More in Exeter...

Veronica enjoyed wearing her mermaid tights to a special Halloween aerial class. Her mask wasn’t part of her costume, but was worn out of caution; caution which was not shared by the skeletons or the instructor. She was very disappointed that soon thereafter, lockdown put a stop to classes again.

Veronica couldn’t resist doing one final photoshoot at the University of Exeter once she was a graduate. 

We were supposed to join her there in December for her graduation ceremony and then go to London to see Frozen, the musical on the West End, but the pandemic caused both events to be postponed. There’s still a slight chance that graduation will occur in June, but we sadly had to give up our theater tickets. 
 

Lady in Red...

Veronica and Brett continued to enjoy fall hiking and camping, where it wasn’t unusual for them to transform from looking like this on the trail...

...to this on the beach for self-portraits. These stunning photos were taken in Exmoor...

…and these very dramatic shots were taken at the Valley of the Rocks.

What a pleasant surprise when she found out that another photographer had captured her with his drone and what a shock for me to see her from this even scarier angle.

Here’s the Instagram post to which I commented: Thanks for helping to put into perspective the crazy lengths my daughter goes to for her self-portraits. 

A few weeks later, she was back in her red gown in Dartmoor. While this looks like an isolated spot, apparently she had to wait for cyclists to pass before taking this shot.

This one is particularly magical.

A few weeks later, she posed in front of this funky crooked Tudor house in Exeter wearing her new homemade skirt (basically a giant piece of red fabric wrapped around her waist)...

…which looked incredible flowing down the stairs.

 

Fall Walks...

In late October, Sally and I went on a long walk through the Wassenaar dunes. She had seen part of the Atlantic Wall before, but had never walked on it. 

Kati was happy to show her the way.

We carried on further than I’d gone before until a canal blocked our path, leaving us quite curious how much further along it goes.

The view towards Katwijk from the tower hill was clearer than usual.

A few days later, Terri, Carlin and I did a local walk around Voorschoten.

Kati was strangely agitated when we stopped on the beach at Vlietland. Incredibly, Terri caught the exact moment when Kati jumped over our picnic. 

It wasn’t a particularly colorful fall around our village, but you couldn’t tell that from this pretty spot along the Vliet. 

 

Fall in Voorschoten...

We were honored to be invited to celebrate the end of Mark’s chemotherapy on October 11. One of Carlin’s colleagues made this incredible cake with a theme of one of Mark’s favorite computer games, which he said was the perfect metaphor for his cancer journey: a character doing his best with very little to survive the terrors of the nightmare creatures. I am currently helping him edit the book he has written about his cancer journey.  

Kati wasn’t too afraid as we passed one of the only houses we saw decorated for Halloween. 

I was happy that I was available when I got a last minute invitation to meet Hannah and Austin and their munchkins at the nearby farm selling pumpkins. 

Presumably it was due to COVID-19 that the Dutch lawnmowers didn’t show up for their usual munching of the grass along the bike path, so humans gathered up the grass instead. 

These pretty flowers were growing a few doors down from us...

…while these two houses were in the center of the village. 

We had some truly beautiful weather during the fall.

If you look closely you can catch sight of this heron’s reflection...

…and a shopping cart in a canal. 

One of the more unusual things we spotted was a convoy of tractors going down our street. These farmers were on their way to The Hague to stage a large protest against government regulations. 

One issue making the farmers angry was that if the government buys out their highly-polluting factory farms, that they’ll be barred from opening a new farm which makes perfect sense to me.

 

She’s Back...

Hurricane Ashlynn blew back into town in late October for a 10-day stay in order to take her first two Dutch inburgering (integration) exams: reading and listening, which she easily passed. It was great to get to spend some time with her for the first time since she’d become a university student. 

It might not show, but Kati was happy to see Ashlynn. 

I surprised the family with hash face masks specially ordered from Sir Walter Raleigh H3, the girls’ mother hash. 

On October 21, we drank some bubbly to celebrate Ashlynn’s first experience of voting in a presidential election. Jimmy and I have now voted by absentee ballot in four presidential elections since moving to Holland; the first time was by airmail, the last two by email and this time fully online. 

Unfortunately, she wasn’t sticking around long enough to see the election results...

...as on October 30 she was leaving once again. 

It was hard saying goodbye without knowing when we’d see her again. Damn COVID-19! Speaking of which, here’s as good as anytime to mention that Ashlynn caught coronavirus a few days after returning to Glasgow when the virus made its way around her entire flat. It initially hit her hard with a fever and body aches, which lasted several days. The loss of smell and taste lasted for about two months. Luckily all of her flatmates have fully recovered as well. 
 

Back to Virtual Hashing...

By mid-October, the Netherlands was back on lockdown with restaurants and bars closed once again. Sports groups were limited to four (either inside or out), so the hash moved back to doing virtual trails. For the FILTH H3 on October 24, Opee led me astray as he was determined to bring a beer stop to quarantined Tasty Piss, who had recently tested positive for COVID-19 (likely infected at her kickboxing class), and Boar Whore, who amazingly never caught it. 

Of course, we had to avoid contact with them, so Boar Whore lowered down a bag attached to a rope..

...in which Opee placed two beers.

The four of us could then enjoy drinking a beer together, safely separated by more than a story. 

It was a longer run than usual, but it was for a good cause. 

One week later, we did a special Halloween FILTH H3 Hash. Ironically, earlier that day I had spotted what appeared to be a hash trail in our neighborhood. At first glance I thought this might be a booby check, but later figured it was actually a set of eyes. 

We found a series of arrows that eventually led back to the start. We asked a homeowner that had a mark just outside her house if she knew what was going on and she said she thought it was part of a treasure hunt for a kid’s birthday party. 

Mama’s Bitch enjoyed hashing with us. 

We continued to run through town. Along the way we spotted this tuba flower pot...

…and these strange sculptures combining bowling balls and animals.

We stopped for a beer break at a snack bar...

…and then went through the shopping district, where we spotted these witches. 

During our Zoom circle, we donned these masks—we have no memory of who gave them to us—to become Two Trumps for Biden as our Halloween costumes.