We’ve been hanging out in Tel Aviv a lot lately, which I love. I can’t live without nature but I love the city too and Tel Aviv is something special. It’s been the Nahalat Binyamin festival – but that was actually quite lame. A few tables set up in the street, beer and food and someone singing Leonard Cohen songs. Badly. But it’s lovely that it’s summer and you really can hang out outside at night. I’ll miss hot summer nights when I’m back in London in July. 6 years ago

Northern Israel in the springtime is just beautiful. Last month we did a day trip which took in a walk in the Nahal Amud reserve: a climb down amongst flowering almond trees, down into the woods, and along the river. We also wandered around a wadi that I can’t remember the name of, and sat and had our lunch there among the intense smell of wild flowers. We heard some jackals howling there, which was a bit scary.

Then we did our annual walk in the Rosh Pina wadi, which was beautiful, as always, but also sad because all that remains of many of the ancient olive trees are burnt blackened stumps. Clearly, fires raged through the area due to some rockets falling during the war last summer. It was sobering to see such a familiar place transformed in that way.

A couple of weeks ago, we also did a hike in Bat Shlomo, which was gorgeous, lots of pine trees and still the odd wind-blown anemone blooming. 6 years ago

We’re going north tomorrow. The weather forcast is for sun and 24 degrees. The first Friday in weeks for which rain hasn’t been forcasted. We’re going to leave really early in order to get up there while it’s still morning and before the nature reserves close which they, stupidly, do at about 2pm. We’ll get some good hiking in, have a picnic, do the Rosh Pina wadi walk (it’s our spring tradition), see the almond blossom and the anemones, and stop for a cup of coffee as the sun sets, in a cafe with a view of the Sea of Galilee. I’m excited! 6 years ago

I’ve been thinking about how part of feeling like you belong to a place is feeling like you can move around in it freely, not feeling confined, not being afraid to step out of your immediate surroundings. Some months ago I identified a desire in myself to become more mobile in Israel. It was one of several ideas I had about ways in which I could feel more happy and settled here.

Since then, I have become more mobile. My work requires me to travel back and forth between three different towns. I’ve been to Tel Aviv a few times by myself for my poets’ meetings. This all makes me feel good, more confident. My bf and I are hanging out in Tel Aviv more, generally, and I’ve come to really like the city. It has a unique atmosphere and a real buzz. We’ve also been taking trips regualarly, north, south, to the Jerusalem area…

Obviously, if I was able to drive it would open up a lot of other options for me, but I don’t have a licence and, since we’re moving to London in a few months, this isn’t really the time to get one.

A part from our regular trips, I would also like to explore Israel on my own. I think the best ways I can do that at the moment are by walking around and by using the bus and train to travel to places I want to check out – Tel Aviv mainly. I think it would be nice to just take a map and tramp around the city, get to know it better before we leave. 6 years ago