At the end of the afternoon yesterday I took a walk around the neighbourhood to clear my head after an intensive day. I walked through a part where they are still building, with some houses already occupied. I love how our entire part of town is so water rich, and the sight lines they have created by adding those waterways.
I think often of my proximity to water: I was born on the south shore of Lake Ontario, grew up on the north shore of Lake Ontario, moved to a town on the Trent Canal, lived in El Paso, Texas with a view of the Rio Grande, in Montreal with a view of the St. Lawrence, and now live 5 minutes walk from Charlottetown Harbour. I have never lived away from water, and I cannot imagine doing so.
I grew up in a village on the bank of a river, next to a city with medieval moats and canals. When I moved to Enschede, where I lived for 29 years, I kept missing the presence of water in the city. Now that we’re here in Amersfoort, I notice every time how much I enjoy seeing the canals in town, and the water ways in our suburb.
One of the few things I dislike about living at the top of a hill is being far from water. The most enjoyable aspects of my brief stay in Utrecht a couple of years ago was walking along the small and large waterways. Some of the houseboats are just so beautiful to look at. To live in, who knows?
Yes, I also liked the houseboats on the canal near the IndieWebCamp Utrecht venue last year: https://stream.jeremycherfas.net/2019/the-houseboats-here-are-a-lot-more-house-than-boat
Ton Zijlstra mentioned this note on zylstra.org.