Summer in the Netherlands

It's been a terrific summer, with the usual ups and downs.  Always challenges to deal with, and then a nice bit where you can just relax and enjoy.  The stories I've been hearing from back in the U.S. with jobs and homes lost, people really worried about just putting food on the table, bad weather, and general hopelessness - it's been heartbreaking.

My school here went bankrupt, so I get to begin anew in September.  I'm waiting to hear from the placement agency as to when and where that will happen.  We're not unaffected here by the U.S. and global crisis.  But the cows still graze serenely, and the unusually wet season has kept my garden looking beautiful, even without my help.

This is what I started with this season.

Everything started budding, and later bloomed without me doing anything!  I was sick once with something like the flu, and have been dealing with a broken finger, back pain and constant headaches most of the summer.  With health insurance I've been able to go to a physical therapist and the doctor, for which I am so grateful!

My sunflowers started blooming in the rain.  Not a whole lot of sun lately, but they seem not to mind.

It's really pretty! 

Not much motorcycling with all the health problems, but here we are going over the Afsluitdijk

Tjalk - Wikipedia does not have an English entry for this type of boat.

Coming home we met up with a storm front.  Difficult on a motorcycle, and I can say I get less wet in the shower than we were that day on the road.

Sunshine came out briefly when we visited the beach.  It was warm and windy, perfect for all the activities that take advantage of the wind.

Blokarten

Blokart

We also went to the Alkmaar Kaasmarkt

It didn't rain at the cheese market, but it did look like it was going to.

The weather didn't stop the tourists and shoppers in Alkmaar!

Traditional organ music player at the cheese market.

People were taking pictures of our tandem, so I did as well.  I like to pretend I'm a tourist too.

I got a mushroom growing kit as a present - and grew three crops of delicious mushrooms. 

Another gift this summer - poppy seeds - grew gorgeous flowers and colors.

The Alpine strawberries are doing great, and are very sweet.  The wire keeps them safe from the birds - a family of Jackdaws.    

 Nearly all of my lilies have bloomed now, in pink, white, orange, and multi-colors.  Another gift of six packages of bulbs from a friend.  If you ever want to know what to get for me as a present - plant and flower seeds/bulbs are fantastic!

These grow wild over the fence.

Last but not least, cows - my favorite!  This was taken next to a petrol station.

Dutch cows, unperturbed by anything.

I'm wishing all the folks back in America can have the time and opportunity to find the beauty and peace where they are.  It will get better, it always does.

Meanwhile, if you can offer support to my mother in New Jersey, I'd appreciate it.  She's nearly eighty years old, and still works for NY Life.  She and a friend are raising six hens to produce organic eggs.  Not to sell - she's been eating organic food and has been a vegitarian since before it became fashionable.  Where she lives organic eggs can cost $4/dozen, and in today's world looking to live more "green" and becoming as self-sustanable as possible is a better choice for those who can. 

But, she and her friend own one more chicken than the local law allows, and a neighbor complained.  There are no roosters (so no loud crowing noise), and she is clean and responsible, keeping the chickens inside a coop, on her own property.  But until the law is changed, my mother is a criminal!  She needs people to support her with their signature to change the law there. 

For more info, visit these links or email me:

Lower Township woman wants to keep six chickens on property so they can lay organic eggs

Lower Township tells woman, 79, to get rid of six chickens she is raising for eggs

I'm very proud of my mother for many reasons.  She's always led the way towards the future.  She did things before most other people, because she thought it was right.  She adopted me as a single parent - and I got to raise my own pet chicken from an egg to a hen when I was a child.  My mom built me a coop in our yard.  She taught me that whatever you dream about doing, you can do it. 

Go Mom!

 

Germany Motorbike Trip

It's that time of year, the warm weather is here, and the biking season has begun.  Boele's Place has moved from Belgium to Heimborn, Germany - so that's where we headed last weekend.  Most of the photos I took from the back of the bike, so they are perhaps a bit blurry.  Riding on the autobahn is kinda scary, but I must say that the German people drive very well.  I actually felt safer there on the highway than I do here, surprisingly.

We're still in the Netherlands here, getting ready for the long ride ahead.  A bit chilly, and not a lot of sun - but no rain.  In all that protective clothing, I'm glad when it's a bit colder rather than warmer.

I like this photo.  It's our bike, not fancy, not a ratbike.  A few dents and dings.  Older.  Kinda like me!

Who doesn't know by now that I gained a bit of weight this past winter?  I was enjoying all sorts of delicious Dutch food, as often as possible.  Unfortunately, I am now on a diet, as leather pants are very expensive and the pair I have doesn't stretch at all.  I'm not sure I look that cute with a little buddah belly anyhow.

  The photo above and the rest below are all taken in Germany.  I took a couple photos that have place signs in them, but other than that I'm not sure where exactly each is, and they are not in order. 

This is a road through a small town.  Most of the places we saw are huge fields or forest land dotted with villages.  A few of these towns had traffic lights, most did not.  Lots of hills, twists and turns - great for motorcycling!

My camera cannot capture the view as nicely as I was able to see it.  What looks like grey trees in the landscape should actually be white flower-covered trees.  It's so much prettier in person.

