Bio-T&Titorah-cows

Tomer's photo on January 17, 2003

Early in January I meet Tomer at school, still in shock:

"Tomer! can you believe it!
The Titorah is flooded with cows!
And the bull poses right under the Dommim Tree,
and pees and shits directly on our picnic stones!"

After a few days, when things had sorted themselves out,
he came - surprisingly- in the evening - with his mother:
"I wanted to buy you a gift, grandma!"
I opened the pretty package and found ~~~ a cow!
A note was attached, which said something like:
"For all your hashqa'ah [investment] in me, grandma!"
He asked me to not loose this note,
but of course, he or some other kid lost it.
And, of course, one day T threw a ball on the cow.
But I managed to glue the head back to the body.

Tomer's photo on April 8, a week before he parted

I've just completed the sculpture about Mugrabi's visit on Yael's birthday,
It deepens the experience, Tomer and I had with Mugrabi and his cows.

It started out with shock and fury!
How dare someone trample down the Titorah.
How dare someone turn our sacred place into shitty mud.

It looked romantic - the cow above the city juncture,
the cow on the background of our swimming-pool.
But then I saw this repugnant bull above our "table".
And later this symmetry with his female entourage!

It was early morning, when I discovered the scene.
I chased around documenting it with my camera,
and then started to call one authority after the other.
I had seen, what cows could do to our landscape.
Nothing but nettles would grow there in next spring.
At least where the cows preferred to sleep and shit.

But it was only with Tomer's help, that the answer came,
i.e. the information which was needed to find a solution:

We went to the DommimTree after school and pool,
drove the bull and his cows and calves away,
and cleaned our "table" between our sitting stones.

As usual, after eating and drinking, Tomer roamed around.
Suddenly he said: "I hear someone", and he ran up the slope.

That's how we met the relevant person, the owner of the herd,
Abed Mugrabi, grandson of an Arab Bedouin,
who once had immigrated from Morocco, "magreb" in Arabic.

"I have several bulls, 150 cows and calves not counted.
I'm independant, but move my herd from place to place,
According to the permission or quest, I get from the JNF.
There was a fire here last summer, - do you want that?"

"No, but there must be another solution!"

He agreed, that it was not a good time for the Titorah.
They should have invited him in June, not before spring.

Tomer had been the one who rang me last June:
"The Titorah is on fire. Your fig tree is burning".

That's how our friendship with Mugrabi started.

From T's window it looked as if my figtree was burning,
but when I ran up my path and approached my tree,
I saw that fire burned further up, beyond the dust road.

If no cows ruin the Titorah, it's red with anemones:
(a photo of Tomer and his father in February 2002)
but if no one takes care of the jungle in June,
such fires will devastate the hill almost every year:

The next morning we had tea under the Dommim tree.
Mugrabi suggested to make a fence around it.
We roamed through the Titorah to find the materials.
I helped him and he joked that my hands were weak.
We even made a kind of gate.
It was a sanctuary now and we enjoyed it, T and I.
But it turned out, that the cows stayed less then 3 weeks.
The rains were so heavy, that the old grass "melted",
as Mugrabi put it, and the cows ate the new grass.
"This means, that no grass, no flowers will be on the Titorah.
They ordered me to leave to somewhere less important.
People have complained, and you were among the first."
He smiled. But he didn't help me to uproot the fence.
I managed to remove only half of it and am stuck with it.
Even on the last day, when T and Nir built their "camp",
I worked to combat the growing jungle under the tree. In vain.

Mugrabi would come twice a day from the town Ramleh,
watering the cows and fixing an electric fence around the Titorah.
Since he cannot drive, he was badly dependent on sick Ibrahim.
Once he told me on the phone, that Ibrahim couldn't budge.
If I could please go up the hill, open to the tap and fill the trough.
Unlike the one Tomer and I discovered under the fir tree,
contrasting with a skyscraper and crane in the background,
Mugrabi's trough was mobile, but ugly,
filled from a 5 ton container, pulled by a tractor.

Fire and water are both big issues with regard to the Titorah.

One of the 120 cisterns,
all of them now covered by ugly structures to protect people and animals from falling in.
This one we liked best, and it was possible
to bring the camera close.
It had water in it,
like others in this winter;
The reflection of the sun deep down was pretty, also the splashing caused by stones we let fall in.

That first day Mugrabi
showed us a huge hand,
bigger in size than Tomer,
carved in stone.
Tomer was deeply impressed and so was I.

On December 14 - Tomerwith grandma and his cousin Ayelet - the earth underneath our tree freed of nettles and other herbs.
3 months later - on March 12 - - Tomer with his friend Daniel - the greenery - fenced in by Mugrabi -is sweet and managable.

Now there is no spot to sit under the tree and no path to reach it.
As much as I was opposed to those cows in January,
I am begging for them to come now towards June.
So no fire would ruin our Titorah.
So I could use again our path.
Mugrabi tries his best to win over the JNF:
isn't the Titorah more important than other places?

There was
a prophecy
to our
cow
experience
already
in 2001.

On a Daddy-Tuesday
Tomer
came
with
these
special
wind
-chimes.

"Look!
I found something (he
always finds things),
"Though
two of the four chimes are missing,
it's just the thing that needs to be on your veranda."

It so happened
that the photo shows my wrapped up tent as background

It was an adventure for us and fun.
It was also important for Tomer, to become friends with an Arab.
I was also content, that Mugrabi surprised me exactly when Yael had her birthday with me.
But I'm still asking, if there isn't an additional meaning to our cow-experience???

COMPLETION OF THE Tomer-PAGES
on May 31, 2003,
7 weeks after we parted.

Tomer
The
Beginnings

Training for Wrestling with Tomer

My
Wrestling
with Tomer

Tomer's Loves

Tomer & Titorah

Tomer
Towards Completion?