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.

Snow Day

 Weather  No Responses »
Jan 152013
 

Today I spent a lot of time waiting for trains, looking for trains, riding on trains.  I had to go to Rotterdam in the morning, and then Amsterdam in the afternoon, then back to Haarlem.  Unfortunately, when we get the slightest bit of snow here, the trains just break down.  On my route, at least 50% of the trains were cancelled.  It’s just ridiculous.

I took this photo from the window of a stopped train.  We had just left Den Haag, heading to Amsterdam.  I shouldn’t have had to go to Den Haag Centraal at all, but I had no choice.

Why is it that in Germany and Poland and Sweden and Russia and Switzerland, all places where there is MUCH colder weather than here and much more snow than here, the trains run.  I lived in Switzerland for 11 years and NEVER experienced or heard of train problems like we have here in the Netherlands.

I think they just don’t want to spend the money to upgrade systems to be weather proof.  I think it’s a scandal.  How many people couldn’t get to work yesterday?  Only half of my students managed to get to class.  For a country that is so far ahead of the rest when it comes to technology (fast internet, banking, flood preparations, etc), the train system is an embarrassment.

Also, the roads don’t get cleared of snow either.  In Switzerland there are road crews working round the clock to clear snow from roads so people can get to work.  Yesterday morning there were pile-ups everywhere due to people trying to drive on roads that had not been cleared or gritted or salted.

Given these conscious decisions by the government and train company not to cope with snow and ice, they should just admit their apathy and call it a snow day.  Officially tell everyone to stay home.  It would be cheaper and better for everyone.  I’m going to write to my congress person….

Sock WIP

 Home and Garden, Knitting Related, Weather  No Responses »
Jan 062013
 

I’m up to the heel turn on my first Mandy’s Heart sock.  It’s just flying off the needles!  It probably helps that I’ve knit this stitch pattern so much now that I could do it in my sleep.

I made the gusset increases in the ribby pattern.

I think these are going to be really lovely and fit nicely too.  More WIP photos to come soon!

On the home front, we took down Christmas decorations and put the tree back outside.  It was time.  The tree was starting to look a little bit dry (we hadn’t given it any water since bringing it inside).  The poor thing thought it was summer and has started to put out pine cones.  Having said that, it probably would have been the same even if we hadn’t brought it inside for 3 weeks.  It’s been so unseasonably warm here that my roses are all putting out buds and the birds are acting like they’ll be making nests soon.  It’s not good.  We’ll probably get a blast of cold in February, all the new growth will die, and plants and animals will not grow well in the spring and summer.  At this rate I’ll have to quit knitting worsted weight sweaters altogether and stick to lace.

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.

First Snow

 Haarlem, Weather  1 Response »
Dec 072012
 

I took this photo from our bedroom window this morning.  Snow!  There are fewer trains running this morning and for a time there was a traffic jam on our street.

I hope my plants survive this winter.  Last winter there was a period of really cold hard freezing weather that nearly killed my roses (and they still haven’t really recovered) and killed our fig tree.  The new fig tree (in the blue pot) needs to be put into the ground before it freezes hard so he has a chance of survival.  Or move the pot closer to the house.

This weekend we’ll move the little pine tree that is in a pot into the house and decorate him.  This will be the 5th year we’ve had this little tree and he gets bigger every year.  I hope he survives a few more years in a pot because we have absolutely no where to plant him in the ground!

I was supposed to have an interview for a teaching job in Amsterdam this afternoon.  The woman I was to meet just called to say that we’d better reschedule to Monday because if I come by train I might not get home again!  Sometimes I think that the NS should send people to Switzerland for a winter to see how to run trains in snowy weather.  Swiss trains are never late and never canceled.  It’s not impossible to run trains in the cold!

Green & Blue

 nature, sports  No Responses »
May 132012
 

Look at these colors!  This morning in the dunes we had glorious color.  The sky was so blue and the trees and grasses were that just sprouted Spring green.  Lovely.

It wasn’t warm though.  The air was crisp and cool, which is just fine for running.  I only managed 6km running and about 1.25km walking.  I’m having a hard time building back up to a reasonable distance again after the 12k at Zandvoort in April.  I don’t know why.  It’s just tough going.  What’s a ‘reasonable distance’? For me, 10k.  Once I can run 10k without feeling like it’s a death march at the end, then I feel like I’m well on my way to being a runner again.

And being able to run through the dunes to the beach, and back.  That makes me feel like a real runner too.

I know I’ll get there – slow but sure.  It’s just that none of it is easy.  Yet.

Oh! By the way! Tonight is the first episode of a new “Boer Zoekt Vrouw“!!  Yea! I love this show.  Tonight we will meet the new crop of farmers (haha, get the pun?) and then we’ll have to wait until the Fall to find out who got enough letters to participate in the show and who the women are and who falls for who and who is disappointed and who ends up getting married and living happily ever after.  Hope springs eternal; even more so for farmers?

