ABC Wednesday, K is for Keep off the grass

ABC Wednesday is hosted by the lovely Mrs. Nesbitt.

Monochrome Monday, New College Oxford

While literally running through Oxford, from one college to the other, I just had to take photos, such a beautiful place, but I had to take them very quickly. No time to stop and ponder over nice framing etc. or I would have lost my fellow 'students' who were all running in front of me, following our lecturers to where ever we were going. I really had to take snapshots. And actually I'm reasonably happy with the outcome. Perhaps it would have been even nicer if the top of the windowframe had been in the picture, but now I'm nitpicking.

Monochrome Monday is hosted by Monochrome Maniac, Aileni.

Dutch food

A couple of you lovely fellow bloggers asked if I could provide them with some recipes for Dutch food. If I'm honest, I don't really like it myself. Well, I do like some Dutch food (like stamppot boerenkool, rode kool and stoofpeertjes), but I am a vegetarian, so delicious bacon, saucages, meatballs and stewed meat are not on my menu (although I like it, my conscience doesn't) but they feature a lot in real Dutch food.

Another problem is that we use grammes and kilos and a lot of you use cups or pounds. The mere thought of having to convert the measurements gave me a headache, so....... Internet to the rescue:

http://www.recipezaar.com/Dutch-Stpot-With-Rookworst-124192 for a stamppot recipe with root vegetables (according to the comments on the site it tastes delicious)

http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=202341 a recipe for stamppot boerenkool the way my mother cooks it

http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/verona/190/eten.htm is a site with a lot of recipes for Dutch food (the Indonesian kitchen has had a big influence on the Dutch kitchen so you'll find peanutsauce, nasi and sateh recipes here too). And even I like Stoofpeertjes. We use Gieser Wildeman pears for this recipe, which are small pears and you really can't eat them without cooking them first. I don't know if they are available in other countries. But you could use other cooking pears that are probably larger, so you could cut them into big chunky pieces. It's yummy. I love to eat them while they are still a little bit warm. Great with hangop (line a colander/strainer with a clean tea towel, put one liter full fat yoghurt in it and let it drain (over a bowl or the sink) for about 2-3 hours. The thick yoghurt that is left in the tea towel is called 'hangop' and tastes really good). http://www.recipezaar.com/Dutch-Stewed-Cinnamon-Pears-Stoofpeertjes-18474 If you try one or even more of these recipes, please let me know what you thought of it. And as we say in the Netherlands: smakelijk eten!

Camera Critters, big brown belly

'Are you taking my picture? But I'm soooooo pregnant. I look like a whale!'

'Wait! Maybe a close-up will be better.'

'What do you mean: too close! You'll have to take a step back then!'

'You see? Much better! Don't you love my smile? This is definitely my best side!'

As many of you know, this is my horse Naloma and she is expecting her first foal around April 12th. Exciting times. Hopefully in a couple of weeks I can show you photos of her with a lovely little healthy foal by her side. Fingers crossed. Camera Critters is hosted by Misty Dawn. Click on the link to find more critters or join in on the fun and post your own.

