Snow in Brussels

It was snowing in Brussels last week. Our two younger kids, who are visiting their father in the states and already out of school, are probably disappointed that they missed an opportunity for school to be closed. C'est. as we say around here, la vie.

There was also enough snow for bonhomme neige, snow guys, though I didn't get any pictures.

Also, look at how the insulation on that house in the back marks the difference between the two parts of the structure. On one the snow is melted, and on the other it is sitting there.

London shower

OK, this is a silly post. A shower in London with a light in it. I have just never seen anything like it before. I had to turn on the water to make sure it was a shower.

Happy Thanksgiving from a bunch of Molly's Pilgrims

 

In a galaxy long ago and far away I helped make a movie called Molly's Pilgrim. It went on to win an Acadmey Award. My great niece (in second grade) just read the book and watched the movie. Melanie Jane (and all the other second graders at Our Lady of the Valley school, along with their teacher Mrs. Mann) made their own Pilgrims this year. "It takes all kinds of Pilgrims to make Thanksgiving." Happy Thanksgiving!

NYU Pillow

 
I don't know if there are copyright issues involved, but my University is worth copying for a pillow for sale in a market in Gouda.

Gouda Town Hall - Clock Face

 
A clock face and a couple of sun dials.

Gouda Town Hall - in profile

Gouda - Town Hall

 

It is always surprising how these things rise like a fairy tale, not out of the mist in a remote spot, but on a bright clear morning above a busy market.

Gouda - Sint Janskerk

 

I was surprised by how close the neighboring buildings - there's no square or plaza from which to get a view of the church. That's Sint Jans on the right.

Gouda - Sint Janskerk

 

Gouda - Church Streetscape

 
This is looking down the length of the church on one side.

Gouda

 

This is Gouda, home of the cheese. We took a day trip yesterday, with the whole family, and we all enjoyed it. But I was struck by the quiet reflective canal, and grabbed this picture, and I'm thinking of a watercolor. But this is a city which 150 years ago was synonymous with beggar, that is to say someone from Gouda was a beggar, because the city had been so poor for so long.

In the 40s they started to fill in the canals, but the city fathers changed direction.

Pajamas and the weather

 

This is a week old now, just a week. Liz had two friends stay over, making a movie about polio for their science course. They dramatized the life, and death, of someone with polio. They also giggled a lot. The next morning, Kathy and I put together a spread for them. I walked to the boulangerie and picked up croissants and choclate croissants. We had Greek yoghurt (with honey), Kathy sliced up a banana and an apple: they had lots to eat. After their meal, they went out on our little back porch, and realized it was a beautiful, warm day(for Brussels), and decided to do their homework together in the sun, on the grass, in their pajamas. That's when I took this picture.
It is difficult to believe that we are so much farther north than New Jersey, than any part of the continental United States, or should I say the 48 contiguous states. Which formulation suggests the two non-contiguous states, Hawaii and Alaska. Which, 3 days from the election, suggests Obama and Palin. Rarely do we get national politicians from these two more remote outposts of the US. Right now Obama seems to be in the lead. Has the weather influenced their views, is it responsible for their (right-thinking) liberalism and conservatism respectively?