Beauty in Holland

Visual snippets that make me happy... (um, sans the actual visual... I gotta find a better way to post photos here)

A man in a suit, riding his bike, clutching a dozen red roses.

The stark contrast between a gray, Dutch summer day and bright pink peonies.

A lush, kelly-green field dotted with lambs.

M's smile when I arrive home from Amsterdam on a Friday evening.

White-blond Dutch babies with huge blue eyes. Sigh... so cute that I want to nibble their toes.

Even better, those same babies riding in the seat perched on the front of their mommy's bikes -- like baby hood ornaments.

Nile geese in Vondelpark with their goslings. According to M, these birds weren't in Holland 20 years ago. In that time, they've migrated here from the Mediterranean/Africa. They do look exotic -- more like birds from a land of olives and hummus rather than a land of bread and potatoes. Take a look: http://home.planet.nl/~wierd044/dier/vogels/watervogels/watervogels.htm

The tall, lithe, half-asian guy in my yoga class. hubba hubba

The rooftop kitties who've been visiting my attic room. (I'm 4 floors up!) So far there are 4 different kittens of various ages who have crawled into my open window to check me out. They now know that a) this woman will love us and gives a good scratching and b) she's got the goods -- meat for all! This morning I woke up at 5:15 am to the plaintive cry of an orange kitty sitting outside my room.

The green curry beef and pad thai at Bird on the Zeedijk.

The duskish light at 10:30 pm. Sure the summers are a bit chilly here, but you can't beat the long days.