One story leads to another

Two stories sprung to mind when I was reading Jinksy's post about fish. One is clearly connected to her post, why I thought of the first one I'm not quite sure. At one point in my life I had a short career in a doctor's office. The doctor was a friend of ours and needed someone who could pick up the phone and write down things people wanted. Like prescriptions or appointments. He asked me if I could do that. I do not have a very high opinion of my capacities, but I thought that this was something I probably could manage. So every morning I jumped on my bike and rode off to the doctor's office to help the needy. Not bothered by any knowledge of the medical dictionary, I phonetically wrote down the (repeat) prescriptions people asked for. Which had some hilarious results, but I can't think of any examples right now. Sorry. My feeling for language and slight knowledge of Latin helped me to quickly learn the real words though and I functioned quite well. Really enjoyed my time there and the doctor was a happy one too. Every day he told me that, although what I wrote down didn't make much sense at all, because my handwriting was so very beautiful and clear, he forgave me. And we had a good laugh. Once an elderly lady phoned to ask for a repeat prescription for: 'the pills I take to help my memory'. 'Do you know the name of these pills?', I asked. 'No, I can't remember', she said. 'Are you sure you want them again?', I laughed. 'They don't seem to work very well for you.' The doctor did not find that funny at all. The lady did. And I'm still laughing while writing it down (and now I know why this story popped up in my mind while reading Jinksy's post). Anyway, someone once told me that the neatness of one's handwriting is inversely proportional to one's IQ. That is why no one can read what the doctor writes. And that is why my handwriting is very readable whilst I apparently have an IQ of about 130 (137 to be exact, but I think someone made an error in calculating that). Why did no one give me the manual when they gave me all that intellectual power? Now I don't know how to use it. The other story I thought of is about the daughter of a colleague of mine when I worked with a large oil company. The colleague took his little daughter (about 5 or 6 I think she was) to a petshop to buy a new goldfish. The previous one had died. And so had the one before that and the one before that. When the petshop person fished a goldfish out of the tank, the little girl said: 'Daddy, can I please stroke it before this one dies too?'

Hiccup

Okay, so why is my 'comments' link invisible under the J-post? Is it just me who can't see it? I know it was there before, because people commented. Even I commented myself. So it must have been there. And now it's gone. I hope it is just a temporary hiccup. And I also hope it will pop up under this post. Oh, the excitement. Will it be there if I post this? Or will it not? We will find out now........

ABC Wednesday, J is for Jamie Lidell

J is for Jamie Lidell. This swinging song always makes me happy. EnJoy ABC Wednesday is hosted by Denise Nesbitt. Take a look over here for more J-posts. You never know what you'll find. Or Join in the fun and post your own.

Monochrome Monday, Helleborus foetidus

The flowers of this Helleborus foetidus are of the softest green you can imagine. I like the contrast between the flowers and the prickly dark green leaves.

This Helleborus featured in two of my posts last week, this one and this one. Apparently they are good for a smile or even a laugh. The second one explains the Dutch name of this plant.

Monochrome Monday is hosted by Monochrome Maniac Aileni.

Camera Critters, respectable age

This is Bengeltje (pronounced: Bangeltyuh). She came to us, together with her sister when she was just a little kitten, 19 years ago. Her sister died about a year and a half ago.

Bengeltje was an unexpected addition to our family. When we went to get her sister Lapje (pronounced: Lopyuh) Bengeltje was rather taken with hubs. She climbed onto his lap, fluttered her eyelashes at him, purred as loud as she could, so we ended up taking two little kittens home. On our way home, we had to decide on a name for this little beauty. Since hubs was rather taken with Susanna Hoffs, singer of The Bangles, it was soon decided: Bengeltje, which also means 'little rascal' in Dutch.

When we adopted the four young cats (see here, and if you hold the [Ctrl] button when clicking on the link, it opens in another window, just a little tip for the people who didn't know that) last year, we were a bit worried how Bengeltje would take to them.

Fortunately we need not have worried. She just ignores them and sometimes chases them around the house. But she also is very willing to share her meal with them, letting them eat out of her bowl when she's eating.

Sometimes I see Bengeltje walking through the house with one, two, three or four of the young ones sneakily tailing her. And when she looks back to see what's happening behind her, her followers pretend that its purely a coincidence that they are there. Lots of paw licking, looking up to the sky, whistling (if they could).

So, that's our 19 year old Bengeltje. A respectable age for a cat.

Camera Critters is hosted by Misty Dawn. Click here to see more entries.

I'm brilliant.....

....and I don't even know how brilliant I am sometimes. That is the beauty of it actually. Otherwise I would be a stuck up cow. Anyway. Do you want to know why I'm brilliant? Lots of reasons to be honest, but the reason I'm writing about it now is the following. No actually, it is the preceding. The preceding post that is. The one about Green! Since I had lots of Green stuff available in the form of phlegm (don't you love that word?) and mucus, I could have posted about that. But a lot of you readers asked me politely to please not do that. So, since Green is widely available in and around our house I decided to restrain myself and do a more tasteful Green-post for True Colours Thursday. And I started with Helleborus foetidus. The lovely Jinksy commented on that post, saying 'Hellebores are certainly a better prospect than green mucus - thank you for your restraint:)'. And when I read that it suddenly dawned on me. Helleborus foetidus is called in Dutch: Stinkend nieskruid. That doesn't mean anything to you non-Dutch-readers. But it litterally translates into Smelly Sneezeherb. So, subconsciously I díd post about mucus and phlegm. Isn't that brilliant? I know!

