under dutch skies

Sometimes I just have to laugh. It happens to me a lot here in NL.

A colleague at work told me that I should try the jogging route around the Sloterplas. It’s a 6.2km route just to the west of the A10 ring road. It never occurred to me to run this route. But why not? It’s only a 5 minute bike ride from home! This is the surprising part - it’s so close to home but but seems so far away. Usually if I want to jog on a Sunday and the weather is nice, I’ll go to the Vondelpark. With this nice weather we’ve been having, the park is full of joggers, bikers, baby stroller walkers, skaters, dog waters, etc. etc. It’s just full of people.

This morning I jumped on my bike and headed for new territory. The really nice thing about running around Sloterplas is that it’s a paved bike path / running path and there are markings every 200m telling you how far you’ve gone. When I got to the starting point I took a couple of photos. The lake looked so big. I couldn’t imagine that I could run all the way around it.

But I DID make it all the way around and without any trouble. I also ran it faster than I’ve ever run before. I’m finding that without trying at all to increase my speed, I’m getting faster anyway. It’s just coming easier and easier. YIPPEE!

I think now that I’ve discovered just how close this park is, I’ll be going there every Sunday to run.

Yesterday we drove to Hillegom to a tile and bathroom company to see about getting stuff for our bathroom in the new house. We followed the TomTom route, which seemed to take us into the middle of no where, but was correct in the end - it WAS in the middle of no where - at least by Amsterdam standards. We drove along lovely canals and fields of flowers and through small villages. I thought “this is another drive to do with Mom in September”.

It was a very successful trip to this company and we will probably go with them to order the equipment and also to do the work on the bathroom. We still have to find out if it’s possible to do in the month of August, not earlier, not later. That should be decided in the next couple of weeks.

On the way back from Hillegom we drove north through more small towns. We drove through Cruquius, which is just south of Haarlem. What did we stumble upon? A HUGE shopping center with a Media Markt, and furniture stores, and even a big plant nursery! What a find! We didn’t stop there, but you can be sure I’ll go back there and check it out. Who would have guessed that such a place existed in Cruquius?

Now, this is the part that makes me laugh. In both cases, yesterday and today, I am reminded just how CLOSE everything is to Amsterdam, and just how SELDOM I get out of the city and go anywhere. There are so many interesting places in NL that are so close by but I just never make the effort to GO. I begin to feel very Dutch, meaning that to a Dutch person traveling 30 minutes to go shopping is just too far. Or that getting in the car to go shopping is just silly when you can go by bike into Amsterdam. But sometimes I’m reminded that everything is so close by and accessible and there’s a whole world outside Amsterdam! I gotta get out more!

The weather has been glorious the last week and looks to continue for at least another 5 days.  It’s been sunny and warm and gets warmer every day.  This kind of weather is rare enough that when we have it everyone, and I mean everyone, goes outside.  People eat outside.  They drink outside.  They sit outside everywhere.

Every day I bike through the city center on my to work and back.  I bike around the Nieuwmarkt which is a big square with a large old building in the center (with a bar and restaurant) and bars and restaurants on all sides.  Just around the corner is Amsterdam’s China town.  And around that corner is the Red Light District.  But back to the sun….

I took a couple of photos on my way home yesterday.  Here’s one side of the Nieuwmarkt:

People will set up tables and chairs just about anywhere they can find the smallest space off the street.  This photo was taken just to the right of Elandsgracht:

These days we have the doors and windows open til late at night and tonight we’ll take the winter bedding off and put on the summer bedding.  I’ve put my winter sweaters away and gotten out my summer skirts.  Summer is finally here!

I is for Island, namely Terschelling.  We spent the last 4 days there and I’ve already blogged about it a bit here.  This photo is special though.  It’s for the iContest for the ABC-Along 2008.  Why should this photo win?

It was taken on an island and actually represents quite a few aspects of this island.  There’s the lamb, and there are certainly a lot of sheep and lambs on Terschelling.  The lamb is standing on top of the dike that runs along the southern edge of the island.  The dike keeps the island from washing away.  The lamb is looking down into a field that is filled with migrating geese.  They are only a small part of the bird life on this island.  You can never escape the sound of sea birds calling or geese honking!  Also in the distance is a farm house (for the sheep of course) a bit of forest (pine trees are found in planted pockets around the island) and on the right top of the photo, the hint of a dune.  The northern half of the island is made up of sand dunes, mostly covered in grasses, but also some covered in cranberry bushes.  Terschelling is famous for cranberries and any food you can think of made from them.

But why else is this a winning photo?  The lamb is kind of an island himself standing there, looking out.  Normally they stick together and don’t stray far from Mom, or their siblings.  This lamb was an island, if only for a little while.

And where would we knitters be without sheep?  This little lamb provides us with the stuff of imagination, warmth, and at one time real survival.  I imagine some early human communities could thank sheep for their very existence.  Me, I’m very thankful for sheep, and green fields, sand dunes, sunshine and islands to escape to.

I’ve added 3 of my Terschelling photos to the Wallpaper photo group on flickr.  It’s a great place to look for computer wallpapers if you are sick of photos of your pets, or kids, or teletubies.  Here are my latest contributions:

Having a few days of RnR is good for the project progress.  I finished the left side of the first pattern in the lace shawl.  I’ve actually already started, and am half way finished, with the right side.

I do have a confession to make though.  The last 8 rows that you see here will probably be frogged and done again.  Either the pattern is wrong, or I’m wrong (more probably).   The pattern changes from the flowers to more like small blobs but my blobs didn’t come out right on the left side next to the leaf panel.  I will finish the right side first before ripping anything out and see how THAT works.  But hey, it’s good progress isn’t it?!

