It's snowing!

Yesterday it was just hail and sleet. Now the temperature has dropped, the wind has changed, and it’s snowing. So far it isn’t sticking much, and the forecast calls for a little warming, so we hope this won’t last long.

Yesterday we braved the elements to do some provisioning for Thanksgiving at the big market at Noordermarkt. We won’t be having turkey, but John will roast a chicken, and we’ll have most of the traditional accompaniments including cranberry sauce. Our first time through the market we couldn’t find the cranberries, but we spotted them on the way back. We’ve invited Dandelion to join us, but Kerry and Zelma seem to have met a lot of expat moms and babies here, so they may have other plans.

While exploring the Seven Seas Cruising Association website today, I discovered that there’s a third U.S. sailboat wintering in The Netherlands. Guardian, whose home port is Boston, is in Rotterdam. I’ve contacted them, and maybe we’ll arrange to meet sometime.

In big news from the States, our nephew Joel Stocks has just been promoted to sous chef at 50Plates in Portland, Oregon. I haven’t been there yet because it just opened in July, but I’ve read some of the online reviews, and it sounds great. I’m looking forward to checking it out when I’m in Portland for the holidays. We’re very proud of Joel and feel we contributed a little to his career by taking him to the French Laundry when he was still in high school. Of course, that was the only thing he asked to do when he visited us in San Francisco. Even then he wanted to be a chef.

Photo credit: I found the photo on the blog of Marc van der Chijs. Except for taking Märzen out and a trip to the store, we aren’t going outside.