A Year in the Garden

Since I moved back to Leuven a couple of years ago, I've been trying to get our garden in shape and grow some veggies and herbs for the kitchen. I'm still learning, but things are improving. Here's some photos from the garden throughout the year.

I have three large trees at the bottom of the garden that had gotten out of control. After cutting and seasoning the wood last year, we had enough fuel for a patio fire-pit on several chilly nights.

A Fire Pit on Chilly Spring Nights

Herbs grow pretty well in our garden, we have parsley, rosemary and thyme all year round as well as chives, mint and coriander in the warmer months.

 Parsley, Mint Coriander and Chives

I planted a little red cabbage and broccoli in late summer, which has provided a few meals through the winter. Unfortunately, I didn't plant enough, trying to squeeze in an extra crop of potatoes that were eventually killed by blight.

Young Cabbage and Broccoli in the Summer

Winter Veggies in December

I tried a bunch of new veggies this year, some of which were very successful and some of which were disappointing. My chilli peppers did very well in boxes on the back of the shed and we had plenty of very hot peppers from August all the way to December. This year, I'm trying some earlier and more exotic varieties.

Chilli Peppers on the Back of the Shed

My cherry tomatoes did well, producing from July until mid-October when they were killed by blight along with two crops of potatoes. This year I am trying a very early variety that should bear fruit long before blight is a problem. Unfortunately only one courgette plant survived long enough to bear fruit but when it did it was prolific, providing all of the courgettes we needed for at least a couple of months.

Summer Vegies: Sweet Peppers, Chilli Peppers, Courgette and Tomatoes

My bell peppers (above) and watermelons (below) were both disappointing. The peppers were edible, but small and bitter.  The watermelons on the other hand were delicious, but never grew larger than a tennis ball. I think that both really needed the warmth of a greenhouse. This year I will try "Minnesota Midget", which produce many small fruit in a short growing season.

 A Tiny Watermelon

 Perhaps the strangest thing I started growing this year was mushrooms, which I think will be a good way of making the most of the darker parts of the garden. I tried grey oyster, yellow oyster and beech mushrooms, all of which grew OK at small scale on sterilized straw. This spring, I will try a giant batch of oysters and see what happens.

Yellow Oyster Mushrooms (top left)

It will be interesting to see how the new veggies do this year. I'm adding everything from Peruvian Oca to Root Parsley.

Big Island, Hawaii

Caren and I attended the HICSS 2014 conference on Big Island, Hawaii. Before the conference, we took five days of holiday to explore the island.

We started in the beach city of Kona. We had a bad case of jet-lag, which we treated with lots of good Hawaiian-grown coffee.

Kona coffee on the sea front at ' Lava Java'

We stayed at the Royal Kona Resort, right on the sea-front in Kona. It was lovely to wake-up to the sound of the pounding surf every morning. I really recommend this hotel if you are looking for a good value place to stay with a bit more soul than some of Big Island's mega-resorts. Its also an easy walk to the Kona shops, restaurants and bars.

View from our room in the Royal Kona Hotel

One of the best memories of our visit was a dawn whale watching cruise with Captain Dan McSweeney, a whale researcher who also does pleasure cruises from Honokohau harbour. We saw a pair of humpback whales breaching and jumping, as well as large schools of acrobatic spinner dolphins. Captain Dan was was an excellent tour-guide and I'd highly recommend him.

A pair of whales swimming together

A paddle-boarder with a humpback

After a few relaxing days in sunny Kona, we hopped in our hire-car and drove across the 'saddle road' to Volcanoes National Park. Big Island is made up of five volcanoes, the magma from which has built up the island over time. The most ancient flows are now verdant coffee plantations, pasture and forest, while the more recent flows are still bare black rock. Crossing the island over the saddle road means climbing 2000M (6400ft) through green foothills onto the scorched plateau of Mauna Loa and then back down towards the rainy capital of Hilo, before climbing another 1000M (3200ft) into the rainforest surrounding Volcanoes National Park. We rented a beautiful cabin in the Hale Ohia holiday village about two miles from the entrance to the park.

