Elephants Parade

In honor of World Elephant Day today(who knew, right?)...

The elephant Parade is the world's largest open-air exhibition in public space with 1.5m wide, ornate elephant statues. Amsterdam, London, Singapore, Milan and Copenhagen have already hosted this event.  About 95 colorful elephants will spend 3 months in the squares and city streets of Trier (Germany) and Luxembourg City (Luxembourg).  Each elephant is unique, designed by local and international artists and celebrities.  Many other celebrities such as Katy Perry, Goldie Hawn and Tommy Hilfiger were involved in the Elephant Parade.  After the exhibition the elephants will be auctioned off and proceeds go to the Asian Elephant Foundation.  -Courtesy of www.trier-today.de

I happened to be in both Trier and Luxembourg this past weekend.  I didn't see all 95 elephants, I'm sure.  But I saw many. I didn't get pictures of every elephant I saw.  Sometimes there were too many people around any my silent screams of "GET OUT OF MY WAY" did not have the intended effect :)   Here are some of the ones I did see. As you can imagine, the elephants were very popular with kids and sometimes that made the picture even better. It was fun spotting one out of the corner of your eye or walking past a square 4 times before noticing the elephant there. 

Couldn't resist getting a shot of the dogs with an elephant.

Do you have a favorite elephant?

Temporary - Sundays in My City

Last week the dogs and I packed up the car and temporarily relocated to Mons, Belgium.

The traveling tomato plants (I wasn't about to leave them behind!  They now reside outside the office.)

 Mons is the home to Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) and that's where I'll be working for the next couple months.  We're living in a hotel.

Right across the street from the hotel is a park which is great for dog walking.

The Grand Place of Mons is about a 10 min. walk away.

I can't say I understand the gravel sidewalks and the dogs aren't too keen on them either.

War monument to American soldiers who died while fighting in Mons

That's our new temporary neighborhood.  It should be noted that Mons is in Wallonia which is the French-speaking part of Belgium. I. Do. NOT. Speak. French!  I miss the Netherlands!

Linking up with Unknown Mami for the always-interesting Sundays in My City. Go check it out!

Too Cute - Sundays in My City

I'm fully aware that not everyone thinks pictures of other people's pets are just the cutest thing ever.  If you're not one of the people who do you should not feel compelled to stick around :)

Friday was the hottest day of the year here.  There is almost no air conditioning anywhere because it's just not needed.  Friday, though, it was needed (but not to be had).  The dogs, who both used to live in Phoenix, AZ, have fully acclimatized to the weather here and can no longer cope with extreme heat.  So they spent a few days mostly lying around and panting.  Then I saw them like this.

They have such love for each other!

Later that day we took the train to visit a friend.  Tex insisted on sitting between my knees, radiating heat and panting on me for the first two rides which were on non-air conditioned trains.  On the third train (which was thankfully air conditioned) they sprawled out in the aisle and just let everyone step over or around them.

Waiting for train #2...tongues hanging in the heat

For other trips and pets (probably kids and staying home as well), check out the other SIMC posts over at Unknown Mami!

Blueberries!!

This the third summer that I've been in the Netherlands and the third summer I've gone blueberry picking.  I love blueberries!!  Normally I pick a ton (okay, a few kilograms) and bake up a storm and freeze a bunch. But this year I'm sans oven (my oven went kaput a couple weeks ago and hasn't been repaired/replaced) and since I'm moving in a couple months I'm trying to empty my freezer, not fill it up.  So I picked less this year.  And, as today is the hottest day of the year I didn't want to be out there too long anyway. I still picked quite a bit, just not as much as in years past.

One of the good things about being so small is that I can easily get under the bushes. Most people just walk along and pick the ones that don't require any stooping or reaching.  I go pretty well inside the bushes and get all the ones everyone else passes by.  BONUS: that puts me in the shade!

 

MMmmmmmmmm!!!!

Just one of the many things I'll miss about living here.

July Reads

Here's what I read last month...(all book images courtesy of amazon.com)

Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls - David Sedaris...It's by David Sedaris; nothing more needs to be said!

Little Princes - Conner Grennan...Makes me long for my Peace Corps days.

Packing for Mars - Mary Roach...everything by Mary Roach is hilarious!

Servants of the Map - Andrea Barrett...I started this a while back and then it fell off my radar.  It was okay, nothing specacular. 

Glass - Ellen Hopkins...if you haven't experienced the Crank series (Crank is the first book, Glass is the 2nd) and Ellen Hopkins' poetic writing style you really should.  Despite being 704 pages it takes only a couple days to get through it.  Really hard to put down!

 

What have you read lately?