You can click on any of these photos to view a larger image.  The best part of traveling by bike is that you can smell all the flowers blooming, the new grass, freshly tilled earth and clean, crisp air.

There are solar panels covering the house and barn in the background, and there are windmills everywhere.  Not like the older ones in the Netherlands, but the huge ones that look like airplane propellers.

Here we are somewhere in Germany...

Just passing by.

I'm not sure why there are so many caves around here - some are open, some are boarded up or bricked up.  We passed a mining car memorial, but I didn't have a chance to stop and see it.

The pine forests smell wonderful too.

Not quite as flat as the Netherlands.

My helmet, rear view.

I thought this was a cool looking house.

An old barn

Older electric tower thingie.

I couldn't decide whether this was a spooky or pretty house.

We stopped in a few larger places too - you know McDonald's.

I took this picture as I can read (understand) their slogan - Alles unter einem Dach.  It's so close to Dutch that I can read a lot of German now without a problem.  Pronunciation in either language though still escapes me.

Like many homes in the Netherlands, there are quite a few buildings here with really great details.

Sometimes you have to look closely, and then you get to see some interesting things.

Cool building.

And the best for last...

"Ich bin ein Berliner."

Oh wait, no I'm not. "Ich bin ein Amerikaner."

That's it for now.  I hope you enjoyed!

Gardening in Holland

I've been really busy this summer, and have been adding new interests to my repertoire. Everyone was surprised when I decided to try my hand at gardening - and I've never been able to grow anything successfully other than mold before. More than half the land in the Netherlands is agricultural, and the Dutch know how to grow all kinds of things.

Dutch tulips are different than the original tulips brought over from the Ottoman Empire - they have cultivated and refined them to create endless varieties and colors - and there's a rumor that it was the Dutch who made carrots orange - for King William of the House of Orange, naturally. So I decided I'd try to do more than just admire other people's gardens - and I started my own.

Here's what I started out with:

The clippers and fence (bottom left) are mine - the rest is how the garden looked "naturally."

The first step was clearing out all the weeds and junk. Well, not junk - as I ended up using much of what I uncovered.  I like to recycle, and I really like saving money!  Unfortunately some of the wildlife had to move out so that my garden dream could be realized. 

Naked snails

 I got a variety of seeds from the local garden shop and began planting indoors.  Old egg cartons became miniature greenhouses, and finally the first seedlings burst from the earth, much to my shock and amazement.

Baby... something.

I was thrilled!  I wasn't sure that they would actually keep growing, so I made sure that their life was as pleasant and peaceful as possible.  I gently watered, said nice words of encouragement to them, and played new-age music for them.  No, really.  I kept them in the warm indoors, away from drafts until they got a little bigger.  Then they'd go outside for the day, and I'd take them back in at night - it can get cold here!

Young basil plants

So many seeds grew into plants, I had to start giving some away to good homes.  The garden was also taking shape, and in August all the plants were moved outdoors.

A lawn!

Garden "path" and planting bed

From wild, tangled jungle to order - the garden grew and took shape.  Jeroen planted grass in the middle, and helped me fence off the beds containing kale and carrots.  On weekends we could enjoy a morning coffee in the garden, and weekend barbecues were frequent and delicious.  I still find it odd that daylight lasts so much longer here - at nearly midnight there was still light in the sky.  I suppose I've never lived this far north before  - even in the summer time I feel it should be getting dark by around nine or ten in the evening.

Container gardening

I found a plastic tub and a roll of fencing, and decided it would be okay to let the tomatoes and paprika grow together.  Since I've never grown anything before, I probably should have asked someone's advice - but, I didn't.  I was enjoying the process so much, and it didn't really sink in that these plants might just keep growing... and growing... and growing!

Teenage Basil

Wall of Basils

Wall of tomato plants

I gave away more Basils, and the tomato and paprika plants flowered.  Tomatoes started forming everywhere, although the sunshine hasn't been cooperating as much as I'd like to keep the plants warm and start ripening!

Tomato flowers and fruit

Hopefully this will turn red. 

Sunflower plant, or so I am told.

A sunflower plant started growing after a bird dropped a seed in my bed of kale.  I put it in a pot, and it seems to be doing okay.  In August there was a terrible wind and rainstorm - it felled the Anne Frank tree, and I lost parts off of many of the plants.  I had a headless Basil, an armless sunflower, and there was debris everywhere.  Three carrots survived, and my remaining kale was attacked by snails; eaten in one night!

Amsterdam carrot growing in Alkmaar

Marigolds, Orange Boy variety, of course.

  My flowers have all grown up now too.  I'll move a lot of the plants indoors for the winter (which isn't far off now!) and see what happens.  I did notice that there have been a lot more bees and butterflies in the garden than before - and I'm finding more earthworms and fewer naked snails.  I haven't used any chemicals or fertilizers, and since I can't read the Dutch instructions on the seed packets, I followed my own growing method.  I still don't know anything about soil PH, or the proper care and feeding of the various plants that now grow in the garden - but I don't think they know that.

Marigold

 
I'm going to do more next season, and hopefully finish off this growing season with a few home-grown meals!  Fresh basil, (hopefully) ripe tomatoes, a few carrots and maybe paprika...

Eet smakelijk!