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Calvin Binnema

@jcbinnema.bsky.social
167 followers 108 following 160 posts

YEG; cycling; grandpa; abstract/minimal photography (sometimes birds & landscapes too); gardening; travel; retired Recently, award winning photographer

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Jared Wesley @jaredwesley.ca · 14/08/2026
bsky.app/profile/jare...
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Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
Safe, protected bike-lanes are: Better for business Better for emissions Better for air quality Better for space Better for public health Better for noise Better for equity Better for affordability Better for public costs Better for safety for EVERYONE Better for oil independence Better.
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Ursula K. Le Guin Bot @leguinbot.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
The individual cannot bargain with the State. The State recognizes no coinage but power: and it issues the coins itself.
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Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Watch this. I’m unapologetically #ElbowsUp when it comes to Americans, or anyone, who try to attack or diminish Canada. But I’m VERY aware that there are a LOT of Americans who support Canada. Here’s a whole arena of them in Buffalo. A Canadian team wasn’t even playing. Thanks, neighbours.
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Barney Panofsky's Best Intentions @mynamesnotgordy.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
We started the war to protect the Iranian people! We started the war to eliminate Iran's nuclear stuff! We started the war because Iran started the war 49 years ago! We started the war because they don't believe in Jesus! We started the war because Obama! We started the war to get their oil!
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Gore Vidal Sassoon @jimmyjazz1968.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
I’m at ICE HQ
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Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
UAE billionaire Khalaf Al Habtoor wrote an interesting post on X criticizing Lindsey Graham and Trump. “We...know who dragged the entire region into this dangerous escalation without consulting those he calls his ‘allies’ in the region.” Hours later, it was deleted. It's worth reading in full:
Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor
@KhalafAlHabtoor
X.com
• Translated from Arabic by Grok
I heard the statements of U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, in which he calls on the Gulf Cooperation Council countries to enter this war, saying that we are also under attack and that we must join the fight.
And I say to him clearly: We know full well why we are under attack, and we also know who dragged the entire region into this dangerous escalation without consulting those he calls his "allies" in the region.
We thank God that the United Arab Emirates and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries are doing well, and we have no need for someone who claims he came to the Middle East to save us. The truth is that hasty American decisions are what embroiled the region in a war whose peoples were not party to its decision-making, and its local allies were not consulted before it was launched.
We do not deny the Iranian threat to the region, which has become clear in recent days. We do not trust Iran. But this is a dirty game in which several powers clash at the expense of our region, with no honor in it and no transparency. In this scene, Iran, Israel, and the United States all move according to their own interests, not according to the interests of the peoples of the Middle Eastern Arab countries.
And for this reason, we say it clearly: We will not enter this war to serve the interests of others, nor will we sacrifice our sons in a conflict that could have been avoided through diplomacy and political solutions. We value the lives of our sons, and we do not treat their souls as "collateral damage" as some do. Nothing in this world is more precious than the lives of our sons, and no alliance with any country in the world is worth risking these lives. If President Donald Trump and Senator Graham are prepared to risk their country and the lives of Americans for Israel's interests, that is their choice. As for us, we will not do the same.
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Ursula K. Le Guin Bot @leguinbot.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
My world, my Earth is a ruin. A planet spoiled by the human species. We multiplied and fought and gobbled until there was nothing left, and then we died. We controlled neither appetite nor violence; we did not adapt. We destroyed ourselves. But we destroyed the world first.
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 10/02/2026
Rep. Delia Ramirez to DHS officials: "I have as much respect for you as I do for the last white men who put on masks to terrorize communities of color. I have no respect for the inheritors of the Klanhood and the slave patrol. Those activities were criminal and so are yours."
