May 31, 2025

 Saturday. Left around 9:45. Blacksmith. Light gray cloud cover in most places, very light southerly winds, mild. Groenedijk to Achterwetering to Korssesteeg. At the end both yellow and white water lilies. Away from the cars on a beautiful morning. Egelshoek, Kerkelanden, Emmaweg, Kortenhoefsedijk. Then Moleneind, clouds of little bugs alongside the Vuntus. Loenderveense plas very calm. Vecht before Loenen. Right after Mijndensesluis (crammed with little pleasure boats full of people) a stork fetching some hay off the land and taking off. Scheendijk, Veenkade (baby ducks). Still haven't seen any swan chicks. Herenweg, Oud Zuilen, and home. In the city, a kid on a fat bike challenged me to a race. Why not.

May 28, 2025

 Left around 9:45. Nikor. Mild, breezy out of the northwest, overcast with some moisture. Eventually some clearing. Classic Dutch spring weather that keeps the fair weather folks away. Merwedekanaal to Nedereindseweg. A pair of ducks mating on top of a concrete wall in the underpass. Marrepad to Noord IJsseldijk, and Benschop. There, what looked like a rat sniffing around by the side of the road, right after the turn-off. On to Polsbroekerdam, then left to Lopik. Approaching the Lekdijk, some baby ducks. Hares also visible from time to time. Tailwind back toward Vreeswijk, with the sun improving the views everywhere, as if that was necessary. Some baby geese alongside the Sluispad-Noord. Back by way of Wayen and the Oude Mereveldseweg (first time in years) to Mos. In the paper a report on an exchange in parliament, with a socialist representative asking the government how we can spend billions extra on defense while some poor kids still can't be provided with something elemental as a pair of glasses. Reportedly, the government's response had been that, surely, poor kids also benefit from enhanced national security. I'm all for the extra defense spending, but that's a ridiculous, even obscene, response. If this really was the trade-off (I'm sure it doesn't have to be) you could be justified in asking what it is we're really trying to protect.

May 26, 2025

 Monday. Left around 9:15. Nikor. Shorts-and-long-sleeves-mild. Breezy out of the West, so the shelter of the Straatweg to Nieuwersluis. Then ARK, the water highway. An old motor barge, loaded down and still at work. It looked small amid the ever bigger recent models, and yet so much better. Many have been converted into house boats or tourist vessels, but since these barges can navigate smaller waterways to reach customers there, some are sticking around. Utility, esthetics, and nostalgia rolled into one. Bridge at Nigtevecht and on to Ringdijk and Javaplein. In the paper a response from the White House to the attacks on Ukraine over the weekend. Who is going to say if "crazy" really is a condemnation, or whether it leads to some meaningful action. I'm not holding my breath. Also a column by an old, level-headed acquaintance warning against becoming wedded to doom scenarios. After all, the 2026 or 2028 elections have not been cancelled, hence democracy lives. The argument was a little richer than this, but it is still a naive definition of a functioning democracy. When you include other crucial elements, you can, at best, speak of a hollowed-out democracy, or one being captured by a hostile conspiracy. When the people at the top reject any accountability--and act like it, aided by a expert crowd of selfish, cynical ideologues-- you can also speak of a democracy speeding down the slippery slope. When resistance grows, as surely it will, they will have their excuse for proclaiming an emergency and cancelling the mid-terms--and will you still have a "democracy" then? They are all-in, with much to lose, so let's keep these doom scenarios front and center. From Javaplein to Bushuis. Back by way of Plantage, Oosterpark (short detour past Kastanjeplein, but I missed spotting the Little Titans), Watergraafsmeer, Diemen. Then the widened, 21st century bike paths past Driemond, Weesp, to 's-Graveland. Not all change is bad, especially with a tailwind. Detour at Kerkelanden, then the usual, sheltered way home: Noodweg/Einde Gooi, Hollandse Rading, Maartensdijk, Groenekan. Hard to decide if the wild rose along the bike path after Maartensdijk is struggling, or if it has taken life after our recent, most welcome rain showers.

May 24, 2025

 Saturday. Blacksmith. KMC. 9:30 start at the Markt in Steenbergen. Overcast, mostly, rain in the forecast, fairly mild still. Koos himself, and the likes of Axel Merckx, Cees Bal, Aad van den Hoek, Bart van Est, Adrie van Houwelingen, Maarten den Bakker. Also some younger, stronger guys (not that the older ones can't keep up). Fast pace, big group--hardly any time to look around. Dikes, bridges, bike paths, occasional large bodies of water. Roughly tracing the Steenbergse Vliet to Schelde-Rijnkanaal and across for a little bit of Zeeland. Wind-aided to Oude Tonge, then rest stop at Galanthese Haven. Cool little band playing under a canopy: guitars, drums, singer, and ... a tuba. That didn't quite work, but it was fun. Still peeing when the group got going again, so a little chase for good measure. It started to rain about 90 minutes in. Slick roads in Ooltgensplaat, and a few crashes, but then the pace went up going across the Volkeraksluizen toward Dinteloord. It kept raining, the guys didn't like it, and being from around there, they knew where to turn right (it was at the Steenbergseweg) for the beeline back to the Steenbergen Markt. The rain is more than welcome, but not so much on a day like today. 

