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Just another 6 miles to go before January 1st and I will have accomplished my 100 Mile Fitness Challenge! I started on October 20th and got 94 miles / 150 kilometers done within two months so it must be easy peasy getting there in time.
Last Tuesday I went on another 15.5 km solo-walk, from Terschuur to Amersfoort. It is called Barneveldse Beek, after the stream that runs along the track for about 2 km. I liked that part but overall this isn’t a hike I would recommend: I had to pass a lot of motorways as well :\ Thankfully it was a quiet day, but it will probably be horrible on Saturday or at rush hour.
The weather was absolutely GORGEOUS — cold, frosty and sunny! That made it a hike to remember after all. Look at some pictures if you don’t believe me ;)
I came by some kawaii donkeys (aren’t they the cutest animals?) and I even saw a Kingfisher — of course that one was too quick to photograph. So I had a nice winter walk this week, even though it is still officially autumn ;)
Something really bad has to happen to prevent me from accomplishing the 100 Mile Fitness Challenge in time! Oops, better touch some wood — no need to tempt the gods :\
How am I doing on my 100 Mile Fitness Challenge? Great! I’ve passed the 100 kilometer / 75 mile milestones! The exact numbers are: 124 km and 77 miles. I am still in the running for this challenge!
I had two really nice walks this week: about 15 km around Nijkerk with the Wandelgrrls and another 15 km with wlfr (a.k.a. @variomatic) from Delft to Zoetermeer for the first stage of our new hiking project: Groene Hart Pad. We finished our other project, 163 km of Utrechtpad, last July. It took us about three years and the Groene Hart Pad is just a bit longer: 192 km… I hope we will be able to finish that in three years as well!
“These boots are made for walking…“
The picture of two hiking boots was taken on the walk with wlfr… It was really weird to come across these perfectly good shoes standing idly ‘in the middle of nowhere’! Well nowhere: the name Groene Hart signifies the still ‘Green Heart’ of urbanized Holland; the area around Gouda where cows for Gouda cheese need to graze ;)
Ha! Yesterday we were out of bread so I bought a veggie ekiben for lunch on my 15 km hike from Delft to Zoetermeer; the first stage of our new hiking project: Groene Hart Pad. An ekiben is a bento sold at railway stations (eki). Of course it was no smart thinking on my part because the weather made it difficult to stop and eat lunch… Sammies are way easier to eat on the road! But on the bright side: now I was treated on a marvelous lunch while working at home today!
What did I have? Kappa maki (cucumber), nigirizushi with tamagoyaki (omelet) and chuka wakame (seaweed salad). Accompanied by some first flush sencha tea: Shincha. I am such a lucky grrl sometimes :)
I just wanted to share that with you — oh, and make you drewl of course ;)
In just one hour I will be on a real Sunday Salon: a swap meeting of the Boekgrrls where we exchange copies that we no longer need. And talk about books of course. A LOT ;) I’m just bringing a small pile and plan to take home even less ;)
Biggest news of the week: yesterday I was surprised with the kind gift of Cloud Atlas — the music. I was at a loss for words when I got it. Especially since there was no reason to get any presents; my birthday is still a few months away and I am to old for Sinterklaas too ;) Thank you so, SO much dear Else! The music is really beautiful. David Mitchell is one of my all-time favourite authors (if you didn’t know yet ;) I will have to talk about the cd some more another time because otherwise I’ll be late for my meeting.
In the mail this week: The Decorative Art of Japanese Food Carving (Elegant Garnishes for All Occassions) by Hiroshi Nagashima, which I wrote about earlier. I just couldn’t resist ;) Even though I usually refuse to buy cookbooks that are not completely vegetarian.
Finished reading: The Old Capital by Yasunari Kawabata. And I am definitely going to read more of this acclaimed author! It was really beautiful. I guess both Gail Tsukiyama (The Samurai’s Garden) and Ellis Avery (The Teahouse Fire) were influenced by Kawabata. Next read? I haven’t decided yet!
