California – Part II

 Home and Garden, nature  No Responses »
May 312013
 

Most of the time we were in California we were at my mom’s house in Atwater.  My mom loves to garden.  She is well known in her circle for her flowers and fruit trees.  Above is just one of her many irises in bloom.  Irises are lovely but so short lived!  The flowers are gone before you know it.  She spends a lot of time taking care of them for those fleeting moments of beauty.

Just a day after we left California my mom was outside watering her plants when she tripped over the garden hose and fell down, breaking her wrist.  Luckily it’s not a bad break and she has a removable cast and can still drive and do light weight things around the house.  This does NOT include picking up the cat who is just too heavy for that!

Speaking of gardening, the King of Gardening in her local area has to be John E.  We went to see his garden for the first time last year, and went again this year with a different group of relatives.  It was earlier in the growing season than last year, but there were still ripe cherries and oranges and lemons and peaches.  Yum! (My mom took these photos, except for the one of her, which I took.)

John, funny enough, also has a bicycle collection.  He also rides a unicycle, which he only started learning after he retired.

Besides hanging out at Mom’s, and going to John’s, and visiting with relatives (thanks K & J for dinner!), we didn’t do much in Atwater.  There isn’t much to do in Atwater.  But you can sure grow things!

 

 

California, Part I

 food, nature, travel  No Responses »
May 252013
 

Ah, to be enjoying the California sun again!  We spent 2 weeks in California and the weather was glorious.  These 2 California Sea Lions were hanging out in the Pacific, just off the Santa Cruz pier.  There was a large herd of them, lounging on the side of the pier on landings kept just for them.  They barked and yammered, jostling for the best positions.  More on Santa Cruz later in the story….

We stayed with my mom most of the time we were there, taking some side trips out and about.  We had only spent two nights at her house when we headed north to Chico, to spend 3 days with my niece and her husband.  He works at Sierra Nevada Brewery and we got a special family tour around the place.

in the hop room

We hung out at M&J’s house, went out to eat, and had our own version of “Bargain Hunt” at one of the many antique shops in Chico.

I really like Chico.  It’s a college town, big enough to be interesting and small enough to be cozy and charming.  It’s even easy to walk and bike around town, which is unusual in the U.S.  We left there already missing M&J.

Only a few days later, M drove down to meet us and we headed up to the Sierra Nevada, to Yosemite National Park, to have Sunday Brunch at the Ahwahnee Hotel.  What a treat!  It’s a big spread with fresh oysters and other shell fish, several kinds of salmon,  prime rib, egg dishes, chicken dishes, pancakes, cheese blintzes, and then there’s the dessert table.

DB took our photo at our table.

The Ahwahnee itself is an amazingly beautiful building, build in the 1920′s of stone and wood.  When I win the lottery I’m going to stay there for a couple of weeks.

We played tourists, rode around in the free shuttle bus, taking photos here and there.

Yosemite Falls

Selfy at Curry Village parking lot, Half Dome in the distance

We did a little walking around the Visitor’s Center and went into the Indian Museum where I saw some amazing woven baskets.  I wish I had taken photos of them but it was a bit dark for that.

It was a quick trip to Yosemite Valley and then back home to Atwater.  Last year, in June, we did a full day of hiking, which I really loved and I’m sure we’ll do again next year.  It had been at least 25 years since the first and only other time I had a meal at the Ahwahnee and I’m really glad we made the trip this year.

Well, I think that’s it for this blog post.  I’m only half way through the California trip, and still have lots to tell you about Estonia, but it’s clear that this story telling is going to take several days and several blog posts. Come back for more photos and travel tales!

Winter in the Dunes

 Haarlem, nature  No Responses »
Mar 052013
 

Yes, it is still winter here.  I don’t even see buds on the trees in the dunes yet and since there aren’t any bulbs occurring naturally here, there are no little flowers popping up either.  There are, however, lots of interesting tree shapes.

These photos were taken Sunday while DB was running and I was walking in Zuid-Kennermerland National Park, just a short 10 minute drive from our house.  If you continue west through the dunes you end up at the beach, either Bloemendaal or Parnassia.

