Blue Skies...

I’m sure I’ve posted photos of many of these buildings in Leiden before, but I can’t resist including these taken on that snowy day with incredible blue skies. Here’s the gothic Hooglandse Kerk from two different angles...

…and the nearby Leiden American Pilgrim Museum, located in a home built in 1370, likely the oldest surviving home in the city.

Here’s the Pieterskerk seen from a variety of angles.

And here’s the Hartebrugkerk...

…and some beautiful old homes.

 

Snowy Leiden...

On February 9, Jimmy and I caught a train into Leiden for a wander around in the snow.

In addition to a woman pulling two girls on sleds...

…we saw a lot of bikes covered in snow.

The craziest thing we spotted was a snowboarder being pulled by a moped. 

There was little or no ice on the larger canals...

…while some of the smaller ones were already frozen.

The outdoor amphitheater made for an excellent place to sled.

Was surprised to see Santa, who apparently likes Heineken, still hanging around well over a month after Christmas.

De Valk Windmill at Dusk

 

Sledding in Voorschoten...

There’s no actual hills in our village, but that didn’t stop the kids from finding every opportunity to try sledding.

Laughed at these parents’ priorities: their daughter was kicked off her sled so they could bring home the groceries, including a crate of Grolsch beer.

Impressed with how two kids were making perfect snowballs using two spoons clamped together. It was nice that they allowed Kati to pose with their sled, ready for their next snowball fight. 

Love this colorful shot of parents dragging kids down the street.

This was an interesting twist with a cyclist pulling a sled.

There were also sleds among the folks lingering around the main café and ordering coffees to go.

 

Snow in Voorschoten...

We enjoyed taking Kati for a walk in the snow.

Jimmy found a good place to pour some spiked hot chocolate to help keep us warm.

A quaint window in the center of the village

The following day, I donned my mask of a winter landscape by Hendrik Averkamp from the Mauritshuis when I went grocery shopping.

That afternoon Carlin joined me for a walk. We were both shocked when Kati ran ahead of us towards some dogs far down the path. 

When we finally caught up, I was happy to see that Kati was playing with her old buddies Nina and Pedro...

...and their little sister Lucy, all of whom she hadn’t seen in ages and clearly missed.

Proof that the winds had definitely died down.

We were definitely shocked when two cross country skiers passed us on the cinder track near the BSN.  

 

 

Let It Snow...

We were excited to wake up on February 7 to snow—the first proper snow since December 2017. It looked especially cool on the latticed chairs on our terrace.

Kati seemed much less hesitant in the snow this year than in previous years. 

Our neighbor, Martijn, kindly took some photos of us, from close up...

...from the end of our driveway...

...and from the middle of the road. 

It was obvious that there was a lot of wind as our bikes, which are under a covered carport and rarely get wet from rain, were covered in snow.
 

Last Bits of January...

 

Since we started joining the BMPH3 Friday Night Drinks on Zoom in December, we have made a weekly stop at our new local beer store, which has temporarily replaced the local bar that was forced closed in mid-October. Kati feels quite at home there as we search for new craft beers that we haven’t tried yet.  

We last hosted Sally and John for dinner on January 16 when we were still allowed to have two guests; shortly afterwards, the rules tightened further and only one guest was allowed until April 28, when the rules relaxed back to two. 

Sally taught us a valuable trick on how to extend the lives of the gerberas that they brought us: transfer wilted flowers into shorter vases (or in our case, random glass jars). 

I was somewhat skeptical, but many of the flowers lasted over three weeks as as you can see in this photo taken on February 8.

We continued to introduce Pippen to Kati whenever we could so they could grow used to each other.

We had a mystery on our hands when this KLM house, only offered to first class passengers on transcontinental KLM flights, appeared outside our front door. We were especially intrigued since it was the former head office for the Holland-American Line in Rotterdam, owners of the SS Rotterdam which sailed between Rotterdam and New York City (the building is now the Hotel New York, where we often take visitors for a drink). The following day, Angelique told us she had dropped it off as she thought we might like the alcohol in it, but we prefer to keep it as an interesting Dutch souvenir. 

Ashlynn DJed a radio show in January. This time she used one of her first embrodriery projects for the artwork.  

The UK postal service was in a disarray after Brexit, but luckily this lovely cross-stitch of Amsterdam made by Veronica arrived safely.

We ran 7K in the dark and cold for the January FILTH H3 Hash. This time we brought along my headlamp and Elvis Juice for a beer stop...

...as well as Mama’s Bitch.