A month ago two best friends from the US spent a weekend with me, and among many wonderful cultural and other sight-seeing experiences, we explored the Glow light festival in Eindhoven, about two hours’ train ride south of Amsterdam. If you want more info about the festival, or more professional photos, tap or click Glow. Yesterday’s solo was a preview, as you can guess. Firefly field and this installation called “Footprint” were my two personal favorites – very experiential, as this one came with some recorded birdsong, and other was just a lot of fun as the lights bounced and danced in their field, with kids and adults marveling in the cold autumn night.
For now, treat it as art – or check out the photo’s name and do a search. More explanation, and photos, and a video, coming soon :-). Like I said yesterday – all about light and its presence or absence, here in the north in December :-).
Shortly after writing the text & posting that “farewell to summer” photo in Urban Canals a day or two ago, I went for a long walk during a break from the rain and saw, yes, these blossoming trees, a whole bunch of them. Go figure. Always something new.
I might be wrong about the name of that photo, but I think I remember where I took it. It’s the last truly lovely nearly-summer-type of photo that I’ve not yet posted, from various walk and bike explorations of my new neighborhood. Although there are a few still unposted that have a bit of green in them, I’m mentally bidding the sun and green adieu with this shot…which means you’ll start seeing (even more) autumn and winter in the Amsterdam series, even as Petra will continue reminding us the sun still shines elsewhere. There’s a chance of snow tonight, in fact. But I’m still getting out plenty, since covid lockdowns mean near-constant work from home again. Hope you’re getting out also.
A week ago (Saturday 13th November), the Netherlands again announced more restrictive Corona measures, which means I’ve gone from most work days biking over to the office, to most work days staying home. Between that and so many gray, moist days and long, dark nights, I’ve chosen to push myself out the door any time I have a half-hour break from onscreen meetings, in search of what color and contrast I can find in my visual surroundings. Each time I’m inclined to become depressed about the leaves abandoning their trees and the absence of those glorious long summer days I enjoyed when I first arrived — I remind myself to enjoy the color of the leaves while it’s still there to be enjoyed. Hope you do as well 🙂
So while I’ve been sorting and posting photos from the cool things I saw while in Jordan … two months ago … life here in Amsterdam has rolled along, with longer nights and shorter days. It’s the first time I’ve lived this far north since many decades ago, so even though the early dark, along with the frequent gray skies and rain tend to depress me a wee bit and drive me to sit indoors watching television and eating junk food…still I do manage to force myself outdoors frequently enough to get lots of photos of sunsets on the canals. Or at least I did when the work day ended before the daylight did. Now that work days end after the daylight does, I haven’t quite figured out how I’ll stave off the inevitable growth of my waistline over the course of a winter that will be dominated no doubt by rain, cold, and covid restrictions on the public commons. Ugh. Still, I’ll be doing my best to bring you beauty where I find it. 🙂
(so much world, so little time....) 