Hi everyone,
Early spring has arrived here in Israel. Actually it is already mid-spring in the desert areas, but comes later up here in the Judean Mountains. I was out in the field for work purposes for the first time this year, teaching a mapping exercise down by Beit Shemesh in what we call the "shfela", or the foothills, below Jerusalem. There, the weather was idyllic, and our thirty participants were definitely happy campers (see photo):
As you can see, it is nice and green and already the mustards are in full bloom. The sun was warm but not hot, perfect field work weather. I managed to sneak off by myself for some minutes just to absorb the peace and splendor of springtime in Israel, which can still be found if you know where to look. Just cows and birds and flowers.....oh, and jets and bunkers. The place we worked was full of both, but we just kinda block it out and viola, primeval nature!
I had been nervous about this field exercise for months because we had rather important people as our participants, like the chief scientist for the Israeli forestry service, KKL, and the assistant to the chief scientist of the Ministry of Environment. Even some old conservationists came out of retirement to romp in the fields with us. So if we goofed, it would be REAL embarrassing, especiallly as this project is run by three middle aged women in a very macho male discipline (at least here in Israel).
Well, we old ladies were lucky and the day went very well indeed. We can relax, we passed this hurdle and the next one is when I fly to Holland to report on this trial run in the summer. Our participants were in a good humor from the sunshine and even their criticisms of the methods were put gently, and with encouraging qualifiers. (Here in the land of shouting and pounding on tables, that's so unusual.) Of course the fact that I hooked them up to a microphone and recorded what they said may have encouraged them to think about what they said a little bit more than usual, heh heh. (If so that is a strategy I will file away for the future.)
I recorded all our discussions and now need to analyze and evaluate them, which will be fun. Every try to quantify discussions and turn them into graphs? I have.
So, I am going to kick back and relax a little this weekend before diving in again next week. Maybe toddle to the botanical garden to see what's in bloom (busman's holiday?) and take a long hot bubble bath (not so creative but sure is a good way to relax).
Went to Friday AA meeting and it was interesting. On the one hand we were celebrating three anniversaries of people with 20+ years sober in AA. On the other hand we had one relapser shaking so badly that her teeth chattered. In between, a grey haired lawyer with nearly a year sober after crushing his leg in an alchohol-related accident (it takes what it takes, I guess). It gave us all a snapshot of where we were and where we could be, depending on our choices. We care about all of them, too.
So, time to tend to my kitties and think about dinner. A good springtime dinner of salmon and peas and strawberries--a classic for spring for us "Anglo-Saxim" in Israel, and deserves some thinking.
Oh, by the way I learned today that chili con carne is actually Moroccan (which doesn't surprise me, because it TASTES Moroccan). It seems that chili originated with some Spanish settlers in San Antonio, Texas, and is truly a Texan dish. But the Spaniards originally came from the Canary Islands, a property of Spain at that time, which are off the coast of Morocco. They were officially Spanish but had North African culture, like their use of cumin in seasoning. Ah Hah. It makes sense. If I had encountered chili without knowing its history, I would have pegged it as a North African dish, and indeed, by ancestry it really is that. Nice to know!
shabbat shalom,
Linda
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