Greatest show on earth?

Is the water cycle the greatest show on earth?


Other attractions may win out when it comes to glamour and glitz, but don’t forget too that they usually come with a price.

The water cycle is free.


Or else lure you in with the promise of big prizes.

But isn’t it the case that a day or week or so after winning them we’re back to feeling same (and wanting more)?


What the water cycle delivers is equally reliable and unpredictable all in the same.

Season after season and year after year, it’s there for you like an old friend with a rhythm you know by heart but with subtleties that never cease to surprise.

It’s around you everywhere you look.


Even better still:

The water cycle never leaves town.


Compare that to this “fly by night” carnival:

Here for one weekend, gone for the next fifty one.


Not to worry (although a long time to wait):

Same time next year it’ll be back.


Until then maybe hop a ride on the water cycle ...

It’s here all fifty two!

Belgian sunset

Battle of sunsets

Where are sunsets are more scenic:

Florida or Belgium?


As senseless a debate it may seem – a sunset anywhere given the right array of clouds and light and from a proper position (say a hilltop or on the water facing west) is pretty hard to beat – if also ephemeral, other than perhaps the futile attempts of those silly enough to try as they might with cameras and lenses to capture what of them they can to then upload them for viewing onto a computer.

It’s never the same.


But my view on it is this:

Summer sunsets go to Belgium.


For one I’m there to see them (and from a pretty good hill I might add). Second is duration. Not that you have to pay by the minute – no that’s not it – but in terms of getting the most bang for your buck (or Euro as it may be), I’ve been sitting here for the better part of an hour (it’s 10:15 pm) watching the bending of light at the horizon unfold.

Finally by 10:40 pm it will be completely dark.


But not to worry – the sun is back up again at 4 am.

(That makes curtains essential if you want to sleep in.)


Winter sunsets of course go to Florida …

Particularly if viewed from the waterfront looking west.


But don’t be late!

These are “early bird” specials.

You’ll want to have your chair set up by 5:30 pm sharp.

Cherry picker

Cherry picking

Among other things:

Belgium could be the berry capital of the universe.


I don’t know that for a fact …

I’m just guessing.


Normally I abstain from random eating of berries from unknown bushes. Raspberries are obvious. They don’t give me a pause for thought. As for the bright red ones I wasn’t sure, but after observing the person next to me picking stems of them, I gave them a chance.

The same with the black ones which are called currants.


A nearby cherry tree was in season too.

Only it required a ladder to get to them.


What’s even more dangerous than eating unknown berries?

That would be climbing a rickety ladder to get to them.


The alternative is driving to buy them in the store.

While not as fresh and equally not free (not to mention the gas) …

They are safe.

Barrel and me

Barrels of rain

How much did it rain?

Wrong question!



In summer garden country all that matters is that the water barrels get filled. For this particular barrel (and rooftop) that means around 0.3 inches.


(Technically speaking, I probably should have used metric units.)

Hay stacks

"Hay fever" country?

Is "hay fever" everywhere?



After five days in Maryland – that’s where I grew up – my sinuses started to flare (ever slightly so). They say that sensitivity to poison ivy increases with exposure:

Does that mean our sensitivity to pollens also increase the longer we stay in a single place?


Or do we become immune over time instead?


The day I arrived in Belgium I was briefly overwhelmed with a maddening fit of sneezing …

Then a day later it was fine.


Upon looking out my Belgian window (where we are staying), I was momentarily mystified to see what I at first mistook to be a light drizzle, but seeing no rain worthy clouds in the sky or feeling no moisture on the ground I was suddenly struck with sense that I was starring what is normally invisible – dare I say a ghost – square in the face: Pollen (and lots of it) …

But not sneezing.


Even when you can see it (and I mean “stacks” of it), hay fever is a mystery:

When it strikes, who it gets, or when it will go away.


It’s sort of nowhere and everywhere at the same time.

Another frites stand

"Belgian" fries

What’s your favorite flavor of chips?


While not exactly a watershed-related question, it does raise questions about the many things we take for granted in the local watersheds we inhabit. What appears familiar and normal to “old eyes” can seem strange and exotic to someone brand new.

Thus a dip in foreign waters is a great way to refresh our old watershed slate.


Ketchup flavor was enticing:

To my surprise – I was quite shocked to discover – they tasted like ketchup.

Paprika was a little too spicy and Barbeque Ham a bit too bold. Balognese Original tasted like something that had sat next to delicatessen meat too long.


My quest for the perfect chip led me to the “frites stand” instead.

French fries were invented in Belgium you know …

Or so they tell me.


Although apparently not in the Dutch speaking half.


How do I know?

If so, wouldn’t they be called Dutch Fries instead?

Belgian roses

U.S. Mail

What do Belgians think of America?


Judging from their mailboxes they like us a lot.

