Amsterdam Russ

I expect the remaining flowers will come on to bloom without too much problem. They're pretty tough things!

Oh, what a shame. I feel for you. Were there any blooms to be saved. I couldn't make that out in your earlier pic.

Betty - hands down. I do like Sharon Jones' version, but am not so keen on the arrangement. For one thing, the drums are too high in the mix for me, and it's a feature I dislike in many 'neo soul' recordings. In Betty's arrangement, the drums aren't prominent, and the emphasis is very much on the voice - and what a voice!

Might be fun trying to capture those bees using the slo-mo video that’s a function of iPhone cameras.

Our balcony in the golden evening light. You can't quite see them, but we've got two tomato plants up there bearing fruit as well. Had to destroy the cucumber and French bean plants earlier in the week because of a devastating infection of spider mites that, quite literally, were sucking the life out of both. It seems that even a small balcony is subject to the whims of Mother Nature - good and bad!

Record prices!

Absolutely my pleasure. It really is a remarkable story. What I didn't mention is that I took a short detour to the monument while on my way to meet a mate for a few afternoon beers. I don't know the area at all, and while I found the monument easily enough, I got completely lost in the maze of little residential streets on what is quite a large housing estate. Apple Maps on my iPhone also let me down badly. For some reason, but I didn't know it at the time, it was showing me the map upside down rather than relative to my position and direction. Following the directions, I took a left. Fifteen minutes later, realising that this couldn't be the way, I turned round and headed back. And every time I opened up the Map app, the map was still upside down. Anyway, I was about half an hour late, absolutely baking in the hot sun, only to discover the café was quite literally about three minutes away from the monument! Oh, how I laughed! 😕

I went to visit a local monument for the first time. It's a propellor from a British bomber that was shot down over Aalsmeer in December of 1942 and crashed into our local lake. The crew, belonging to the 75th New Zealand squadron, survived and were taken prisoner. Aalsmeer, you should know, served as the HQ for the German Wehrmacht in the Netherlands during WWII. One of the reasons the monument is so interesting is the exploits of one of the captured airmen - navigator Eric Williams. He managed to evade capture for three days. When caught he was sent to a prisoner of war camp in Poland. He and a fellow 'inmate' escaped by digging a tunnel, but were recaptured very quickly. Both were sent Stalag Luft III (also in Poland), which was designed to be as escape-proof as possible: the perimeter fences were positioned at a greater distance than usual, thus meaning that any tunnels would have to be extra long, and so be extra hazardous for would-be escapees. Additionally, the German guards used seismographs to detect any localised underground vibrations, which would indicate tunnelling activities. New Zealander Williams and his chum came up with an ingenious plan: they constructed a wooden vaulting horse, which they positioned as close to the perimeter fence as they could. Someone secreted inside the horse could then begin tunnelling while camp inmates continuously vaulted over the horse all the while masking the seismic vibrations. Tunnel successfully completed, Williams, his chum - who spoke fluent French - and another, made their escape dressed as French labourers. All three made it back to Britain. In 1949, Williams recounted the escape in his book The Wooden Horse, which was then made into the 1950 movie of the same name. The sun was positioned behind the monument, so it wasn't possible to get anything other than a silhouette, but at the very least the pic gives an idea of the surroundings it's in. The plaque on the monument. A still from the 1950 film, The Wooden Horse.

Ours left several days ago - almost at the turn of the month and after the rains. Swallows have taken up their spaces in our local sky. Normally they're (the swallows) over the waters of the nearby lake rather than where we are, which is very close. Like you, I did see a couple of swifts one evening - late in the evening two or three days ago - but only briefly, and none since. Their disappearance always instills a sense of sadness, like summer is already over, and the long days of light are fading in favour of autumn and the dark of winter.

We had a go at growing tomato plants from tomato slices and it's worked perfectly. We've got two very healthy plants, both with a good amount of fruit that's just starting to take on colour. We did the same with spring onions and lettuce: you cut off the last inch of the spring onion - complete with root - and just plant it. From that grows another one. Similarly with lettuce, you cut off the end nub, plant it and up grows more lettuce.

We've been growing stuff on our small balcony - strawberries, cucumber, spring onions, French beans, tomatoes... and carrots. Just harvested a first small batch of carrots this afternoon and well, they're not exactly up to standard! Disappointed to say the least, especially as all the other stuff has come on very well. I guess self-sufficiency and the 'good life' will just have to wait! 🤣

Not so stormy - the late-night balcony view...

And here's part 2. Not brilliant by a long chalk - really do wish I could afford to upgrade my kit, but that ain't happening - but hopefully you get a sense of what I was trying to achieve if the focus had been much better so the pics were pin sharp.

First time out on the bike for me today since I don't know when. In actual fact, possibly first time this year. I went out specifically to see if I could get some decent macro shots in the Amsterdam woods. What a pain it turned out to be. Not used the macro extension tubes on the current camera, but have used them successfully on the previous one. Couldn't get the camera to work with them - the thing wouldn't focus properly, meter readings made no sense, and the shutter seemed to open and close for as long as it felt like it. Not being one to give up easily, I found somewhere to sit and thought I'll take my time and see if there's something I'm doing wrong. After much faffing about, I worked out that where all settings had to be manual when using the macro tubes on the old camera, with the current one that's not necessary. So, I took loads of shots of blooms, bugs and berries - the perfect macro subject matter in the height of summer, of course. When I got home and loaded what was well over 100 shots onto the computer, I was doubly frustrated to find the majority just weren't anywhere near sharp enough. Some, mainly the handful posted here, are just about acceptable after a bit of post-process sharpening. Here's part 1:

Great, thanks - and I'd forgotten you can click on a pic to see it at a larger size.

Platform 4 of the train station under Schiphol Airport at 18:00 today at what would normally be 'rush hour' - almost completely deserted. Not sure if a panorama shot will work in the limited space here, but worth a try. Sepia effect added for, well... effect!

Thank you. It's obviously a fixture from our apartment, but catching it in such a light as this is a real treat!

I trust the book. It cites sources, whereas 45cat does not. Your choice.

The book entry is based on local info sourced courtesy of interviews the author made. What's the source of the 45cat entry?

Our first mini harvest of balcony grown French beans, picked early this morning. It ain’t much, but we should be able to keep picking as the summer goes on - and there ain’t nothing like growing your own.

According to the book "Do you hear that beat: Wisconsin pop/rock in the 50s & 60s", two members of The Inspirations - Dean Hottinger and Bill Tracinski/Tate (spelling given in the book as 'Tazinsky') - went on to record with Monopoly, with that Sage 45 being released in 1972.

From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_Hill

Caught this in the evening light on our balcony with my iPad - cucumber leaf and tendril.

Another lovely day on our balcony, until...

Doesn’t play on my iPad, unfortunately.