I saw several trees with bark rubbed or cut off.  How did this happen?  I think either humans or the Highlands Cattle that roam around here did this.  I can’t imagine why a human would have wanted to do this but I can imagine that a bovine with an itchy head and horns would do this.  Or maybe the deer with new antlers.

After about 40 minutes of wandering around, DB came running up.  These photos make it look like we had the whole dunes to ourselves. Not quite.  There were actually a lot of runners on Sunday.  It’s a popular place to walk and run, even on a grey, cold winter day.

Winter Wonderland

 nature, Weather  2 Responses »
Feb 102013
 

This morning DB wanted to go running on soft ground, and given that the ground everywhere was covered in ice and sleety snow, he asked if I would drive him to the beach so he could run there.  My first thought was that I would sit in the warm cafe at Parnassia and drink hot chocolate and knit while he ran (I’m still injured and not running).  After driving through the dunes to Parnassia and seeing how beautiful everything looked covered in a fine dusting of white, I decided instead to go for a walk and take photos.  Of course I hadn’t thought to bring my big camera, but my iPhone takes pretty darned good photos if you ask me.

I didn’t walk very far – about 15 minutes out and 15 minutes back, plus some photography time.  DB and I got back to Parnassia at about the same time.  We got in the car and drove back home.  Once again I’m so happy and grateful that I live only 10 minutes by car from the beach.  How lucky am I?

Here are some more photos from the morning.  The sun is still shining bright and it’s cold and crisp outside.  These are winter days that I love.

Perceptions of Time

 nature  4 Responses »
Feb 052013
 

The concept of time has been on my mind a lot lately.  In January I managed to write a blog post for every day of the month.  Here it is the 5th of Feb and this is the first one I’ve started.  Time has just slipped away from me.

I am trying to find my comfort level with my daily (lack of) routine.  I have several freelance teaching jobs and juggling the schedules of 3 schools and several classes is making me a little bit stressed out and crazy.  It’s not easy for me and I’ve surprised myself with how hard this is.  I feel disjointed, unorganized, scattered and stressed.  I had a 2 hour class this morning in Amsterdam.  I came back home to Haarlem.  I will have to turn around and head back to Amsterdam at the end of the afternoon for a 2 hour class at a different school.  It’s terribly inefficient and this traveling is a waste of my time!

However….

I was walking from my student’s house to the tram stop this morning.  I decided to walk just a little further and wander through Museumplein.  The sun was shining.  Then it hit me.  I know what (part of) my problem is.  I am not living in the moment.  I spend so much time planning and re-planning that I have no idea how to live in the moment and enjoy the RIGHT NOW.  I worry about money.  I worry about finding enough work.  I worry about becoming physically weak and unhealthy.  I have to stop worrying so much and learn to enjoy walking through Museumplein when the sun is shining.

I have decided to make this part of my new mantra.  I will practice living in the moment.  I’m a firm believer that practice makes things eventually become natural and habitual.  Every time I start to stress about schedules or any other worry, I will ask myself if I can do anything about it at that moment.  If not, I will look around and change my attitude.  Stop and smell the roses so to speak.  I will not worry about wasting time because time is relative.  If I can’t enjoy my time right now, then I might as well not bother to ever leave my bed. (OK, or find a way to change my situation, but that’s another story…)

These flowers don’t have any idea about time either.  They started blooming in the back garden in the warm spell we had in December.  Then the snow buried them for a while and now they are back up, looking for Spring.  Our notion of seasons and time is relative.  This flower does what the weather tells it to do, regardless what the calendar says.  I think I’ll give that a try.

(By the way, I have no idea what this flower is called.  I would like to get more of them because, well, they bloom when everything else is dead and they are tough and hardy.  If you know what they are, please let me know.)

 

Parnassia in the Snow

 nature, Weather  No Responses »
Dec 092012
 

Yesterday afternoon DB wanted to go for a run.  All the sidewalks were snowy and icy so the only place to easily and safely run was at the beach.  I’m still down with this dreadful cold so my contribution to the event was playing taxi.  I really wanted to go to the beach anyway.  It felt like a long time since I was at the beach and I missed it.

