VERONIKA DER LENZ IST DA ...

So many different wildflowers are blooming right now everywhere. I could fill several posts with my husbands photos of flowers all over Israel. The colors have jumped from the wheel, the basic ones, red, blue, yellow in their shades and hues, and pink and purple, light and transparent, dark and opaque. And white, oh yes, bridal white everywhere. Most of the year the colors here are more of the dry kind, brown, beige etc - the hills and valleys are green only in spring for a relatively short period, then the heat starts to burn everything up and there will be no rain at all for many months.

The Galilee and the Golan Heights too are fully dressed in spring outfits, and yesterday we went for an inspection. Because it is Passover week, the children are on vacation and many parents took leave of work, so families are going for outings in the thousands. Israelis love nature hikes and walks, and barbeques under the sky. To avoid the big crowd we started out with the early morning sun - seven o.clock saw us already on the highway. It takes us about two and a half hours from central Israel, where we live, to reach the far north - well, if we drive through, what we never do, because there are always stops to admire and photograph the many different flowers, views and vistas, and of course for a picnic on the way.

After having been greeted by these lovely fellows during a short walk, we arrived at the foot of the Hermon at midday. This time the most outstanding scene was presented by the celebration of the blue/white veronica syriaca, ורוניקה סורית, the Syrian Speedwell. It covered endless grounds. What a sight! It was just unbelievably beautiful - a whole blue valley, the Man Valley (עמק מאן) primed with millions of sweet faced little flowers!

The land which gave this flower its name is only a few kilometers away. In the following picture we look over fruit tree orchards and a compound of the UN to Syrian villages on the horizon. I wish there would be peace...

Please zoom in... 
All photographs by Uri Eshkar.