Today's afternoon

we passed the city hall this afternoon (which i showed before, here its to the left), and this is city hall plaza. a huge empty space, sometimes occupied by the circus, or other events (then it looks less weird, i have to say. its really so huge, and often empty!). today somehow there were a lot of cars (i wonder why?!), and in the very back you see the entrance to the subway. 

we went to haymarket (just behind the city hall), to get some very cheap fruit and vegetables. i know that previous time i showed you a picture of haymarket i mentioned we never go there, but nowadays we sometimes do! it is actually really, really cheap and if you look carefully, you can get good stuff! you just need a big bag to carry it all back home. ah, and cash, plus a good memory in order to remember at which stand the fruit or vegetables looked the best for the lowest price (every time it does happen that at the next stand those oranges were even a bit cheaper than where we just bought them).

Where's this?

yes.... niagara falls. we went there the past weekend, finally! it was quite a drive, some 8 hours, on a mostly booooring highway (and we had to pay a lot of toll, in total perhaps 20 dollars). we both had never been there. first we watched them from the american site (as you can see above). we went to the information booth along the highway. we got some booklets, but there was absolutely nothing about the canadian side! not even the roads were marked (and canada is right across). as the man behind the counter said; "well, yes, guess which side we are trying to promote here, huh". we also discovered our tomtom is for the usa only, it was blank as soon as we crossed the border, haha.

as you can see, there are a lot of hotels with a view of the falls. and the ones you see here are just a few. there is basically an entire entertainment circus built along the falls. casinos, shops, hotels, restaurants. very touristy, nothing outstanding... really, it was so cool to see the falls! yes, ive seen pictures, but seeing and hearing it in real is so different! but i think it would be nicer if you would first have to walk through a forest or something, and then they suddenly appear...(imagine the explorers that discovered these falls!). now it was walking through a forest of signs for how to pay for parking, where your hotel is, or where you should eat. beeehhhhh.... on saturday it was pretty crowded, but we stayed another night (as driving 8+  hours on 2 consecutive days would be a bit too much), and on sunday the little entertainment town was dead. yes, all the restaurants were open, only hardly anyone was there... 

anyways, we really enjoyed seeing the falls for real. i took a lot of pictures, but none does them justice. you should go there in person! (and ignore the "ballentent" as we dutch would call that circus of hotels and casinos around it)

Frozen bananas?

yuk! saw these this weekend! cannot be tasty at all, i think.....

meanwhile, its really cold here. but the snow turned into heavy rain (this morning), and its all gone now. but the forecast says around 18 degrees celsius this sunday or monday! i dont get the weather...

First snow!

here a crappy picture i took out of the window from our apartment this evening! look at all that snow!! and its still coming down..... its a bit windy, but not by far as windy as it was during sandy last monday. but its quite cold!

i keep reading about new york/new jersey/connecticut where sandy left a real mess. houses are destroyed, and many people are still (!) without power. this new small storm must be shitty there... when we drove through the state of new york, we were warned on the highway that there were fuel shortages in the hudson valley. we didnt notice anything, but i have seen the lines for gas stations on tv.... (here you can read more about the damage sandy caused in staten island, or here about the rockaways)

Blue sky!

behind all those clouds there is a very blue sky!

we watched the outcome of the elections tonight. sort of. the enormous tv was on mute and we played some game. of all the people present, only 2 (out of 11, i think) were real americans and allowed to vote! i learned that when you vote, you get a sticker that says "i voted". and real americans really wear that sticker. i find that very interesting, and cute too! like when you did you did some task well, at school.... also, cnn said obama was "the winner", as if it literally was a race, and obama was fastest (shouldnt it be "elected"?). here you can see how much money each candidate raised and spent on the elections. its really incredible. imagine what could have been done with all that money.... (instead of all those negative ads about each other)!

anyways..., now its really late and obama still did not give his speech, maybe its time for bed and watch it later.....

