Happy Days – Week FortyEight
Autumn is an exercise in gorgeous decay with its colorful leaves and sprouting mushrooms.
Early October and the earnest start of autumn brought a lot of lovely sights, including mushrooms, pumpkins and even a swan swimming in a pond. We were lucky to celebrate Santi’s birthday in a lovely restaurant together as a family while Mecha was still with us.
October 6 – Day 332
David was waiting patiently for Mummy to finish her work and was having silly fun sticking his feet near my face, so I showed him how perspective worked on the camera to make his feet look GIGANTIC.
October 7 – Day 333
Mecha and I spent the afternoon walking around Utrecht together on the last day of her visit. We shared some delicious Thai soup at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant “Lemon Grass” and walked around the canals downtown. After our explorations, we went back home and got in the car with Santi and David to drive up to Amsterdam for a fancy-shmancy birthday dinner at a restaurant that grows a lot of its own ingredients and then turns them into molecular works of food-art. Restaurant de Kas
I had made the reservation months prior and had gotten the dates confused because I also made reservations for our wedding anniversary. Wedding anniversary is Sept 7, Santi’s birthday is Oct 6 and I made his birthday reservation on Oct 7. Ooooops. When I realized a couple of weeks before there was no way to change the reservation as this place is booked months in advance. Luckily, it actually worked out for the best as both Santi and David were a bit poorly on Monday. So yay? 🤷
October 8 – Day 334
Did you know you can participate in Democracy by making your voice heard, other than just calling your Congress people? I submitted a comment (one of almost 135K) about potential changes to the US Voting procedure during the US Govt shutdown, but made it under the deadline. There are tons of proposed regulations you can speak up about. My comment is below as the proposed law would directly affect my ability to vote in upcoming elections. I and all US citizens living abroad would be relegated to “taxation without representation”, where have we heard that before I wonder? 🤔
States already have effective processes for checking citizenship before people who register are added to the voter rolls. If this measure is adopted, voters may have to register in person, impacting registration drives and online or mail registration. US citizens living abroad would be adversely affected if we had to register in person in our home state. Over half the US citizen population, do not have a US passport and gathering the proof and paying for the document is time consuming and expensive. Voting is a right, not a privilege and eligible voters will be excluded from participating in elections if this goes through.
October 9 – Day 335
This nearby house is in an ares that still looks a lot like when the area we now live in was mostly farmland. The swan in the pond just added the perfect touch and I just had to stop riding my bike and take this photo.
October 10 – Day 336
I saw a supposed quote by Albert Camus and it sure sounded like him, but the whole thing is not him.
In the midst of hate, I found there was, within me, an invincible love. In the midst of tears, I found there was, within me, an invincible smile. In the midst of chaos, I found there was, within me, an invincible calm. I realized, through it all, that in the midst of winter, 1 found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there's something stronger- something better, pushing right back.
The only part that are Camus’ words are:
in the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer
Albert Camus wrote these in the book of personal letters "Return to Tipasa".
The whole quote is passed around as if it were his words and in this chaotic and topsy-turvy world these days this came up in my feed and resonated and I wanted to share but I also wanted to verify. When looking online it’s almost impossible not to conclude that this passage is either from “The Fall” or from “The Stranger” and yet it is from neither.
I haven’t read Camus since my university days taking French Literature at Willamette University, but I am so very grateful for my education and the foundational knowledge I was afforded to appreciate good literature and to think critically and not just accept everything that we read online. The meme below encapsulates the need now more than ever.
October 11 – Day 337
Fall is looking very pretty before the winter gloom settles in for a spell. David and I went to a pumpkin farm to buy some gourds for Halloween and Thanksgiving celebrations. We brought home three large carving pumpkins and three smaller ones to eat later on. I have since made curried lentil pumpkin soup thus far.
October 12 – Day 338
To continue on with our family fall traditions, I took David on a walk through this forest to look for mushrooms and enjoy the beauty of nature as it slows down for the autumn and winter. This is the forth autumn in a row that we have done this specific walk. I always think we will go elsewhere, but then when it comes time to make the drive, I don’t want to go so far away and we end up here once again. We had a nice walk and a yummy lunch at a pancake house nearby.
I love how the mushroom on the right was “damaged” and ended up looking like a heart. Not sure what happened for the top to be ripped like that, but it was beautiful serendipity.
Honestly I haven’t been listening to that much music lately, but this classic is always worth sharing more for the visuals than for the music. And the sweet interactions between Tom Holland and Zendaya are so endearing. Seven years on and it still brings me goosebumps from the artistry and precision of the dancing. They make it look so easy when it’s most definitely not at all. Bravo!
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Beautiful picture of you and Meche and all the rest. Thank you for all teh news - and the pumpkins mxm