Ice Age

 Haarlem, sports  3 Responses »
Feb 122012
 
frozen in motion

frozen in motion

While the whole of the Netherlands was out skating on canals and rivers yesterday, we were out running on the beach.  It’s the only place you can run that’s not covered in ice and snow these days.  At least that’s what I thought.

Since I hadn’t run in over a week, I only managed 30 minutes, but that’s ok.  I had time to take some photos.  I was really surprised to see waves frozen in time.  Not frozen in a photo, but literally frozen!  Here are photos I took yesterday.  Since the weather is warming up I think these waves will melt in the next days and the water will be flowing again.

All photos were taken with my iPhone 4S, which continues to impress me with it’s image quality.

shells frozen in place

shells frozen in place

under dutch skies

under dutch skies

quiet beach

quiet beach

Bloemendaal in February

Bloemendaal in February

cold blue

cold blue

frozen waves

frozen waves

frozen waves II

frozen waves II

Brrrrrrr!

 Haarlem, Weather  3 Responses »
Feb 052012
 

Today marks the longest streak of below freezing weather since 1997.  It was only a week ago that I was complaining that it’s been an incredibly mild winter which felt like just a prolonged Fall.  Daffodils were blooming already.  Them WHAM the weather blew in from the north and we haven’t seen any temp above freezing for a week, day or night.  It’s supposed to continue for at least another week.

Today I didn’t feel at all like running.  The only place I could imagine safely running without slipping in the snow would have been at the beach.  And running on the beach with a super freezing wind blowing on your face didn’t sound at all fun.  I convinced DB to come for a walk instead.  I expected we’d walk for an hour, just around town.  We ended up walking for 2 hours and about 10km, all around Haarlem Noord.  Here are photos I took.  The canal skating was at 3 different places around town.

Weeeeeee!

Weeeeeee!

any hill will do

any hill will do

There was a group of boys who had taken the wheels off of their skateboards and just stood on them and glided down this little hill.  The poor boys snowboard I guess.

making an ice rink

making an ice rink

learning to skate

learning to skate

canal in Haarlem

canal in Haarlem

clearing snow for skating

clearing snow for skating

ice hockey in the park

ice hockey in the park

cold feet

cold feet

Escape!

 Haarlem, sports, Weather  1 Response »
Jan 292012
 

This morning we were up early to go for a run in the Kennemerland dunes.  We left especially early so that we would be home early to  watch the Australian Open Final.  Here it is 4 hours later and they are still playing tennis.  We could have slept in!

It was COLD this morning.  When we started out it was -1C/30F and sunny.  Despite the weather there were a lot of runners out.  I wore double layers on my legs, triple layers on top, a hat and running gloves.

At the half way point I came up on a small group of sheep with long shaggy wool, looking quite content in the weather.  Most of them were on the left side of the trail, behind a small electric fence (which wasn’t on), but a few were outside the fence, on the other side of the trail.  I ran a little farther and then turned around to get some photos of them.  Right when I turned around I saw how they got out of the fence!

First the black one….

Then the white one followed him….

Who would have thought it was so easy for them to jump the fence!  Here they are, on the “free” side.

My caption: “Don’t turn me in! I’ll trade you wool for your silence!”

At the end of the run, back at the parking lot at the football fields, there’s a small cemetery with flowers planted here and there.  Look what’s blooming already.

It’s been such a mild winter that the Spring flowers are already coming out.  This can’t be good news for farmers.  The timing is all wrong.  I am looking forward to April though since April is the new June here in NL.

Foggy Inside and Out

 Haarlem, sports, Weather  5 Responses »
Nov 282011
 

Friday morning was like most mornings lately, grey and foggy. I hadn’t been running in a long time due mainly to illness. I made a firm decision that I would go for a run Friday morning, no matter what.

After running about 8 minutes I had to stop for a stoplight. It was then I felt my lungs burning. I walked a little while and tried again. After another 8 minutes or so I started to wheeze and my lungs burned again. Ok. I get the hint. I’m not yet over this chest cold. I’ve been hacking and coughing up stuff for 2 weeks now and I’m pretty tired of it.

It was nice to get outside though and see some ducks and cows and people walking dogs. Today, Monday, I am feeling better and I’m coughing less. I should have gone for a run yesterday but the weather turned colder and windy and I just didn’t want to put my healing lungs through it. I think that was the right decision.

On another topic, I really start to notice how my speaking and language has changed since living in NL. A friend, on her blog, was commenting on how people use the word “anymore” in ways she’s never heard before. Like “Is this allowed anymore?” I find myself using “anymore” like that these days. Where did that come from? No idea.

I have noticed lately that American accents sometimes take me by surprise. I listen to a lot of podcasts and I hear Americans saying “fer” instead of “for” and it drives me crazy! I hate that but I hear it all the time, from people who are journalists and professionals on tv and radio. And have you listened to Planet Money in the last months? They start to sound like teenagers to me, especially Caitlin Kenney who pronounces words like she’s 12.

Am I just getting old?