Tree Hugger







I used to think you couldn't get decent exposure to the natural world in the city; these days, I am rethinking that idea. Today Eric went on his last school visit, and the boys and I hung out in our yard, then went down to the playground. While Benjamin napped, Alexander spent most of his time in the "park" area of the playground, rather than on the playground equipment itself. Watching him race around the park, I couldn't help but notice how much he's grown these past several months. Four months ago, he took his first ride down a slide in this playground; now he races up the stepladder, down the slide, and around the park with confidence, agility, and speed. He knows every inch of the playground, and each time we visit, he makes ritual stops at all his favorite places: the tree with the tutim (berries), the rocks he likes to clamber up on, the tree he likes to "climb," the water fountain, the fence facing the busy street where he can see every kind of vehicle imaginable, the swings and jungle gym. In the past few months, Alexander has begun to know the particular landscape of this park, and even though it's in the city, and right next to a busy intersection, he's exposed to a surprising amount of nature there. In the playground he hunts for snails, looks for woodpeckers, eats almonds and berries, collects pine cones and stones, and sees many different varieties of trees, shrubs, and flowers. Sometimes if you look up through the pine boughs, you can see swallows darting across the sky. One day, we saw the moon. And nearly every day, we swing on the swings. We're all going to miss this little playground we found just down the way from our house.  Here are some pictures I took during our visit there this morning.

 

 

Here, Alexander is "hugging" a "baby etz."Etz means "tree" in Hebrew. This tiny cypress is growing in our backyard. Alexander loves this little tree, probably because it's about his size. Sometimes he's a little rough with it, but he also likes to hug it. Seriously: it was his idea to start giving the tree some love. We did not set this up!

 

Here he is looking for tutim. Unfortunately, most of the fruit had been eaten or was out of reach today. But you get a good sense of the size of the park in this picture.

 

Here he is checking out the mayim (water) coming out of the park's drip irrigation system, which is an Israeli invention.

 

Heading downhill, picking up speed...

 

Hugging the flowers. Again, he did this on his own, I swear!

 

"Climbing" a tree.

 

Getting his balance on a rock...

 



 

And checking out the view (of trucks, cars, taxis, motorcycles, buses, and scooters whizzing by)!

 

 

The perfect seat.

And a ride on the swing with Abba (Dad), who met us at the playground after his meeting. You might be able to see the stroller in the background, where Benjamin took a good long nap while Alexander and I played.

 



And back at home, here's Benjamin: well-rested after his morning nap, and almost crawling!