18th Anniversary

Mister Handmade in Israel and I recently celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary. He is a big fan of my papercut cards, so for our anniversary this year I made him this card, cutting out our names, the number of years we were celebrating and some hearts, from white stock. I then lined it with a blue paper inlay because the 18th anniversary colour is (apparently) blue.

Our anniversary day started off well when these beautiful roses arrived from Mister Handmade in Israel. It was a good job that they arrived early though because I had a fun day out planned! I recently celebrated my birthday and it was, ahem, a rather disappointing day. I decided that I was going to make up for it on our anniversary.

Our first stop was lunch at Haroeh BaCafe in Kfar Haroeh, a religious moshav in the Central District of Israel. The moshav was founded in 1933 and was named after Abraham Isaac Kook, the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Mandate Palestine. The restaurant is located at the far end of the moshav, within the beautifully landscaped gardens of a family property. We chose seating in the pretty outdoor area and were soon enjoying a delicious lunch of hummus, eggplant, pasta and, though we were already quite full, a light and creamy tiramisu. Yum!

Our next stop was at Gesher Hatzabim, or Turtle Bridge, in the the Nahal Alexander National Park. Turtle Bridge is one of the only places in Israel where a population of giant soft-shelled turtle can be observed. The turtle, which incredibly swam to this region all the way from Central Africa, is a carnivore that feeds on a diet of worms, fish and other small water animals. It can grow to a length of one metre and weigh as much as fifty kilos.
In 1991 Nahal Alexander overflowed as a result of heavy rainfall and most of its soft-shelled turtle population drifted into the Mediterranean Sea and died. The river was polluted as well, so the eggs that were left did not hatch. The Israel Nature and Parks Authority collected and incubated the eggs and, when the youngsters grew, returned the turtles to the water.

Today Turtle Bridge is now a delightful spot, with play facilities for children and a wooden walkway from which the turtles can be observed both in the river and as they emerge from the water on to the river bank.

It would have been possible to spend hours on the walkway or on the bridge watching the turtles, but it was soon time to move on to our next port of call. As a surprise I had arranged a "Romantic Ride" along the beach for Mister Handmade in Israel, starting at The Cactus Ranch in Michmoret ("fishing net" in Hebrew), known as one of most beautiful beaches in Israel.

Arriving at The Cactus Ranch we waited and waited (this is Israel, everything happens all in good time!) for our guide to saddle up and explain some of the basic rules of riding. Eventually we set off, riding from the ranch, through the dunes, to the beautiful Michmoret beach. We of course had a guide with us given that we are not experienced riders, so whilst it was a lovely experience riding a horse on a wide open beach near the lapping fringe of the sea, it was not really so "romantic", especially since he was on his phone for part of the ride!

We dismounted on the beach and enjoyed a picnic of fresh fruit and a glass of wine to toast our anniversary. With such wonderful scenery around us, we soon felt quite relaxed. Half an hour later our guide returned with the horses and our ride continued through the countryside and back to the ranch.
What a way to make lasting memories!