Amsterdam, NY

we went somewhere this weekend and the stupid hotel didnt have internet, grrr... :((( or rather, having internet would cost additional money and so as real dutch we didnt do that. we did watch some tv, until i fell asleep; elections, elections, elections!!! (they are tomorrow!)

anyways, to get where we went, we passed amsterdam, in the state of new york. so of course i had to take a picture of that. 

it was very cold where we went (and we had a teeny tiny bit of snow!). i was hoping in boston it would be less cold, just like when we left (which was just 2 days ago, it somehow feels much longer), but now its bloddy cold here too! we even put on an extra blanket. both very tired, so even though its just 10 (winterime), it feels like 12.... (and it would be 11 in summertime; we had some stupid trouble with that this weekend, haha!)

good night!

Autumn yellow

i took this picture last weekend at the cemetery. this tree is just so magnificent! especially in fall, i think...

by now most leaves are probably gone. its getting colder again too, and this weekend we change the clock; an hour extra! and shorter days again.... beehhhh

Mobile devices

this was in the getty museum in los angeles where we were back in may. actually tim say these girls first, immersed in their phones... hmmm. now i look at it i wonder whether the blond one really is looking at her phone, but the other one defenitely is! :) 

here in boston in the subway most people are on their phones too. i think at least 50% of the passengers spends the entire ride tapping on the thing. then there are some with e-readers (or whatever you call them), and then there are just a few that have a real book or magazine... i just read that newsweek will go digital only from the new year onwards!! im glad i discontinued my subscription, because i dont have an e-reader or a fancy phone... so how would i ever be able to read their articles on the train or while im in the gym..?!

sometimes i wonder whether i dont miss something, without a fancy phone. but then i try a game on tims phone and i am just horrible at it (and dont enjoy it), or the other day i needed to retrieve a specific email while using his phone; it drove me crazy as i mistyped my password i dont know how many times on the little screen. so i guess no 800 dollar new iphone for me... i use a very simple prepaid without camera, without T9, and unfortunately usually without very good sound (i.e. when someone calls me i usually dont hear what they are saying, so i prefer not to pick up and send texts instead). am i getting old...?

Subway entrance

this is the subway entrance to south station. i think there are 4 of these, even, for the train in each direction on either side of the street.

i also like the thingies in between for the many, many free magazines you can get. most of them i have never seen! often they are empty anyways, and in areas with lots of homeless people they are usually used as storage for their blankets... so, beware... :)

Sunny hours

i saw this in august on a small, old cemetery alongside the road. somewhere in vermont. i liked it, took a photo, and forgot to look whether it belonged to a grave, or anything... 

today i saw on the news what damage hurricane sandy did. a lot of power outages and downed trees in and around boston. but all that is nothing compared to the mess she left in new york, for example. as you can see here. we were really lucky!

So far...

...we didnt need to be rescued! everything fine! as i wrote yesterday, the MBTA (i.e. the subway system) had a note on their site that they would operate as always during sandy.... so... they did, this morning. but then, at some point they decided to suspend all (all!!) service from 2 in the afternoon onwards.... glad we got up a little late, and found that out, so we just worked from home today. but imagine all those people that did get up on time, only to find out they had to rush home again before 2!! although judging from all the empty parking spaces near the subway station, many people already had decided to just stay home.

the winds and rain were pretty crazy at times! sometimes the wind was so strong i was sure i would see a tree go down, but around our apartment everything remained fine. pfew... :) lights were flickering sometimes so i was really afraid we would loose power. during the day i followed the nstar power outage map (you can view that here, where they list where and how many people are without power), and more and more places in and around boston lost power. at first it was just a small percentage of the customers, but s the day went on, more and more regions had power outages well above 50%, and 2 towns at some point were even out entirely! judging from the news many trees went down, and here and there there was some flooding in and around boston, but nothing major, luckily.

sandy herself lost some power, and now its very quiet around here. lets see of it stays that way...

Wild sea!

as it has been all over the news, i dont have to explain that hurricane sandy might visit us sometime tomorrow night...

whereas saturday the weather was very nice (we went out without jackets) and sunny, today it was dark, rainy and quite stormy already. strong winds brought many (kite) surfers out to revere beach. here you see just 2 in the back, but there were many, many kite surfers out there! we just briefly ran up to the beach, but the wind was so strong and the rain was making my camera wet.. after the beach we went to the supermarket but no crazy empty shelves as i have seen now on several blogs. only all bottled water was sold out. 

