Well, today I saw them high in the sky above my house. The Swifts are back, so it is officially summer. The Jays seem to have taken their cue from the Swifts, they are building a nest in the tree opposite my house. They've been busy flying to and fro all morning. They've tried in that tree before but that didn't work out very well. Maybe they will have better luck this time.
Yesterday I was out in the grasslands to the west of the city, and got to see most of our breeding grassland birds. The Godwits, Oystercatchers, Lapwings, Redshanks are all back. I got to see a long Spoonbill, and the Peregrine Falcon at its nest high on a Telecom tower. Beautiful, green days.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Two Worlds
I sometimes think I live in two worlds, the regular one here in Amsterdam, and the other one down south. They are different, but sometimes they mix in unexpected ways. Like today. I walked out the northern exit of Amsterdam Central Station towards the ferry, looked to the right, and saw Fram. The last time I saw Fram she was sailing among the icebergs....
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Summer?
I think it's summer again... I have the windows open at the office and in my house, the Storks are up on the nest in the park, people say the Swifts are back, though I haven't seen them myself yet, and there is a lot of garbage in the park when I cycle to work in the morning. And I'm wearing my summer slippers instead of three pairs of socks and the woolly ones...
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Archives
I guess the subject of archives isn't necessarily the most exciting, but they can be fun. Today I went to have a look at the new Amsterdam city archive. The archive used to be in a lovely old building on the Amstel, but not quite in the centre of the city. The building used to be the town hall of one of the villages annexed by Amsterdam some time ago. The new building is in the centre of town, in a huge building that used to be the headquarters of one of the country's biggest banks. It was built in the twenties, a huge, dark closed block. It was always something of a fortress, a place in the town centre that was completely inaccessible. And now suddenly, it is open to the public. And you can see that the designers have managed to combine the grandeur of the old bank with the lightness of modern architecture and the demands made by the public.
On the outside the building looks like a huge vault that you cannot easily enter. When it was still a bank that was probably the case. Now it has been opened up a little and there are some windows on the ground floor, which allows you to look in, but which also allows you to look out into the busy street when you are inside.
I guess the real surprise is the inside, where you have high openings and glass ceilings between the different sections of the building, covered by glass roofs, which allow a lot of light in and which open up the building. The inside is modern, light and straightforward, but a lot of the details tell you about the history of the place.
I had a tour of the building some time last year, when the work was still in progress, and had a look round some of the board rooms on the upper floors. Beautiful big rooms, now once again filled with the old furniture. At the time they were still being renovated, and now they are no longer open to the public, so I can only imagine what they look like from the pictures up on the website.
The vaults are accessible and they probably give the best sense of the old building. The doors are massive, but the vault itself is beautifully decorated, with lots of smaller strong rooms leading off it. Many of the details were left intact and can be closely studied. The panel with all the technical controls is off to the side, all the small safety deposit boxes are stacked in the corridors and the smaller rooms. You can just imagine people over the years coming in to deposit or take out their valuables. The sense of history remains here.
On the outside the building looks like a huge vault that you cannot easily enter. When it was still a bank that was probably the case. Now it has been opened up a little and there are some windows on the ground floor, which allows you to look in, but which also allows you to look out into the busy street when you are inside.
I guess the real surprise is the inside, where you have high openings and glass ceilings between the different sections of the building, covered by glass roofs, which allow a lot of light in and which open up the building. The inside is modern, light and straightforward, but a lot of the details tell you about the history of the place.
I had a tour of the building some time last year, when the work was still in progress, and had a look round some of the board rooms on the upper floors. Beautiful big rooms, now once again filled with the old furniture. At the time they were still being renovated, and now they are no longer open to the public, so I can only imagine what they look like from the pictures up on the website.
The vaults are accessible and they probably give the best sense of the old building. The doors are massive, but the vault itself is beautifully decorated, with lots of smaller strong rooms leading off it. Many of the details were left intact and can be closely studied. The panel with all the technical controls is off to the side, all the small safety deposit boxes are stacked in the corridors and the smaller rooms. You can just imagine people over the years coming in to deposit or take out their valuables. The sense of history remains here.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Out in the Dunes on an Ordinary Sunday
It's nice to be out in the dunes on a sunny Sunday. In a way. But there are some distractions, it isn't all silence, sunshine and birdsong.
In the morning you are usually accompanied by all the joggers, arriving in their cars and then running some distance in the dunes. Some run by themselves, some with a friend or a co-worker, others run in bigger groups. Many wear the latest gear. Running like this often involves a lot of noise, as it can be a social event as well as a sporting one. As the day grows on you seem to see fewer joggers.
In the course of the day you get different people out there. We get the kilometrists, people who are in the dunes to walk for exercise, who walk at some speed and sometimes forget to look around them. Today at one of the viewpoints, while I was having a look round for birds, a man walked past me without stopping one moment or even looking up. I'm sure he enjoys his walks as much as I enjoy mine in his way, but I really like to take my time and to have a look round. The light was so beautiful today, it seems such a shame not to take time to enjoy all that.
In the afternoon you are joined by the young families, people with young children, on bikes or in pushchairs, the older children wearing their boots. And you get the social walkers, couples, groups of friends, catching up on all the news or xchanging experiences on mortgages or gadgets, or just sharing the latest gossip. Some are really nicely dressed, with nice shoes and Sunday clothes, and without a bag or rucksack. I always carry a lot of stuff as I am walking all day, so I have a rucksack filled with coffee, water, sandwiches, fruit, chocolate, camera. And in the course of a lovely day like today my jacket goes in there as well.