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Calvin Binnema @jcbinnema.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
Newspeak
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Calvin Binnema @jcbinnema.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
It’s called blitz krieg
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Calvin Binnema @jcbinnema.bsky.social · 24/12/2025
#ArtAdventCalendar #24 A shot taken in my backyard just 2 days ago. Posting both the colour and B&W version for comparison. Please have a close look. Merry Christmas! #ArtistsofBluesky #photography #blackandwhite
A close-up photograph of fresh snow taken while the sun is near the horizon. There is a pattern of lines and curves caused by ridges of drifted snow and shadows cast by nearby objects outside the frame of the image. The shadowed parts have a bluish tinge. There is a kite shaped area near the middle that is pinkish orange due to it receiving more direct sunlight than the restA black and white version of the first image in this post. It is more contrasty than the colour version.
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Jenny Cohn @jennycohn.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
What’s happening with American media, American education, and America’s approach to places like Greenland & Honduras harmonizes with the “network state” movement (backed by Thiel, Lonsdale, Andreessen, etc), which calls for the construction of “parallel institutions” and “parallel societies”. 1/
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Calvin Binnema @jcbinnema.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
#ArtAdventCalendar day 23 Found this cormorant while taking a walk along the shore at Sidney BC #birds #birdphotography #ArtistsofBluesky #SidneyBC #Victoria
A cormorant with its beak open is sitting on a wooden post in the water. The background is entirely water in gentle waves giving it subtle colour changes.
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Calvin Binnema @jcbinnema.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
#ArtAdventCalendar day 22 I received this view on a visit to #Montreal in 2018. I like how the 3 elements are so different yet seem to work together. #ArtistsofBluesky #photography #abstractphotography #minimalistphotography #beach
A somewhat abstract photograph with 3 basic elements. A dark brown boardwalk running diagonally occupies the bottom left corner. Above that is patch of tan-golden coloured beach sand. A metal pole near the right edge holds up a light blue beach umbrella of which about a quarter is actually in the frame of the image.
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Alice McPlan @alicemcplan.bsky.social · 21/12/2025
#Zentangle has always fascinated me and I wanted to test if I can play with the 3D effect. The four patterns together look cool, and I learned that I prefer regular 2D patterns... #ArtAdventCalendar #ArtYear
A page with four different 3D like zentangles patterns: a purple checkerboard pattern with a warped like sphere shape; a blue and white Celtic knot like pattern with shadow; a green and white interwoven square with one side raising as a tower; a black and white square grids with some of the square raised as different height towers.
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Calvin Binnema @jcbinnema.bsky.social · 21/12/2025
#ArtAdventCalendar day 21 A minimalist photograph taken on a cloudy day in Paris. #ArtistsofBluesky #minimalistphotography #Paris #photography #minimalism #street
A photograph of 4 decorative street lights at different distances away. The tops of three of them form an implied diagonal while the 4th, between the first and second, appears much closer. There is no foreground, just a white sky from an overcast day in the background.
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Calvin Binnema @jcbinnema.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
#ArtAdventCalendar day 20 I enjoy making optical illusions in my photography. #ArtistsofBluesky #opticalillusion #photography #blackandwhitephotography
An abstract photograph of 2 sets of bicycle lock up racks that are casting sharp shadows across the concrete foreground. The tops of the racks are outside the frame of the image. The shadows from the farther set of racks look like they could be a set of stairs.
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Calvin Binnema @jcbinnema.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
#ArtAdventCalendar day 19 Captured in Victoria BC in 2024. #birdphotography #blackandwhitephotography #ArtistsofBluesky
A black and white photograph showing a crow on rocky terrain. The crow's head stands out against a background of a body of water. It holds a small tidbit in its beak. A small pool of water below the crow reflects sky and rock. The part reflecting the sky roughly echoes the shape and size of the crow.
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Calvin Binnema @jcbinnema.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
#ArtAdventCalendar day 18 Breaking the pattern. #ArtistsOfBluesky #photography
A pattern of square glass blocks cemented together is photographed at an oblique angle. one of the blocks is cracked in several places
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IcedCocoa (@torinori℃) @icedcocoa.org · 17/12/2025
#ArtAdventCalendar Day 17 Lines #photography #streetphotography #gallery #사진놀이
On a nighttime mountain road, there are two light lines caused by the car driving by during the long shutter speed shot - with a street lamppost's light on the black 'sky' with a sunstar effect.