Our Cabin at Hale Ohia

The next day, we drove to the lookout at 6:30AM and saw dawn break over the glowing crater.

Volcanic Crater at Dawn

We spent the morning hiking through the park past steam vents, sulphur banks and through beautiful forests.

Steam Venting over the Cliffs

Caren and I on the Crater Hike

Magma Covered Road 

A Black Sand Beach

After a couple of restful nights in Volcanoes National Park, we packed up the hire car and headed to Hilton Waikoloa resort for the conference. To be honest, the 60-acre purpose-built resort, with its trains and mad-made lagoons was a little soulless for my taste, but fortunately it was an easy 3KM walk to the gorgeous public Waikoloa beach and the great Lava Lava beach bar.

 The Hilton Resort

Waikoloa Beach

A White Sand Beach 

 The ocean was teeming with life. I swam with lots of different kinds of fish and also sea turtles. My digital camera is waterproof but crappy, so excuse the quality.

An Inquisitive Little Fish

Swimming with Sea Turtles

Our visit to Hawaii was amazing. I would never have imagined that one island could have so many different faces. I hope I can return one day.

Our Last Sunset at Waikoloa Beach

2013 New Year's Resolutions

Time flies! Its already time to make New Year's resolutions for 2013. First though, I'll check in on my 2012 resolutions and see how I did...

Looking back on my 2012 resolutions:

• My first resolution was to learn Dutch to level A.2. I already passed level A.1 in spring and should pass level A.2 by the end of January if I study. So not doing too badly.
• My second resolution was to improve my publication output. Things are going great in that regard, so I am very satisfied.
• My third resolution was to go to the gym 100 times. Here I failed pretty badly! I think I have been closer to 50 times. Something I can improve on in the coming year!
• My fourth resolution was to train our golden retriever puppy. This has gone pretty well, though she remains a bit too excitable around children.
• My fifth and final resolution was to fix up the garden and finish my vegetable patch. This also went pretty well. My veggie patch has been producing for the kitchen since June and the garden looks a lot better

Some resolutions for 2013:

• I will find more time for Caren and I to unwind together.
• I will do at least one local 'fun run' and go to the gym more than last year.
• I will improve our garden and grow my first harvest of mushrooms.
• I will improve my Dutch to at least level B.1.

Overall, I can only home that 2013 is as good for us as 2012 was. I have a lot to be thankful for.

Happy New Year!

First Year in Leuven, Belgium

Caren and I have been in Belgium for a little over a year now, and I noticed recently that I had lots of photos sitting on my phone, so I thought that I would upload a random selection as a kind of retrospective.

Penny at a Cafe in June

New Potatoes in July

 

Summer BBQs

 With Michelle at Zoete Water in October

With Adam and Christie at Ruben's House in October

The Veggie Garden in November

Sunrise over Overijse Fields in December

Its been a great year. Hopefully 2013 is just as good.

Snowboarding in Mont Tremblant, Canada

In late November I traveled to Quebec, Canada for the Middleware 2012 conference and a few days snowboarding in Tremblant. 

After a good flight with Air Canada, I took the Galland bus to Tremblant village, where I had a private room in the HI Youth Hostel. The staff were very friendly and the rooms were pretty good. There was also a good bar, where I tried my favorite Canadian beer 'La Fin Du La Monde'.

Youth Hostel in Tremblant Village

I woke up early and jet-lagged the next day at 5AM, so I decided to go for a walk. I saw some deer, but wasn't quick enough to get a photo and also the sunrise over the frozen village lake. It was -17 when I arrived in Tremblant, but my room was nice and warm and there was fresh snow, so it didn't matter.

Sunrise Over the Frozen Lake

After taking the free bus for the five minute ride from the village  to the resort, I went up the mountain on the first gondola of the morning. Conditions were excellent all day, with a few inches of fresh powder on a deep man-made base.

