Rishon Rishon

Indian Summer in December

I wrote my Cholent post on Thursday night (after midnight). Little did I know that the next day would be not windy or stormy, but clear, sunny, and very cold. Back in Boston we got weather like that around October and we called it Indian Summer.

In Israel you don't get rain at all from April to September. That, combined with the fact that we are surrounded by thousands of miles of deserts, means that the air is usually pretty dusty. Not enough to notice, most of the time, though we do get an occasional sandstorm. (Much of our topsoil is imported this way from Saudi Arabia.) However, since I live on the side of a mountain, with panoramic views in three directions, it has a big impact on the views around here.

In the winter the rain washes the dust out of the air, but since the weather is often rainy, and usually cloudy, you still don't get such good views. But clear sunny days are not uncommon. Friday was one of them, and I thought I would try to take some pictures. It's not easy to capture the effect of panoramic views, but I tried.

Here's the view of Tel Aviv from above my house.

Here's the main street of my little village, with the panorama in the background.

The band of slightly darker blue just below the horizon, and above the land, is the Mediterranean Sea.