February 8, 2026

Sunday. Left about 10:20. Nikor. Cool, sunny, just some light clouds here and there, light winds out of the southeast. Singel to Koningsweg and Marsdijk. Achterdijk fairly quiet. Werkhoven and Hollendewagenweg. Then, toward the south and the ARK and the river, gray fog from up high all the way to the land. The sun went away just before Dwarsdijk. ARK, from the chilly old brick road, gray and empty. At the river, initially just  300 meters visibility. The river very vague. At Culemborg, the town obscured, but a light gray spot just above, and the sun just visible. Afterwards it cleared more, although it took until the Merwedekanaal for the sun and the sunny skies to return. Lekdijk very quiet. Looking south from the Overeindsebrug, the gray skies and fog below over the water, all backlit, with a semblance of the sun in the middle. Mos and yesterday's paper with Friday's news: a new deadline from the White House for Russia and Ukraine to make peace. (Or else--not much). Also the news that, according to Kyiv, Washington is eager to make business deals with Moscow. So not much has changed, other than the further exhaustion of both sides, but especially Ukraine. They have no cards, their president was told a year ago. It has become clear that Washington is able but unwilling to give them a better hand, while Europe might say it will do more but then rarely does. There is pressure on Moscow through the various oil boycotts and interceptions of shadow fleet ships. Indirectly, there appear to have been some efforts to deny Russia access to Starlink communication satellites. On the whole, it's too little and it might prove to have been too late.  It appears that Moscow's threats, including nuclear threats, do deter Ukraine's Western friends. Moscow does have a lot of ways to make life unpleasant for Europeans, but more anti-missile defense capacity should be a minimum. Better ways for Ukraine to hit Russian oil infrastructure and drone and missile factories really should be tried too. It's not as if the Russian economy is doing so well, far from it. Of course, the question "how does Russia lose" remains very relevant. It's not unreasonable to worry about the things a cornered nuclear power, led by a dictator fearing to have thrown away literally everything, might do. But the lack of commitment by the one power potentially able to change the correlation of forces in the war causes the other key question to remain much more pertinent, namely: how do we keep Ukraine from losing?

February 7, 2026

Saturday. Left around 9:50. Nikor. Cool, with last night's rain still on the pavement, the fields, and in the air. Light winds out of the south, and just a few white smudges in the skies. Groenekan to Maartensdijk; the sun hitting the rows of trees along the Lindenlaan beautifully. Embranchementsweg open again, but left to Lage Vuursche (quiet) and Hoge Vuurscheweg (likewise). Then toward Soestdijk and the Wilhelminalaan. Eng in various kinds of green: grass, left-over stubs from last fall, and some new crops just getting started. Soestduinen to Soesterhoogt. Runway plain wet but also very quiet. Bosch en Duin to de Bilt and home. 

February 2, 2026

Monday. Left at ten. Nikor. Sunny with hardly a smudge in the sky until the very end. Moderate, chilly winds out of the southeast. Warming up over the yellow bridge and through Leidse Rijn to Alendorp. Old Dutch Reformed church building, redone as a residence. Change is inevitable, but like so many things in this area, it could have been a lot worse. Rivierpad flat, abandoned, open. Two large trees (willows?), starkly green but mostly bare, towering over the land. Kortjakjespad with its alley of trees and the railroad behind it. Gerverscop quiet, though not abandoned. Koots and sheep seemingly aware that it's only early February. Breeveld (broad fruit trees on the left), to Geestdorp and Hollandse Kade. Lots of willows have been pruned since the last time. Just two walkers on the way to Teckop. Spengen to Geerkade and Portengen. Weekday mid-mornings are nice and quiet. Galgerwaard to Breukelen, Gunterstein and Scheendijk. Wind. Veenkade, Herenweg, Oud Zuilen and Mos. In the paper a report on how Iranian elites reportedly are moving assets out of the country in anticipation of a possible U.S. attack. Apparently Dubai and other Gulf locations are happy to let them park their money, the way these places seem happy to accommodate all selfish, self-dealing comers. Globalization has many benefits, and many of its elements are near-inevitable thanks to technology. But the drawbacks can be severe, especially the myriad ways in which the rich and powerful can distance themselves from any kind of restriction on their ability to earn and keep their money. No surprise that ordinary folk trying to play by the rules sometimes can be mobilized by anti-globalist populists. Not that the latter have any serious proposals for addressing these inequities, but it's still hard to refute those who argue that, on balance, globalization without accountability does more harm than good. We are, of course, moving ever further away from a world in which countries work from the same rule book, and so the strong do what they want, and the rich grab what they can. The losers, self-perceived or otherwise, will continue to fight back. 

