violetismycolor

thoughts on India...part one...

This is one of my favorite India photos, mostly because there were hordes of Indian school children on field trips in many of the places we visited AND they seemed to just love us. 

This picture was taken in Kanyakumari, at the very tip of the Indian peninsula.  It is where the waters of the Indian Ocean, the Bay of Bengal, and the Arabian Sea all meet.  We ferried over a pair of small islands, one with a giant statue of the Indian poet-saint Thiruvalluvar.  On our ferry were these wonderful young schoolgirls, in their blue gingham blouses and navy blue skirts.  They waved at us and wanted to shake our hands.  This was not the first time this had happened to us.  We must have seemed to be very exotic; there were almost no other Caucasians around for most of our trip.

The girls were beautiful and friendly.  When we finally got back to the mainland, the entire group called out a loud "good-bye" to us as we disembarked from our ferry.  

Here are the schoolgirls that mobbed me in Mysore, further north.  We were visiting a temple and these girls all wanted to shake my hand and know my name.  They were really happy when John suggested I take a photo with them.  

All the people we met in India were so nice to us and interested in us.  Some of the time, it was hard to understand their English (their accents gave us trouble) but it was always worth the effort.

Finally, the vacation recap...

I know....you're thinking, "Didn't she take that Italian vacation in September 2010?"

Yep, that's right...and I have finally gotten around to going through the trouble of actually processing some of the 2000 pictures I took.  That's right...2000!  I am not mistakenly adding a zero there.  This is what happens when you give a girl a digital camera.  No discipline.

So, we started out with a 24-hour visit to Holland.  We got such a deal on the airfare IF we stayed overnight in Holland...and so, my lovely cousin, Rosemary, agreed to put us up overnight.  

We visited some cousins of my mother's.  They were so welcoming and told me some things I didn't know about my dad's dad...Cousin Bets was a friend of his and would visit with him whenever he went on visits back to the Netherlands

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Rosemary and her sister (my cousin, Mariette) took us to an interesting outdoor art show.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then, we wandered around the beach at Noordwijk, near her home in Noordwijkerhout. The weather was sunny and warm.  We saw this interesting McMansion...lovely, and with a thatched roof but in Holland?  We are seriously infecting the world with our need for these big houses!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was an interesting Sand Sculpture event going on...one example is shown here:  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We didn't do much more in Holland besides go out for dinner and then CRASH...Rosemary even got up with us at 4:30 in the morning to make us breakfast!  Then we headed to the airport for our flights to Rome/Venice.

This mini-trip to Holland reminded me of how much I like this country...we seriously need to go back and do a proper vacation.  Having my incredible cousins there makes it even a bigger treat.  

Tomorrow:  Venice recapped

wedding and more...

   On Thursday, we flew to Boston to go to my nephew, Alex's, wedding.  I was invited to a Bride's Luncheon by the bride's mom.  It was a fun event at a restaurant on Harvard Square.  Nice and intimate, we go to visit alot and really relaxed with each other.

The next day was the wedding.  Boston was HOT and HUMID! But we managed to get through.  Adam and Ross looked incredibly handsome in their shirts and ties, but really didn't like all the dressing up required.  The reception was held at the same venue where John F Kennedy announced his decision to run for President.  How cool is that?

I love this photo that John took of Adam and Ross and I...well, except the the squidgy eyes that now show themselves in all of my photos...is this what getting old is all about?  Squidgy eyes?  Really?

It was so hot that they had Japanese fans for us in the pews.  Ross was using one even BEFORE the wedding.  The bride, Ashley, had spent a year in Japan in High School and her host family came all the way from Kyoto. 

Adam had cool green sunglasses (with checkerboard side rims).  All my men in one photo!  Too bad we were missing Bonnie.  And we did miss her.

 The groom wore a kilt, as any good Scottish descendent would, of course. 

The next day (today, Sunday), there was a wonderful brunch at Legal Seafood, on Harvard Square.  Adam and Ross sat at the kids' table.  Here they are with their cousin, Betsy...sister of the groom.  Don't Betsy and Ross look alike?

Betsy's boyfriend, Abraham, was such a doll.  Funny, handsome, and really charming!  They make a great couple.

