Monday, February 16, 2009

Date Palms


Last week I showed you a closeup of the trunk of my own triangle palm. For this week's mono shot I'm sticking with the palm tree theme but writing it larger - I've got not one but three full size date palms for you. These babies don't grow in a pot on the roof. (To clear up some apparent confusion, they're not mine either. While I do have date palms all around my neighborhood, these particular ones are in a campground in the north of the country.) Date palms are the palm trees of legend - the trees which bear the fruit used to make the honey that this land of milk and honey is named for. (Did you know that the honey in question wasn't bees' honey but date honey? It is, and it is made on the kibbutz where I lived briefly many years ago. You can read about my adventures in the date packing house here. Coincidentally that post from January of 2008 mentions the Jewish holiday of Tu B'Shvat, the New Year for the Trees, which we just celebrated again last Monday, and yes, we had wonderfully plump madjoul dates on offer.)

27 comments:

Dillo said...

Now THAT is a great piece of trivia; and adds oodles to my biblical understanding as well! Date honey. Who'da thunk it?

Nice pic too--Thanks!

Anonymous said...

I've never seen one or known anything about them..it seems they don't like cold weather...GG

Jane Hards Photography said...

Tis really is another world to anything I could photograph here.

allhorsestuff said...

Oh that is a nice sweet Biblical fact to digest!
KK

Robin said...

I can't believe you STILL don't have a schedule yet Phyllis. I'm pretty flexible next week, just give me whatever notice you can and I'll do my best. Will you be in TA at all or only in Jerusalem?

Robin said...

Oh, and Babooshka, that is EXACTLY how I feel about your beautiful photographs!

Anonymous said...

You could get a whole sequence out of the one palm.
Good thought.

vincibene said...

Beautiful picture! And your own palms!!!
For me like holidays.

Robin said...

Sorry, the date palms aren't mine, only last week's little triangle palm. I do have date palms planted all around my neighborhood, but they're much to big to grow in a pot on the patio.

Anonymous said...

I really fancy trying some date Honey now. :-)
Love the Biblical description.

EG CameraGirl said...

Date palms are gorgeous. They make me think of Phoenix, Arizona.

NO! I didn't know the honey mentioned in the Bible was from dates. That is very cool information!

Mojo said...

Little known trivia... no I didn't know that about "the land of milk and honey". Next you're gonna tell us the milk was coconut milk - also from a palm.

Very cool!

Catherine said...

Bonjour Robin,
You caught me something else about land of milk and honey (I've always loved this nice appellation). In fact, I didn't even know that honey was made from dates.
A wonderful picture to illustrate.

Joe Narvaez said...

Very nice exposure. I really like this mono. In my country, we don't have dates. But we have plenty of coconuts. :)

Janet said...

I'm going to read your other posts now!

Carver said...

This was a very interesting post and I love the photograph. I think the texture shows up so well in monochrome.

Anonymous said...

Had no clue about the date honey. Now you've gone and made me have to read up on it. I love the trivia you throw into your posts.

Dawn Fortune said...

Date honey? Wow. That makes so much sense. Thanks for that little nugget. I think I may start posting pictures of pine trees. We've got at least as many pine trees as you've got palms. Too bad you can't get the smell of pine through the screen...

"Sunshine" said...

Cool mono and fascinating story accompanying it. Didn't know that honey could be made of dates--sounds good though!

Liz Hinds said...

I didn't know that about date honey! That's fascinating.

Jientje said...

I LOVE madjoul ( so that's how you call them?) dates. I will click the date honey link too, I've got to find out more about them!

Yes, my white flip flops are patent leather, and they're surprisingly soft on my skin.What a coincidence you own the same ones!

Lene said...

The oposite of my winter monochrome. Mmmmm - looking forward to the summer :)

Unknown said...

Very nicely composed image!

Dragonstar said...

These trees are so full of such beautiful patterns, both in the trunks and the fronds. Perfect for B&W. I didn't know that about the milk and honey - fascinating!

Lea said...

I too didn't know that honey bit of trivia... thanks Robin and for the great photo, quite majestic those palms are!

maryt/theteach said...

Thanks Robin, I'm learning to distinguish one kind of palm from another! :)

Nalini Prasanna said...

Love the black and white and the composition!