while they shut down the subway system in new york, here in boston they expect to operate normally, although they are placing sandbags somewhere along the green line, as you can see here, to prevent flooding. they do suspend ferry services tomorrow. our apartment complex send out some "hurricane preparation letter" with very helpful tips, as for example: do not open the fridge/freezer too often when its not working anymore....

well, lets see. we have a flashlight (somewhere!), some candles, i just made a large pan of soup, baked 4 breads and an apple pie.... that should be enough, no?! also, i did most of the laundry and cleaned the kitchen. if disaster strikes, at least everything is clean.... also, i went to a halloween party yesterday, and sort of dressed up, something i already hated to do when still a kid..... hmm, i guess that actually has nothing to do with the hurricane, i just wanted to mention it.. ;)

anyways, if i not post, like i didnt for the past 2 days, it could be because we lost power, but it could also be my laziness (the reason i didnt post the past 2 days).

Cat Power!

last night we went to a concert of cat power in the house of blues in boston!! i like her music and she just released a new cd.

we arrived early, too early.the only good thing about that was that we got a spot in the very front! but then the wait started; the band playing before the real concert was so terribly awful, it would have been better if there had been just silence. only at 10 cat power decided to show herself (the concert started at 8....grrrr). she came with a cup of tea (someone else had already put a chair and what seemed a bottle of liquor on the stage, but she didnt touch either during the concert), and lots of incense that she kept burning during the concert (beeeggghhh). it was (mostly) a good concert, i really liked it, and it was nice to be at the very front, for once, not having to stand on tiptoes as most of the world is taller than me. unfortunately, at some point we were afraid we would not catch the last subway train (we dont even know when the last is, i always assume its around midnight, but i just looked it up, its actually at 12.30), so we left while she was just finishing up.... :(

taking pictures was very difficult, as you can see, even when in the front. buuuhhh!

Grave post

after sunday's apple picking, we passed by a cemetery and decided to check it out. i could see the older section in the back, and just wanted to skip the newer part until i saw the above unusual grave. this is the grave of erin elizabeth goddard. she was only 17 when she died in a car accident. this is all i could find about her, from the find a grave website: Miss Goddard was a senior at Westford Academy, where she was a cheerleader and captain of the Senior Girls Powder Puff Team. She also played on the academy softball team and was active in Students Against Driving Drunk. She once worked in the Lowell summer youth employment program at Westford Town Hall." the only other thing i could find is that the westford academy has a "erin elizabeth goddard memorial award", which is given to a graduating senior pursuing further study in english.

the note she holds in her hands says: "friends" erin goddard. my love for all them they may never see. but it does exist and i insist that they'll forever be a part of me." i wonder whether she wrote that, and whether that is her handwriting....  the stone, the note, everything makes me wonder about this girl.... [after a comment, which you can read below, from erin's mother, here is a link to a youtube video of erin. and indeed, she did wrote the note, and that is her handwriting]

after taking a few pictures, we went back to the car and i already felt a bit uncomfortable as there was once again a policecar driving around (i tell you, if you need police assistance, go to your local cemetery, thats probably where they are hanging out). he came driving by, and just like in the movies, he stopped, opened his window, making tim do the same. he then asked whether we knew her. tim said no, and i was afraid he would send us away/get mad/do whatever crazy unexpected thing cops do in bad movies. but he just started rambling that he knew the person mowing the grass at the cemetery, and that that person experienced some weird things, "ghosts and stuff, you know". and that it was very sad, such a young girl, and that there was another young girl a bit further..... :( he completely ruined my mood, and we just left after that, did not even check out the old section!

for a listing of the other taphophiles, go here!

How American!

while driving around boston (which is, i have to say it again, so very beautiful at this time of the year) i saw this house somewhere along the road. i think it was close to plymouth. the porch (i want a porch too!!), the chairs on it, so very american!! the size of the house, ofcourse. the power cable, haha. the flag. and the round banner-shaped flag, whatever that is; its beyond ugly anyways, and you see it adorning so many porches, windows, whatnot around here! and often rather faded by the sun.... still a pretty house... i guess i would just change the colors to something less patriotic, loose the flags, but mostly enjoy the space. i bet there is a big kitchen in it, too. a large back yard..... quite different from our small apartment....

