Tag: cedar strip canoe

cedar strip canoe

Hummmm…. May 2022

The Cedar Journal May 31, 2022

I have had a pretty boring month but even a boring month can place a few Hummm… things into the digital file. Plus, May brought a close to an era, but more on that later in the blog.

For the bird lovers out there! Hummm… this extremely friendly dove was at our camping site and was very content on posing for pictures. Someone who is most likely waiting for this bird to show up (notice the leg tag) should know that it found camping much more fun than heading for home!

Amsterdam is always full of Hummm… and this month as I walked through the center of the city towards my destination, through several clouds of sweet smelling plant smoke, I saw the following, Yes! I got a picture at this point as I wasn’t actually sure it wasn’t my brain reacting to the inhaled smoke.

Once I reached my destination I walked through the door and asked in Dutch if the place was open and got the “deer in the headlight” look. With a delayed response “I don’t speak Dutch!” in broken English. 🙄 Hummm… all those Dutch language lessons and years of experience living here and Amsterdam is now only speaking English (well… forms of English or American language) but Dutch? Then again, there was that smoke cloud I walked through.

Most of you who read this blog on a regular basis (that includes the one regular from China) knows that I am a huge tree hugger! Yup, I have hugged hundreds of trees and feel it is my duty to try to save as many of them as I can (unless they are seedlings coming up in my garden😬), so maybe this next Hummm won’t be shocking.

Hummm… clue two… the sign in Dutch asks what is money if the ice cap melts?

Oh boy… hummm… these individuals don’t look like tree huggers.

But then on the same day in another part of the country the Hubby sent me this Hummm…

Hummmm… that is correct! A skeleton in the backseat of an American gas sucking car! Seems he wasn’t worried about the planet in the 1980’s and looked at what happened to him!

This Hummm… comes all the way from… wait… Minnesota?… really? Nope, this find was at the Dordrecht Steam Engine Show.
Hummm… Thanks Erik!

The last of the Hummm… for the month is how we started the blog. With a picture of our beloved Cedar.

It is the end of the Cedar era at our house. She has now been passed on to a new family in Friesland who will restore her to her former glory.

It was bitter sweet to see her go but knew it was the “right” time for her. To us she seemed to have gained weight over the winter and that alone would not be a good reason but my old shoulder injury/back issues couldn’t lift her without causing me to feel crappy for days afterwards.

Canoeing is fun and hurting is not!

So we are now in search of a Minnesota made light weight canoe in the Netherlands.

Hummmm…

cedar strip canoe

First Canoe Paddle for 2022

The Cedar Journal March 23, 2022

Aalsmeer. This morning the water was like glass when we pushed off from the beach at Aalsmeer and paddled to the Historic Garden to volunteer.

We were the only watercraft on the water as we headed into the harbor area of Aalsmeer.

This type of weather is rarely seen in March.

Once at the garden we were put to work fertilizing the garden. Each plant got some boost of fertilizer that will help it get a good start of nutrition for the season.

Once done with our task we headed back out onto the water. Now pushing against a headwind my muscles told me that this short paddle was longer than I wanted it be. The first paddle of the season always shows me that I was a bit lazy during the winter.

Cedar waiting on the beach in Aalsmeer after her first outing of the season.

Wordless Wednesday July 21, 2021

The Cedar Journal July 21, 2021

Liberation Day 2020

The Cedar Journal May 5, 2020

75 years ago today the Dutch citizens danced in the streets to welcome the Allied Forces, their liberators after more than four years under Nazi rule.

Each year flags are hung to remember that day and to celebrate freedom. This year the national day off was, well less than normal.

We took the opportunity to head out on our first canoe ride of the year. We both needed to be on the water, to flex our canoe muscles, to free ourselves of the four walls of the house. I am usually on the water for weeks by May. Either in Minnesota or here but the last two years have presented some challenges. This year I am guessing most of my readers can relate to the cabin fever syndrome.

He travelled to Hillegom, NL to a place we have paddled before in the Spring. The canals lead through the tulip fields and usually are filled with color and scents of blooms.

The Bulb Canoe Route starting in Hillegom, NL

This was the first time we have had to place Cedar on our new (to us) VW Caddy. We were worried about how we would lift her to the much higher roof of this van. In fact we talked about it most of the winter, tried to watch videos of people who lift canoes onto higher profiles vehicles (no luck on that!), and finally came up with a system that seemed to work for us.

We love the fact that the VW Caddy has so much more room for our gear.

A step I have to use to reach the tie straps.

cedar strip canoe

Canoe Paddles at Lauwersmeer, NL

The Cedar Journal August 28, 2019

Having a camping spot on the water makes it easier for enjoying a canoe paddle. We started our week with a short paddle of 4.5 km close to the camping. On the edge of the National Park Lauwersmeer we saw plenty of migrating birds.

Swans, white egrets, ducks of every sort and cormorants. We have spotted spoonbills and three black swans also.

The second paddle was on the West part of the Lauwersmeer from the small village of Oostmahorn. The wind made this a bit of a challenging paddle until we reached a protected island area. Not wanting to paddle back into the waves we headed inland to find a canal back to our start point. Only to end up at a old lock with no access to the canal on the other side. We returned the way we came. In the shallow water we saw some huge fish. I even saw a bass come straight out of the water vertically. This was a 6.5 km paddle.