AUGUST 2020
With the lack of travel adventures this year I went all out when scouting beautiful flowers! This blog is a round-up of flower pictures that have not been featured on the blog yet. On the bottom of the blog I included a list with recent book recommendations. Because of COVID I already reached my reading goal for this year (30 books), so I will keep you updated with book recommendations every now and then.
Cherry blossom
The last time I made a flower experience post, only the small cherry blossoms had bloomed. There are different types of cherry blossoms, with the larger part blooming later in season. During the first weeks of social distancing my hobby was to explore our neighborhood and find the largest cherry blossom tree. How did I do?
Tulips
It seemed like I was going to miss out on tulip season, until I got invited by a breeder to visit his tulip fields. I decided to go early in the morning, so it would be easy to practice social distancing and luckily I had this whole field to myself! So I guess COVID-19 brought me at least one thing 😉 I sometimes complain about living in the Netherlands as we don’t have colorful houses or the Mediterranean see, but during tulip season it is a pretty good country to live in!
Wisteria
Right after the tulip season, the Wisteria season starts! I planned to visit Paris during Wisteria season, but of course I couldn’t go. At least, this enormous Wisteria near restaurant Usine in Eindhoven partially made up for that.
Rododendrons
This year the rododendrons came out to enjoy the sunshine 🙂 Last year, these flowers really suffered from the dry summer the year before and most of them didn’t bloom. This year they seemed to have restored to their old glory and I often went on rododendron sightings in our neighborhood.
Rapeseed
In several places in Europe rapeseed freely blooms near roads and surrounding paths. I had a lot of fun spotting these underrated blossoms everywhere and often went for walks on the countryside to spot it.
Wildflowers
Right now we are in the middle of wildflower season. Poppies are one of my favorite wildflowers as they are super dreamy. After going to a lot of trouble photographing poppies in the Cotswolds last year, I was surprised that the Netherlands have lots of fields of poppies as well.
Book recommendations
Educated by Tara Westover: I had no idea of what kind of book I was going to read, when I started this book. It is a novel about a girl, who comes from an unusual background as she goes on a path towards higher education. Though it is quite literary, the book is really easy to read. At times I was shocked by the events in the book as the book also covers physical and mental abuse.
Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall: Tim Marshall is one of my favorite authors when it comes to books about geopolitics, a very interesting topic of which I did not know it existed until a few years ago. This book gives you a perfect introduction into geopolitics as you will learn how the geographical location of a country can explain a country’s history and wealth.
Eyeshot by Taylor Adams: I like to switch up my genre and every now and then I love to read a thriller. This book has an incredibly weird story and the perfect scene for a thrilling book. A couple’s car breaks down in a remote part of the Mojave desert, where they discover that a sniper is trying to shoot them from a distance. The story is so bizarre, but definitely addicting.
Dame traveler by Nastasia Yakoub: I don’t know why I did this to myself, but I read this book with beautiful pictures, accompanied by stories with experiences of female solo travelers. If you are looking into doing a solo trip, this book provides so many pages of inspiration.
Normal people by Sally Rooney: This is a very popular book and now I have read it I can understand why. The book is about a love story over the years of two teenagers, which is not particularly romantic. The author uses very short and subtle sentences in which she is able to put in a lot of feelings, giving you some room for interpretation. I was strangely captured by this book and could not put it down, despite being very different to the characters.
Skin in the Game by Nassim Nicholas Taleb: I love (socio) economical books that give a lot of examples, so this book was right up my alley. I found Skin in the Game a very interesting concept, it can be seen as having a stake in the result. For example it is better to invest with someone, who also undertakes risk in this investment himself. The author has many interesting theories and examples surrounding this topic.