Snowmaking running on Full

20 runs were open supported by 4 lifts, not bad for the 1st of December! I had a lot of fun cruising down the mountain.

View from the Summit

Riding the Chair Lift

If you are visiting Tremblant I would highly recommend that you try a local delicacy at Smoke's Poutinerie, near the Gondola. The beer is also pretty good at La Diable, and is all brewed on-site. Unfortunately my second day was a wash-out (literally) as the snow turned to wind and rain. I braved the conditions until lunch and then retreated to my room.

Rainy Conditions on the Summit

On Monday, I caught the Galland bus back down to Montreal and by lunch-time I was at the conference.

Boston and New York

At the end of August, I travelled to Cambridge, MA for the IEEE-NCA 2012 conference, where I was presenting a paper on our LooCI middleware. After the conference, we took a short holiday to Boston and New York.

Cambridge was nice. We stayed at the Hotel Marlowe near MIT overlooking the Charles River. Some of the food and drink highlights included lunch at Legal Seafood and Brunch at the Cambridge Brewing Company, a prize-winning brew pub in Kendall square. The food was good and the beer was great. The best beer was their 'summer barleywine', which had a gentle whisky-like taste.

Caren Tastes Samples of the CBC Beers

The hotel also had free Kayak rental, so we hired a couple of kayaks to cruise the Charles River. Here's a few shots.

Ready to Go!

Across the River to the Boston Skyline

Rail Bridge Linking Boston to Cambridge

After the conference, we went into Boston itself, following the historic 'Freedom Trail', which covers Bostons revolutionary history. Here are a few shots:

The Old State House, Site of the Boston Massacre

Historic Quincy Market is now a Food Court

Refuelling with a Cookie Sandwich at Boston Market

The Bunker Hill Memorial

On Sunday night, it was the feast of St. Anthony, which means a big party in Boston's North End. We had a great dinner at a famous family-run restaurant called Giacomo's. The restaurant doesn't accept reservations and because of the feast there was an hour long queue on the street, but by dumb luck Caren and I were the only party of two, so when a couple of seats came up overlooking the kitchen, we walked straight in.

Police Band on Parade

The Boston Skyline at Night

Our Seats Overlooking Giacomo's Kitchen

From Boston, we travelled by Amtrak along the New England coast to Larchmont, NY where we spent a lovely few days with Julie, Tucker and Lucy. They were wonderful hosts. Lucy had grown so much since our last visit:

Lucy Eating Strawberries and Cheese -- Yum!

Our last three days were spent in New York City. Where we spent our time walking the city, eating, drinking and relaxing. Here are the photos:

Views from the Highline Park, a Nice Place for a Stroll

View of Midtown from the Rooftop Pool of the Holiday Inn

On our first night in New York, we went to a taping of the Colbert Report, which was great fun and then had a few drinks at the relaxing Sky Terrace of the Hudson Hotel.

Queueing at the Colbert Studio

Caren with her Ticket for Colbert

Cocktails on lawn chairs at the Sky Terrace

View from the Sky Terrace

We had a lot of great food in Manhattan, but two meals stand out above the rest: breakfast at Les Halles and lunch at David Chang's Momofuku

First morning: breakfast at Anthony Bourain's old restaurant Les Halles. It was great!

Best lunch: ginger scallion noodles at MomoFuku -- good noodles, great buns.

On our last day, we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, had pizza at Grimaldi's famous pizza restaurant and attended the Friday night beer tasting in Brooklyn Brewery.

Walking the Brooklyn Bridge

We had great pizza at Grimaldi's - the white building under the bridge.

The Brooklyn Brewery in Williamsberg

Beer Tasting: try the BAM and the Sorachi Ace!

It was a great trip, Boston was very friendly and I don't think I will ever get tired of New York. Now I have to get back to the gym to work of all that nice food and drink.