January 30, 2026

Friday. Left at three. Nikor. Moderate but chilly winds from the East. Fantastic skies: white-gray, blue-gray, steel-gray layered all around with pink over the horizon toward the south. One time, the sun tried hard to work its way through it all, but it failed. Koningsweg to Wayen and ARK into the wind. Passed by a good pace-setter. Schalkwijk to Tetwijksepad. Culemborg just faintly to the left. Achterdijk and Tull en 't Waal quiet. Tower of Everdingen behind the dike to the left, with pink-gray light behind it; tower of Schalkwijk in the gray to the right. Plofsluis to Jutphase brug and Merwedekanaal. Wind chills were above freezing, but 90-some minutes was enough. A new government in this country, with priorities that make sense: much more defense spending and limits on various social and care programs. The question now is whether the public can be persuaded this is necessary. Perhaps it can, but it is unlikely to happen if people most affected by these social and health policies continue to see evidence that--to name just one statistic of the recent era--the number of millionaires in the country keeps growing. No justice, no (investement in) peace.

January 24, 2026

Saturday. Left by 10. Nikor. Cold but sunny, just some thin, white could cover to the northeast. Light winds out of the east. West side of the Vecht all the way to development at the end of the Daalseweg. Places sheltered from sun and wind still a little damp, and there, it also looked potentially icy in a few places. Zuilensebrug, back across at Maarssen, ARK to Woerdensweg. Back across the canal at Breukelen, then Angstelkade. The land at rest everywhere. Loenersloot bridge to Loenen, then Vecht. Scheendijk torn up, so Gunterstein to the open part. Not busy anywhere, but people out everywhere, on bikes, walking, running. Veenkade, Herenweg, and Oud Zuilen back to town. The Greenland crisis has been diffused, but the American president makes sure the NATO crisis continues, most recently through his ignorant and insulting remarks about the allied contributions in Afghanistan. Last night on the BBC there was someone from his world shameless enough to defend it, but on this side of the Atlantic there can't be any serious people left who will put any stock into an administration under such leadership, or, for that matter, a country that elects a person such as this one not once, but twice. However, the conclusion that "Europe" needs to take care of itself has been obvious for a year now; what matters--and what should be the focus of everyone's attention--is what "Europe" is able to accomplish concretely here. The list of priorities is long, but none is more urgent than providing Ukraine the wherewithal to survive and to force Russia to stop the war. Not too much in the news about that, recently.

January 21, 2026

Wednesday. Left 9:10 in a light rain. Nikor. The rain stopped within minutes, and toward the east some light already visible near the horizon. Chilly, but in the course of the day it got a good deal milder. De Bilt, Bilthoven, den Dolder, and the train tracks to Amersfoort. Along the trail still some left-over bits of snow. As always happens, on the Vlasakkerweg it is the 1960s. Bisschopsweg to Randebroekerweg and Hogeweg. The last time must have been in the 1980s. The second part is now pleasantly deserted; the bike lane is on the road--what used to be the narrow bike path now serves as side walk. Amersfoortseweg to Nijkerk, which starts a lot earlier than back then. Downtown, stores and restaurants, lots of them. We left going east, Oude Barneveldseweg, past the soccerfields to the Bloemendaalseweg. The Deuverdenseweg to Driedorp. Slichtenhorsterweg to Blokhuizersteeg. Different kinds of farms, the kind you see in the middle of the country, which is what this is. Roundabout way to Terschuur (Hoevelaken, Zwartebroek), the way the bus used to go in 1982. Then Achterveld and the Hessenweg to Stoutenburg. Zwarteweg and Hamersveldseweg to de Mof. It felt a bit like the edge of Leusden, and way back when it probably was, but today it's essentially straight through town. The sun was coming out, the wind mostly at the back. Den Treek, and up the Treekerweg. Pavement clean. Then toward Huis ter Heide, de Bilt, and home. Our interesting times continue; things fall apart visibly on a daily basis. Usually those developments end badly. I fear that the people of Ukraine will suffer even more, for starters. And the Americans are next, even though many don't seem to realize it fully. However, as the resistance to the regime becomes more widespread, the regime may well double down. We will find out how ruthless they can be. Perhaps they will accept there are limits beyond which even they can't go, perhaps not. The behavior of the leader suggests there will be escalation. 

January 19, 2026

Monday. Left around 12:15. Still cold, also damp. Light winds out of the southeast. A weak sun early on, but it got covered mostly by gray-white clouds--nothing solid, but no real rays making it onto the fields. Pavement not dried out, and in some places plain damp. In the city, fresh salt had been put down. Leidseweg to de Meern brug and Zandweg. Some daffodils. More daffodils in Harmelen. Into the wind toward Achthoven. Meerlobrug to Nedereindseweg. In the very small canals there was still some left-over ice. Jutphaas to Plofsluis to Heemskerk. Looking east from there, a preposterous digital billboard alongside the freeway, as if the business park itself wasn't bad enough. Wayen and Mereveldseweg back to the city. The Greenland story gets more farcical by the day, except that it's deadly serious. It is clear now that the president does not feel inhibited by anything. Still, we are all impatiently waiting for enough Republican senators to test this proposition, and soon.