squill

for Noga

Autumn comes around these days with a tremble, and it’s not the first rain, but the shock of the evening closing the day a lot earlier, all of a sudden, because of the change back to regular time from summer time. Though I’ve gotten to appreciate the summer time, because of the long light evenings, those artificial jerks in the seasons; that jump forward in spring, and the stumble as we approach winter, are reminders of our synthetic relationship to the world around us… as if we were living in a closed-in mall, where the light is adjustable, and we remain ‘protected’ from nature itself. We poor human beings… always trying to protect ourselves from the nature of life itself.

standing at attention

So the squill is all the more welcome, that adorable flower that heralds the coming of autumn, a member of the hyacinth family, growing wild in Jerusalem. I had seen a few when up north on vacation, but hadn’t managed to photograph any… because it turned out that each time I noticed one, it was at dusk, and the colors weren’t right, or at night… and I didn’t think it would come out the way I wanted. And so it was a great pleasure to find a small group of the flowers, just a few steps from my backyard this morning as I went out for my morning walk. They were standing at attention, in a line, as they often do… and I greeted them with pleasure because they were so real… you’ll never see the squill out of season.

Black-and-White, Nechama’s boyfriend

There are still some pictures I want to share from my vacation in the Galilee. And they will come soon, I hope. But this was so pleasurable, I couldn’t let it pass. It’s fall now. The evening comes fast. But thanks to the change back to normal time, there’s light again in the early morning, as I start my day.

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