This Glorious Morning

Aldous Huxley wrote, "My father considered a walk among the mountains as the equivalent of churchgoing." Although I don't agree entirely, I can certainly see where his father was coming from. Hiking the mountains of Switzerland, for me, is a very special spiritual experience but, sometimes, as I walk down towards home, what I felt absolutely sure of at the summit becomes unclear. Up there I am a part of something bigger than me. Down here I am me again: same doubts, fears and worries. Sigh.

As I looked out of the window this morning, this is the view that greeted me. Honestly, I am overwhelmed every single day by the beauty of my world. It makes my heart sing to be where the grass and trees are green and the snow capped mountains rise up and stand tall.

As I write this, the river rushes by and cow bells jangle in the distance but it is not perfect; cars rush by too and the construction next door of the flats being built can be deafening. At the moment, I choose not to hear those things...I am feasting with my eyes on beauty and I'm going to get my fill.

I have been inspired today by what others have written and so I will leave this post in the same way. A wish for us all: "May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds." - Edward Abbey

Amsterdam: Last Day

By now I had passed enough pancake houses that I was ready to have one of my own. Dutch pancakes are heaven on a plate. They are like crepes except the things you have with them are baked in, rather than folded up inside. I had an apple one and the best cup of tea I had had in 5 days. I was practically shaking with happiness...

We then wandered for a bit, soaking up our last of the Amsterdam atmosphere and then we headed to 'Ton Fun'. It is a children's soft play area built in an abandoned underpass under the city center. You can hear and see the cars and trams passing overhead and the whole place is set up with a car theme. They kept the original road that ran through the tunnel and built on either side of it. The kids can use little scooter things to race up and down the road. Max was a bit anxious as it was a loud place but Isla was Little Miss Independent and didn't stop once the whole time. She cried when we left and kept making the sign for 'more' and saying "mo mo mo".

We made our way to the train station and headed for the airport and the short flight back home to Switzerland.

We'll definitely go back to Holland again...we want MORE!

Amsterdam: Day 4

We spent day 4 at the Artis Zoo, in the center of the city. It is a very old, very pretty zoo set amid lush gardens in the center of town. The animals were surprisingly close and some were separated from the wary tourist by only rocks or water, rather than a big fence (with a few exceptions of course). This was a bit off-putting at first as it seemed like the monkeys and giraffes could just walk out of their enclosures but that didn't happen on our visit;-) I do however, have great visions of the naughtiness the animals must get up to when the zoo is closed at night. Without proper fences to keep them in, they probably all get together and party.

There was a great reptile house, an insectarium, an aquarium, a butterfly exhibit and many, many other animals. Isla was fascinated! She was exhausted by the time we headed home and actually fell asleep on the front of the bike! Honestly, my kids will sleep through anything;-) (pic included)

The only disappointment was the food. Sadly, we forgot our picnic lunch and had to eat zoo cafeteria food. Blah.

Amsterdam: Day 3

Day 3 began very slowly thanks to a late night with my husband and a bottle of wine. Luckily, the kids treated us with a lie-in....something they have never done before. We decided that we would go to the train station and rent some bikes to tour around on. For those of you who don't know, EVERYONE rides a bike in Amsterdam. They are everywhere! Isla and I got a really cool one, with the baby seat on the front by the handlebars. She loved being able to see and I wasn't thrown off balance by her wiggling around behind me, trying to see! Josh and Max were on a child/adult tandem number which had Max in the front as well. He was a little anxious to start with but was soon ringing the bell and shouting, "Mummy, we're cruisin', are you cruisin'?"

I also included pics of the precarious stairs in our apartment as well as the aforementioned roof terrace. Fun stuff!

(For those of you with a keen eye, you will notice that the little monkey with his tongue stuck out has a swollen face and his eye is almost swollen shut. He has really bad reactions to mosquito bites and came down the stairs the first morning looking like he'd gone a few rounds with Mike Tyson! )

Amsterdam: Day 2

After sleeping in, we took the train to Enkhuisen, about an hour away from Amsterdam. It is a quaint fishing village with a little treasure in it called Sprookjes Wonderland. It is a theme park for the under 8's based on Grimm's fairytales as well as other well know stories. It was perfect for Max and Isla. Nothing was too big, loud or scary. They rode all the wee rides and LOVED walking around the elf village. I highly, highly recommend it! We stayed all afternoon and then walked the 15 minutes back into Enkhuisen and found its main streets were pedestrianized and it was late night shopping! I felt drunk with choice of small boutiques with funky style and realized I should have perhaps been born in Holland;-) We stopped to ask for a restaurant recommendation and were directed to the Grand Cafe. It was in an old, town office building and was, indeed, Grand. We headed back around 6:30 and got the kids to bed at a much more decent hour, just in time for us to kick back on the roof terrace with our glasses of wine. I am now wondering how many Dutch people have actually died by falling down their ridiculously steep staircases after enjoying some wine or 'herbal' supplements on the roof terrace. There must be a statistic somewhere...