We had a break from wet weather yesterday.  It was sunny all day.  Cold, but sunny.  We didn’t get to Parnassia until about 2:30pm and by 3pm the sun was sinking fast and the shadows were long.  It was so nice to walk on the beach and take a few photos.

The photo above was taken from outside the Parnassia cafe, just above the beach, looking south.  The photo below is looking north.  In the distance you can see IJmuiden.  The air was so clean and clear that everything seemed closer than usual.

DB ran for 45 minutes.  I walked for 30 minutes.  Hopefully I’ll soon feel up to running too.

Good Intentions

 Haarlem, nature  No Responses »
Nov 162012
 

I’m always so full of good intentions.  Super plans.  My mind is a constant whirlwind of things I’d like to do/accomplish/make happen.  And therefore, me being me, I’m often disappointed.  I should learn to stop doing this to myself but after 54 years on this planet I haven’t, so I will probably be disappointed in myself for continuing for the next 54 years in the same manner.

I intended to write a blog post every day in November but clearly that hasn’t happened.  It hasn’t been my highest priority.  Or I was lacking enough commitment.  In any case, I’ll just carry on and move forward and tell you what’s been happening these days.

These photos were taken a couple of weeks ago but I’ve just now taken them off the memory card.  The black swans you’ve seen on this blog before, but never so close up.  In the first photo you can see that they were adventuring nearer to people and a busy intersection in North Haarlem.  I was able to walk up very close to them before they both started hissing at me.  I’ve heard that swans are very powerful and can hurt you so when they raised their heads like this and started to hiss, I backed off.  I was only about a yard (1 meter) away.

I also took a photo of Egyptian geese.  They are very common in this area.

I wanted to also give you an idea of the building going on around here.  There might be an economic crisis going on, but affordable housing is still is short supply in the Randstad and housing is still being built.  The rows of houses in this photo in Spaarndam were finished a couple of years ago.  I think they are so cute!  I want to live in the first one on the left with the white front, looking out onto the water.  In the second photo you can see that, along with the new tall white wind turbines, there are still the old windmills here and there, and they still work.

What else have I been doing so far this month?  I made a commitment to start running again, and was doing pretty well at it.  And I went to yoga and the next day every muscle in my body was sore.  I was feeling pretty good about getting back into the exercise routine but unfortunately I have to take the next 2 weeks off.  I had a strange mole thing cut out of my left hip and have 2 stitches holding the gap together. My doctor said no sporting for 2 weeks to ensure I don’t tear it open.  I get the stitches out in 2 weeks and then I have to find my rhythm once again.

I’ve also been knitting quite a bit.  More about that tomorrow in the next post.  I promise.  It will be tomorrow.

On the Road Again

 nature, sports  1 Response »
Oct 282012
 

This morning the weather was cold, clear and crisp.  Perfect for running!  We headed to the dunes of Kennemer National Park.  This photo is the start of our tried and true running route.

This was DB’s first run since the Amsterdam half marathon last week.  He set out to run for an hour.  Me? I set out to start all over again.  I did 2 minutes jogging / 1 minute walking.  I intended to do that for 30 minutes.  I ended up doing 40 minutes.  My condition is better than I expected it would be.  My legs felt fine.  BUT, I have a problem still with a big hip muscle I pulled back in June.  I went as far and did as much as I could before that muscle really started to hurt.  Damn.  Always something getting in my way.  My body is never in the shape I want it to be in.  I guess that’s the same for anyone who strives to do more than they can!

I got part way down the path when I came to a large meadow.  Suddenly a big buck with a lovely rack of antlers came bounding out of the trees and ran across the meadow.  Wow!  He was lovely!  And fast.  Far too fast for me to pull my phone out of my pocket and get a photo.  I went on about another half minute, and standing on the side of the trail, like the lost fawn that he was, was junior…

I managed to get this photo as he tentatively crossed the path, heading for dad (I presumed).  He was covered in fawn spots and was sprouting little baby nubs of antlers.  I continued on my way.

At the half way point I took this photo.  The Dutch skies were nice.

