Laurel Elisabeth Stevens

Quote by Goethe in the Keukenhof Thursday morning we took the tram to the Van Gogh museum.  Elisabeth chose to do a treasure hunt offered by the museum.  She was busy searching paintings to answer questions, and writing about which were her favorites.  John and I shared an audio tour, passing the headphones back and forth while we kept our eyes on the kids in the ever thickening crowd.  Henry was listening to a children’s audio tour that was for ages 6-12.  It was a bit beyond him, but it kept his interest.  By the way, in The Netherlands they pronounce Gogh like “Goch,” the ch being a sort of guttural sound. I have always enjoyed Van Gogh’s paintings, but never thought much of the artist himself.  I knew there was some crazy story about him cutting off his ear, and that did not endear me to him.  In my mind I chalked him up as another artist with problems.  When I read the introduction to his self portrait I read for the first time that...

The Stevens in Wernigerode March 19th! We celebrated Henry’s birthday in a grand way this weekend.  Not all of the events were motivated by his birthday, but I’m glad it worked out this way.  For starters, both my parents were able to be there.  With Dad’s work and travel schedule, this was an on again, off again thing, and I was so excited and warmed to have him work so hard to get here.   Then we had great weather.  This was our third visit to the Harz mountains and we got sunshine this time!  Lots of it, and warmer temperatures.  Friday after school Elisabeth, Henry and I took the train from Hannover to Wernigerode (say each syllable, no silent letters, and the W is a V.  It’s easy).  After checking into our hotel we set off to find a playground.  Sometimes I wonder why we work so hard to take our kids places when they just want to find playgrounds!  But it was a scenic one--with a castle in the background. The Happy Four Y...

It was time for Christmas trees to be collected this week. I had heard that there was a day that they would be collected and assumed I would need to drag it out to the street, like we do in the U.S. A week or so after Christmas near church I saw piles of trees, but I thought, “Well, that’s in the city. The people that live in apartments need to bring theirs here.” I saw several piles around the city that day, and one on the way home from our tram to our house. That evening I asked my friend B what day we needed to take our trees out. She explained that from the 13th to the 20th or so, trees would be collected . . .from the pile I had seen walking home. So rather than dragging it to the street we would need to drag it oh, a half mile. Now, true, we could’ve put it in our car. But what do you picture when you see a month old Christmas tree in your car? A mess. So, after seeing the pile of trees grow and grow, and even seeing some trees being dragged down the street, the kids and I tried ...