Amsterdam: Day 1

We arrived late in Amsterdam and were so knackered that we decided to take a taxi to the rental apartment, rather than the train. It was a top floor apartment in an old, skinny, 5 story house. The stairs got more and more narrow as we hiked up to our floor and by the time we got to our front door, the stairs were mere ladders! Quaint is the word I will choose to describe it, rather than inconvenient or dangerous. While I put the kids to bed, Josh went looking for a store or restaurant that would do take-away and came back bearing noodles and chopsticks. Hooray!

The next day dawned and the sky was blue so we hit the streets to see what we could see. We were up a bit early so the street cleaners were still out tidying up from the night before but I didn't care. I was fascinated by how beautiful everything was! We walked past the main harbor and fancy train station. We strolled through sweet little streets that lined the gently winding canals. I loved how the houses looked like fancy milk cartons, all squished up together and took numerous pictures of the different, ornate rooftops. The houses seem to lean this way and that, sometimes the opposite way from the house next door! It has something to do with Amsterdam being built on a deep layer of sand...the effect is a bit 'diagon-alley'.

I was brought back down from my revelry by an old, fat prostitute in lingerie, knocking on her window from the inside, trying to get my kid's attention to wave at them. Not something you often see at 9:00am on a Thursday morning.

We walked on to the famous flower market. I was not particularly looking forward to seeing it as I imagined it was nothing fabulous but oh how wrong I was. Stall after stall of bulbs and flowers of every colour of the rainbow ran along one side of the canal and shops/cafes were opposite. Isla had fallen asleep at this point so we parked ourselves outside in front of a cafe and watched the world go by.

We attempted to go on a canal cruise twice but both times the sun was too strong and the captain of the boat recommended we come back in the evening as the boat was too hot for children (and probably us too:-) We went for dinner and came back around 7pm, by which time the sky had clouded over nicely and we had a lovely cruise through the city. Max stole Isla's headscarf in order to transform into Captain Max, most feared pirate in Holland....Aaaarggghhh! One point: stay away from the floating Chinese restaurant near the train station. It is mentioned in the tour recording but is a big disappointment. Mediocre food and WAY overpriced. Also, our driver asked for a tip but didn't give the tour. It was a recorded voice, while he drove. I thought that was kind of cheeky...anyone else?

A Balcony Garden begins to bloom

We have seen the first signs of bloom from our balcony vegetable garden.

Our peas are growing quickly and Max loves to break them open and count how many are in each pod.

They taste AMAZING.

We also discovered today that our peppers have started! We have a wee green one and many of the flowers have started to look like mini peppers. No matter how often I see it, I find it amazing how things grow. As you can see from the photos, we also have carrots, blackberries, spinach and even cucumbers!

I am not quite ready for the 'good life' however, as you can see from my raspberry bush (picture at the top). Little green invaders have arrived and show no signs of leaving.

In February, I bought a copy of, The New Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency, by John Seymour and was inspired to start a balcony garden. It is an experiment to see how much we can grow and how we can preserve what we grow...indeed, if we will have enough left over to preserve at all.

A Poem for my Dad

My Dad died on October 12, 2007. His death has changed me so profoundly that I scarcely recognize myself. I am sure that I look the same to people but who I am inside my skin is a stranger. I think things I never thought before and I wish for things that scare me down to my bones. I wrote this poem on a night that I missed him so much I just had to get some of it out...for me that means writing it down.

There You Are

by Lesley Sim Armstrong

You are gone.

Then a summer thunderstorm comes and there you are,

Eyes dancing as the lightning flashes.

The air is heavy with anticipation.

I reach out to catch your hand and share this wildness but you’ve slipped away into the night.

You are gone.

Then the autumn comes and there you are.

The rowan tree is burning with colour and I am alive,

filled with a passion for life that was your gift to me.

I want to tell you all that is in me.

You are gone.

Then the snow begins to fall and there you are.

The world is silent and we stand together in white beauty.

It fills me up and makes me ache.

I am empty.

You are gone.

Then I am by the sea and there you are.

Waves roll in and everything that is you rolls in,

Hits me, washes over me and rolls out again.

I am left drenched in you.

You are gone.

It is as though you are ahead of me and I am running to catch up but my legs are heavy and I am weighed down.

I spend my days chasing you

Then I fall asleep and there you are

With your hands in your pockets.

Nonchalant.

As if to say,

You are waiting for me.

There you are.

A new adventure...

I have been inspired to start a blog by a friend named Jessica. I don't think my words could ever be as poignant as her's but as someone who writes in order to make sense of my world, I am hoping they start to make sense of it all for me.