The Sunday Salon is a virtual gathering of booklovers on the web, where they blog about bookish things of the past week, visit each others weblogs, oh — and read ;)
Today’s bento-for-two was assembled in a hurry before going on a 16 km (10 mile) hike across the Kampina nature reserve (walking from Boxtel to Oisterwijk). The picture was taken quickly too — there was no time to mess around with furoshiki’s etc. because Mr Gnoe and I wanted to be on our way before the cleaning lady arrived ;)
(So the clear background has nothing to do with your picture preferences, elm@! ;)
We threw together some edamame (with African peper) and salsa picante as dip for a veggie nugget. Mini wiener sandwich rolls with garden cress, two boiled eggs, and a small bag of cashews to put in between the mini bread rolls. It may not look too great but it actually was quite good; kept us on our feet when we got tired & hungry.
The hike was wonderful, even though the weather could have been better; it was foggy and we even had some rain. Photos of our day can be found on Flickr. Today was extra special because for the first time in my life I have seen real life wild cranes! They are beautiful birds! Let’s hope they bring us luck, like the Japanese believe :)
I want to use the opportunity for a progress report on my 100 Mile Fitness Challenge. Last update was on the first day of autumn (Wednesday October 21st), when I had managed a total of 7 miles. My main ‘workout’ activities since then have been yoga, some cycling, walking around our city canal and last Sunday I danced A LOT on the Shabushabu, Oruutaichi, La Veuve Moustachue and maho+thaidisco concert in Rotterdam. I must have been swinging uninterrupted for at least two hours! It definitely was a great night out :)
I’m down to a total of 37 miles! And in only three weeks, since I didn’t join the challenge before October 20th. With 7 1/2 more weeks left of 2009, it must be possible to walk those 100 miles before January 1st!
Some strange coincidences happening this week. Today we met just one party of other hikers — including someone of my yoga group! That’s weird since the Kampina is in a whole different province. And the concert on Sunday attracted a maximum of 50 people… among which a former best friend of my brother I hadn’t seen in years! Holland really isn’t that small LOL! Many things happen in threes… what chance occurence will happen in the next few days???
How exciting, I’m going to be a secret Santa! I’ve dropped my name in Santa’s bag for the Book Bloggers Holiday Swap. Want to join as well? Be quick: subscription ends November 12th!
Good thing the holiday swap perked me up because my attempt at the Bookcrossing Spooky Booky 24 hour readathon was an absolute #FAIL. 
I knew I was on a tight schedule last week, but I had hoped to at least beat last month’s result of 15 hours and 8 minutes. Well… I didn’t even come close! [starts whispering] I scrambled together a meagre total of 7 hours, 10 minutes :-o
So the ’spooky’ book I’m reading is still the same as last Sunday: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. It’s pretty grim! It shows the real thing to fear are our fellow humans; not those Halloween ghosts, vampires or zombies. Capote absolutely has me by the throat!
A more relaxing bookish event that took place at my home yesterday was that some Boekgrrls came over to watch Revolutionary Road, the movie adaptation of Richard Yates’ novel. The overall opinion? Director Sam Mendes did a great job (even though the book is still way better). I’m just not sure whether I would have liked the film as much had I not read the book beforehand.
Another minor detail: I kept seeing Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet instead of Frank and April Wheeler… But still, I’m glad to have seen it: I enjoyed it much, much more than, in example, the adaptations of Atonement and Enduring Love (other books I really like). Although ‘enjoy’ might not be the right word for a story like Revolutionary Road…
Well, I’ve only got another 100 pages left of In Cold Blood, so coming week I hope to start in The Old Capital, by Yasunari Kawabata for my Japanese Literature Book Group. I’m embarrassed to say I had never heard of this Nobel Prize winner before, but since I know we’re going to read his book I have heard other novelists mention him as an example for their own writings. So, I’ll talk to you next week in The Sunday Salon!
The Sunday Salon is a virtual gathering of booklovers on the web, where they blog about bookish things of the past week, visit each others weblogs, oh — and read ;)
Wat een mazzel! Bij het maken van de woensdagse Mexicaanse maaltijd (met natuurlijk knof en ui in de salsa picante en avocadomousse), kwam ik erachter dat ons voorraadje peterselie op was. En wát zat er in de nieuwe groententas..? Phew, dat scheelt weer knoflookwalm ;)
En ook met de stoofpeertjes zijn we superblij — misschien maak ik daar wel een toetje van voor het loekavondje van a.s. zaterdag: Revolutionary Road staat op het programma, nadat het boek van Richard Yates vorige maand is gelezen door de boekgrrls. Het boek van november is In Cold Blood van Truman Capote, dus zit er nóg zo’n avondje in het verschiet :) Maar ik dwaal af…
De tas van deze week:
- stoofpeertjes
- platte peterselie
- prei
- bospeen
- winterpostelein
- groene kool
Wie weet een lekker — niet te ingewikkeld — dessert met stoofpeertjes??
