Summer Highlights in Alkmaar

It is autumn now. You see it in the trees and the chill in the air. Yet I am quite nostalgic about summer. It seemed like ages ago that the trees were still green. Late summer is the most beautiful when everything is in full bloom. These photos were taken during at the Oosterhout park in Alkmaar while I was jogging back from the gym in the morning two months ago. This summer I am fascinated with all things tiny like insects on flowers. I know now how to distinguish between a wasp, a common bee and a bumble-bee. This is thanks to hubby for telling me, and thanks to me being stung by a wasp. Don't worry though, it was not painful (ok, maybe the wasp just settled on me and did its booty dance or maybe I have skin as thick as an elephant!).

According to hubby, a wasp is like the one you see in the photos here. The bumble-bee is smaller, yellower and brighter. It makes the most buzzing sound, and it is quite loud actually. The common bee is somewhere in between the wasp and the bumble-bee in terms of size and colour.

So what I have learnt especially from this summer are :-
(a) bee differentiation - a skill not very useful in my law studies perhaps, but useful enough to have that rare conversation with nature enthusiasts. Not that I've met any though...

(b) making sure that once I look up, I have to look down too - this golden rule came rather too late for me as I had stepped on a pile of goose/duck poo (I can't tell which is which) in my excitement of photographing these wasps on the flowers. The flowers were by the banks of the lake, and so happened it was a hot day which made the ducks/goose more prone to nature activities I guess.

Had I not scented something "fishy" below me, I would not have known...cos the yellow flowers were bright, the sun was shining and I was with my camera. Well, no pain, no gain, and no immersion in the scents of nature, good or bad!

By the way, the flowers actually have no scent at all, which was quite disappointing. I wonder what the bees see in them as they really love this flower a lot compared to others. Maybe like me, they're rather blind and go for the first flower that catches their attention.

(c) Ducks/Goose and all creatures which fly like me less during summer - try feeding a duck bread during summer and it scorns you as if quacking to say "Hey, don't insult me. I can find my own food." They don't rush out at you and can't be bothered for your bread, however fresh it is. Well, only the laziest ducks will come and appreciate your bread.

Try feeding them during winter when it's all icy and snowy. The response is, "Quack! Quack! You saved my life!" All ducks/goose and flying creatures including the fierce seagulls which can bite though garbage bags (nowadays a nuisance in Alkmaar but that's another story) zoom towards you like crazy. They squabble among themselves just for a piece of bread. They like humans more during these times and I must say, I like them more too during winter when they appreciate me walking in the park just to feed them bread. It makes my day and the sense of knowing that although I am not feeding people in starving countries, I am feeding starving animals instead. Let's hope that during summer, they remember me.

(d) Sunny days are rare, sunless days are aplenty - this summer didn't really feel like a "good" summer which Dutch people define. The temperature at its highest was around 30'C and it lasted for 2 days. There was a good whole two weeks (though not consecutive) of sunshine. The rest of summer was damp, rainy, cloudy and sunless.

No wonder people told me back in 2010 when we got married that it was a "good" summer. I didn't see the difference then because it was my first summer in the Netherlands. Then we had sunny days for months on end. This year mother nature rushed into spring with too much warmth and then for summer, it ran out of steam. Maybe that's why my crocuses (spring flowers) at the balcony did not grow, and the poor photographer in me was taking photographs of it everyday for a month to make a video of its growth...you know the type which slowly shows the blossoming from bud to flower. Here the bulbs grew, but no buds, no flowers. Then half way I stopped my amateur "science" project. Ah, what to do...

(e) Carry your own weather with you - this quote was not invented up by me, but by a book which I read. I now make this my personal motto. I try to make the weather in my heart sunny and comfortable enough for me all the time. Spiritually speaking, it's about creating peace in your heart. Outside conditions are immaterial to happiness. That way, whatever the weather is outside; how the wind may be blowing my hair silly and freezing my fingers stiff will not bother me apart from spending more money to buy a conditioner and gloves.

Summer came and left, just like all seasons, and all of time in general. What I regretted this summer was that hubby and I did not have the time to go camping at the dunes. Somehow we were occupied. We had a busy summer. Every other weekend, there was some party, family gathering or our own trips to Germany to the Black Forest for my birthday and our anniversary in Sauerland. Oh yes, I have to add we enjoy Germany's nature a lot - with its rugged mountains, waterfalls and diversity. Holland is so tame in comparison. We learnt more about the German landscape, I can say.

The best part of this years summer in Alkmaar were my jogging escapades around the park/road on the way home from the gym. It feels so close to home in Malaysia (literally and spiritually) minus the cheeky hoots from the trishaw rider who yells at me in his very honest way "makin lari, makin gemuk!" (the more you run, the fatter you get!) Needless to say, I can live without that!