More things that make me go “Hummmm” in 2018

This is another one of those blogs of things that happened last year that made us stop, wonder and think “Hummm”.

As I used my rules for “crazy” (find my rules for “crazy” here) – all of these were successfully captured with a photo. No room for “crazy” now. Just a whole lot of room for “hummmm”.

I have come in contact with a number of horses’s …well the picture says it all… in my lifetime but this one was a first from the comfort of my kayak. He/she was nestled in a back garden and hidden in the garden bushes. Unlike so many who caused me grief in my prior encounters this one let me quietly paddle on my way. The strange material it was made out of made me think “hummm, Great recycle project!”

“Hummm…” This piece of natural artwork I saw for days outside our cabin while we were canoeing in the National Park Weerribben. I laughed when I first saw it, thinking it was a great joke that someone was playing by gluing this frog to the foam. I thought several times that I should remove this foam from the water as it was polluting the water but the fact that it was possibly someone’s artwork stopped me. Then I walked by one day, the frog was gone! Maybe he was real? The joke was on me as the next day when I again walked past, the frog was in the exact same spot on the foam. Strange foam frog! “Hummm… real or fake frog?”

We were out for a bike ride in the Dutch countryside when suddenly this pair of cattle caught my eye. The hubby kept riding ahead, so I am thinking he didn’t see them and sure enough he hadn’t. I stopped, laughed, and took a picture. The picture not only was to explain my lagging behind in my cycle pace, but to verify that these cows existed in a pasture. “Hummm… I am guessing that these are easier to keep than normal Holstein cattle although I am not sure if the grass is going to get any shorter.”

“Hummm..” This fits the just darn strange category. This shoe was found by someone and placed in a very public place for the owner to find. A custom used by the Dutch when they find something is to hang or place the object in a very visible place at eye level for the owner to find when they return to look for it. It is common to find scarfs, hats, shopping bags, and sometimes a coat hung on street posts here in this country. This was the first time I had seen a shoe! “Hummm.. How in the world would anyone try to identify it as their own? If the shoe fits wear it?”

I think this shoe should remain as seaside art.

In Minnesota guys in dressed in orange means deer hunting season. Here in the Netherlands, well… these three guys (yes, one is not in the picture, but believe me, there are three) got both myself and my hubby laughing on our trip to Hindeloopen in the summer. We first past them in the auto as they rode along the side of the road. Long poles sticking out along side the bikes and they leap frogged down the road. They looked like some sort of weird knights rehearsing for a new circus act. Two would quickly stop, jump off the bikes as the other would cycle on down the road and jump off his bike. The long poles would then be placed on the roadway and measured with a laser beam.

Hummm… A survey team on bikes! That is about as Dutch as you can get.

 

That empties the folder of strange things in 2018. Now, Let’s see what will fill the 2019 folder.

Unlike last year, where we set down and planned the year of travel that was mostly cancelled due to family situations, this year we are going to take it as it comes. I will finish the Floris V-pad hike (made very clear by the hubby this was my hike and not one he will participate in) that I started at the end of 2018. We have several canoe trips planned for here in The Netherlands. Maybe a Minnesota kayak paddle if the weather cooperates this Spring. Plus a week summer vacation to Scotland.

Just like last year, I will update the bulb flower blooming here in the local fields, document our canoe and kayak adventures, and maybe travel to a new location on our bucket list. We hope you will continue to enjoy the journey with us.

Happy New Year from The Cedar Journal.

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