Just waitin' for the tram...

Clouds over newly plowed field

There are gorgeous skies here, in between the rain showers.

Inline skates and skate boards

 
Here they make statues to it. The symbolism indicates the boy on the right died while boarding in a public square.

Colors of Nature - Le bois de Hal / Belgium

Colors of Nature - Le bois de Hal / Belgium

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Beautiful Sterrebeek

Walking home from the tram the other day, I walked past one bush and boom, tthese flowers greeted me. The color was just so wonderful in the sunlight.

Warm, like buttah...

Sterrebeek

Sometimes a pictures says so much more than anyone means it too, and yet, it says the truth. Welcome to Sterrebeek. More than a dirt road

Fertilizer on a beautiful day

 
Ah, the smell of a freshly fertilized field...

Koln Cathedral

 
From the train station, the cathedral through the roof.

Koln Train Station

 

I haad to change trains in Koln the other day going to and from Berlin. I liked the train station.

Odd structures

 

On the other side of this field, partially obscured is a combination storage area, sheep shed, and otherwise an 'improvised structure'. By improvised structure I mean a structure that was put together to meet a need, using whatever materials are to hand. This has wood drying, a second story with an elevated story - why, I don't know. Maybe the next time I'm at the field I will try to see into the upper level. These sorts of structures have been catching my eye here because, I am guess, it's an outcome of zoning that allows small farms next to suburban housing. So I am seeing more structures than I have ever see before, because I am around them. I imagine farmers have been doing this for 4 or 5,000 years.

Death in Venice

Death in Venice, An opera by Benjamin Britten, was presented in a great production at La Monnaie here in Brussels. The staging was dreamlike, except for the long transition from Munchen and the Ship to Venice.

Walking to the tram

 

We walked to the tram stop, the new way to get to the Metro, in order to get downtown. Trhough the fields, and then on the tram.

By the side of the road

 

The tram used to run out here (the street is Tramlaan). But this little pond peeks out from between two houses, and the dark tunnel-like shadows make the pond very attractive.

Our Metro Stop

 
This is the subway stop in Kraainem. It's simple, pretty bare of decoration, but it bring light right now to the tracks, and I like that

Politics in Brussels

Yesterday there demonstrations downtown like there were across Europe, about the current Gaza-Israeli conflict. Someone had asked me what the feeling was here...The first sentence "Diverses associations et ONG organisent ce dimanche une manifestation pro-palestinienne à Bruxelles pour dénoncer la situation dans la Bande de Gaza" roughly translates as "Diverse associations and organizations staged a pro-Palestinian demonstration Saturday to denounce the situation in the Gaza strip." You'll notice that the picture of the demonstration they have is from New Year's Eve, not from yesterday's demonstration.

Huge Full Moon

 

We went out last night and the full moon looked huge...

More Ice non-storm

 

More Ice non-storm

 

Ice non-storm

 

We woke up the other morning to a frozen non-storm. The weather has been foggy, then the temperature dropped, and all the trees and shrubs seemed to be coated with ice. It looked kind of like infra-red pictures: there was a complete color shift.

Encore careers, they call 'em...

Here's a story about encore careers in my alumni magazine.

The sun came up...

From Daily Life

We can call it a movie.

Snow Day!

 

This is a street two blocks fom our house, hours after the snow stopped. I wonder when they will get to it.

What Just Happened

What Just Happened is reviewed here. We watched the movie this afternoon. It was very enjoyable, bitterly funny. Some people who like dogs aren't going to like. That's all I can say.

Geese

 

I think these weere a couple of geese, that looked a little bit lost, out in the middle of a field. You'll have to zoom on this one to even begin to see this. Although they are small in the frame (and one of them was sitting down when I actually took the picture) they seemed large when seen across the field.

How do you ski when there is no snow?

 

This man was on wheeled skis - I don't know what else to call them - rolling his way across country.

Spiders on Acid

 

Those of us of a certain age probably remember the pictures of a perfect spider web, right next to a spiderweb by a spider on acid. Apparently the spiders around here were hallucinating last night.

Actually, I think, it's the heavy fog, and the 38 degree F weather, which led to moisture accumulating on the webs, and the weight of the moisture led to the appearance of drug degraded behaviour.

A Foggy Day in the suburbs of Brussels

 
I went for a walk today in the suburbs of Brussels. Oscar got a good walk. So far, there was no tinkle left. We saw somintersting things in the walk.

New Year's Snow

It didn't last long, but it was thick and kind of exciting for 15 minutes.

New Year's Day

Happy New Year, in a quiet way.

 
 
 
And then we walked through the cold, past the people singing in Church, and caught our trains and started our cars and made our ways home.

There was even mariachi music!

 

New Year's Eve 4

There were even fireworks!