I wonder if anyone knows what Haaretz is!  I certainly didn’t until a couple of days ago.  It is a major newspaper in Israel.  Last weekend’s edition contained a long article about Nuk Tessli – with apparently some stuff about me – with lots of great pictures.  I was hoping to put it in this post, but the text is all in Hebrew and I was unable to copy the photos.  If anyone would like to see it, I will send a pdf copy.

In the mean time, life goes on….

We are now having a much more “normal” spring with temperatures about minus 10C at night and plus 5C during the day – and with lots of wind.  We have also had a little spring snow.

 

 

I knew it would melt so I didn’t bother to clear the solar panels.

By afternoon it was dribbling rain.

Water lay on top of the ice on the pond.

 

There are many species of willows here.  I don’t know the names of most of them, but one is a very early bloomer and the silvery catkins have suddenly popped out.

On snowy mornings the redwing blackbirds feed voraciously.  There are now about 30 and they are starting to fight.

 

 

 

I knew that the bluffs would be fairly clear of snow and I went up there in hiking boots as opposed to snow packs.  The snowy areas were icy but there was enough bare ground to get about easily.  My feet felt so light!

 

The exposed sand was still damp, fortunately – if it is dry, a strong wind creates a sand blizzard (which is why the dunes occur.)

 

There are still a lot of juniper berries and I saw robins again up there. I am pretty sure these are genuine spring robins, though.

One evening there was a sundog again.

 

 

We are pretty close to the solstice, and now the sun rises far enough round to light up Finger Peak with its first pink rays.

It lights the other side in the late afternoon

Before it sets, the sun sails right over Noghwon.  (The mountain is rimmed with light because the snow is blowing up there.)

As the sun’s rising and setting points move further apart, the moon’s draw closer.  Right now the full moon and sun travel much the same path.  Here is the moon approaching Noghwon

 

 

If conditions had been right this morning, the moon would have set behind the mountain while the sun was painting it pink.  But although there was colour in the east, it was too cloudy to light up the west.

 

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