John and his brother, Alan (father of the groom), don't get to see each other often.  So, it was a wonderful chance for them to catch-up.

John's mom, Jean, flew all the way across country with us.  She's 95 and she was so glad she came.

 

We left the brunch, dropped Adam and Ross at the airport and headed north to New Hampshire to spend a night on Lake Winnipesaukee.  As soon as we crossed the state line into New Hampshire, the rain started to fall...and has fallen (hard) for a good deal of the afternoon and evening. 

We visit our friends, Ray and Shannon, for the rest of our week in Vermont...starting tomorrow.  Oh, the mojitos are calling to me already!

more Oregon Garden...

More photos processed from the Oregon Garden.  Gorgeous! 

One of my favorite things was the Hobbit Hole in the Children's Garden.  They put a piece of plastic pipe down, covered it with soil, planted the hill they made with grass and plants, and put a little round wooden door with window cutouts on each side.  How clever and how jealous I was that I did not have one of these when I was a kid! 

They also made a Couple out of plant pots and gave them plant hair.  Awesome.

I processed one of the waterlily photos to look like they were nightlights!

The orange flowers are Tithonia, which I keep meaning to put in my garden.  I have only seen the seed packets, though, and growing most things from seed seems like much too much work!

      

Oregon Garden, Mom, and Me

My mom and I went to The Oregon Garden in Silverton today. It was only 72 degrees and overcast but it made for wonderful wandering weather. We had lunch at the new resort hotel that has opened there and the food was good and inexpensive and plentiful. We had a great day.

The world is round...

...that is the name of my fave photo from yesterday's jaunt out into the Oregon countryside just south of Salem.  I went to Stayton to find a plant (a Caryopteris) at a nursery out there.  Luckily, I had my camera along and I found some gorgeous things to photograph.  As you can tell, I love to process my pictures so that have that wonderful, color-drenched look...incredibly bright and warm. 

Also, note the photo of the whirlwind in the bare field.  There were several of these things out there yesterday...kind of spooky-looking...

 

Nothing could be more enchanting...

On Sunday, Ross and Enrique and I stopped at The Enchanted Forest, near Salem.  We took the kids there quite a few times when they were small and they have such fond memories of the place.  We had a blast, especially on the Log Ride, a roller coaster/water ride.  Enrique got soaked but I sat behind Ross, who protected me. 

Ross had some one-on-one time with the President (Abe Lincoln).  He looks great in his Union uniform, doesn't he?

    

and then there was the lavender...

I spent last Friday heading west to Hillsboro to the Lavendar Festival.  

First I was distracted by all the gorgeous fields of hay being harvested:

Then the gorgeous lavender fields.  So much beauty all around me.  I just love it.

it's Facebook's fault!!!

I have been totally addicted to spending time on Facebook instead of recording life in my blog.  

Bad, BAD blogger!

We got an exchange student from Burgos, Spain on July 1st and he will be here all month.  Enrique is 16 and a real delight to have around.  He is enjoying his 'American experience'...today he is at the beach.  They are dodging our 90+% weather with cool breezes and a freezing cold ocean.  Lucky them!

We took Enrique to the St Paul Rodeo on the 4th of July weekend, which was a real eye-popping introduction to the American West.  We bought him a cowboy hat, which we insisted he wear all night long, so that he would meld into the country crowd, which he did.  We went with friends that also have a Spanish exchange student, a lovely girl named Lucia, from Madrid.  She ALSO got a hat, and wore it.  Photos follow:

I love this photo of feet...this was a man and his son, also both named ENRIQUE! I wanted a pair of those frog shoes for myself!

The action was pretty thrilling, too.  The bucking broncos, the raging bulls, the cowboys and cowgirls.  It was a great night...

That was on July 3rd.  On the 4th, we took my mom, Ross, and Enrique to the small town of Monmouth for their annual parade.   We have a friend that gives an annual BBQ during the parade, as he lives right on the parade route.  We sat under the shade of his front yard trees, ate burgers and dogs, and watched as all the locals paraded by.  It was alot of fun.

fooling around with photography...