Yesterday I went on a hike on the Utrechtse Heuvelrug (‘Utrecht Hill Ridge‘). If I want to participate in the 100 Mile Fitness Challenge I’ve got to get outdoors! I walked for 9.41 km and (in this case) I am also counting my cycling to the train station, so I’m 7 miles down for the challenge – 93 more to go!
For lunch, I brought bento #81, called Herfst Hike Bento because I like alliteration and ‘herfst’ is the Dutch word for autumn.
Top tier
- Crackers
- Crispy fried seaweed snack
- Mini matcha muffin with azuki filling
- 2 yoghurt coated apricots
- Fudge candy
- Corn cob
- Watercress leaves
- Cove-ripened goat’s cheese star
- Fairtrade African pepper spices (hiding under cheese) for corn
- Lemon infused extra vierge olive oil for corn cob
Lower tier
- Falafel (chickpea patty)
- Chili-tomato sauce for falafel
- Mini carrot
- Yellow Cabbage quiche (a.k.a. pie of slobber cabbage ;)
- Garden peas with Fairtrade Basil Herb mix
- Sundried tomato spread with another goat’s cheese star
I thought I had some edamame left but when I got the bag out of the freezer it appeared to be garden peas. No matter, I like them too ;)
CSA (& organic): corn, carrot, yellow cabbage
Organic: watercress, falafel, tomato spread
My hike took me through different types of landscape: estates, sands and moorland, but mostly forest. Which is preferable for autumn ;) Especially when you can enjoy the great weather I got! I should confess I took a wrong turn somewhere, but I got back on track quite easily ;)
Along the way I also released a bookcrossing copy of Almayer’s Folly for my 2nd round of the 2009 History Challenge at Stoop Pavilion (de Koepel van Stoop): a folly itself.
You can find the pictures I took on my hike in a special set on Flickr.
I’ve joined another challenge! But don’t worry, it’s on an entirely different level than my reading challenges. I have committed myself to the 100 Mile Fitness Challenge, which requires me to walk a 100 miles before January 1st. If everything goes well, you’ll frequently find my update posts here on Graasland.
There’s one small issue I haven’t figured out yet: I’m supposed to round down my miles to integers but since we’re used to kilometers in Holland instead of miles, hikes are usually set to round kilometers — which gives me a small disadvantage. Well, I think I’ll just wait and see if that is going to be a problem (and in the meanwhile keep track of the exact distances of my hikes ;)
100 miles = 160 (point 9) kilometers. That’s about 54 km a month! But: every 15 minutes of exercise other than walking or running — ha, like I would do any running! — counts for 1 mile. It has to be for the purpose of workout only, so I am not counting my 4 x 15 minutes cycling to and from the train station on my way to work. Even though it’s a conscious decision not to take the bus ;) Of course exceptions may be possible.
Of course I could combine this challenge with my several reading challenges by listening to audio books..! ;) For now I won’t, because I like how hiking clears my head :)
This is my acceptance post for the challenge. And I started off with a hike on the Utrechtse Heuvelrug.
The Sunday Salon is a virtual gathering of booklovers on the web, where they blog about bookish things of the past week, visit each others weblogs, oh — and read ;)
I just got back from the movie Fish Tank and we have some catching up to do on Day 7 of the television series 24 before we got to leave for tonight’s Nouvelle Vague concert. So I’m keeping this short ;)
I finally managed to write my review of To Kill a Mockingbird and send the bookcrossing book off to its next reader. Now I’m 1 review down for my Classics Challenge! I even learned something new: there’s a subgenre in American literature called Southern Gothic..!
I’m currently reading Be With You, by Takuji Ichikawa. I haven’t gotten very far yet but I really love it. I feel like writing down whole pages because the passages are so beautiful! You might be surprised to know this book is part of no challenge or book group read whatsoever ;) The story, but also my mini-chillenge for October’s Hello Japan!, has made me think of Strangers by Taichi Yamada a lot, so I recycled a review I sent to my virtual book group in 2005. It is mostly in Dutch but I plan to translate that sometime soon.
That’s all folks. Next weekend: the 24 hour read-a-thon! You can read all about that in last week’s salon post.
My Bookcrossing bookshelf