True Colours Thursday - Green

Today's colour, green, wasn't to difficult to knit a post around. Since I'm suffering from a cold, fortunately not so humongous as it was last week anymore, I'm coughing up lots of interesting green stuff. I threatened to post about that, but lots of people asked me to please NOT publish photos of that. So...okay then. There is plenty other interesting green stuff in and around our house: (you can't click on a picture to enlarge it, sorry) a Helleborus foetidus in our garden a green playball for the horses some mosses................in her lap a green waterbucket for the horses some people are colourblind silly sweet presents from a friendand a beautiful green glass apple from other dear friends True Colours Thursday is hosted by the lovely Blue over at Poopsiestruecolours. You can check out her blog for other green entries or join in the fun and post your own.

ABC Wednesday, I is for........

This week's letter I was not an easy letter. I really had no INSPIRATION.

The only thing not very INTERESTING I could come up with is .........

...........an INCREDIBLY bendy dog called Biggles, who is part of our private 'zoo',

and is INCAPABLE of standing still......

...when he is holding this almost ILLUMINATED bright yellow dogtoy.....

....which makes him INSANELY happy!

For more ABC Wednesday's I's you could always pop over to our host, Mrs. Nesbitt.

Stupid boy!

Last week turned out to be an accident prone one for a lot of blogfriends. Some had their children in (near-)accidents, fortunately without physical damage. Another blogfriend wrote a post in which she asked for positive thought towards hér blogfriend who had been in a terrible accident with her husband and their driver. An awful week for all concerned. According to an article in 'our' newspaper (Dagblad van het Noorden, d.d. 16th March 2009) the Belgian Prince Laurent (born in 1963) has the solution to minimize the large number of road accidents. Laurent loves fast cars and subsequently speedy driving. He is often criticized for this behaviour and in an interview with a couple of students from a Belgian school for journalism, he allegedly said: "I find the time that you spend on the road a waste of time. The less time I spend on the road, the less time gets lost. That's why I love fast cars. And (and this is the 'genius' part of his solution I think) if you spend less time on the road, you have a smaller chance of being in an accident." In other words: faster driving means fewer accidents! Fortunately the chance Laurent gets to spend time on the Belgian throne is a very small one. In the 1990's Belgium changed the law so now his sister and her children are in front of him in the line to the throne. Until then he was third in line. The Belgians made a wise move in changing the law, assuming that his sister and her children are not as challenged in the common sense department as he is. He is not only known for his love of fast cars, but also for his sense of humour. Maybe it was a joke. Let's hope so. Stupid boy!

Monochrome Monday, Willem

(click on the picture to enlarge)

Monochrome Monday is hosted by Monochrome Maniac Aileni. Check out his blog for more monochromes. Or join in the fun and post your own.

Camera Critters, from Little to Large

May 2008 we adopted four 8 weeks old cats. From top to bottom: Petje, Lapje, Snoes and Mozes. The first picture of each cat was taken on the day they arrived in our home, the picture beneath that shows how much they've grown now they're almost one year old. They are all very sweet (even if they look just a tad angry in the picture) and best friends with our 19 year old cat Bengeltje and our three labradors. Next week I will 'devote' my Camera Critters post to Bengeltje. She deserves a post of her own.

Camera Critters is a fun meme, hosted by Misty Dawn. Click this to see more entries or to join in the fun and post your own Camera Critter.

What happened here?

 

True Colours Thursday - Violet

This was the only 'thing' in the colour violet or as close to violet as possible, that I could find. Lilac or purple wouldn't have been a problem, but Violet! (thanks Aileni). As I'm suffering from a humongous cold, next week's Green won't be a problem either. Totally ignoring the fact that our hostess was in Las Vegas last week, I've posted Yellow last thursday (you'll have to scroll down for that) although this one has some yellow in it too.