심야의 산길에서 장노출 중 지나간 자동차의 전조등으로 인해 두 개의 빛나는 선이 도로 위에 남아 있습니다. 가로등의 불빛이 마치 하늘에 있는 것처럼 높은 위치에서 빛갈라짐 효과로 표현되고 있습니다.
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Calvin Binnema @jcbinnema.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
#ArtAdventCalendar day 17 An experimental image - I have my reasons for liking it, but it might not grab you. That's OK. #artistsofbluesky #photography #urbanphotography
A black and white photograph taken from underneath an awning which takes up the top half of the image. On the right is the edge of a skyscraper. In the middle distance seen below the awning is a light standard with its top obscured by the awning. Between the awning and the building there are the bare branches of a tree. A few birds in the tree can be seen, but barely at this distance.
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Janet 💙⭐️🌲📷 @bluemoon3143.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
The moon and Venus. A favorite shot from February 2025. As much as I love a dramatic, cloud filled sunset, this kind of night sky is my favorite. So peaceful 🌙✨️ #AlphabetChallenge #WeekYForYearPast #ArtAdventCalendar #EastCoastKin
Photo taken just after sunset. The deep blue sky fades to orange near the horizon. Bare branches of trees are silhouetted against the sky. There is a single light on the shore across the frozen lake. High in the sky are a crescent moon and the bright light of Venus.
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Calvin Binnema @jcbinnema.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
#ArtAdventCalendar day 16 In May I was fortunate to witness this exchange between an adult American Coot and its young. #birdphotography #birds #waterfowl
An adult American Coot on the left is feeding its young to the right of it in shallow murky water. The image shows the moment the tidbit of food is being transferred from the parent's bill to the young. The vantage point is from above on an angle.
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Calvin Binnema @jcbinnema.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
#ArtAdventCalendar day 15 Taken in a downtown alley in Edmonton. The building on the left is about a block farther away than the one on the right. #photography #BlueskyArtists #abstractphotography
A somewhat abstract photograph. On the left about one third of the image is of a red skyscraper with rows of adjacent square windows. On the right is a building much closer by with a tall rectangular window reflecting a blue sky with clouds. The window has whitish stone slabs on either side of it and a strip of green ones at the bottom. The camera angle selected is such that the 2 buildings appear to have no gap between them.
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Russ Vanderleer has Elbows Up @russvanderleer.bsky.social · 14/12/2025
#artadventcalendar Day 14 - night passes by at the old Wonderland ranch in Joshua Tree NP. This is a composite photo of over 170 exposures of the stars plus the foreground which I lit.
A star trail image with the stars rotating around Polaris above a an old broken down stone ranch home which was lit with some warm light.
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Calvin Binnema @jcbinnema.bsky.social · 14/12/2025
#ArtAdventCalendar day 14 A somewhat spooky image of pumpkins reflected in a dirty glass tabletop on my deck. I added my hand print before taking the picture. I softened the image thus giving it a more painterly look.
A photograph of a tabletop made of smoked glass which in the sunlight has a bluish hue. It is covered by rings of a whitish residue created after a rainfall was left to dry over a few days. In the top left third of the photograph the tabletop is reflecting 2 orange pumpkins on a deck railing. A hand print of a man's right hand fills the bottom right third of the image. The image appears to be softened to make it look painterly.
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Calvin Binnema @jcbinnema.bsky.social · 13/12/2025
#ArtAdventCalendar day 13 In July I witnessed my first ever circumzenithal arc. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumz... #weatherphenomena #rainbow #camping #BlueskyArtists
A view of the sky looking almost straight up. There are a few wispy clouds and a rainbow coloured arc with its ends turned up. This is called a circumzenithal arc. Tops of different trees are in each of the 4 corners.
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paulboultbee.bsky.social @paulboultbee.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
December 12: "Rip Off" (2013) mixed media on canvas, 8 in. x 8 in. #ArtAdventCalendar
A triangular piece of paper ripped from a spiral notebook covers the bottom left-hand corner of the canvas. It is mottled blue while the rest of the canvas is mottled grey and blue.
