Biking Culture in the Netherlands

Zebra striped bicycle on a canal in Amsterdam

I am totally in love with the bike culture in the Netherlands.  It’s impressive.  EVERYONE bikes.  Older people, parents toting children (1, 2 or 3 on a single bike!), shoppers, men in business suits, women in high heels.  In Amsterdam, the bike lanes are more than twice as wide as the pedestrian sidewalks where you often have to walk single file.  And the Netherlands has an excellent system of paved paths between towns and cities.  I wish we could do half so well here in America.

Parked bikes, Haarlem

Getting ready to leave the Grote Market with her purchases

Shopping at the market by bike

Bike loaded with shopping

Mother and daughter biking along a canal in Haarlem

Classy rider with heels

Bikes parked along a narrow residential street in Haarlem

My sister called this the latest version of the “covered wagon.”

Double-decker bike parking near the train station in Delft

Dad with kids

At the Delft flower market

Innovative carrying solutions

This older woman gave a graceful hop onto her bike — you could tell she had executed this movement thousands of times in her life.

Weekend bikers on a trail near Zaanse Schaans (example of trail between towns)

Decorative bike guard on a canal in Amsterdam

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Visit to the Pumpkin Patch

A neighbor's farm hosts this pumpkin patch every year

Happy Halloween!

Orange is the color of autumn, especially around Halloween.  One of my Dad’s neighbors sells pumpkins from their pumpkin patch.  Here are some photos:

Pumpkins with vintage bicycle

Wagon-load of pumpkins for sale

Another pumpkin display

Page from John Updike's A Child's Calendar

Seeing Picasso at the Seattle Art Museum

Outside the Seattle Art Museum a few minutes before opening

We are very fortunate to have a rare opportunity to see over 100 of Picasso’s works of art without the cost of an expensive airplane ticket.  The Seattle Art Museum is currently exhibiting Picasso’s art from the collection of the Musee National Picasso in Paris, which is undergoing renovation right now.  I went to see it this week.  The ticket price includes an audio tour, which I found helpful in learning about Picasso’s career.

One of my favorite pieces was a painting called The Farm Woman, 1938.  I loved the simple, yet evocative, sketches of a rooster, hen, and chicks on the edges of the painting.  Picasso is a genius at making a few lines so very expressive.

Here is a reproduction of The Farm Woman in the exhibit catalog.

Detail of the rooster from The Farm Woman

Seattle street scene: Picasso mural near Pioneer Square

Fall Color in Seattle

Seattle street in autumn

Fall, Leaves, Fall
by Emily Bronte

Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autumn tree.

I shall smile when wreaths of snow
Blossom where the rose should grow;
I shall sing when night’s decay
Ushers in a drearier day.

Fallen leaf caught in pine needles

Fall colors

Fall colors reflected in a rain puddle

 

Bicycle, Seattle University campus

Late sunflower