One over-the-top trip!

• Bazillions of bicycles with babies propped on handlebar seats, in enormous front-end bins or simply strapped on behind.  All as individual, crazy, old or rusty as their owners.  
• Charming old houses, some just a window wide, supported sideways by each other and vertically by wooden posts.  
• Many beautiful neighborhoods and photo opportunities.  Shoes, a carved wooden handbag and coat among them.
• The MOST AMAZING food.  Beautifully prepared and presented.  Diet before traveling here.
• A floating flower market where houseboat stalls are filled with every imaginable flower, plant and bulb. Still, it's tough to top the SF flower market.
• A city that becomes even more magical when cruising the canals at night.
• Yes, the red light district still exists.  And "coffee" houses stock breads quite unlike Starbucks back home.
• Massive fields filled with magnificent colors, grown primarily for the bulbs not the cut flowers. 

A passion for petals?  You've picked the right place.  It's Amsterdam and the surrounding countryside during the spring. 

Here are the first pictures from our two-week trip beginning and ending in Holland.  With a sensational stop in the middle.

More photos to follow as I sift through thousands of images.

Count me out.

Who wants to go for a swim in the Niger River?

Twenty-two feet long.  Twenty-five hundred pounds.  Unbelievable.  No wonder a few villagers went missing.  YIKES.

Thank you, Andrea!  

Heartwarmingly wonderful

Just about the best little film I've seen in a LONG time.  Do NOT miss this!!!

You were right, W, I loved this!!!

What's not to love?

I adore these crazy/wildly wonderful women!

Thank you, Judi.

Lost upon landing

My fully-equipped, perfectly personalized, iPad.

Given queries and resulting responses, it appears that there's no hope of it ever returning. UGH.

Several sleepless nights later, feeling very vulnerable, I wondered what the perpetrator would access... DOUBLE UGH.

Did I ever set a password?  No!  

Will I set one next time?  Absolutely.

AND THEN...

I remembered this earlier FP post.  

And I "pulled the trigger" assuming the person who has my iPad will eventually boot it up and connect with the Internet.  I was able to wipe my iPad clean of personal info.  YES!!!  

AND if (huge IF) I am able to recover it, I've been assured by our Terrific Tech Guy that he will be able to put "Humpty Dumpty back together again."

WHEW. 

Next time, I need to develop a Disembarking Check List.

Bottom Line:  Add this free app to your life: Find your Iphone/IPad.  

Heartwarmingly adorable

Push past the ad, pls.

Connie, I ADORE this!

Memorable in ways you might not have imagined

OK, look past the video pic below/it's much better than that.  I promise.

What have you always wanted to try?

What small, sustainable changes might we all make?  Today.  

What are we waiting for?

Brilliant bit of singing

I ADORE THIS!  Thank you, Judi!  

WOW! WOW! WOW!  This is why I adore these programs!

Sixty Minutes on Sugar

This is a must-watch video. Much we already knew. But there are new, relatively startling connections with cancer. This is well worth 15 minutes of your time. 

Thanks, Judi!

Moving Art

I don't think there could be a better way to start each day than to watch and absorb this beautifully moving piece.  

Happiness Revealed by Louie Schwartzberg

“This is a video that should automatically turn on every morning as you awake, replacing your alarm clock with gentle music and a wonderful message to carry with you throughout each day.”  

 - Robert McMaster from Ontario, Canada

Turning to TED

Don't you just love this guy?  

The definition of tenacity.

Of being bold.

Brave.

Ingenious.

Creative.

How can he inspire the rest of us to do something wildly wonderful?

H E L P ! ! !

I've apparently fallen into a Very Large Land Art hole and cannot get out!  

What better way to spend a rainy day?

Headshakingly magnificent.

Be sure to see the second in the series.  

Phenomenal.

Definitely outstanding in his field.

More about land artist Jim Denevan. As if his art wasn't amazing enough, there's much more. Watch this!

Shifting gears.

I've always LOVED Playing For Change.  The music, this concept and their work.

What can we do locally (and globally) to make a difference?

Local guy loves lines.

And various other art forms.  And L I F E.  I know several who have seen him on our beaches. Apparently, I need to get to the coast more often.  Pretty amazing stuff, don't you think?  

Bring your rake the next time you go.

Here's how he does it!

A fascinating four minutes of Simon Beck at work/play. Brilliant.

Much more creative than the treadmill or an elliptical.

I simply cannot imagine how anyone can create anything this beautiful without a road map.  All freehand. No, freefoot.

Fill me in if you've found a way.  And then we need a little snow to begin the process.

Truly a walk on the wild side!

Sonja Hinrichsen, how creative are you???!!!  I hope you had your Fitbit on!

Snow Spirals Two from Beauregard, Steamboat Aerials on Vimeo.

Are you tired of the same old workout?

Have you hit a plateau that you just can't get past?  

Simon Beck takes exercise to a remarkable new level!  He walks the frozen lakes of Savoie, France, on snowshoes to create crop-circle inspired snow art. Be sure to follow the link to see more of his remarkable art.

Working for 5-9 hours a day, each final piece is typically the size of three soccer fields. The geometric forms range in mathematical patterns and shapes that create stunning, sometimes 3D, designs when viewed from higher levels.

How long these magnificent geometric forms survive is completely dependent on the weather. Beck designs and redesigns the patterns as new snow falls, sometimes unable to finish a piece due to significant overnight accumulations. Interestingly enough, he said, "The main reason for making them was because I can no longer run properly due to problems with my feet, so plodding about on level snow is the least painful way of getting exercise. Gradually, the reason has become photographing them, and I am considering buying a better camera.”

Spectacular art for the sake of exercise!

Truly STUNNING!

You must must must watch this!!!

Thank you soooooooooooooo much, Karen, for sharing this unbelievable concept and video.

Simply THE best.

Ellen.  

I caught the last few minutes of her show today.  Eight minutes of insanity.  

Hey!  Here's to living life with more than a modicum of madness.

Enjoy!