Wa-Hoo! No more chemistry for this student!
We welcome the much needed rain as well as having the North Carolina primary behind us. College students in town welcome the end of classes as we found noted on a car window yesterday. Children will no doubt welcome the chance to honor Mom this weekend since Sunday is Mother’s Day.
Around Davidson today makes note of a birthday for a well known resident, reports on the library’s book sale, reminds us about Saturday’s food drive, includes a Noteworthy Note and takes a minute to recount a few adventures from “a-broad!”
BIRTHDAY TIME FOR DAVID
Happy Birthday to David Boraks! We hear tell that today is David’s special day and we hope his wife, Shelley Rigger, and their daughters Emma and Tilly can take him away from his DavidsonNews.net duties long enough to enjoy his birthday. Best wishes to you, David. (Nice to shower him with well wishes, but it also would be nice to honor him with a voluntary subscription payment to the website … )
Getting around London by rented bicycle is easy.
NOTES FROM A-BROAD
The late Belle Banks and I talked often about her idea for a new column titled “Notes from A-Broad.” Belle was one savvy “broad” to say the least but since her column never made it to press, I am going to borrow her idea with notes from this “broad” on her recent trip “abroad!”
Erratic weather made for beautiful rainbows in London.
Our older daughter, Kate, is stateside once more after two and one half years living in England. Wanting her Dad to see the East Anglia area she called home, Kate planned 10 days for us visiting the Colchester area and other places of interest. Weather forecasts for England and Holland were carefully checked with the news that each day predicted rain with highs of 55 degrees and lows of 40! Forget summer! We packed vests, coats, gloves, scarves and bumbershoots, of course.
Sampling Dutch cheese in Alkmaar
After arriving in Gatwick and securing a car, the first stop was Dover Castle, the cliffs of Dover and Evensong at Canterbury Cathedral. Additional days were spent in small villages west of Colchester and the busy city of London. The Queen was too busy christening her Jubilee Barge to grant an interview but there was time to see her crown jewels and check out preparations for the Summer Olympics. Surveillance cameras are everywhere, transportation is best on the Underground, crowds are already intense with school groups packing every venue, and the Brits are enduring one of the coldest wettest springs on record! When the squalls persisted, we pulled our umbrellas back from being blown “inside out” and visited the theater, museums, Thames River boats or Harrod’s. The English were incredibly friendly and helpful.
Dutch tulips as far as the eye could see.
Leaving the London rain behind we caught up with Kate on a flight to Amsterdam and enjoyed the cheese market in Alkmaar, the beauty of Delft, the tulips in Keukenhof and the Floriade World Horticultural Exposition held in the Netherlands every ten years since 1960. Floriade runs from April 5 until October 7, 2012, while the Keukenhof gardens, in their 63rd year, plant over seven million flower bulbs for visitors to enjoy only from March 21 until May 20 of this year. What a treat and yes, your correspondent did find time to interview a tulip!
Interviewing tulips at Keukenhof on a very chilly day!
Sending Dad home, Kate and I embarked on another week of travel in Holland. A highlight of these days was a chance to visit with a first cousin, Karin Brandi, and her family who live in Bielefeld, Germany. Having not seen Karin for more than a decade, it was a special time to reconnect.
In summary, I can only offer a few tips to other intrepid travelers who are headed for Europe anytime soon. Pack light, pay attention to the weather forecasts, be flexible, wear comfortable shoes, take your sense of humor, ATM card, and something besides an American Express card since some merchants want MC or Visa. Be prepared to “bleed money” whether Euros, Swiss Francs or British sterling. Keep your eyes peeled for European violators of “left to curb” parking … we saw it everywhere from little villages to big cities with police cars even participating!
American cookies in Delft
Plan extra airport time due to increased security in Europe. You can keep your shoes on (unless wearing heels) through European TSA but better have all those carry-on liquids in the proper zip lock bag or you will be fussed at. You will walk and walk and walk and walk (in airports, cities, towns and foot paths) – but the good news is that all that exercise wonderfully combats the calories you accumulate eating the fresh breads and delicious jams offered at every meal. Plan ahead, leave valuables at home, keep money in secure zip pockets and have a wonderful adventure!
FILL A BAG FOR A GOOD CAUSE
If you have a mailbox at your home, you have certainly noticed the brown bags asking for food donations this Saturday. This drive is sponsored in part by the National Association of Letter Carriers “Stamp Out Hunger” Food Drive. The instructions are simple: fill the bag with non-perishable good and leave it by your mailbox before your usual mail delivery time. Davidson’s mail carriers will bring all donations back to the post office on Saturday afternoon and Ada Jenkins is ready to receive them about 5 p.m. All items will be used in the Food Pantry at Ada Jenkins.
Lisa Lancaster, Davidson postal carrier for Davidson Landing area, will be looking for your bag of food donations on Saturday.
If you live in condos and have cluster mail boxes, just leave the bag near the base of the cluster. If you only have a post office box, bring any donations to the counter on Saturday between 10-1. For more information, go to “DriveToEndHunger.org/fillthebag.”
And just a note about support of Ada Jenkins: two weeks ago Davidson United Methodist Church presented Director Georgia Krueger with a check for $90,000 to support community services at the Center. Kudos to DUMC. We will have more on this gift in next week’s Around Davidson.
Support the library while getting a bargain!
BOOKS FOR ALL AGES
Did you find a good book at last Saturday’s Book Sale? Always a part of Town Day, our Davidson Public Library fills the Community Room with overstocks or donated books and sells them to raise money for our library. Librarian Rosie Chapman is in charge of this sale and reports that $772 was collected this past Saturday. Many books, paperbacks and videos are still available through Saturday, May 12. Be sure to stop by tomorrow or Saturday and fill a bag – especially with paperbacks which you can enjoy for summer reading and pass on to another.
NOTEWORTHY NOTE
Election year means those pesky robo-calls! These are the political phone calls urging your support of a certain candidate or issue on the ballot. Even with “caller ID,” it is often impossible to determine if the call is a legitimate or a political one. Hopefully with the primary over, we may have a breather for a few months until the presidential election gets into full swing. Oh, my!
We know that the Town of Davidson uses robo-calling to inform residents of items of specific concern. We got calls last Monday about the missing 11-year old around suppertime but the second call concerning his safe return to his family came at 10:15 p.m.
Calls after bedtime jar us awake somewhat frantic thinking that a family member is in trouble, a fence down or a cow loose on the highway. We appreciate our town keeping us informed but suggest not with phone calls after 9 p.m.
SEND US YOUR NEWS
Have news for Around Davidson? Write to Brenda Barger at hbbarger@gmail.com.
