Here are a few basic photo hints to think about on our walk tomorrow.
It’s a bit of a long download (3 minutes or so).
Photo of the Week
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There is Always a Way to Help
I’m so proud of my little girl. She has donated her hair twice now to be used to create beautiful prosthetic hair pieces for young girls who have lost their hair to cancer or alopecia.
Don’t ever think that you have nothing to give to those who are struggling!
Who wants your hair? Little Princess Trust in the UK, Locks of Love in the US and Angel Hair in Canada. If you are elsewhere, Google “hair donation” and you will find quite a few choices or contact your local cancer association and they will give you some contacts.
Winter Finally Arrives in Holland
Well, it has been interesting.
In the opinion of this Canadian, The Netherlands has fairly mild winters. Most years, this country never even gets its freeze-on but, when it does, it is a different world. Different-good and different-bad/comedic. The trains started to shut down within 20 minutes of the first whispery snowflakes and the roads were being salted two days before that event.
The Dutch do embrace the little spats of winter. Sometimes it’s just a little too quickly.
My Dutch Neighbour, “Hey, Kim! Look at the canal! It’s frozen. We will be skating by the weekend.”
Me, “Why? Because it’s been frozen for an hour? Do you have a life jacket to go with your skates?”
Sure enough, thousands of people were skating on the various canals of The Netherlands by the weekend and all but 47 of them stayed on top of the ice and all but two of those 47 survived. Not bad odds, I guess. I did venture out on the narrower part of our canal along a tested route with boots and crampons (safety first) which is way better than last year when the closest Hubbybaby and I got to the ice, at this stage, was to lay some rescue poles and rope out on our mooring.
The ice has really made for great social events and, therefore, photo ops that don’t make me look too stalker-ish. Very cool. Most evenings last week, mom’s were manning snack tables after school hours and families were skating into the late evening with the help of halogen spotlights that another neighbour mounted into a nearby tree. Hours later, older teens and adults could still be seen sitting on the boat moorings; chatting and sipping on warm, most certainly fortified, drinks.
Skates, toboggans, couches, campfires, alcohol and picnic tables…. everything that we commonly associate with staying on top of 4 cm of frozen water.
Posted in Nature, Photography, Sports, Travel
Tagged canals, frozen, ice skating, The Netherlands, winter
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Eat In – We Insist
Well, the vision is finally a reality *giggle* – so dramatic.
The cookbook is finished: 50 very simple recipes that every basic kitchen owner should know.
Special thanks to some of my friends who contributed and to my co-author and kitchen-lover husband.
If you feel that you absolutely have to have it, I would recommend the ebook rather than the hardcopy; the price seems a little high for what I’m giving you.
Posted in Food and Drink, Friends & Family, Photography
Tagged cookbook, food, food photography, photography, recipe
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Sure Sign of Winter
Screw the whole, “Geese are flying south”, thing. From here, they don’t. I’m not certain as to why they prefer to hang out here, a mere 20 km from the North Sea… NORTH…. treading water to keep a personal spot in the canal from freezing over. So, they are foolish and unreliable.
Here’s the true hallmark in our house:
Posted in Pets, Photography, Uncategorized
Tagged bengal, cat, pet, photography, winter
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Don’t Waste Your Spam! I Have No Money.
So, I have just finished cleaning out my Comment Spam Stuff. I’m exhausted. Are there really any people out there who Approve these comments? Really?
Spammers. Please pay attention. My loyal reader and I do not require any of the following: Ugg boots, Viagra, golf tips, financial planning advice, Russian wives or wedding photos (last two possibly work together).
I would like to pay special tribute to my favourite spammer of the week: the one who submitted an enticing comment asking me if I am receiving too much spam. Sneaky, sneaky. I almost fell for that one.
Posted in Profound Insights, Uncategorized, Web/Tech, Weblogs
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A Quick Trip to Iceland
It has taken me a long time to review and organize my Iceland memories. To steal an old Hollywood phrase, it was a bittersweet trip. My brother died unexpectedly and tragically in Canada three days before we were to go to Iceland and less than a day after my Dad arrived at our home in The Netherlands from Canada. What was going to be worse; canceling my Dad’s time with our family, his grandchildren and putting his jet-lagging bones back onto a return flight or, the overwhelming guilt of trying to carry on and enjoy our trip. We have never been a bunch who have advocated for organized religion and ceremony and the thought of sitting around watching each other grieve was unbearable.
So, we went to Iceland. It was the right choice. If there was ever a place to visit that can make you feel incredibly alive yet totally insignificant, Iceland is it. It was awe-inspiring enough to distract us from our feelings but, at the same time made it so easy to immerse ourselves in our personal thoughts while listening to the roaring waterfalls and the screeching wind. It was perfect.
We chose a semi-private, multi-day Jeep tour since we really had no idea where to go or what to see. Our guides balanced the excursion between the obvious geysers and lava fields to the sites that made us feel like we were getting a peek at the local life.
A few facts that we picked up along the way:
- Icelandic Horses are actually ponies by the defining standard but they are officially called horses because there is no word in the Icelandic language for pony.
- To keep the line pure, once an Icelandic horse leaves the country, it is not allowed to return. There are no other horses in Iceland.
- Iceland exists on both the North American and the European continental plates.
- You really must like sheep or seafood to live there.
- Fields of grass and small trees are highly protected as a means of stabilizing the soil to prevent further erosion.
- The only mammal that is considered “native” is the arctic wolf. There are no reptiles or amphibians in the wild.
- Iceland had the first parliament.