We just got home from spending 4 days on an Island. Terschelling to be exact. It is one of the Dutch Wadden Islands which lay above the northern edge of the country. We took a ferry from Harlingen to West Terschelling, a trip that takes 2 hours. We went by car, and put the car on the ferry, but it is almost as easy to go by train and bike.

We went for this little get-away to get some peace and quiet and to de-stress from work. I think it worked! One day we biked around the whole island. On Queen’s Day we went into West Terschelling and checked out the celebrations going on there. Yesterday we tried to walk from the beach, through the dunes to the forest, and then back to the hotel, but we weren’t able to get past the swamp and into the forest. We had to turn back after several tries to find a trail. Ah well, at least it wasn’t raining!

We stayed at a very nice hotel (Paal 8) on the northwest side of the island. The first night we ate dinner there and I have to say, it was superb. Very high quality dining indeed! The next 2 nights we ate at Paviljoen West aan Zee which was also VERY good food, for a cheaper price than the hotel restaurant. I had fish every night and was still not tired of it.

I really recommend Terschelling if you want to get away for a few days, enjoy some wide open beaches, few people, good food and lots of biking opportunities. I would gladly go back again.

Now, let’s let the photos speak for themselves. You can find all of them here.

We started out by driving over the afsluitdijk. It is the “mother of all dikes”.

A photo of Harlingen:

The ferry boat:

West Terschelling:

When we biked around the island, the southern half is saved from washing away by a dike running nearly the whole length of the island. Along the dike it’s green and lush and covered by sheep and newly born lambs:

There were also lots and lots of birds, but I don’t know their names:

Here’s where we ate and drank:

The beach:

And of course, how do the Dutch get to the beach? By bike of course!

Last night we went with our neighbors to a local pub/restaurant in our neighborhood.  The weather was warm and sunny and it was so wonderful to be able to sit outside and enjoy the weather.  On the way back we walked again through Mercatorplein where there’s a kermis going on.  J. has the same phone as I do, a Sony Ericsson K800i, but he’s read the book whereas I just start using using it without reading about all the things it can do.  He showed me how to change the camera settings for the type of photo you are taking.  If you change it to night photography, you get deep rich colors.  I took these photos with my phone, and I have to say, they look pretty good!

This is the corner of the square, with the pink cheery trees in bloom:

Then I changed the camera settings and started taking photos of the ride.  I like this one because of the contrast of the bright lights and wild ride, and the traditional muslim woman walking by:

Then the colors get fun when the ride starts turning:

I really love the camera on this phone.  The phone itself is pretty ok too.  I’ve been saying for a long time that when the next generation iPhone comes out I will get one, but if the camera isn’t as good as this one I’m going to be a little bit sorry.  This K800i will sync with my computers (XP and OSX both) which is nice.  And it will do email and web browsing, although very painfully.  The screen is too small for real web use and the number pad is just not nice for anything other than a quick sms.  I want an iPhone for the connectivity, but I want this phone for the camera.  Damn, I just don’t want to carry more than 1 device!

It’s so nice to see green again!  When I was jogging in the Vondelpark Sunday I took a couple of photos.  The park was full of joggers, bikers, dog walkers and child walkers.  The terraces were full.  People were out enjoying the sunny weather.

Today a few colleagues and I had lunch on the 7th floor of the public library.  The sun is still shining.  We sat on the terrace.  I took this photo from there.  On the left is Nemo.  The water is the Oosterdok.

Last night was SnB at de Jaren.  W. showed up with this most beautiful of finished objects:

She has other photos here.  She took this photo, which shows it off beautifully, but what you don’t get in a photo is how soft and luscious it feels.  If you knit a blanket of it you’d want to curl up in it and never come out.  It’s just a lovely piece of knitting and gives me more inspiration to continue with my lace project.

I spent a lot of time last night talking with N. about brioche knitting.  I was busy on a brioche swatch, two colors, in the round.  She gave me a lot of tips and encouragement.   She’s such a nice person and generous in sharing her knowledge and experience.   Plus she’s just plain fun.  It’s really a fun group, these SnB’ers, and I’m so glad I finally joined!

In other news….

Yes, I’m still jogging and working up to the Dam to Dam in September.  I’m up to 6km, but not all of it running.  I’m running 4 and walking 2 in between.  And I’m down to 2 days a week.  This is due to my tendency to get shin splints.  Two days a week seems to work best for me at this point and allows my legs time to rest between runs.  I’m hoping to get up to 3 times a week in another month.  I’m sticking to a running schema that will get me up to running 5km consistently in another 3 weeks, then I pick up the 10km schema which should get me there in 10 weeks.  I think if I can run 10km consistently, 3 times a week, I will the proudest person I know.  To some who run all the time it doesn’t sound like much, but to me it will be a major achievement.  If nothing else this jogging crusade is teaching me patience and perseverance.

I’m finding it’s hard to take good photos of lace.  The light is either too strong or too weak and the background makes all the difference.  Plus, lace knitting looks so different before and after it’s blocked.  Right now my lace project looks like a rumpled mess.  Once finished and blocked it will be a perfect web.  At least I hope so!  As I’ve said before, lace is new for me and quite a challenge.  I’m getting the hang of it though.  This triangular part was knit with only 1/2 a row frogged.  I count that as a huge improvement.

I haven’t been able to knit much this last week.  Last Monday night I had to miss SnB night to go to a work event (bowling!).  Tuesday-Thursday were 11 hour days at work.  Bah.  I can’t take much more of that!  I managed to knit almost this entire triangle on Friday night.  At this rate I won’t get this shawl finished by my birthday (which is my goal) in mid-June.

I’m also making swatches for a sock I’m designing and will submit to Knitty.com.  So, it remains TOP SECRET!