Beach views and plastic fishing by the Canals

We meet our friends few times during the year at the beach. Walking  there and seeing the open views is mind freeing. A good place to change the latest news of our lives and relax. I've noticed there are only few people that I'm comfortable to really share what I feel and what I dream about. I sometimes admire the people who are extremely sociable and can market themselves so well. I have decided that I have to try to be more open sometimes, because I enjoy the good company, good talks and a good laugh. It is ok to be the one who needs to be alone sometimes, but it's also a good feeling to belong to a group of good people and friends.

We met at the beach of Zandvoort. You can easily go there by car and with public transportation. The train trip from Amsterdam to the beach takes 25 minutes. If you make a trip to Amsterdam, you should visit one of the many beaches near the city. The mood at the coastline is interesting in every season and there are always few beach restaurants open even in the winter time.

Zandvoort is not my favorite beach, but there is a good variation of services, sport opportunities and cosy restaurants. Personally I do not like the architecture of the area - the element houses build near the dunes. I do prefer the beaches that are more natural looking and not too busy.

There is a funny retro feeling beside the beach. The contrast with the wind beaten element houses, the left overs from the summer, the ruins of beach restaurants (the ones that are taken down for the winter season). It looks interesting, like a movie scene waiting some actors and some action. 

I wonder how it is to live here. The centre of Zandvoort is so close to the sea and there are many appartement houses along the dunes. The wind can be extremely hard in the winter time, we can feel some of that even in Amsterdam. The sea is beautiful to watch, but also a reminder of the powers of nature and how we have to be careful what we do to our planet. Often it seems we do not know what we are doing. Sometimes we seem to wake up too late!

The environmental issues are made more visible for the new generations of people. The education system and teacher are doing a great job by bringing these problems as a part of the daily themes at school. I joined the class of my daughter for a day to go fishing  some plastic by the canals of Amsterdam.  

The Plastic Whale company is organizing plastic fishing for groups with their boats around the  canals of central area. The children are searching and collecting some plastic and other garbage from the water. This is very educational and fun way to point out how much garbage people drop to the water or to the streets. It was great to see how driven the children were to clean the environment and how much they already knew about the effects of plastic and micro plastics in the water and circling around in our ecosystem.

The boats from the Plastic Whale company are made from recycled plastic found from the water. For example the floors of the boats are made from the bottle caps. The aim of the company is to collect, create and educate: This means collecting the garbage, creating new products from the material (like the boats and some office furniture are designed and made from the recycled plastic) and educating children and other groups by organizing work shops and presentations about the environmental issues. They have ambitions to spread the word internationally and make this movement to grow to other countries as well.

This experience gave me a bunch of energy and inspiration. Taking part and cleaning the city is about small daily decisions and actions we can do. This is part of stopping the plastics ending up further to the rivers, to the sea and in the stomach of the animals and in our food. With a right attitude and respect we can always do our part of caring the environment we live in. Every action counts!

It was cold out there, but it was fun!

Ready for some green?!

Reaching up, growing and slowly painting the shades of spring again. That how it looks when I walk outside and see the small signs everywhere. The fragile looking flower fields protected from the wind by the big trees at the park. Just a very few calm moments today, the wind is very strong now. Getting stronger before the night. The wind is cleaning the way for the new season. That is what I want to think of. A few beautiful individual plants of spring are decorating the scenery. The grass is getting greener, the smoothie of Nature is mixed for us to enjoy.

We saw those complex shapes of trees and saw how strong they look without the leaves. It has been another mild winter and it starts to look like that even the nature is fed up with this season without a name. 

I am a little bit worried of how things will change in the future. When the capacity of environment will be stretched so war to it's limits that we are in real trouble? I just read an article how all big destroys of human made systems and societies happened, because the people went too far of using the capacity of environment and how unfair the resources were dealt among other people. The greediness of people and how the richest elite did not even see the signs (or did not want to)of destroyal coming. The hunger, people searching better places to live and wanting to survive. It seems to go over and over again: the roman, the mayas and other old cultures. We have to have a better look of our own lifetime in this planet and act responsible. I admire the people who are doing recearch, who write or do something else to make us notice things. I hope the people with power will focus and work more for the things that are good for the whole network of continents, countries, people, animals and the nature. Me too, I have to keep on collecting some information and try to be aware of my bad habits!

It is strange that every spring feels like the first spring. How can that be? how can the same flowers, the first leaves on the trees or even the first insects making their sounds be so fascinating? It is like a need to be newborn again or being like a little child: Wondering the world and learning the signs of seasons. I think we have the ability to live peacefully with our environment if we want to use our skills and our wisdom. Going out and see what's there --- STEP ONE..and hopefully more wisdom will come.