- Icelanders are extremely proud of their history and know it better than those in any other nation (in my opinion, not a fact).
- Iceland has a female prime minister who used to be a flight attendant and is openly gay (first world leader).
- Iceland has no armed forces.
Iceland is beautiful, strong, inspiring and one of the few places left on this planet where you can truly feel that you are experiencing something unique. I don’t know how else to describe it.
It definitely calls out for a return visit.
Posted in Friends & Family, Photography, Travel, Uncategorized
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Happy Birthday, Hubbybaby!
Though this is a few days late, my intentions are good. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome my wonderful husband into his Forties! He seems to have handled the exit from his Thirties with grace and dignity though he did whine a little. I did my best not to take offense to his referring to his new life as one of a coffin-dodger since I made the same transition a few years back and only thought of it as half-way-to-old. Perspective, Sweetheart.
At some point, birthdays can become a nothing more than a reminder that we are just another rotation around the sun closer to a time when we start losing people and opportunities. We are no longer anticipating those landmark ages that allow us to experience and control more of our world but, we are able to look back and see how much further we have come; without the goalposts.
So, Hubbybaby, let’s take a look at your last year. What have you done with your time?
You got married. You unselfishly gave your heart to, not only me but, the seventeen-year-old boy, the twenty-year-old girl, and all the friends and family that we have managed to come up with.
You bravely mastered downhill skiing because you knew we love the sport.
You gave a slightly crazy, soon-to-be-homeless Bengal cat a great home even though you thought she would hate you forever.
You supported me through the most difficult time of my life so far; the death of my brother.
You skied in Canada. You explored Iceland. You motorcycled in the Ardennes of Belgium. You paraglided in the Black Forest of Germany and introduced me to that incredible experience. You visited your family in South Africa.
You worked in Russia. You worked in the USA. You worked in Thailand. You worked in various places in Europe. All to be a little part of improving our world.
You read. You met new people and made new friends. You made people smile.
Not bad for a Coffin-Dodger.
So, what are you going to do with your next trip around the sun?
Posted in Friends & Family, Photography
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Qui a peur du Loup-Garou?
I still remember my Mom clasping her hands over her ears while I ran around the house skipping and singing the French version of, “Who’s afraid of the big, bad wolf?”.
I was in Grade 1 and practicing for a school musical production.
Fond memories…… anyhow, enough about my childhood…. this was all brought to the ole memory forebrain once again when I recently walked into a Wolf Museum, in The Ardennes, and read this very same line on the wall. Who has Wolf Museums? Really.
Why did the people of Stavelot seem to have a historical and irrational fear of wolves, I asked myself. In the few days that Hubbybaby and I rode our beautiful motorbikes through the winding, forest roads of the Belgium Ardennes, we saw no wolves or anything that a wolf would really be interested in; rabbits, sheep, deer, raw steak lying about….
So, after doing a little research, I found that there were a few trains of thought.
First, and likely the more accurate guess (since the museum was on the site of the former Abbey); the wolf is symbolic of religious evil. The wolf hunts the sheep which are the flock being the followers and all that.
My second best guess is that there were quite a few significant battles fought during WWII in that area and, suspiciously, many battalions were named after wolves; Grey Wolves, Arctic Wolves, etc.
Lastly, and my personal favourite; Stavelot may have had a problem with werewolves at some time in their past. I say this because some of the factual museum depictions were not of real-looking wolves but of some man-beasts who were terrorizing innocent villagers.
However, there was also quite an in-depth display on how to tell the difference between a wolf and your average Labrador so, maybe, it was just about the wolf.
So, whether it be a fear of the devil, soldiers from the dark side, werewolves or, the actual animal, Stavelot has a healthy respect for the loup (garou). A must-see if you are in the area for a really great motorcycle trip.
Posted in Motorbikes, Nature, Photography, Travel
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New Discoveries
Over the past few days, the weather has turned to crap here at the gulag and, the countdown to the end of this incarceration work assignment is down to the single digits. I have managed to find a few movies with some redeeming qualities on my hard drive and I have spent just a little time on the Internet. The connection speed is slow so I’m spending way more time reading the various webpages rather than just rapid firing through the pretty pictures.
Be thankful that I will spare you the many tangents that got me from there to here but, I now have a few new projects. I have opened a Smugmug account (thank you, Trey, for the discount code), got another domain name for my pictures (how pretentious) and I have decided to make a very basic cookbook with pretty pictures for my family at Blurb, bookmaking site.
Over the past couple of years, Hubbybaby and I have realized that many of the “independants” in our lives are not using their grocers and kitchens as well as they could; or really not at all. We’ve seen both extremes; the newly emerging young adults whose only concept of ingredients is what’s listed in the menu descriptions and the retirees who are now more often in their homes seeking quick and convenient (read repetitive…) rather than shopping for recipe requirements.
We try to have a family meal-building session at least once per week. It rarely holds the 20-year-old Girl’s attention because she intends on relying on her boyfriend to do the cooking forever and, the 17-year-old Boy tries but, well, he’s seventeen. However, they do occasionally ask how something is prepared and then look skeptical but curious when I tell them how simple it is. Progress, I say.
My thoughts are; Put it in writing, add some pictures and, VOILA, Christmas shopping is done!
It is the thought that counts, right? Shhhhh…… it’s a surprise.
Wow… I’ve been busy.
Posted in Books, Food and Drink, Friends & Family, Parenting for Entertainment, Photography, Shopping, Uncategorized
Tagged cookbook, photography, website
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