A non-sensical photo essay.

(Water tower at Noam's kibbutz,

one of our daily sights for my week there.)

(Spiky trees. My first encounter with the

dangerous ecology of Israel. Other encounter

have included: giant spider, lizards, mysterious

biting fish, houseflies that look harmless but

itch like crazy, a highly militarized state, centipedes,

scary-looking cockroaches, Noam's scorpion sighting, and

probably other things.)

(Noam in front of his old playground and
kindergarten.)


(Noam's sister's beautiful house in the North.)


(The first carob tree I ever met, and the first
fresh carob I ever ate, also at Tal's kibbutz)

(Walking around in Tal's kibbutz.)


(The 3 year-old twin nephews. Unbelievably
cute and precocious.)

(My first encounter with the Mediterranean

and a dog who decided to befriend me.)

(Cyclists taking over the road on Yom Kippur!

That road is a highway. See below...)

(On the highway!!)

(My second meal out. The spread is everything

left over from AFTER we ate. I was made to order

meat...unsuspecting that I would end up with

half a lamb on my plate..)

(Driving down to the Kinneret, only fresh water

lake in Israel, and right smack next to (in?) the occupied

Golan.)

(The delicious, gorgeous Kinneret toward sunset.)

(Ruins of a Syrian village in the Golan...very

recent "ruins"..)

(Hiking in the Golan, past aforementioned ruins

and the multitude of fenced areas that have

landmines left over from the war when Israel

annexed the Golan.)

(The icy cold waterfall we hiked to

and swam in.)

(Moon rising in the Golan.)

(Our terraces in Ezuz where we work! These are the

kinds of terraces we are working to make. Incredibly

hard work, but rewarding also: building stone walls in the

desert (only rains 2-6 times a year)

in a flood valley to irrigate the newly planted orchards,

based on ancient Nebatean methods of irrigation.

(Our goat and donkey and chicken family!)

(Our restored train cabin home,

and some of the daily fresh bread

we eat...every day.)

(A view from my favorite place to sit outside

our cabin, under the palm frond porch and on

the giant swing bench.)

(Homemade goat cheese from the family's goats,

and fresh promegrantes picked from their tree.

Best snacks.)

(A view looking down toward the flood valley.

The valley is about a 12 minute walk from our cabin.

We usually ride on a bulldozer there.)

(Our favorite goat, Hamudah, which means cutie.

She has the biggest underbite you'll ever see...)

(My impression of Hamudah..)

(Noam's impression of Hamudah...whose is better?)

(Happily milking Sita.)

(The family's cabin and all of their preserves.)

(Blues, the family dog, is father to a

litter of 8 adorable puppies next door.)

(Tal and her family visiting us and camels

that live about one 1km down the road from us

in the Han, an outdoor tourist camp attraction site.)

(Jalopy, definition of.

Also file under...believe it or not: this car actually

works.

And can be seen flying down a super rock path

to the flood valley. With several kids riding the top

like a rollercoaster. Except, you don't normally see

the rusty steel frame of a rollercoaster moving as you

hold on to the "door handle" to avoid falling out the "door".

I can now say I have ridden in a jalopy.)