7 Feb.at Horshim Forest & wine tasting at Tulip Winery - by Pearl from Montreal

On 7 February,  we went to the Horhsim  Forest, about a half hour outside of Tel Aviv, established in the 40’s,to plant rosemary, paint and clean along the road side. We also painted picnic tables and signs and did some general maintenance.  CAARI works!  It was a beautiful day and we were happy to jump in and help out!  

We met 90 year old “Yashke” and his daughter Miri who are there regularly to tend to the area. They greeted us with a warm reception, including food and drink.  They do this in memory of his son (Hezi) who was killed bu a suicide bomber along the Gaza Border. 

CAARI works here every year, as Hezi was Neil's commander.  The forest was badly burned in deliberately set fire in 2016. So we did a mitzvah. Couldn't believe that 4 hours passed so quickly.  Love being outside in February!  No matter what your age - hard to pass up a 'swing'!

After Forest work we had lunch we had lunch and wine tasting at the Tulip Winery in KfarTikvah, an award winning boutique winery. 

Associated with the winery is a home community for intellectually challenged people from age 21 on. Many work in the winery and others have jobs in the town. The are building a facility to house very senior members of the community.

CAARI AT WORK in HORSHIM FOREST 

National History Museum TO BE OPEN SOON! Impressions by Pearl

This Museum is not officially open, but somehow Susan and Neil managed this special tour for the CAARI group!" What an impressive museum!  

By Pearl - "This afternoon we visited the Natural History Museum at Tel Aviv University. The campus has grown exponentially since I was last there. The young man who guided us was a Canadian of South African birth who is doing his PhD. Did you know that lions and bears roamed the land until the crusaders in the 12 century killed them off? 

The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, Israel National Center for Biodiversity Studies at Tel Aviv University, is Israel's first Natural history museum, including both education and a research center. It is a key project that will house and preserve TAU's natural history collection of over five million specimens.

Canada Park Forest Day with impressions by Pearl from Montreal -

 WE ARE ACTIVE CAARITES!  

Due to rainy weather the previous weeks, CAARI had to "reschedule" several forest days and today is one of them. Susan and Neil do such a great job shuffling and arranging!  Earlier in the week, the took our orders for the picnic lunch - bagel sandwiches of all kinds.  They arrive early in the morning, pick up the sandwiches, shop at the grocery store around the corner for chips, oranges, water and today we were treated to Hamentachen!  

Packed bus with food and participants and off we went.  Of course, a bathroom stop before we begin work.  We met up with the JNF Foresters to explain about the forest and give us our work assignments.  In a few weeks, the country will be celebrating Purim and JNF had to get the park ready for the visitors.  The parks are OPEN to ALL!  Our job today was to shellac the picnic tables and stands for barbecuing - an Israeli favorite , pruning back trees branches, to prevent fires.    Some of also picked up litter, but not as much as in past years - big improvement.  So not to 'dirty' our forest clothes, we were given painting white suits  - now that was a laugh watching CAARI put these on over their clothes!  By noon we were done.  WE impressed the JNF workers with out enthusiasm, energy, talents and responsibility to offer a 'helping' hand.

By Pearl - "Off we went  to the Ayalon Canada Park which was established soon after the state was born. The money raised went to buy the land. We had a lovely morning painting picnic tables, removing excess growth around tree trunks, and picking up trash. Israelis are still smokers and we found many cigarette butts on the ground. Nuts,when you consider how many forest fires there have been. This area was the home of the Maccabees, near the ancient city of Modiin.."

 'Amazing day' says Fern, 'how are you going to top this? Enjoy the pictures - we enjoyed the day as after lunch we went to the Natural History Museum!'