PYO apples

thats pick your own apples!! and as you can see here, thats what we did today, finally! there were golden and red delicious apple trees, mcintosh (dislike them very much, so we stayed away from those) and cortland trees. good we tried some while picking; the golden delicious turned out to be best. we both got a bag and although it seemed small we got a LOT of apples.... only after we were more or less done, we found the tree with the ladder, haha, but most branches were low enough to get the apples out without help. moreover, its almost end of season, and it seemed many of the best apples already had fallen down; we just had to pick them up.

and so... this afternoon i sliced and peeled and cut apple after apple after apple.... first for some fruit leather (thats in the ovem now, i wonder if it really will dry out as the recipe says), then a large pot of chunky apple sauce (not bad!), and... now we still have a lot of apples... dutch apple pie, maybe? we also have cranberries left from last weeks adventure, maybe some cranberry-apple cobbler? (i think cobbler is something really american, at least thats how it sounds to me...). hmmm, maybe an apple for lunch tomorrow?

Stop idling!!

today it was supposed to rain (or so said tim), but it didnt! during the night we had crazy rain, so much that some places around boston got a little flooded. here it was ok, but the rain did wake me up..  today, on the other hand, was gorgeous! it was 20-24 degrees C. can you believe it? ending october, and we could walk around without jacket. a perfect day to goto the cemetery behind our apartment, as they are at their best in fall, i think. 

look at this tree, isnt it beautiful?! i walked towards it to take a picture, and then i saw the police car. arrghh!! why are they always hanging out at the cemetery? to keep me safe? to protect the ghosts? to hide? to close secret deals? it really, really annoys me to see them at the cemetery, in a car. do they really need to make their rounds also there? this guy was not even driving around, he was just standing there, while his motor was running. thats my next frustration! why do i see police cars everywhere idling around?! why dont they just shut off their engine? this is what the massachusetts law says about idling (chapter 90, section 16a); 

" No person shall cause, suffer, allow or permit the unnecessary operation of the engine of a motor vehicle while said vehicle is stopped for a forseeable period of time in excess of 5 minutes. Whoever violates this will be punished by a fine of 100 dollars for the first offense, and 500 dollars for each succeeding offense." so... why do i literally everywhere, even the cemetery!, see police vehicles doing exactly that..? are they excused from the law? moreover, it costs extra gas, causes more pollution and is not good for your car.....

Fall colors!

fall colors are definitely here! so pretty! 

today it was mostly rainy, but its quite warm. i think the entire week it wasnt cold at all (i already dont remember anymore). tonight i made a pie with some fresh cranberries, and its so good... if i manage to get a decent picture (if i get one before its finished, its going fast.. ;) ), i will let you know the recipe! (got it from a dutch magazine, brought it with me when we moved to boston, and never got to actually making it).

Last chance

saw this sign in the everglades in florida. no way you could enter that road; it was blocked per this sign, but also by some real road blocks.

i like to look at this picture. good to get a warning sometimes, too bad they always come too late and you literally have to turn around. but well...

Curious headstone

this saturday we drove to carver to see the cranberry harvest. since we were a little too early, we stopped at a cemetery just before our destination, alongside the road. its the union cemetery, and if you look at it on google maps, you can see its surrounded by cranberry fields... :)

i noticed this stone because of the image on the top. it reminded me of the statue of liberty, and doesnt seem religious at all! this is the grave of peleg barrows, who lived into his 95th year! thats really old, considering he was born in 1708. all i could find about him was that his wife, hopestill darling barrows, is buried next to him (but i missed her grave); she died in 1793, being 83 years old. furthermore, peleg was one of 11 children! both his father and grandfather, who was born in 1639, were born in the usa. peleg served as a Private in Capt. Jon Bridgham's Company, Col. Cotton's Massachusetts regiment, and  he had 3 children.

but what about the image? the statue of lberty was way past his time, dedicated in 1886. but... lady liberty is representing libertas, the roman goddess of freedom, so then i tried to find something on the symbolism of lady liberty's crown. the crown represents the hope that liberty will spread across the 7 continents and 7 oceans, which are represented by the 7 rays of the statue's crown. but... thats not it; the crown (if that is what it is) on the grave has 8 rays! :( i do notice that the rays are not uniformly arranged; perhaps the mason started on the right, spacing them less, than on the left...?

perhaps it means something totally different! if you know, please enlighten me... !

here you can find the other taphophiles.