Tag: Netherlands

Hummm… June Wrap Up

The Cedar Journal June 28, 2022

As June is coming to a close it is time to update my Hummm… most of these come from the last part of our Minnesota vacation but we had a couple that snuck into file since our return. We never know when those things that make us go Hummm… will appear! Enjoy!

Hummm…Is that a sleeping bag bottle cozy? Yup! It made me smile at the General Store in Marine on St Croix and then followed us on vacation.

The problem with some Hummm… is that once you see one, you see them everywhere, this one multiplied into crazy cute cozy’s everywhere!!! One last chance to purchase? Nope. Resistance to the cute cozy!

Hummm… smile face! This greets anyone on Walsh Road, Eagle Nest Lake 3. What a great way to brighten any day.

This Hummm…comes from the Front Porch Coffee & Tea Coffee in Ely. I guess the local campaign is going to the dogs also a limited focus group as this was found in the rest room.

Hummm… if things in Ely get really bad they still have one of these… a fall out shelter at the Post Office. Take note “B” in IL! 😂

Hummm… just in case you needed another life jacket. Cute cozy.

This Hummm… was provided as a solution to mosquitoes! No kidding. A dab behind your ear will keep them away. Hummmm… maybe next time….

Hummm… I really didn’t think that the Navy was using clean diplomacy.

Hummm… seems like this is either very manly or very old soap.

This Hummm… was found while paddling in Aalsmeer. This bus sign is located on an island surrounded by water… not sure how the bus will stop here. Maybe a canoe stop?

Hummmm… a canoe? That is a wrap for June!

** What has made you stop in your tracks this month and made you ask Hummm…?

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

Memorial Day – The Netherlands

The Cedar Journal May 4, 2022

Tonight at 8 pm Dutch standard time the entire country will pause for two minutes of silence. This tradition each year is to honor, remember and respect all war dead. That it includes, not only military, but civilian casualties from those conflicts.

On March 10th this year, the Hubby and I visited the largest American Cemetery in The Netherlands from World War II, Margraten.

One of the thousands of graves of American military who died liberating The Netherlands in 1945.

Not our first visit, but I needed time to reflect on what was happening on the World stage. I needed counsel from the silence to make sense to what was happening in the Ukraine.

War is never cheap! It costs lives, some so young, they never got to live the life I have lived. Marriage, children, jobs that would give them joy. They never experienced Europe free from Nazi rule. Yet, each and everyone one of those souls helped to change the course of history. Leaders of the time after these soldiers had fought and died, said NEVER AGAIN!

Yet, here I was in 2022 trying to understand why? How?

Silence of those American’s who died for the freedom of Europe.

As we walked through the silence of the peacefully resting souls who now are forever part of the Dutch landscape, I cried. To know that so many were lost, that so many helped to make Europe what it is today without ever seeing the war at the ending…sad…yet sadder to see a repeat of something so similar in the Ukraine.

Some of the gravesites have been adopted by local Dutch families who continue to place flowers on the grave. This one just happened to be from my home state of Minnesota.

So, wherever you are in the World as you read this blog today, please stop and send your thoughts towards peace. War is never the answer but we must remember the ultimate cost for everyone.

Hummmm… Camping/Hiking in Netherlands

The Cedar Journal May 2, 2022

Those regular readers of my blog already know to be amazed at the items that the universe places in my path.

This week is vacation week in The Netherlands for most people. The Hubby only has three days off but we decided to escape to one of our favorite camping spots at the Biesbosch. Then I would try to get my hiking feet to pound the kilometers I still have to complete the Floris V Pad hiking trail. Oh, how I digress, this is a Hummm blog. Yes, I found these at our camping and along my route.