Magical Scenes: A wedding in the desert and a secret Spring

One of Husbands cousins is currently setting up home in the desert, so he thought he would have the wedding to match. It was definitely the most unique chupa I had ever seen. The wedding took place on a tiny farm, in the Ya’ar Lehav [Lehav Forest] near Beersheva, and to get to the chupah we had to [I kid you not] hike up to an ancient synagogue ruin. They had to get the old folks there in Jeeps. Totally worth the effort though for a beautiful chupah surrounded by nothing but desert and winds. Yaron was chatting to me throughout the chupa telling me how beautiful he thought it was [ok so he’s only 8 months but I know what he meant] and Jojo, naturally enjoyed the whole experience. “Bride! Bride! Horse! Horse!” [no, he was not being rude, this was indeed a wedding that featured both]. Then of course eating huge amounts of meat and gorgeous salads and boogying outdoors. Israelis definitely know how to party.

We were going to return home on the Friday but some of my cousins invited us last minute for shabbat so we thought having shlepped all that way we might as well go [and to be honest I had no meat in my house and the thought of battling a Tel Aviv supermarket for a chicken filled me with dread] so after a chumus lunch and a nasty run in at the gymboree with some rude COW who was DISGUSTING to Jojo [is it me or are people who live in cities definitely angrier???] we drove east to Chalamish, in the shomron [or as Husband calls it, The Wild Westbank. I have to say it does feel a bit like the Wild West, sort of deserted and lawless]. Husband quite enjoys driving round there as it’s the only time where I actually encourage him to break the speed limit. Shabbat was good fun as it always is there [my cousins are great with kids and their fishpond delighted Jojo] and in the afternoon they took us to a secluded spring, just outside of the Yeshuv [no we are not mad, we were armed]. The boys had discovered it a few years back and as part of a local youth project had turned the place into a special hangout, with a sitting area. I really can’t describe the beauty and as it was shabbat we have no pics so you will just have to take my word for it. Turns out the army had also discovered it and there was a group of them sitting there enjoying the view [and protecting us of course]. Already there were local arab villages complaining about it. You know you have built something good when that happens.