Diary 2017:

After a marter ate one of our bunnies, early December, we realized the old bunny shelter is beyond fixing up and needs replacement. Luckily Xmas time provided several work-free-days so we provided ourselves with a plan. With the help of Nico within a week, a brand new bunny home was built. The surviving Kay and Flip got new female friends: Lizze, Macy and Nona (we call Danootje).

We got a fresh layer of early December snow, just a few days after we finised installing the Xmas outdoor lighting and setting up the indoor decorations.

Sometimes pictures say more than words....here such an example

Wenling visits us for almost a month. Marjorie met WenLing in Taiwan in the Buddhist Monastery 'Fagushan'. They immediately became good friends and now she tours Europe and finishes her trip with a visit. Marjorie and I both had to work, which was not a problem. In the weekends we visited several places like Amsterdam and Giethoorn. During the week WenLing treated us well with perfect and delicious dinners and lunches. For the rest I don't have to say a lot, as I had no clue what the girls were talking about. It was always fluent Mandarin.

Several months a colleague got my attention mentioning the name Epica. I realised I missed the last 3 albums and might have missed some good music. After listening to several new numbers I decided to look on their webpage. And it appeared that they are on tour and would visit Nijmegen on the 22nd of October. I asked several (old) colleagues, but none could join, so I bought 1 ticket and went. It was 200% worth it. Excellent concert, nice interaction with audiance. Super. The concert started with My Propane and Mayan as warming up. Mayan has 10 band members with 5 vocalists. Pretty interesting. Finally Epica gave a 90 minute awesome show. Very nice and I am happy I went. (For those not knowing Epica: It is a Dutch band existing over 10 years and just coming back from a US tour).

Thanks to other fans, who posted complete video'son you tube!
The full concert in 2 parts. Part 2 includes Sancta Terra with Marcela Bovia and Laura Macri from Mayan joining Simone from Epica

Some excellent songs

Some pretty cool close ups

For an internal conference, several colleagues flew to Charlotte, and drove a few days later to Greensboro. No pictures from the conference. Outside the conference I took some pictures. It was T-shirt weather, where in NL autumn had just started. There was a lot of time to meet (new) colleagues. The hotel is pretty much down town, so walking distance to a sportbar to have some drinks and food.

Alex, Jessica and Ailyn came to visit us and we spent a great day together visiting Ouwehands Dierenpark in Rhenen.

The past months the distance on a Sunday morning run have increased. Today the 35km marker is met. Via the bridge at Grave, the natural area under control of Brabants Landschap, to Ravenstein. At the bridge (A50) Marjorie awaits me with refill and togehter we continue on the dyke to Cittersgemaal, to Hernen, and Leur. This video was shot at km 33 where I was really tired and hungry. The pace has come down from 5min30 to 5min45, but the rythm and engine is still going good. Probably the sun starts to play a roll (not enough cooling). The last km always goes faster because the distance to the end goal is well predictable.. Here the link to my Garmin track

We have been working a lot in the garden and the result becomes visible. Early morning the colors are best as the poppy seed flower is nice red. In the afternoon/evening the red is gone and a completely different and nice garden is seen. Next pictures are from 2 mornings. One with a Californian blue sky, the other with a Dutch blue sky.

For a few days we have two families of starlings (spreeuwen) in our garden. The kids are as big as the parents, can fly, but still are fed by the parents. And there are a lot. Luckily we have a peanutbutter jar hanging at our wall, and that makes live a lot easier, until the jar is empty.

We spent already quite some time in the garden and the first plants have flowers. And then one Sunday afternoon hail comes from the sky. Luckily the plants are doing okay.

Our neighbours son has land and a tree fell recently. Marjorie and I went to Balgoij to inspect the tree and my father came over (no pictures) to saw the tree into pieces. It is a 'wilg', or a willow in English, which is not the best wood for a fire place. We will experience it next winter.