The dunes are a no-go area for dogs, so dog owners take their pets on to the beach. Today there was a meeting of dog owners, a big group of people and animals near the beach pavillion, so it was a little hard to get onto the beach.
On the south side of the dunes you have the race track, providing me with some background noise. It is mainly the sound of engines, but at some point around lunchtime the party sirens started to go off and accompanied me on my walk for about
half an hour. My hearing isn't very good to start with, so it got harder and harder to hear the birds. Those sirens can be very distracting.
And this is the time of year when the place comes alive again, when the new leaves start to appear, you can see the first signs of new berries. So many birds singing everywhere. It isn't too hot, so you can walk all day, and it's warm enough to take a break to sit down somewhere and enjoy the sounds and the views. The Lapwings, Plovers, Stonechats, Finches, Woodlarks and Woodpeckers. The Nightingales are back, and the Cuckoos, though I didn't hear or see those, but it's a nice idea that you might. And then to remember that it's only just over two weeks since we last had snow here....
In the morning you are usually accompanied by all the joggers, arriving in their cars and then running some distance in the dunes. Some run by themselves, some with a friend or a co-worker, others run in bigger groups. Many wear the latest gear. Running like this often involves a lot of noise, as it can be a social event as well as a sporting one. As the day grows on you seem to see fewer joggers.
In the course of the day you get different people out there. We get the kilometrists, people who are in the dunes to walk for exercise, who walk at some speed and sometimes forget to look around them. Today at one of the viewpoints, while I was having a look round for birds, a man walked past me without stopping one moment or even looking up. I'm sure he enjoys his walks as much as I enjoy mine in his way, but I really like to take my time and to have a look round. The light was so beautiful today, it seems such a shame not to take time to enjoy all that.
In the afternoon you are joined by the young families, people with young children, on bikes or in pushchairs, the older children wearing their boots. And you get the social walkers, couples, groups of friends, catching up on all the news or xchanging experiences on mortgages or gadgets, or just sharing the latest gossip. Some are really nicely dressed, with nice shoes and Sunday clothes, and without a bag or rucksack. I always carry a lot of stuff as I am walking all day, so I have a rucksack filled with coffee, water, sandwiches, fruit, chocolate, camera. And in the course of a lovely day like today my jacket goes in there as well.
The dunes are a no-go area for dogs, so dog owners take their pets on to the beach. Today there was a meeting of dog owners, a big group of people and animals near the beach pavillion, so it was a little hard to get onto the beach.
On the south side of the dunes you have the race track, providing me with some background noise. It is mainly the sound of engines, but at some point around lunchtime the party sirens started to go off and accompanied me on my walk for about
half an hour. My hearing isn't very good to start with, so it got harder and harder to hear the birds. Those sirens can be very distracting.
And this is the time of year when the place comes alive again, when the new leaves start to appear, you can see the first signs of new berries. So many birds singing everywhere. It isn't too hot, so you can walk all day, and it's warm enough to take a break to sit down somewhere and enjoy the sounds and the views. The Lapwings, Plovers, Stonechats, Finches, Woodlarks and Woodpeckers. The Nightingales are back, and the Cuckoos, though I didn't hear or see those, but it's a nice idea that you might. And then to remember that it's only just over two weeks since we last had snow here....
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Collecting
I sat and watched a documentary called "A Bittersweet Temptation" last week on the world of the Kinder Surprise egg. I know about these things, I've seen them around and I've seen them opened and eaten, though I can't remember actually eating one myself. Well, I THOUGHT I knew about these things, but I had no idea. They actually are a way of life for some people, apparently. The little toys and plastic figures inside are collector's items, and some now cost thousands of Euros. There are special meetings and fairs for collectors to meet, swap and buy. I guess in many ways collecting the eggs is like collecting just about everything else. In fact, some aspects of this documentary looked frighteningly familiar. I'm glad to say it wasn't completely recognisable. When one of the women was asked what she would do if she had to choose between her collection and her husband her answer, after a long pause, wasn't quite convincing. This was the same couple that will drive to Germany when a new series first comes out to buy boxes of the things, after carefully selecting the ones that will contain the figurines.
It also reminded me of the craze that hit this country while I was away: smurfs. When I called an English friend who lives in Amsterdam shortly after getting back she told me the country had gone crazy, everybody was collecting smurfs that were free gifts from a supermarket. Apparently 29 million smurfs were manufactured in China, and ten days before the end of the campaign they were all gone. I guess that means that on average every Dutch man, woman and child has two smurfs. There were none in my house until last Saturday, we had missed all this. But then we managed to become average again, my partner brought four smurf into the house. I am, for the moment, proud possessor of the girl smurf and the lazy smurf, he has the big smurf and the pancake smurf. Dividing the foursome was one of those difficult moments in a relationship.
It also reminded me of the craze that hit this country while I was away: smurfs. When I called an English friend who lives in Amsterdam shortly after getting back she told me the country had gone crazy, everybody was collecting smurfs that were free gifts from a supermarket. Apparently 29 million smurfs were manufactured in China, and ten days before the end of the campaign they were all gone. I guess that means that on average every Dutch man, woman and child has two smurfs. There were none in my house until last Saturday, we had missed all this. But then we managed to become average again, my partner brought four smurf into the house. I am, for the moment, proud possessor of the girl smurf and the lazy smurf, he has the big smurf and the pancake smurf. Dividing the foursome was one of those difficult moments in a relationship.
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
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