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Emily Tull SGFA @artbyemilytull.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
Day 12 if #ArtAdventCalendar "Corvid 19 - Bird Brain" Hand embroidery thread painting artwork #PortraitArt #embroidery
A cream background with a hair silhouette cut out of black fabric coming down the right hand side and has a hand embroidered black feather on it in the lower half. The silhouette is framing a hand embroidered black line drawing of a female face looking down and across to the right. To the left of the face is parts of the same face but in different poses overlapped with six hand embroidered black feathers floating down between them.
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Lindsay Knight @knightwriter.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
#ArtAdventCalendar Day 12: a sultry portrait.
Digital portrait of Judit Guerra
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Calvin Binnema @jcbinnema.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
#ArtAdventCalendar day 12. A shot taken from Rice Howard Way in Edmonton, Alberta. #architecture #photography #yegdt #colours
Three different skyscrapers fill the frame so that they appear to be touching. All 3 are glass each with a different pattern of panes and each a different colour: blue, teal, and pale yellow
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Dr. Heather Hinam 🍁 🇨🇦 @secondnaturemb.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
I had a fun time working on this wood duck drake's head. There are so many different colours blended into the feathers and I wasn't sure they were all going to work together for a while there, but I'm happy with the final result. #Art #Birds #ArtAdventCalendar
A digital painting of a wood duck male's head looking to the right. It's green feathers are interspersed with different blues and purples contrasting against the white forehead and chin stripes. The orange bill and eye stand out sharply.
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Calvin Binnema @jcbinnema.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
Day 11 of #ArtAdventCalendar. A rainbow created in the mist of Niagara Falls while gulls fly across it. #birds #rainbow #NiagaraFalls
Part of an the arc of a rainbow cuts through the middle of this picture while gulls seem to be flying through it. The entire background is a bluish river with some white foam nearest to the viewer. Mist slightly obscures the view and is also the prism through which the sun created the rainbow.
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Bill McKibben @billmckibben.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
Just noting that no one is ever going to seize a tanker full of solar energy www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/1...
washingtonpost.com
U.S. seizes ‘very large’ oil tanker off Venezuelan coast, Trump says
The seizure was a significant escalation in the U.S. pressure campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his country’s oil-dependent economy.
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Calvin Binnema @jcbinnema.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
#ArtAdventCalendar day 10. A common grackle sits in the reeds at Telford Lake, Alberta.
A picture of a common grackle sitting on a reed. It is shown from the back with its head turned so that its right eye appears to be looking directly at the camera. The iridescent plumage on the back is reflecting the sunlight.
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Glen Grambo 🇨🇦 @glengrambo.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
#ArtAdventCalendar Dec. 9 They are around virtually every marsh and their calls are part of our summer soundtrack. This male Red-winged Blackbird was hanging out on the reeds surveying his kingdom! #Birds #photography #wildlife 🪶
A male red-winged blackbird perches among many vertical, brilliantly green reeds. His red shoulder patches are prominent and he has one foot on two different reeds.
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Rebecca, House of Ogg @earthlingnoreally.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
My very first #NatureIsArt image I posted on January 7th this year. Focusing on a single flower or plant, & most often closeup. Pointing parrot tulip - 2018 #Phonetography #ArtAdventCalendar #TulipTuesday #flowers #bloomscrolling #onlybeautifulthings #florist'sdarling #nature'sbrushstroke #springy
A single parrot tulip stem in front of a white wall. The flower is textured, blending from pink to yellow, with a black brush mark on the outer tip. It has three large green leaves.
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Calvin Binnema @jcbinnema.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
I call this one The Dancer. It was taken in a auto salvage yard a couple of months ago. I loved how the perfectly placed scratch interacted with the immovable rusty plates screwed into the back of the vehicle. #ArtAdventCalendar day 9 (day 2 for me)
A close-up of the back of a junkyard car with rusted mounts screwed into it. There is a scratch that looks like an upside down checkmark between the mounts
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Calvin Binnema @jcbinnema.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
I've been slow to start on this #ArtAdventCalendar. I thought I'd start with this one. My photography is mostly focused on the formal aspects of a subject: shapes, lines, textures, colours or tonal variations. This one recently won an award in an Architectural Photography competition. Link below.
