Birthday Treat

Today is my birthday though the celebration began Saturday when Simon and I caught a very early train to Bruges (or Brugge), Belgium. More about that later this week.

This evening, Simon surprised me with these lovely sunflowers. He cycled home in the rain while holding the sunflowers over his shoulder. Only in the Netherlands can you cycle up to a flower shop, buy an enormous bouquet, and not be asked if you can cycle while carrying it.

The flowers are so big -- the stems are about 1" in diameter -- that we had to put them in a bucket, not a vase.