Its taken me a long while to gather up enough random happenings to make a solid post out of it. I haven't been doing much these days other than reading and working.
The weather has turned to spring though, so perhaps things will get a little more interesting going forward. We'll see. This is a life update of some of the random things happening in my day to day.
As I said, the weather has turned warmer and spring has sprung.
The flowers have finally started to come up in our garden. It started with the daffodils and then came the tulips.
The hostas are mostly up but there are still a few stragglers pushing their way up through the soil. The allium, and peonies haven't started yet.
This is what the backyard garden looks like today on this gloomy rainy day.
Next!
I'm still learning Dutch with the Duolingo app.
I've been at it for 239 days so far. I probably have the vocabulary of a 2 year old now...
Every now and again it teaches me some random phrase that I find funny, like "Her cheese is my cheese."
Here is another gem. I can't wait for the day to use this while speaking to someone I barely know.
A now for a bit of a tongue twister... Thats a lot of "Z" words.
Here is a photo of our dog sleeping. He looks dead but just dead to the world. He is still very much alive.
I've seen quite a few woodland creatures in our neighborhood this year. I saw a fox twice and an opossum in our backyard.
Opossums are ugly but apparently they are good for the environment so I have no issue with it wandering through or even living in the back yard. They generally do not carry rabies and they eat pests. Please eat all of the ticks for me. I've pulled several off the dog already. Opossums are an interesting creature and are the only North American marsupial. It was neat seeing it.
I recently read this very short 4 page story that was written in 1948 for The New Yorker. You can read it online for free Here and Here. I remember reading this in high-school. Its so short but so good and worth a re-read. I would definitely recommend giving it a go since it only takes about 5-10 minutes of your time. Imagine this being published back in 1948!
Now that all of the leaves are on the trees our balcony is back to feeling very private. People walking can't see us up here from the road below anymore. They can no longer see into our living room either. Its like sitting in the tree canopy again.
Early last year I removed what I thought was a paper lantern from the balcony that was left by the previous owners. Almost immediately after doing so we started to get all kinds of bees looking for a place to nest. Carpenter bees to be precise. This year they have been super annoying too. I realized that the lantern I removed was actually a fake wasp nest that acted as a natural bee and wasp repellent. Wasps are very territorial so new bee and wasp colonies won't try to live near other nests. I bought a new fake nest and hung it today, so we'll see if it gets rid of the bees again.
Dutch? Are you planning to move again? Or did you just fancy a challenge? Great work for keeping up your streak.
I never knew a fake wasp nest was a thing. You learn something new every day
Yeah i thought that I'd give it a try for fun/ challenge. Not moving again. my grandparents spoke Dutch so I was hoping that since I heard it spoken when I was young that it would be easier to learn as an adult.
We'll see how this wasp nest does. If it works.
Hell yeah man, solid update, and cool pictures. Nature is so awesome, but the wasps suck. Hate em around here too. Rock that fake nest 🎸
Yeah its hard to read in peace with the bees hovering in your face and around you looking for holes in the chair you're sitting in to create a nest 😆
You're learning Dutch 😀
I wonder how you like it. A lot of people find it quite difficult, especially pronouncing words with the hard G we have 😂
The hard G is quite difficult and so are the Sch words.
I do like it though. I'll probably never use it which sometimes makes me wonder why I'm learning it at all. Something to do i guess. Lol
Haha. There is a touristic coastal city called Scheveningen which is impossible to promounce fot tourists 😃
Learning new things is good for your brain.
Yeah that looks like a tough one. My accent is probably horrible. Yes agreed. This think that's why I don't it. Even if I never use it in conversation or for travel, worst case scenario its a good brain exercise
Her cheese is my cheese. That is too funny. Things are starting to green up here too. I know what you mean about having that privacy. We used to have woods behind us, then some people bought the land and built a house. In the Winter you can see through to their property, but in the summer it is hidden by foliage. I prefer the summer because of that now.
Yeah there are some funny sentences and phrases that it tries to teach me.
Privacy is key at home for sure. People can see right into our living room in the winter. Granted they have to look up quite a bit from the road below. We don't use curtains though. The trees completely block it in the summer.
Oh, we have big blinds on our windows, but we are up a bit too, so I can understand that. I was going to mention about the possum, they eat ticks I hear and ticks have been getting worse the past couple of years, so that isn't a bad thing I guess.
Yeah i read that they eat ticks. Ticks are so bad nowadays. Probably because winters are shorter and warmer so they aren't dying off as much? There are a bunch of conspiracy theories out there about them lol
Why does that not surprise me! :)
Of course they also all seem to involve Bill Gates like most conspiracy theories do
Oh boy...
I'm pleased your dog is ok. For a minute, I thought you were going to say something really sad!
I've been trying duolingo to learn spanish. I've only been doing it for a week. It still doesn’t understand my accent when I try and speak spanish. It's early days though. 😁
Yeah the picture is like "hes either sleeping or he's dead..." lol
There are some words that it absolutely does not understand when I say it. Specifically "Boy" spelled "Jongen" in Dutch and pronounced "Young-un." I get it wrong every time no matter how many times I try and say it.
Yes, as soon as I saw the thumbnail my heart sank!
I feel like deleting the duolingo app but I will persevere. Good luck!
I wouldn't post a photo of him dead. That would be very odd lol. Some folks might though I suppose.
Ha! My brain didn't think of that lol.
😂