my house

My wife and I, along with our one-and-a-half-year-old toddler, moved to our home in Kiryat Hasharon, located in the east of Netanya, following a recommendation from a colleague at “Kav Systems,” a high-tech company where I worked at the time. Back then, the company was located in the Baruch Fashion House, right next to the train station, and the choice of the apartment was mainly influenced by the proximity to work and the train, as I told myself that even if I finished my job there, I could look for work in the high-tech field from Matam in Haifa to Rehovot. The apartment is situated at the northernmost point of Kiryat Hasharon, and beyond the transportation convenience, there was something magical about it from the very first visit.

When we entered the apartment for the first time, even before the purchase, we went out to its balcony, although small but with a unique shape. In front of us stretched a huge field of bright yellow chrysanthemums and a few pine trees, and on the other side spread out  The Sergeant’s Grove, with its tall trees that gave the place a sense of wild nature within the developing city. It was such a beautiful picture that we didn’t bother to check anything at the municipality. We just felt like this was our place.

For a few years, every spring, we enjoyed what was left of the chrysanthemum field, but little by little the yellow was replaced by concrete. The Sportec was built, followed by the schools, the synagogue, and the Bnei Akiva branch. The grove, which was an integral part of our landscape, had long been hidden from us by residential buildings. A shopping and employment center whose construction is underway will also hide the old trees of Shikun Vetikim. Future? Additional residential towers, commercial and employment areas are planned to be built where heavy vehicles and bonfires are currently parked on Lag B’Omer.

Still, there is one detail that remains unchanged – our balcony faces north, to the Sportec. As far as we know, there are no building plans in this direction, so at least our northern horizon remains open. Since the sun is from the south, after rain, you often see a rainbow stretching across the sky, a sight that takes us back to our first moment here, when we stood on the balcony and fell in love with the place. On days of particularly good visibility, you can even notice at the University of Haifa an unarmed eye, small and distant, but present in our landscape, like a reminder that there is still a wide horizon.