Tel Aviv. When I got there, I gasped at the stunning view of the city and the harbor.\
The photos don't do it justice; from the 24th floor the city is very beautiful, a white Mediterranean city on the sea. The lawyer got my signature notarized quickly, and I suppose was a little amused at the hick from Jerusalem; he took time to point out some highlights of the landscape like the old Templar settlement (the red roofs here) and a 200 year old winery that was being restored.....I have never seen Tel Aviv from that angle and it was a real pleasure.
Likewise the train ride down to Tel Aviv and back was enchanting, as it traveled through nature reserves and farmlands. The almonds were in full bloom in the mountains, and the red anemones were blooming merrily on the coastal plain. I must get out to the hills on the first nice weekend after this storm; the mountain wildflowers should start blooming now and I've been cooped up enough. The train to Jerusalem still goes by the old Turkish route from the coastal plain, forty minutes climbing up the deep Sorek canyon from Beit Shemesh, on a narrow path between the stream and the cliffs above. It's dramatic but slow; soon another route will open on the other side of the city by way of Bab el Wad and Modain, a faster trip but not as beautiful. I'm enjoying the slow train while it still runs.
I had left Jerusalem early and forgotten that Monday is the flea market at the Jerusalem train station. I came back to find it in full swing, with pitchmen crying everything from spices to clothing to Middle Eastern music at the top of their lungs. So of course I had to check that out on my way home....got a meat grinder, bath towels and assortment of large jars of spices all for 180 ILS, or fifty dollars. It was a fun day.
Not much more to add; I'm mentally regrouping as the last of my major duties to EBONE is finished. I still have to prepare a short lecture for Brussels and a long one for Wageningen University next month when I'm in Europe , summarizing our work in the first, and headhunting for more graduate students in the second. We continue with the habitat mapping venture, with five pilot studies around the country, so I welcome more Dutch students doing their thesis work with us here. I think they call this 'trawling"......
Not much more to mention. I just want to get home safely in this heavy rain (Israelis always forget how to drive in winter) and curl up by the fire for the weekend, and maybe for Sunday too if we get snowed in.
shabbat shalom,
Linda
Or send mail to my alternate address: olsvig2000@yahoo.com
Dr. Linda Olsvig-Whittaker
Science and Conservation Division
Israel Nature and Parks Authority
3 Am Ve Olamo Street, Givat Shaul
Jerusalem 95463, Israel
Telephone: +972-2-5005444; Fax +972-2-5014861;
mobile phone +972-526-693-794
EBONE website: www.ebone.wur.nl
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++http://shabbat-shalom-jerusalem.blogspot.com/
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