long gone

The snow and cold are long gone. Although I do not regret that winter has come to it's end, I must admit it has been really beautiful and great fun. I absolutely love ice skating, but now I look forward to be able to swim in rivers, lakes and seas.

Shadow animals

By Henry Bursill
Had this book on my list for a while. Now I got it, I have not practised the shadow figures very well yet. There are some great figures in there! So I am going to have to know some of them by heart..

Hairy present

Got the 'Oh Comely' magazine as a present, it was wrapped in kraftpaper with a piece of string around it and this nice homemade Pompom on top! The paperpinhole camera and the great enormous scissors were presents too, for my birthday and for 'Sinterklaas' How lucky am I : )

Chameleon present

I got the basket and its contents as a present for my birthday : ) it blends in perfectly with the small wood inlaid table that was also a present, but some years ago.
Like these paper masks a lot. Can't help but collecting them whenever I see them. One bird does not like to stay in its place. When I move it back, it magically turns around again within a few days.

autoportrait en hibou

Pablo Picasso, Autoportrait en hibou, Cannes September 1957
Bought this postcard last year, loved it. Found it again, still do! Not always a huge fan of Picasso's paintings, I think I prefer his drawings. Simplicity.

from the bottom of the ocean

Shells from Portugal: Too bad this shop was closed when I was there, on a sunday. But I have collected a lot of shells, so it could be an autumn afternoon project.
Squids from Holland : ) I cut these earrings out of veneer. Finished with squids, completed with hardware and varnished.

barbed

Watching them from a distance, looking so small through these trees. Just 20 minutes before I took these pictures, I really pissed off (sorry) a huge bull. There were little calfs running around the meadow, but at the moment we took our camera out to film, they stopped. Because I absolutely love to see calfs running, I thought it would be a good idea to start running (huppelen) a bit myself to get them to move again... Perhaps they thought I was crazy and the bull (2,5 cows in width) did not like it at all. So he started raging and coming towards the fence, which was made of barely one meter high - non electrified barbed wire.

woods foods

All from the woods (in the north of France) it felt very much like autumn. Even the smell of fallen leafs was already there. They tasted pretty nice, the blackberries, hazelnuts and beechnuts. There was a Badger's hole too! In Dutch: Dassenburcht, I couldn't find the English word for 'burcht'. Unfortunately did not get to meet the badgers themselves...

transport

That is my bike. My fast one, for longer trips. Swallows in France a week ago, they are such excellent flyers! When I visited Vlieland last weekend one of them flew just over my head when I was watching them fly in the grassdunes. Nice. That is not my car, but I like it.

various

Pictures from there and then. France and Belgium.

pale pink and pavement

Hellobster

This lovely lobster was outside a fish shop, I had the best Northsea sole (fish) there.

shore

We were in 'Zeeland' in the south of Holland, by the sea. Very nice. I would like to visit the Northsea more often, it is not that far away from Amsterdam a trip to the beach. We are planning to go there by bike, I will show you my new 'bicyclette' then.

Arboretum Kalmthout

I visited this Arboretum in Belgium (tree -and flower garden) with a friend and it was beautiful! Almost everything was blossoming. Finally a boost of color, this blog was getting a bit greyisch.

Pinks

yellows

"do something"

Making shades, taking pictures. We were going to the Django Reinhardt festival in Liberchies (Belgium). The guys by bike, the girls by car, it took them two more days to get there. Who knows, maybe next year we'll be joining them...

nid de guêpes

When my father, a friend of his and Coert were building a new roof they found these, under the old rooftiles. Waspnests, they are featherlite, superbreakable and so amazingly beautiful build. The wasps have left the building though ; )

We were in France working on the house for four days and then we took a trip around the area with our tent. A bit chilly at night, but so good in the days. Unfortunately I was enjoying it all so much that I forgot to take pictures, so there's just a few. Luckily Coert takes his camera everywhere and has shot some very nice pictures.

patience

We will be going there soon. I can't wait!