The last of 6 bottles of Hertog Jan Grand Prestige has been lovingly stored in the refrigerator since our trip to the Netherlands in 2012. I've been "milking" my supply ever so carefully since this great beer isn't available in the United States. (We're a very backward beer country.)
Well tonight's the night to enjoy the last bottle and it's every bit as good as I remembered and expected. Too bad it's the last one.
So I guess it's time to go back for more. I think a week from Wednesday would be a great day to fly.
Last week Ellie attended the "Short Shakespeare" camp which was put on by Theatrikos. She had a great time and now wants to be an actress.
The stunt demonstration was great fun. They clearly had a great time "beating up" on each other!
Ellie's scene from Macbeth. Ellie is the witch with the shimmering purple cape (who is not holding a script because she knows her lines). She did good!
Nate, Ellie & Eve are with us for 2 weeks for summer camps. This week
Ellie is in Theatrikos’ “Short Shakespeare” camp and Nate & Eve have been
attending Vacation Bible School. I think the thing the kids have been most excited about is having their
bicycles in Flagstaff. They love the freedom of being able to “ride in the
street”. We watch them pretty closely, but we do have a quiet street that allows
a lot of freedom to ride. Here’s a video of my girls on their bikes:
Tuesday was “Cow Appreciation Day” at our local Chic-fil-A. Free chicken if
you showed up dressed as a cow. So Linda got some cow print fabric. Ellie made
paper “horns” for her forehead, and the girls became an instant cow!
Some videos of them as a cow. Eve’s really got the tail wag down good!
Most evenings we get in a ride on our bikes after supper. Tonight was a particularly impressive sunset, but I left the camera at home. No problem – I had my work phone with me since I’m on call this week. Not a bad substitute!
This weekend we visited the 2015 Flagstaff Wool & Fiber
Festival. We’ve visited this event a few years ago when it had just a couple of
vendors and about the same number of sheep in attendance. By comparison, this
year’s event was creating quite a buzz in town. The new organizers did a great
job of creating a fun and educational event that had great vendors, education
opportunities, and lots of attendees. Here are a few of my photos from the weekend.
I’m calling this week my “Netherlands Pre-Conditioning Week”. We’ve been watching lots of videos on YouTube about the Netherlands, including ones about how the bike path system works and how the system came into being. It tied in well with this being “Bike to Work” week here in Flagstaff. In previous years I’ve had to skip biking to work during this event because dry storm fronts came through with strong winds out of the west that were just too much of a headwind to fight on the way to work. This year the forecast was much better. Monday morning was pretty good. It’s about 6 miles to work, and the hospital is on a hill so the end of the ride is always tough, but it seemed to be okay. I made it in 45 minutes as planned, but I really felt like I was out of shape. The afternoon ride was a different story – even though the forecast called for 0% chance of rain, I left work in a rain shower. Fortunately, the rain let up and I was able to “ride between the drops”, but there was a brief shower about half-way home that included sloppy snow mixed with rain. Still, not too bad, until I got to the traffic signal a couple of blocks from home. As I sat waiting for the light it started to rain hard, and then change to sloppy snow. I got wetter within 2 minutes of home than I had in the previous half hour. Tuesday was better, at least weather wise. It was clear, sunny, and I had a good tailwind coming home. Still, I felt really out of shape and felt like I was working far too hard. My tires looked fine, but a check of air pressure showed that I had 55 pounds instead of the maximum 75 pounds. That could explain a lot! Wednesday was like night and day compared to the first two. I sailed to work, got further up a big hill before I had to walk, used higher gears, and got home in record time. What a difference proper air pressure makes! So I figure that by bicycling that many miles, in such varied weather, and being inspired by the videos, I had a pretty good warm-up for bicycling in the Netherlands. Maybe I’ll be able to keep it up and ride once or twice a week this summer. On one of my lunch-time walks, I saw that the orange poppies are beginning to bloom. I always think of the Netherlands when I see these flowers.
I think I’ll continue working on my conditioning by enjoying one of my last bottles of Hertog Jan this weekend. I’ve been rationing myself since I can’t get it here in the U.S. When they are gone, it’s time to go back, so maybe I should drink them sooner rather than later?!
A few weeks ago we got a text from Nick & Tay asking if we’d like to go to a ukulele concert. Since Nick has become quite a ukulele player (and amassed a pretty good collection of ukes), we of course said yes. We had no idea what they had in mind, but were imagining sort of a folk concert with a couple of players at a local coffee shop or similar small venue. The day before the concert, we find out that we’re going to hear “The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain” – sounds interesting! When we got to the concert, the crowd in the lobby was being serenaded by a local group of uke players called “The Volcanoes”. It was a great warm-up for what turned out to be a long wait. We learned that the group had been delayed because of an accident on Interstate 17, but that they were definitely on their way. When they finally arrived, over an hour later, we learned that they had persevered through 2 canceled or delayed flights and that the promoters had arrange for a bus to get them to Flagstaff, only to be caught in the traffic jam on the highway. Our reward for the wait was that they did their sound check in front of the audience, which turned out to be a great thing to watch. Then they started their program, which always starts with the pronouncement “We ARE the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain” – just a sample of the dry British sense of humor that showed that these serious musicians didn’t take themselves too seriously. Here’s a sample of their program. “The Happy Song” is probably the most fitting song I can think of to be performed with ukulele – how can you listen to ukuleles and not smile?!
The Happy Song–The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain
