Back from my travels

I arrived back in the Netherlands this weekend to wonderful summer weather.  The trees have full, the grass is lush, the cafe’s are bustling.  It is wonderful to be back, I immediately took the bike out for a spin along the river to reconnect with the sun, smells and landscapes.  I visited with friends, churned through the Albert Heijn, shed the suit and tie in favor of jeans and t-shirt.  It’s been too long a trip.

• Air travel continues to be intermittent because of the ash clouds.  I was delayed on every transatlantic leg, but friends were stranded for days while they waited for an opening.  I think life is going to be like this for a while.
• The place in Barrington is coming together nicely.  It will be a good base for the British side of the business and a welcome connection back to Cambridge, but is also a rural retreat that makes a nice counterpoint in life.  I need to take my bike over.
• A college friend called to say that he was traveling with his family and would like to get together.  It was a wonderful evening; 25 years since we’d last seen one another, but the years melted away over dinner.  Its funny what we remember and connect with; delightful to hear how everyone’s lives unfolded, humbling to meet their children, now as old as we were ‘back in the day’.
• We took an afternoon to tour a formal English Garden; a thick jungle of flowers and greenery.  I like to just sit and take it in, but the British test themselves by trying to name each plant. Successive pairs and groups pass by me, mumbling Latin, turning the blooms, discussing the soil: the compulsion seems part naturalist and part boarding school.