I just can’t stay away! (See my posts from 2014 for oodles more.)
It’s been a rather wet winter, judging from the number of times AM’s tennis class has been cancelled. But never mind that – it’s February, so when it’s not storming, it’s gorgeous and every hillside and roadside is blooming and lush.
It makes me very happy.
Last week, I shoved the kids into the car and trundled them out to a little patch of nothing. But this tiny mound has sandy soil and is home to a rare iris, the Iris HaArgaman, named after it’s burgundy color (referred to in Exodus 24-28, among other places). This iris is found only on “Iris Hill” in Nes Tziona – where we were – and along the Mediterranean coast near the city of Netanya. My children, of course, know this and were properly gobsmacked by its appearance. (Squealing and pointing! Over a flower! I am so proud.)
The rare and beautiful Iris HaArgaman – its name reflects its rich purple-red-black color.
I was then treated to a lecture about Iris, the Greek goddess of the rainbow.
Earlier this month, on a quick Friday hike in the northern Negev, we also saw the low-growing and much more common Iris Eretz-Yisrael. But a great gathering of them.
The Iris Eretz-Yisrael, now appearing on a hill near you. (If you’re lucky enough to be here.)
And now that we’re past the Ides of February (the 13th, by the way), we are beginning to see poppy flowers, which are refreshing the reds of the increasingly bedraggled kalanit. (It’s hard to be a national symbol.)
Poppies are just coming into season.
Another spring is hurtling towards us – and it’s going to be busy – so for the moment I’m thrilled to brandish my camera and to go hunting at a slow pace.
