Shuli Rand, Gan Hashlosha, and Shokeda Forest

My last post was when I went on the Dead Sea boat ride back in December. That was so amazing. The next day I went to a concert in the Old City of Jerusalem. Shuli Rand is such an important face and voice in my mind. He not only wrote the movie Ushpizin, but he was the main character in the movie. I first saw Ushpizin more than 10 years ago and it gave me my first impressions of Jerusalem. Since I had only associated Shuli Rand to the movie Ushpizin, I thought he would be singing songs from the movie at his concert. But as it turns out, he's famous for a lot of other songs he has written, too. In fact he has quite a following of young people who love his music, and he has done several albums since the movie. He didn't sing any Usphizin songs at the concert, but I discovered that I love a lot of his other songs, too. You can sample his music on band camp: https://shulirand.bandcamp.com/album/-

Here is the link to my YouTube video of the Shuli Rand concert. https://youtu.be/AUTIlEY40_w 

Let me just say that I don't claim to know how to make videos or do videography or anything related to the art. I just do what I can when the situation arises. So please don't judge the video on its quality of clarity or blurriness or whatever,(one of my cameras would NOT stay in focus no matter what I did) but just understand that I was THERE when the video was made and did my best to record it for you. I want you to see what it is like in this great, magnificent Land of Israel with its amazing people and culture. 

And here is a link to the movie Ushpizin if you haven't already seen it. It has English subtitles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBfuQu9pmVI

The Shuli Rand concert was during the time of Hanukkah, and this was our hanukiah for the night. 

There was a chair near the hanukiah for Moses. It was quite exquisite.  

arm of the chair 

Torah scroll near the chair and hanukiah 

Shuli Rand in concert

Shuli Rand in concert

Shuli Rand in concert

This past year has been a year of changes for my daughter and I. We both became Israeli citizens. Yay! Hadossa finished her physics degree at the Technion. Now I am working as an English teacher at Ruppin again (this time for real, not as an intern) and Hadossa is working at Intel as a microcode validation engineer. We both love our jobs and things are going well. 

I wanted to share a few places that I have traveled to in the past few months. In January I visited Gan HaShlosha, which is named in memory of three Jewish pioneers who came to survey the land in 1938 when their car rode over a land mine and all three were killed.

Gan HaShlosha is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful places to visit in Israel. It has hot springs that keep the water 28 degrees Celsius all year long, which flow into a large pool and then becomes a river. The pools are jewel-toned, bluish-green and very clear. Besides swimming in the pools, there are ruins to explore and a museum with many artefacts found in the area. It was once a Canaanite city and then a Roman city and so forth. There are also sites of interest regarding the first Jewish pioneers that settled there during the British Mandate. If you ever have time to go there, you will need to make a day of it because it is packed full of interesting surprises. Here are just a few of the pictures I took of the place:

This is the main pool that everyone loves to swim in. It was fairly empty because it was January.

beautiful blue-green clear water

The main pool was full of fish.

People were swimming right alongside the fish. 

This is towards the other end of the pool.

A man-made stepping stone bridge allows you to cross the pool.

The end of the pool on the other side of the stepping-stone bridge drops over a man-made waterfall into a river, where the water was much lower in level than it had been in previous years.

looking back at the main pool after I had crossed the stepping-stone bride

On the other side of the stepping-stone bridge was this sign that said "Rocks jumping forbidden". 

Here's the waterfall where the main pool empties into the river.

It is hard to tell in this picture, but this waterfall was like 12 or more feet high. 

The ancient Romans used to have water sports in this river and these steps were seats carved out of the rock for spectators to watch the sports.

Further down the river is a dam where the water is channeled. The channeled water was used to power a mill.

dam in the river

I was standing on top of the dam looking downriver when I took this shot.

You can see where the water was channeled into the slot where it went into the stone mill building.

This was some kind of Roman bath near the dam and mill.

This mill building was literally built right over the river.

I stood on top of the roof of the Roman bath to take this picture. 

Most of the water is diverted to flow behind the mill building now.

This place is just so pretty!

I was there at a perfect time when I had the place almost entirely to myself. 

The river was the same bluish-green colour as the pool. I loved the stone paths right along the river.

Looking back at the mill, I noticed it looked like a bus that got stuck trying to cross the river.

It was such an interesting place.

This museum housed a lot of artefacts found in the area.

at the museum

at the museum

This shows all the steps for making fabric in ancient times.

I loved these ancient glass bottles and vases.

vases with faces

ancient bottles

This is the view when you come out of the museum.

This is the river that the pool with the springs empties into. It was like paradise here.

Some of the river water is channeled here for irrigation.

lapwings hanging out near the river

lapwings hanging out near the river

In February, I visited Shokeda Forest down south. During that time of year vivid red anemone flowers literally flush the northern Negev in scarlet. Shokeda Forest is one of the best places to go for the Darom Adom Festival, which lasts from approximately mid-January until the end of February. During the festival there are many farmer's markets and outdoor family activities such as bike rides. A few years back I visited Kibbutz Be'eri and saw a lot of red anemones, but this year my visit to Shokeda Forest was much better.

February is one of the best months to be in the Negev.

Shokeda Forest is a photographer's dreamland in February.

I printed this on a canvas for my living room.

The flowers are beautiful from every angle.

I love getting my camera underneath the flowers so I am looking up at them.

This is also on a canvas in my living room.

I love how the flowers look with the sun shining through them.

Shokeda Forest is lovely for long meditative strolls.

Just outside the forest is a field of sunflowers.

Taking pictures of flowers is addicting.

Look at these colours!!

I kid you not. I ran across this young man playing a flute amongst the flowers.

The sign says, "Please do not step on the anemones".