23.7.09

Green (grass) envy

Ok, so I'm realizing that blogging throughout the summer is probably not going to work for me, at least not as long as we don't have air conditioning and Gossip Girl reruns are playing on Hot Summer. (Just kidding about that last reason! Er, kind of. And come to think about it, that's a fairly ironic name for Hot Cable TV's summer shows channel.) How is it that I'm more busy now that I'm not officially teaching right now? So I'm going to stop making any blogging promises that I probably won't keep, and instead just update when I feel like it. Because I don't get paid to do this, that's why!

At any rate, recently I've been experiencing what I can only assume is a truly Israeli emotion: green grass envy. I watch the Tour De France, and as riders careen around corners, all I can think about is just how green the roadside grass is.

I look at pictures of family in the US on a three day backpacking trip in the rain, and as I look at a picture of my dad crouched under a poncho attempting to light a fire so they can eat hot food for dinner, all I feel is shock at the waste of water just showering down from the sky-- I want to gather it up in buckets and save it to water my window box herbs.

The vibrant green weeds my little niece hikes over in one of the pictures seem extravagant. Such a waste, such bright green back in the middle of the woods. I couldn't understand the joy in my sister-in-law's caption of a picture of blue sky. I covet the gray.

Here in mid-summer Israel, we're feeling the weight of day after day of heat and sun. Water restrictions have meant that even watered lawns are patchy tan, and any unwatered grass has dried to beige. Apparently, residents in Netanya are demanding green lawns-- so they're painting browned grass with green food coloring.

I know I'm becoming Israeli when the idea of covering a lawn in astroturf no longer sounds absurd. (Seriously, you can get really nice grass-like astroturf in home improvement stores here! I also think it would make a nice livingroom carpet... ;)

The grass really IS greener on the other side of the ocean, but I still love it here.

6 comments:

  1. Hey, astroturf for grass does NOT sound like a bad idea at all. Think of all we could do with the spare time we'd save not having to mow. I'm all for bringing that tradition over to the States.

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  2. I can so identify with this Maya. When I moved to NZ 5 years ago, (after living for years in desert countries) I was DAZZLED by the green. It drove my new husband crazy. I kept exclaiming "oh, LOOK at that grass / tree / weed" etc. I am just wondering if there is a way we can export half of our rain quota to you. We've certainly had enough this winter, even for my taste.

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  3. I just got back from Egypt and every third thought was "how can they just waste water like that" or "wow it's so green here."

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  4. I grew up in Arizona and when we first moved into our house, there was Astroturf covering our back patio and green gravel in the front. Apparently, a tacky optical illusion was all the previous owners needed.

    When I first moved to the East Coast in 2002, I clearly remember being mesmerized by all the green and when I fly back into Phoenix the overwhelming brown is striking.

    That said - I admire Israelis' discipline in not fighting nature. Arizonans deplorably have morphed parts of the desert into sprawling golf courses with major water demands. It's only a matter of time before that Astroturf looks good again!

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  5. I hate how Americans compare Israel to America’s north east; I mean, we should be looking at how well we’re doing compared to most other countries in the middle east. It’s astounding, really.

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  6. I didn't like Florida for that very reason. After living in California all my life, puddles of water just laying around for no reason seemed like a complete waste.

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