On my return I passed the same point I had seen the fawn and he was still there, munching away on some tender green grasses.  Hurry before the grass is all gone and all that’s left is frozen shrub!  He was quite close to the trail but didn’t seem to be too bothered about me.  I took several photos of him.  This is the best one.

This is only the second time I’ve seen deer in the dunes.  I regularly see the wild horses, the Highland cows, the sheep.  One time I saw a fox.  The Netherlands is woefully short of wild spaces and wildlife.  I always feel lucky and privileged to see these scarce animals.

End of Summer

 nature, photography  4 Responses »
Sep 162012
 

You’d never know that last weekend we had summer-like weather and had to smear on sunscreen all weekend.  Gone.  All gone.  This morning I went to the beach to walk and take photos.  I took my big camera for a change.

I parked at Bloemendaal, where I took the above photo.  You can see that they are starting to tear down the summer restaurants.  Here too, a little further up the beach:

You can see how grey the morning was.  It was windy, but it wasn’t cold.  I walked up the beach to Parnassia.  It was a lot more lively than Bloemendaal, for one reason only….. DOGS!

There were little bitty dogs

Funny dogs:

and really really BIG dogs:

Herds of dogs, such as

6 Golden Labs owned by one family

3 Bernese Mountain dogs owned by one man and his son

2 very large poodle looking dogs owned by one couple

There was the very proud dog owner.  This man was smiling ear to ear with his little dog.  He was busy making movies of the dog fetching a stick.  Ahhhhh.

Eventually I ran out of dog beach and doubled back to head up into the dunes from Parnassia.  I figured, I wasn’t running, I needed the exercise, I already had my camera with me, so go into the dunes and walk to the little lake and see what you find.

The first thing I found was a herd of horses.  These wild horses roam around the dunes, north to south.  I don’t know if they are ever moved around by people or if they belong to anyone besides the National Park (this being Kennemer National Park).  I hadn’t seen them for nearly the whole summer.

And then there were the trees and flowers and grasses of the dunes:

As you can see in the last 2 photos, the sun finally did come out by the end of my walk.  And by the end of my walk I was TIRED!  I had not intended to walk for nearly 2 hours, but once you are that far from your car you have no choice but to walk back.  I often have this problem.  I want to walk farther and farther and I deny to myself that getting back will be long and tiring.  I always make it back though.

When I left the house I was feeling kind of bad because I wasn’t running or biking.  I felt like a lazy slug, taking the car and a camera.  But by the time I had walked all that way through sand and hills, I realized how good it was for me and how well it cleared my head.  And I have the photos as a bonus!

Into The Great Wide Open

 entertainment, music, nature, photography  1 Response »
Sep 132012
 

We spent the last weekend, actually a 4 day weekend, on Vlieland, the second of the chain of islands at the top end of the Netherlands.  This last weekend was the Into The Great Wide Open festival.

We drove to Harlingen, over the Afsluitdijk.

We took a boat across the Waddenzee to Vlieland.

We set up our tent at Lange Paal campground.

Luckily there are small trucks that carry all your stuff from Harlingen to the campground.  You are not allowed to take a car onto the island and everyone rents bikes to get around the island.  Here’s what camping looks like on Vlieland.

After we got our tent set up we hopped on our bikes and headed to the festival grounds.  Just like everyone else!

The festival officially started Friday afternoon, which is when we got there, but we heard that there were some unofficial, impromptu, gatherings and performances on Thursday night when people started to arrive.

There are 3 main areas where bands/musicians are playing, plus other areas where you can find art and activities (especially for kids).  The sports field is where the main stage was located, along with loads of food stands and a tiny ferris wheel and merchandise sales (very minimal).  A short walk from there was the Buiten (outside) stage which was set in the woods and was cozy and small.  Then, a bike ride away, up the hill near the lighthouse, was another small stage, the Vuurbuitsduin.

Here are a few of my favorite photos from the weekend:

Whole pigs being roasted on a spit:

Kids running around collecting glasses.  They got 1 munt (2.50 euros) for every 20 glasses they returned.  The glasses were washed and reused all weekend.  These kids were tenacious!

