Narrow minded

Steep, narrow stairs
Steep, narrow stairs

When I think of people from the Netherlands in general, probably the last words that come to mind are narrow minded. In the Dutch Golden Age of the 17th century, persecuted religious groups elsewhere in Europe found refuge there and authors were free to publish their articles and books that might have otherwise landed them in jail back in their home country. Over the centuries that tolerant attitude seems to have expanded to all segments of their society, giving their capital city Amsterdam claim to the title of the world’s most diverse by hosting immigrants from 160 nations. With that background, while looking for interesting things to do on our recent trip there, it struck me that the word “narrow” kept popping up. Continue reading “Narrow minded”

Fan fan

Open shutters let the breezes through
Open shutters let the breezes through

Growing up in the 1950s and early 1960s in the southern US meant that we experienced some hot summers without air conditioning. Schools didn’t have it, so it was a good thing that summer vacation extended from June 1 to September 1, and private homes certainly didn’t. Once my brother and I were old enough to mow lawns for other people, guess what was the first thing we both bought for our bedrooms: window air conditioners. What a glorious summer that was! Continue reading “Fan fan”

Buried treasure

Spring bulbs at the floating flower market
Spring bulbs at the floating flower market

With a blog post title like that I wouldn’t blame you for calling out “Arrrr!” with visions of pirates, bottles of rum, and the Flying Dutchman in your head. You’d be right on the money with that last item, and probably not far off with the second since we went to Amsterdam last month but the treasure we went in search of was to bring back here and bury: tulips and other spring bulbs. Continue reading “Buried treasure”

The red tag (not so) special

Sorting error
Sorting error

Every day we walk between the rental house that we’re living in for this first year that we’re in France and the home that we bought recently. We don’t have plans for extensive renovations but we’ve been doing lots of cleaning, patching, and painting. This has generated all sorts of trash that we’ve dutifully sorted between our recycle bin and the rubbish bin. Yesterday when we turned the corner on to our new street we both immediately noticed that our recycle bin was sitting in front of our neighbor’s window and there was a bright red tag attached to the handle. Considering that we’re currently a guest in the country, we’ve tried really hard to follow all the rules, written and rumored, subtle and in-your-face obvious, so our stomachs churned at what was obviously some kind of infraction. Continue reading “The red tag (not so) special”

Get the vote (mailed) out

A post office in Carcassonne
A post office in Carcassonne

We voted today. Sure, there’s a month to go before election day in the US and yes, we live 4300 miles (7000 km) from Florida where we’re registered, but thanks to the Internet it was just a matter of printing out an email and mailing it off. Perhaps not quite that simple, delayed a bit by the main post office in Carcassonne being closed until December 1 for renovation, but for other Americans living overseas, it’s definitely possible to participate. Continue reading “Get the vote (mailed) out”

Buy one, sell one

Gastronomy Festival poster from the city's website
Gastronomy Festival poster from the city’s website

On Sundays most big stores are closed here. A few grocery stores might be open in the morning but by lunch time even those employees get to spend the rest of the day with their families. They do indeed get to go home but they might not stay there since there are often many other shopping opportunities available as there were last weekend. Continue reading “Buy one, sell one”

Doin’ nothin’? Nothin’ doin’!

A quiet time in our "village"
A quiet time in our “village”

Bill and I seldom give a definitive “no” anymore when one of us poses the question “Are we doing anything tonight?” Back in Atlanta we had a bulletin board at the house where we posted a calendar so that we could see all of the upcoming events for the month. Heck, you could probably make that for the year since we always scheduled vacations to Europe at least that far in advance. We had the challenges of getting time off from work, arranging flights and specific seats on the plane, finding a holiday house/apartment in the right location with the ever-important dishwasher and washing machine, etc. Now that we live in Europe, things have changed…for the better. Continue reading “Doin’ nothin’? Nothin’ doin’!”