Long time, no see

I've discovered the Catch-22 of blogging: when you're busy, you have no time to blog about what you're doing. Quick summary:

- Salsa lessons were fun, but we haven't signed up for the next level, because of upcoming travel.

- Our Dutch language courses were really excellent, but very time-consuming for the 6 weeks that they lasted. Class was 6 hours per week, and we were supposed to have about 6 hours of homework per week. I generally spent more like 8 hours per week on the homework, and even then, there was always something that I skimped on. Like the incredible amounts of vocabulary words assigned--my stack of flashcards topples over, and I only made cards for the first half of the course! But we definitely notice improvement in our everyday Dutch. It's easier to understand the announcements when trains are delayed or rerouted, we can read the free newspapers and entertainment magazines, and I'm even taking a rowing class that's mostly in Dutch (although the teacher does have to break into English occasionally, when it becomes painfully obvious that I'm not understanding).

- We had long weekends in Barcelona and Paris. Someday I hope to post some of those photos, because they were great trips.

Now to the present. My mother was visiting for the past week. I think it was a really excellent week: she got to see a lot of Holland, and Casey and I even managed to NOT give her the flu that we were both getting over just as she arrived.

For today I've chosen a picture that I took at Keukenhof, a garden in Lisse (the center of tulip production) that is only open for a few months out of the year: spring bulb time, and then again in late summer. (As always, click on the photo to see it large.) Keukenhof has more varieties of tulips than I ever thought possible: some were waist-high, some miniature, some looked like peonies, some almost like poinsettias... and it went on for acres and acres, with ponds and sculptures and quiet wooded areas and meadows and even a windmill overlooking a tulip farm. Most of the blooms were tulips; some were daffodils and crocuses, and there were just enough hyacinths to make breezes smell sweet. But today I'm posting crocuses, for you Bostonians and Chicagoans who are just starting to see springtime. Happy Easter!