It’s definitely a kid-friendly festival.  There were lots of things for them to do (besides collect glasses), such as “make your own poffertjes” (little pancakes).  There was also a place for them to make their own pizza.

Friday night we walked down to the beach.

And watched the sun set.

There was an art event on the beach earlier, but we missed it.  I did get a really nice photo of the piano though.

I love that photo!  It reminds me of Neil Young’s “On The Beach”.

We also went to the Vuurboetsduin stage late Friday night.  We didn’t like the music, but the stage and the setting was super.

Saturday afternoon was also spent on the hill, now in brilliant sunshine.

By the time Adrian Young took the stage, the place was packed.  Adrian and his band were great, and the band stay around after their set and mingled with the crowd, signing records and chatting.  It’s that kind of festival.

Back at the sport field and the main stage, things were heating up (or “hotting up” as the English say), with Alt-J:

And Balthazar (we are big fans of Balthazar):

And sake tasting (3 glasses per tasting with a nice explanation from the seller about each type of sake):

This photo was taken Sunday morning, at the Buiten stage, around 11:00 in the morning.  It was beautiful, sunny, in the trees, sitting on the forest floor drinking coffee and listening to interviews and music.  I can’t think of a better way to spend a Sunday morning!

Anne Soldaat being interviewed.  He sang for us afterwards.

Back to the main stage late in the afternoon and Dio was whipping the crowd into a frenzy.

Now there were turkeys on the spit:

And the sun was still shining.  How lucky were we!

Oh! I forgot to mention that we also spent some time hanging out in the sun on the dike that runs along the south side of the island.

You could see tall ships off in the distance.

And walking down from the lighthouse you could see the boats stuck in the mud of low tide.

The festival ended Sunday early evening and we made it an early evening ourselves.  I think we were laying in our sleeping bags before 10:00pm!  We were beat.  Monday morning we broke camp and loaded our stuff into the truck at the campground (after a last minute panicked search for bike lock keys stuffed into a backpack already loaded onto the truck! ok- my fault) and biked back to the harbor.  We returned the bikes and waited in the drizzling weather for our boat.  Somehow the weather had been beautiful all weekend and then started to rain the minute we left.  Talk about timing.

I haven’t talked much about music in this blog post, and music is the whole point of this festival.  Clearly from  my photos I think it’s about a whole lot more than the music!

My highlights of the weekend:  the weather, Vlieland itself – GORGEOUS, Sunday morning music and forest setting, and the great company (DB, K & P) and the festival organization in general – oh and real flush toilets!  Food highlights: Vietnamese, apple tarts, roasted pig and sake tasting. Music highlights: Janne Schra, Balthazar, Alt-J, Dirty Beaches (a little story about THAT coming up).  The negatives? Hmmm, hard to find negatives.  The food we had Sunday (old chicken and corn that wasn’t edible). That’s about it.

The festival is limited to 5,000 tickets and they plan to keep it that way.  We were lucky to get tickets.  You can only buy them online, starting at a certain date and time and they sold out within minutes.  Having a festival on Vlieland forces them to keep it small.  The island can only accommodate 8,000 people in total, including people who live there year round (about 1,100).  I really hope we can score tickets again next year.  I wouldn’t miss it!

OK, the story about Dirty Beaches.  They (a 3 person band) were playing at the small (tiny) stage across the field from the main stage.  They are from Toronto.  They play loud grating music that isn’t to everyone’s taste.  The singer looked like an Eskimo and seemed just a little crazy.  At the end of the short set he jumped off the stage and ran around hugging people in a manic fashion.  He wrapped one arm around DB and another arm around someone else and dragged them back and forth through the crowd.  Someone shouted “til hem op!” (lift him up) and they crowd surfed him around.  Finally he came to the ground and ended the set on stage.  It was during that meelee that DB’s sunglasses went flying, never to be seen again.  His good sunglasses that he bought in Chico.  Oh well.  It was funny and fun and we are now fans.

Here is a flickr set of my photos from the weekend.  I could really write up a story about each photo, but it would be too long and become boring.  You had to be there.

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