Everywhere I looked I kept running into shiny aluminum mailboxes with “U.S. Mail” printed on them.


Does America have a corner on the international mailbox market?

I couldn’t help but wonder.


A week later the Tiger Lilies faded …

Although I think it had something to do with a big wind storm that also fell a few trees.

It wasn’t a big blow by Florida standards, but for Belgium it was front page news.


It’s hard to judge a country or its people from afar.

This sauce for example was labeled “American” – which implies that we eat it quite frequently, if not a side dish for all our meals – but upon tasting it for myself (as a fellow born and bred in the United States), I was struck by the surprise (and certainty) of it being a flavor I’d never known before.

Who labeled it “American” or how America got that sauce (other than being fairly certain whoever named it had never stepped foot on our Terra Firma) I am not sure?


What is the quintessential “American” sauce?

Possibly ketchup.


Then shouldn’t these chips be called “American flavor” instead?

Belgian water barrels

Flying cows

The only thing that outnumber the cows are the flies.


And here’s the kicker:

They are almost as big!


As annoying as just one in a room can be …

Imagine 12 in the kitchen while trying to eat.


You can swat them all day with your hand and come up empty – they are just too quick – or invest in a fly swatter instead. I was shocked, and pleasantly so, to see how this simple piece of technology leveled the playing field.


Of course a day after we got the swatters the flies suddenly subsided.

My best guess is that the rain after a long dry spell made them hatch.


Either that or the cows right next door – across the fence – brought them in.

Train crossing

Snail crossing

Why did the snail cross the road?

a. To get to the other side.
b. Because it just rained.





Answer:

C. both A and B

In Belgium after it rains they are a common sight.

Country road

Belgian heat

My old saying was –

“The coldest winter I’ve ever spent (since living in Florida) is a summer in Belgium.”


So much for old sayings!

While I can’t say it’s been oppressively hot – it hasn’t been cold either …

And some moments in the midday sun you could even characterize as “Florida-like.”


But that’s losing sight of the forest from the leaves.


The bigger picture is that:

• Coolness is a step away into the shade,


• Night is a reliable retreat out of the daytime heat,


• And guaranteed you’ll need a “jacket” to keep warm at some point during the week.

That last point sort of rings a bell:

It reminds me of the “fleece” we keep handy come winter in Florida for those bitter cold days that don’t rise above 70° F.


Maybe that means my old saying still applies, no?

City road

Patriotic growing pains

Today Belgium celebrated its national holiday.

It’s their equivalent to our Fourth of July.


Common wisdom has it that America is “young” and Europe “old” …

But as it turns out the United States is 54 years older than “Johnny come lately” Belgium which wasn’t formed as a country until the “still green behind the ears” year of 1830.


How it formed is somewhat of a peculiar story.

Belgium doesn’t have its own language as typically dictates how country lines are drawn. In Germany they speak German, in France they speak French, in Spain they speak Spanish … and so on. Belgium has two national languages – French and Dutch – but not everyone is bi-lingual. More typically the Dutch side (north) is and the French-side (south) isn’t. That sort of makes it like Switzerland which has three languages (French, German, and Italian) although in Belgium’s case it’s the political center of the European Union, an affiliation that Switzerland does not possess … by choice.


Recently there has been a political unease in Brussels between the two sides.


Historically it’s been an economic tale of two halves:

Flanders – the regional name given to its northern Dutch-speaking half – has served as the economic powerhouse of the country, subsidizing a range of government services to French-speaking Wallonia (to the south) which has more of an agricultural base.

In modern times, this arrangement has fallen under pressure in the wake of globalization and the recent economic crisis.


The result?

Belgium made international news when its legislatures could not “form a government.”

King Albert II had to step in to straighten out the mess.


Could Belgium one day dissolve into separate countries “Wallonia” and “Flanders” instead, or is it only growing pains of a new country only 180 years in age?


I’ve also heard it said that “south Florida” would make a good state of its own …

Drawing the line, say, through Lake Okeechobee, and making Miami its capital.

(My vote would go to Naples of course!)


Florida is about the same age (and population) as Belgium:

It formed in 1845, making it only 165 years old.


My best guess is that Florida and Belgium find a way to stay together.

Belgian cow

Dairyshed

The number of cows in Belgium is quite prodigious.


I couldn’t venture a guess as to how many ...

But in this field alone I counted, say, around 100.


On the road you’ll see signs marking where they cross.

At times you even have to stop to let them get through.


Compare that to the Florida Panther.

They too number around one hundred.


The difference?

The patch of land where they roam is quite a bit larger –

Somewhere in the neighborhood of few thousand square miles.


A road crossing sign is about as close as most people come to ever seeing a panther in Florida.


As for the cows in this part of Belgium:

You have to try really hard not to see at least a few hundred every day.


Unlike the Florida panther of course they aren’t roaming around at night.