Not much happening, I'm afraid. The thing most pressing on my mind that's fit to share right now is the aftermath of some weather. We'd had a decent snow, and then some warm weather and rain, and then a quick freeze that turned a lot of everything into sheets of ice. Now, a week-plus, and with some time above freezing and back below again, we've got these lunar landscapes of ice. Not everywhere; the street we're on, for example, is nearly a third clear over most of its length. But still, in enough places, including the side of our driveway where we naturally get out of the car.

Still, the plan to fill in dirt and pea gravel on what had been an awful pit has been a general success. We've had somewhat smaller puddles in the heavier rain and even the snow-covered dirty ice has been less awful than past years.

Since that's so little to write about let me share a double dose of pictures from our June trip, in this case, from our day at Plopsaland de Panne on the western coast of Belgium. First step, getting there:

We had to go to this metro station to buy tickets; the one by our hotel didn't have a vending machine. So: how many trains do you imagine we let pass before figuring out what this screen's ``deze halte wordt niet bediend wegens een omleiding'' meant?

So we walked back to the stop just a bit from our hotel.

And here's the tram coming to bring us to the amusement park!

Here's the Plopsa Hotel, which we didn't get a room in, but is adjacent to the park.

Plopsa figures set up as decorative elements along the hotel.

These sure do look like characters from family-friendly television!

And here's the entrance to the park, celebrating 25 years of being Plopsaland De Panne, something like 25 days before it would stop being called that.

Atop those plinths are gold-colored statues of various Plopsa characters.

A mouse mascot at an amusement park? It'll never work.

The big ride-height display rates people by the characters they match.

We got our individueel tickets out of the vending machine and we're ready to go in!

They had an ongoing music and dance thing with characters as we entered, although it was more than a half-hour after gates opened so the initial onrush had petered out to this and I admire the performers for staying this involved.

Trivia: The word ``petticoat'' first appeared in English in the 15th century, describing a small coat or tunic worn beneath the doublet, and as the style came from France the original name of petit-coat transferred over. Source: Webster's Dictionary of Word Origins, Editor Frederick C Mish.

Currently Reading: Lost Popeye Zine, Volume 79: A Viper Called Le Burgoo! Ralph Stein, Bill Zaboly. Editor Stephanie Noelle.