Memory

The iPhone camera offers a way to remember things! One of many examples: Instead of parking meters in our town, we now have numbered spaces, and payment takes place at special machines. To keep track of your space number, you can take a photo, and pay from any of the machines on the street, or even pay online. As I have lived here a long time, I don’t have any trouble remembering where I parked, but of course this would also be a way to remember the location. It would work in a parking lot as well.

Our locker number in the entry hall of the 
VanGogh Museum in Amsterdam.

Where have I been?

In the Netherlands many wildlife areas and parks had signs with the
location, telling what wildlife to look for. I took photos to help me
recall where I had visited.

The images of birds really do help with identification (though our guide knew them all).

On the National Geographic Explorer in Iceland, the maps were also helpful,
and worth remembering through photos.

This photo helped us remember when & where to get the bus.

So many ways a photo can help with receipts or coded ids.

Ikea even suggests taking a photo to make it
easier to get your items in the warehouse area.
(They still also supply stubby little pencils.)

How did I cook that improvised dish?

I wish I could find these wild-caught shrimp again! I refuse to buy Asian farm-raised shrimp, which
are destructive to the environment, exploitative of workers, and of dubious hygiene. 

Or just remember?

I would show you my photos of my documents and other important stuff (passport, driver’s license, immunization card, license plate on the car …) but I don’t think it would be a very good idea to publish them. However, I believe that these photos could be very useful in the unthinkable event that some of the items were lost. 

Another type of memory photo is to keep an image of people one has traveled or worked with. In fact, with a small device that can display thousands of photos (both local and from the cloud) the extensions of one’s memory are many and varied.

Blog post and all photos © 2023 mae sander.

 

Kitchens in December

For the end of 2022, I’ve done a few wrap-ups on what is important this year in global food issues , in my own travels, and in my observations of street art. Now: Kitchens in December. For several years, I’ve been participating in the fun blog party titled “In My Kitchen,” sponsored by Sherry’s Pickings, a lovely food blog from Australia. Also, each week, Deb at Readerbuzz connects bloggers at her Sunday Salon. I'm linking to these fun blog parties, and I hope their hosts will keep them going in the New Year.

In my own kitchen this month things are pretty quiet, mostly the aftermath of our 11 day trip to the Netherlands for birding and art. And a post-Christmas visit to my sister in Indiana.

Latest Refrigerator Magnets from Holland

Of course I came back with refrigerator magnets, which replaced the former display.

New Cookbook and Tea Towels

New cookbook: Fuchsia Dunlop’s Every Grain of Rice. Len is experimenting with Asian cuisines.
Two new tea towels from England, a gift from my friend Sheila.
Godiva Chocolates: a gift from another friend.

Visiting Elaine’s Kitchen

Len brought along some sourdough starter and baked with Elaine.

Elaine made us a fabulous meal of leg of lamb and vegetables.

Some Good Meals from our Kitchen

Mae cooks: roast chicken, eggplant with herbs and garlic,
and steamed broccoli.

Len cooks: fish in red wine sauce, potatoes.

Len cooks: tofu with mushrooms in pomegranate sauce,
stir-fried snow peas with peanuts.

Rice, braised bok choi, and shrimp in tamarind sauce. Also by Len.

Kitchens in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

The most famous kitchen: by Vermeer.

Jan Steen’s “Merry Family” — living degenerately in the kitchen!

The two dollhouses in the Rijksmuseum are amazing. Here’s the kitchen in one.

Blog post and photos © 2022 mae sander

Favorite Wildlife, 2022

Birds in Art 

During November & December. 2022, we visited several wonderful art museums where we saw some
great works that included images of birds and other creatures.
Van Gogh’s “Wheatfield with Crows” is very memorable.

Van Gogh, “Landscape with Rabbits.” Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.

“The Goldfinch” by Carl Fabritius in the Mauritshaus, The Hague.
The bird is a captive European Goldfinch.

Birds and Animals in the Wild

We also saw some wonderful birds and other animals while traveling during the last year. Here are just a few of the wildlife images from our various trips during the year.

Arizona, April 2022

American Goldfinch.

Flame-Colored Tanager.

Greenland, August 2022.

Musk Ox.

Whales and icebergs.

The Netherlands, December 2022.

Tawny Owl.

Common Buzzard

Maryland: The Conowingo Dam on the Susquehanna River, March 2022

Black Vulture

Bald Eagle

© 2022 mae sander

In the Van Gogh Museum

A sketch by Van Gogh made into a mural in the museum.

 

Dramatic murals on the staircase between floors of the Klimt exhibit.

Reproduction of Klimt’s murals for the Vienna Session. Klimt painted famous and very controversial
murals for several venues, but eventually gave up making murals because of so much criticism.

I very much enjoyed the experience of seeing the work of Klimt as well as the huge collection of Van Gogh paintings in this museum in Amsterdam on my trip there earlier this month.

Now I'm back home, and doing my usual thing with blogs. This post is now linked to Monday Murals at Sami's blog -- check this out if you like murals! 

https://sami-colourfulworld.blogspot.com/2022/12/monday-murals-rottnest-island-fauna-and.html

Blog post © 2022 mae sander

And in the distance...

The Kröller-Müller Museum, which opened in 1938,
is in the Hoge Veluwe National Park in the Netherlands.

Last week during our birding and art voyage in the Netherlands, one of the highlights was our visit to the Kröller-Müller Museum, founded by Helene Kröller-Müller, a brilliant art collector. As one of the first to realize the greatness of Vincent Van Gogh, she was able to assemble an astounding number of his works, beginning in the early 20th century not that long after his death.

 

Along the peaceful paths of the park are many works of art, with more in the museum’s sculpture garden.

Our walk through the beautiful woods and along the waterways in the park was very enjoyable. However, not far from the park is a military installation with a firing range, and in the distance we could hear practice artillery, which we understand was a training mission for Ukranian soldiers learning to defend their country. As I heard the distant booms of the guns, I thought about the peaceful situation in our world right now — and how peace is so fragile!

Blackbirds on the path.

A woodpecker on the museum grounds. (Len’s photo.)

 A few Paintings from the Museum

A very different Van Gogh sunflower painting.

Camille Pissarro, "February, sunrise, Bazincourt," 1893. Along with other Impressionists, Pissarro was an
influence on Van Gogh, who was friendly with Pissarro’s son Lucien.

Van Gogh, “Lane of Poplars at Sunset.”

Van Gogh, "Olive grove," 1889.