Close-up of a utility building that has various types of cladding with lined patterns both vertical and horizontal.
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Troy Pavlek @troypavlek.ca · 03/10/2025
It's a two-way race for mayor. Polls from today either put Knack and Cartmell in a dead heat, or Cartmell slightly ahead. The UCP has changed donor rules, created unpopular parties, all to stack the deck for Tim, their preferred candidate. And it might work, unless we show up
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Michael Fletcher @mefletcher54.bsky.social · 02/08/2025
Harsh but fair. It also lines up with what I've learned studying the dynamics of collapse over the years. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
‘Self-termination is most likely’: the history and future of societal collapse
An epic analysis of 5,000 years of civilisation argues that a global collapse is coming unless inequality is vanquished
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Calvin Binnema @jcbinnema.bsky.social · 18/07/2025
I caught a fish! No, a pied-billed grebe caught a minnow and I caught it catching it. Well, OK, I got a before and after of a successful dive by a pied-billed grebe. #grebe #birdphotography #fishing
A pied-billed grebe swims in the water with the evening sun shining on it. A wake trails the grebe as it swimsThe same pied-billed grebe as in the first image, but now it holds a minnow in its beak after a successful dive.
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damniel spookradski @self.agency · 15/07/2025
a billion times this
Discrediting genocide scholars who call out Israel’s genocide in Gaza as antisemitic threatens to erode the foundation of genocide studies: the ongoing need to define, prevent, punish and reconstruct the history of genocide. Suggesting that this endeavor is motivated instead by malign interests and sentiments — that it is driven by the very hatred and prejudice that was at the root of the Holocaust — is not only morally scandalous, it provides an opening for a politics of denialism and impunity as well.

By the same token, when those who have dedicated their careers to teaching and commemorating the Holocaust insist on ignoring or denying Israel’s genocidal actions in Gaza, they threaten to undermine everything that Holocaust scholarship and commemoration have stood for in the past several decades. That is, the dignity of every human being, respect for the rule of law and the urgent need never to let inhumanity take over the hearts of people and steer the actions of nations in the name of security, national interest and sheer vengeance.
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Calvin Binnema @jcbinnema.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
I was lucky to get such a good view of a common grackle at Telford Lake about a month ago. #telfordlake #commongrackle #birdphotography
Picture of a common grackle with its blue, purple, and yellow iridescent feathers reflecting the sunlight; the grackle is perched on a bullrush stalk.
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Calvin Binnema @jcbinnema.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
One from each day in Paris. Doesn’t do it justice, I know but I keep forgetting to post. Home on Sunday just in time to vote.
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Calvin Binnema @jcbinnema.bsky.social · 21/04/2025
Arrived in Paris.
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Calvin Binnema @jcbinnema.bsky.social · 20/04/2025
Happy Easter. Frolijke paasdag. Today a walk in sunny Haarlem and a visit to sunny Utrecht. Tallest church tower in the Netherlands. Canals with cafes below street level.
A rose and a tulip in a vase and reflected in a window. A box with a selection of teabags also sits on the table A 19th century stone church is seen from across a canal and framed with leaves of nearby treesA very tall gothic church tower is in the distance with nearer by3 story buildings on either side of and people walking about in the foreground A long view of a tree-lined canal with a bridge crossing it in the distance and two red kayaks in the middle distance. A tall church tower is in the distance
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Calvin Binnema @jcbinnema.bsky.social · 20/04/2025
Things I’ve done in the past 2 weeks: stood in the room where I was born, seen big churches, looked at lots of art, visited old windmills, rode bikes, ate apple pie with whipped cream, rode a fabulous public transit system, spoke some Dutch though it wasn’t necessary, and more…
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