Amsterdam, Holland - June 1, 2008

We are up early and take a taxi down to the "Excursions" office by the Dam Hotel, to catch our bus trip fro the day, to see shoe factory museum, windmills and the boat trip to a refurbished fishing village. We are much too early, of course, and so I have quite a bit of time to get some photos of the area before we set out on our day trip. The Christies is across the street from our Hotel. Note the ever present crane. This was the trip of the cranes. :))

At home: Yesterday afternoon, since the water had all mysteriously been pumped out of the pond, I started to rework the edges. I scooped out the muddy water, leaves, under water plants and found a few rocks on the bottom. I have thrown the potted plants out, to be redone. The bog bean is getting totally out of hand, the minature cattail died. I have cut back, what I think is the marsh marigold a bit. I have yet to cut back the lovely water iris. I finished resetting the stones to about half way around and it was time to go in and make our dinner. Overnight and today it rained more and the pond has about a foot of water in it again. I shall attempt to pump it out when I next get out there to finish the job.

The piece of carpet we need to finish the living room should be here in 2 - 3 weeks. Hopefully they can get the installers in to our place as soon as it arrives. Otherwise I spent the day doing laundry, taking care of my house plants and having a look at the Multiply stuff. I made a calendar and then did the order calendar to try to find out how much it was - silly thing said regular price $10.00, sale price $13.99... plus it costs $5.50 for shipping, and with the $6.00 grand opening discount I would still end up paying $20.00 for a calendar of my own photos. Well.. I will look around and see if maybe I can just make my own with some software. It might be fun.