This seems to me really early. A couple nijlganzen has off spring. I am wondering if there is enough food, as everything still needs to start growing. And it is still very cold.

We learned last year that aQiang had long cancer. So it was not a surprise that he would die. The last days the 'hospice' took care of him, relieving ShanShan from the heavy burden. The funeral was a mixed Chinese/Dutch one. Only white flowers. And many friends attending.

After more than 8,5 years living with us, Einstein had to give up the struggle with an aging body. For several years she had been suffering from arthritis, the last half year needing pain medication twice a day; for sure blind in 1 eye, most likely also in the other, and she seemed to be deaf. Add to that all the roommates she had and past away before her (a total of 7 in 8 years) and the 3 new much younger roommates we gave her last June, and you'll understand that it was all enough for her.....

Just 11 hours back from France, and then I have to leave for Schiphol. The next week Anne (a colleague) and I will be in San Francisco to visit the International Solid State Circuit Conference, or in short the ISSCC. I fly on Sunday morning and arrive early Sunday afternoon. In the afternoon I have a first meeting with 2 colleagues. Anne is already there and the 4 of us go to a tapas restaurant. Next three days is the conference. No camaras allowed. On Thursday I follow a forum. Thursday morning we checked out, and in the evening we pick up a rental car and drive to South Lake Tahoe. On the way there it was raining, but it turned into snow. We had to buy snow chains (120 Euro) and could continue. With some traffic jam it took us until 12 to arrive at our hotel. The next 2 days we rent snowboard gear and snowboard in heavenly. Due to the heavy snow, only a limited area is open on Friday. On Saturday the whole area is open, but in the afternoon clouds block our sights. So we decided to have an early stop. In the skylifts we learned that on Friday/Saturday a lot of roads are blocked due to mud slides or avalanches. (I50 to Sacramento, The 99 via Kirkwood to Stockton). Sunday morning (6AM) we do a last check and indeed the I50 is still closed. We don't have breakfast but decide to drive via Kirkwood. Snow chains are mandatory and luckily we have them and know how to use these. In Stockton we stop at Starbucks for a breakfast. At 11:30 we arrive back in San Francisco (exactly in time) and return the rental car. Here several pictures, mainly of the last 2 days.

More than halve a year ago I spoke with Marjan if she had plans to go skiing. It turned out that 2017 would be the first year without the kids and she had no plans yet. I said if there would be plans, that I would like to join, if they okayed off course. And soon a plan was made. Outside the busy school sesson, we went to France, Les Menuires, 3 Vallees. Next picture and video's are a short impression of what we did, showing that the snow condition was not that great, but also showing that we had a couple of very nice sunny days. Most days we started relaxed at about 10AM. On Monday Robert and I continued in the afternoon and did a tour to Courcheval 1850 and a nice detour back via La Tania, Meribel Village. There was quite some winds, and on Thursday a lot of the lifts were closed. It also started snowing, which was good. On Friday Marjan and I were outside at 9AM and went to Orel. A little later Cor and Robert joined.
Some tracks: First day the 4 of us , Tour with Robert to Courcheval 1850 and back , Tour with the 4 of us to Courcheval 1850. Robert and I took a detour Marjan and I start early in the fresh snow. Robert and Cor join. We go to Orel

The whole week we could skate on the lake. Friday morning Marjorie and I skated early morning. No-one on the ice, just the two of us, while the sun starts to rise..

Coming back from my usual Sunday morning run, I saw the "IJS MEESTER" and asked him about the status of the ice. In short: It is 7cm thick, which is not thick enough for large groups of people, but thick enough to skate. Advice was not to wait as it promises to be a beautifull day. Once at home, I called my father and told him the news. I directly took my ice skates and skated 3 rounds. Perfect ice. You won't find much better. About an hour later, my parents showed up. We (Marjorie, my father, I) directly went skating for an hour. After lunch my father did another hour of skating.