Snow Run

The last three weeks there has been a pretty consistent snow layer on the ground. This is the first winter that I have really seen snow here in North Holland. To really enjoy it Paul and I decided to take a nice run in the dunes. The wind was definitely blowing a bit and it was -10degrees so we had to make sure to dress warmly.

The final result for me was two pairs of running pants, a short sleeved and long sleeved shirt, a thin jacket, and a wind jacket. A fleece scarf, gloves, and something to cover my ears. Paul had about the same on.

When we started I thought, “oops, too many layers” and began stripping things off, but when we turned around after 25min and actually had to run “into” the wind, I was really happy for all the layers.

 It was very beautiful, but really hard running. Between snow and ice, it took a lot of grip to keep moving and I could really feel my calves burning. Today, my quads and calves are pretty sore. Though more fresh snow has landed and Paul keeps asking me to go running, I think I will be staying inside with a nice cup of hot chocolate.

Survival Skills in a Traffic Jam

Last Wednesday around 16:00 an enormous snow storm hit North Holland bringing down an amazing 10 centimetres of snow.  In great panic the working masses ran for their cars to get home as fast as possible to avoid being trapped driving in this horrific snow storm.  Many of those people would spend the next 5-8+ hours of their lives stuck on the highways… I was one of them.

So in many countries 10 cm of snow is nothing to panic over but here in the Netherlands this little snow fall close to rush hour created pure grid-lock on the highways around Amsterdam and the main highway going north of Amsterdam.

When my manager told me that a snow storm was coming I really didn’t believe him because it was still somewhat sunny outside.  But true to how fast weather can change in the Netherlands, it was snowing within half an hour.  Around this time my manager told everyone to go home.

I checked traffic and I could already see that there was a huge traffic jam.  But I figured better to sit in it now and get home at a relatively decent time rather than sit in it later.  This was actually good logic since as it turned out the roads would be jammed until 1:30am that evening.  But I did not count on having to sit in traffic for 5 ½ hours.

I live 25km from work and normally it takes me about 30min to get home.  I would have never believed that it was possible to take over 5 hours to drive that distance.  I probably could have walked it in the same amount of time. A colleague who lived 10km further than me took 7 hours to get home that evening.

Now 5-6hours sitting in a car is a long time, especially when you are unable to take a break.  I am a bit health conscious and therefore drink a lot of water and herbal teas, but this health tendency does not combine well with being a woman trapped in the middle of the highway with hundreds of other cars.  Sitting there in my second hour seriously considering just urinating on my car seat I looked longingly at the men stepping out of their cars just going on the side on the road.

Then I thought of this story that I read a couple of weeks ago about this hard-core woman journalist who went to the war-zone in Afghanistan when she was over 4-months pregnant.  On one of the tours they were driving through areas where it was impossible to stop for safety reasons.  Being so pregnant, her little one was seriously pressing up against her bladder.  So what did she do?  She began to pee into water bottles inside the car and then tossing them outside.  My main question when reading this was: how did she aim?

Well, I felt inspired (and very desperate).  Looking over to my passenger seat I looked at my empty Tupperware lunch container and thought, if she could do it so can I.  Well it turns out aiming is not so easy…especially when you are still driving. While I was able to get some relief, in the end I had a little stage fright especially with the big trucks driving next to me, who could probably suspect what I was up to.  But these extreme circumstances called for extreme measures.

In the end I had to stop at Ikea (along with many other people it turns out) which was about half way between work and home. I have never appreciated Ikea (and their long opening times) as much as I did that night.  After that the next two hours (and 10km) home did not seem as bad.

 It is now Sunday, and it is snowing again.  But today next to Paul and a warm fire (and a bathroom in the next room) I can really enjoy it.

Summer Garden

When we came back from vacation in August, our garden exploded in growth. The sunflowers made me especially happy. While we are still learning to put some structure to the garden, we did enjoy some of the wild flowers. Here are some pics:

Sunflowers in Bloom

Flowers

Front Yard

Autumn is Here

So while my dearest has been training for climbing extremely high mountains and running hours in the Dunes, I have been enjoying the change of seasons from the comfort of my chair with a good cup of coffee. Soon I will have to post pictures, because these days have been beautiful. Autumn leaves scattered over the garden, crisp air, and the changing light of the sun as it moves lower on the horizon. Every season brings a great sense of nostalgia as clothes and habits change to fit the weather. The sweaters start coming out of the closet, we start cooking hardier meals, and spend romantic evening curled up on the coach with a warm milk and a fire burning in the fire place.  The evening temperatures are starting to hover towards freezing indicating the rapidly approaching winter.  Though I like to complain about the cold, I really love this time of year.

Het Groeit als Kool

It grows like Cabbage

“It grows like cabbage!”  This Dutch expression seems a great way to describe our garden in the last few weeks. Everything is happily growing, though at the moment it is hard to know which are weeds and which are flowers. But I think in time this should all become clear. Some lessons learned the last few weeks:

 -  Pear trees and Junipers are a bad combination. One day we saw that there were orange spots on the leaves of our pear tree and a number of leaves were already turning brown. Seems that the combination of a Juniper and Pear tree forms a nasty virus that will weaken and eventually kill the pear tree. So after a great struggle of tearing and cutting roots, we removed the Juniper. We didn’t like it that much anyways. Now we hope the pear tree survives.

-It is better to plant only a few herb seeds at a time rather than the whole  package at one time. It seems now we have a huge overflow of basil and thyme. I guess it will be lots of Italian dishes over the next few weeks.

Herb Garden

 

 

 

 

-  Finally, we will need to protect our strawberries. I was so excited to see our plants producing their first fruits and when they were finally ready… the birds got to them first. Doh!

 But so far it is a fun adventure learning about plants and having a nice space to sit and enjoy. Every morning I can’t wait to go downstairs and have a cup of coffee in our garden. Fantastic!

Kat’s Cat War

Generally I like cats. I quite enjoyed all the various neighborhood cats that would often come by for a little attention… that was until they decided that our front yard would serve as a nice bathroom stop.

I will admit that at the moment our “yard” is very sandy and pretty comfy for a nice cat squat. But the fact is, they don’t even bury their little presents. (I thought cats were clean creatures).

And so war has been declared… and the cats are winning.

So far we have tried the following “cat cures” recommended by family and friends: coffee grounds (both used and fresh), red pepper, and water buckets. As all these “solutions” have so far failed. It is time to get chemical. Next step: Heavy duty cat repellent.

The Front Yard or rather the Neighborhood Cat Bathroom

Living Room

So we bought a house. It was a big step. Houses are a lot of work, especially if you want them to look nice. Thank god for family. They did most of this. Check out the before and after pictures of our living room.

Living Room Before

Living Room After

The New Garden

The Garden 2

The Garden

We just spent the last two weekends redoing our garden. With the help of P’s father and uncle we ripped out all the cement blocks and began planting. Now everything just needs to grow!