This is a photo that I took in the Hood River Valley this past spring.  You can't see the railroad tracks just in front of these shacks but they are there.  I think these are workers houses, or were.  Pretty broken down and right in the middle of the orchard.

Next I started looking at some of my Scottish pictures.  I just loved moody Duart Castle.  I cropped this to JUST include the castle, added a Sunshine filter form the Nik filters (to make the castle and foreground stand out a little more, and that's about it.  Wouldn't you love to live here?

flower fields...

I seem to live in the Flower Fields Capital of America...

Today was spent amidst the Peony Fields, which are near the Tulip Fields and near the Iris Fields.  Oregon is just a damn nice place to grow things...

This one below is one of my favorites, Coral Charm.  I have one of these in my own front yard, though it is done blooming now.  There were several bushes of it still blooming, though, at Brook's Gardens in Brooks, Oregon.

iris fields forever...

 

On Thursday, I took my Mom to Schreiner's Iris Gardens (a local grower of iris bulbs who have a monthlong open garden to showcase their goods).  The afternoon was sunny and warm and the garden was gorgeous.  Good thing that BIG storm didn't come in till later.  This is the storm that caused the National Weather Service to beam out several Tornado and Severe Weather Warnings just a few hours later.  And the one that knocked down trees all over the northwestern part of our state.

Here are the flowers:

 

And last, but not least was the incredibly cute sign that we saw in the gift shop.  This SO applies to me, sometimes:

photo play...

One of my favorite things to do on a lazy weekend is to fiddle with photographs.  And I have said before that I love the countryside around Corvallis and I love barns.  I have taken many photos of both and here are a couple that I finally played with today.

 

I love barns...

 

Barns are one of my favorite things to photograph.  They are such a pleasing shape and they are often set in some lovely places.  Here is a photo of a barn amidst the flowering trees (apples, mostly) in the Hood River Valley of Oregon.

Used some fun filters on this photo...just playing around with it...

Japanese-American Historical Plaza, Portland...

Way back on the gorgeous morning of April 7th, I went downtown hoping to get some good photos of the cherry trees blooming at the Japanese Memorial.  I wasn't disappointed. 

A little history (from the Portland Parks website):  On August 3, 1990, the Japanese American Historical Plaza was dedicated to the memory of those who were deported to inland internment camps during World War II. In the memorial garden, artwork tells the story of the Japanese people in the Northwest - of immigration, elderly immigrants, native-born Japanese Americans, soldiers who fought in US military services during the war, and the business people who worked hard and had hope for the children of the future. A sculpture by Jim Gion, Songs of Innocence, Songs of Experience, also graces the plaza.

The trees were magnificent, the sun was shining, the Steel Bridge was in the background, and the two glass towers of the Convention Center glowed green in the sun. 

I also took a photo of one of the poems inscribed in rock, that gives some feeling of the sadness of those put into internment camps from the Portland area. 

"Minidoko" refers to the Minidoko Relocation Camp in Idaho, where many Northwest families were sent.

 

There was also a rock inscribed in Japanese kanji.  Anyone want to try to read it for me?

 

Interesting that these trees were blooming about 3 weeks ahead of the ones in my yard.  Must be an early variety.

Cherry Blossoms galore...

This is for all your cherry-blossom-lovers out there.  You know who you are!

Our house looks so nice with all that blue sky, sunshine, clouds, and blossom.

Our three trees out front are gorgeous!  Late (they usually bloom at the beginning of April, not the end), but incredible. 

 

And then, of course, there was Cookie...getting all diva-ish and insisting on getting involved in the photoshoot!  But cute, as always.

tulip festival...

Anyone who knows me, knows that I was raised in a DUTCH family.  So, it should come as no surprise to anyone that I love tulips.  If it isn't the Dutch national flower (do they even have one?), it should be.  Everyone thinks of tulips when they think of Holland. 

But I digress...

I went to the Woodburn Tulip Festival with my mom and two of my sisters (and assorted children) on Wednesday.  My poor niece, Jen, couldn't get near the place this past (sunny) weekend.  No wonder since I heard an employee say that they had 10,000 cars come through over the weekend.  I am trying to wrap my head around that number.  How could one see the tulips for all the tourists, anyway?