May 21, 2025

 Wednesday. Left a little before ten. Milder than anticipated, in spite of the thin, gray-white cloud cover almost everywhere. Winds out of the northwest. Leidseweg to Daphne bridge to the canals. Pleasure boats co-determining the route this time of year: straight at Jutphaas to Vreeswijk. There, more pleasure boats, leading to extra traffic in the Molenstraat. Tull en 't Waal, then Elpad, with the sheep only half-visible in the tall grass. Kaaiweg and Korte Uitweg to ARK bridge and Achterdijk. Baled-up hay wrapped in plastic has been out in the fields for a week or two. Odijk, Bunnik, Vossegatsedijk back into the city to Mos. In the newspaper more of the push-back you still hear regularly to the growing criticism of the Israeli campaign in Gaza. "But Hamas ..." is what it tends to boil down to. A variation is: "this all started on October 7." Hamas, of course, is highly relevant, even now, in its diminished state. However, implicitly, or sometimes explicitly, to use its actions and ideas (despicable indeed) as justification of anything Israel does vis-a-vis the population of Gaza (or the West Bank, for that matter) is wholly unconvincing, as is the idea that you could eradicate Hamas. Given the situation in that part of the world, eradicating Palestinian extremism is as unrealistic as thinking the extremists on the Israeli side will soon disappear. The extremists on both sides deserve each other; the tragedy, or crime, is all the innocent people caught in the middle. But we should expect a good deal more judgment from a country calling itself a democracy than we have seen from the Israeli government in the past year-and-a-half. Also, this didn't start on October 7; it's just the latest round in a deeply tragic history going back more than a century, perhaps even longer. There's enough blame to go around there too, which can make the current situation appear even more hopeless. And maybe it is. But maybe the moderate voices in the region can still reassert themselves, maybe enough people still realize that the current course, set by the extremists, leads nowhere. Then you wouldn't have a solution, but perhaps the beginning of a conversation, and that would be something.

May 18, 2025

 Sunday. Left a little before nine. Blacksmith. Almost completely overcast, cool, winds out of the north. Straatweg to Breukelen. Vecht nice and calm after Maarssen. Toward Woerdense Verlaat and Meije; clouds of little bugs alongside Galgerwaard. Wherever fields or road or canal sides had not been mowed, they looked just stunning, with yellow iris taking pride of place. The entire Meije was gorgeous, both people's yards and gardens and the fields, lakes, and marsh areas. Home-made apple pie at our back-up, very local cafe, just to the left after turning onto Nieuwkoop's Zuideinde. Going on eleven, the sun came out, mostly. Kromme Mijdrecht until the vacation park before de Hoef. Little tunnel to Gagelweg and Portengen. Lush, lush. Around the tourists at de Haar castle, then Maximapark and Hermelijnvlinderpad to the Gele Brug. Not very busy anywhere, but only a few places where you could be away from the world.

May 16, 2025

Friday. Left a little before 9:30. Blacksmith. Mostly cloudy and a cool-ish breeze from the northwest. Long sleeves and knickers. In the sun, it was quite nice, but with the sun behind the clouds, or under the trees, it was just spring, no longer summer. De Bilt, around Zeist, past Austerlitz and Woudenberg. Griftdijk and Haarweg extra East-West car traffic. I had not counted with the freeway closure, but in the end it wasn't terrible (other than not getting peace and quiet, the usual state of things there on a weekday morning). On the hill everything was normal, including the hard effort and mediocre time. Another detour behind Leersum, but it led me to do the Langbroekerweg with its forbidding rows of trees on both sides. Then Gooyerdijk to Rodensteijn to Langbroekerdijk, Werkhoven, and Achterdijk. Riding home into the headwind was work. It got sunnier as time went on, but never warm. The drought is now official, farmers are spraying their crops, and Van der Valk still finds it necessary to spray its bushes in the shade. Otherwise, not too many visible effects yet, but with another dry week up ahead, that only seems a matter of time. The news with the talks between the Ukrainian and Russian delegations. Other than the POW issue, these now seem to be mostly about not alienating the White House (any further). Moscow is not ready to give up any of its objectives, regarding Ukraine or NATO, and it probably still thinks time is on its side. It's quite possible that this is another miscalculation by the boss, since Europe, while still having a long, long way to go, does seem to be organizing for its own defense, including that of Ukraine. For its part, that outcome might do just enough to keep Washington on side, politically and militarily. But there are many moving parts, the most dangerous being both the current administration's unpredictability, and its agenda. A new example of the latter is how it is now actively going after the International Court of Justice, to the point of threatening to block the Court's bank account. As much as Europe and other democracies may try to keep the U.S. on their side, recent experience suggests Washington (and the country) really doesn't see itself as being in the same old club any more.