Wednesday had very little sun, though I was lucky enough to get a great photo when it did.  Ready?  This is awesome:

 

I took hundreds of shots and that is my absolute best one. 

A couple of other photos...my mom...the cloudy field with violet sky...etc.  Enjoy!

Japan redux...Kobe...

We made it back north-west up to Kobe, where we would spend our last day and night.  Bonnie had wanted to end up in either Osaka or Kobe, and I was interested in something a little smaller than Osaka...the second biggest city in Japan and a major commercial center.  We stayed in the b-Kobe Hotel, which was very central.  We went out for lunch and had Chinese food, a first for us on the trip.  Kobe has a big Chinese population and the biggest Chinatown in Japan, which I found interesting. 

We were just blocks from the Ikuta shrine, so that was our first stop.  This shrine was lovely and there was a baby blessing ceremony going on.  The day was March 20th, the first day of spring, which is a very auspicious day in the Japanese culture.  So, we saw several families bringing in babies (everyone very dressed up in traditional costumes) and even a wedding going on.

 

Next we walked to the Chinatown area, which was very crowded.  We stayed awhile and decided to come back there for dinner.  Most of the rest of the afternoon was spent reading, cruising the Internet with our free in-room access, and just vegging.

When we did venture out, we came across this cool area where the buildings looked like they had just been dropped in from Paris.  Compare that to the picture after that, which is of the night-time Chinatown, red lantern district.  Who could imagine that these places were just minutes from each other.  Different as day and night...

 

Finally, the photomontage of night-time Chinatown.  The steam from the cooking buns...the neon signs...the gates at either end...the dragon's head used in their parades...kids perched on the various statues that represented the Chinese years...my favorite Piggy trashcan...Bonnie and John buying steaming pork buns...buns that looked like pandas and pigs...food stalls everywhere...these are all the wonderful things we saw there.  What a great way to end our Japanese idyll.

The next day was to be spent riding trains back to Narita, going through the airport routine, and then flying home. 

I loved this trip.  I have to say it was one of my very favorite vacations ever.  The country was so different from most everything I have seen before.  I loved the food and the trains and the people and the red, red, red everywhere.  Thanks Japan for giving me such a memorable visit.

Japan redux...Huis ten Bosch...

We set off the next morning (our wedding anniversary) for a little bit of Holland on the coast of Kyushu, Japan.  Who would have thought?

Huis ten Bosch is a recreation of 17th century Holland.  The Dutch were the only foreigners allowed to trade with Japan for over 200 years, from 1608 to the mid-1800's, and this theme parks celebrates that special relationship.  Since I am 100% Dutch-American and Bonnie is therefore 50% Dutch-American, this was special. 

This Disney-like theme park was opened in 1992, and is a lot of fun.  The rides were sometimes amazing and sometimes silly.  Our favorite was a space movie, which all the spectators 'starred' in.  On entering, you have a 3-D facemapping and then your face appears as one of the characters in the film.  John was especially prominent as a "Ranger"...you couldn't miss him.

There is even a special train to take one there from Hakata Station in Fukuoka.  You can see my reflection in the train window, as I take the photo:

 

The place is gorgeous!  And we were there for the Tulip Festival.  You walk in and see this!

 

We really enjoyed the incredible floral display.  Can you tell that I adored all the tulips?  Here are some of the things we saw.  You really almost felt like you were in Europe...except for all the Japanese employees, speaking Japanese...

Japan redux...Dazaifu...

We spent the next day at Dazaifu, which was a 30-minute train ride from Hakata.  Dazaifu was one of Japan's major town from about 600 to 1200.  Now it is famous for its series of Temples and Parks. 

I loved the ice cream sign we saw that said "Born in America since 1948"...huh?  I have never heard of Blue Seal Ice Cream.  Is it really supposed to be American?

The various temple buildings were beautiful.  I was sad that we had missed the flowering plum trees.

Oh, and I don't know what the red gourds were supposed to be.  Any ideas?

We also found this man doing a show with his monkey.  He had it doing all sorts of tricks, including jumping through this set of rings.  It was fun to watch.  I did wonder if he had gotten Mr. Monkey from the monkey park in Arashiyama.