It is part of a painting by Arie Zuidersma (1925), a Dutch painter who is a member of 'De Ploeg'.

The artists' association 'De Ploeg' was founded in 1918 in reaction to the artistic climate in Groningen. A number of young artists felt they did not have enough opportunity to develop themselves and exhibit their work. They hoped that as a group they would be able to exhibit their work and also organize exhibitions and lectures through which artists and the general public could learn about recent developments in art, architecture and literature. Among the initiators were Jan Wiegers, Johan Dijkstra, George Martens and Jan Altink. The name for the association was Altink’s idea. He felt that a lot of ground had to be broken with regard to modern art in Groningen and suggested that 'De Ploeg', Dutch for 'the plough', should be their name.

This is the complete picture. We bought it at an auction in Groningen where a lot of work from members of 'De Ploeg' was being sold. On the viewing day, I noticed this painting. It was hanging in a very dark corner, but for some reason I really liked it. Hubs didn't think much of it. We went to the auction, because we had seen some other things we really liked, and when this painting came under the hammer, they put it on an painter's easel with a spotlight on it and the colours really came to life. 'Wow!', hubs said. 'I see what you mean.' And the rest is history. True Colours Thursday is hosted by Poopsie.

Hidden talents

Visiting the ABC Wednesday posts (my ABC-H-post is below this one), I stumbled upon Gone to the Dogs, who, in her H-post has a link to a funny video of her dog howling to some Christmasmusicmakingthing. That reminded me of the following story. About 4 or 5 years ago we had some sort of familygathering at our house. I don't know what the occasion was, probably a birthday. It was a beautiful summer's day (it must have been my birthday then), and we were all sitting in the garden, enjoying the warm sunshine. My sister suddenly produced a mouth organ (or harmonica) from somewhere. She had found the instrument while clearing out the attic or something. Would anyone of us like to have it, since no one of her family could play it? While hubs and I were considering the fact that owning an instrument like a harmonica would make no sense if we could not actually play it, so it would involve taking lessons and we were not sure if the hassle of all that would weigh up to being able to liven up a party, my father, bless him, picked the harmonica up, put it to his mouth and began playing away. He actually could play the harmonica! We didn't know that. And he could play all kinds of different tunes. We all sat there, mouths open, amazed by the fact that my father had been able to keep this talent hidden for us! My mother was looking exceedingly proud. Did you know that? we asked her. Yes, she knew that my father could play the harmonica. He used to do that all the time when they were young (many, many, many years ago). Anyway, Holle, our dog (see the ABC-H-post below), sat next to my father and began howling with him. If my father stopped playing, she stopped howling. When he started a new tune, Holle howled her little lungs out with him. A truly remarkable event that was. Unfortunately my father's lungs are not 'as good as new' as one might say. So he doesn't have enough breathing capacity to play the harmonica and to stay alive at the same time. So no more harmonicaplaying for my father. And no more howling for Holle. It was great fun while it lasted. (This would have made a great ABC-H-post: Hidden talents, Harmonica, Holle, Howling!)

ABC Wednesday, H is for Holle

Holle is our labrador retriever (one of three). Our first black lab was Cosy, the loveliest dog anyone could ever wish for. When Cosy was about two years old, another black labradorpup arrived in our family. We called her Phoebe. Cosy and Phoebe were inseparable from the start. Sadly Cosy died of cancer just before her 6th birthday. We (hubs, me and Phoebe) were inconsolable and hubs and I decided that we wanted to fill the very big gap that Cosy left with a new labradorpup. So Holle arrived. Holle was a very different dog in her behaviour. I used to do hunting training with Cosy (we were quite good at that actually) and hubs trained with Phoebe. We started training both dogs from when they were about 14 weeks old. So we knew a little bit about bringing up a pup. You would think. But Holle! Holle was a totally different matter. A very uncontrollable little black monster. Even our trainer (who is one of those people that can take a dog's lead and the dog immediately surrenders to 'the power of the great packleader', a natural doghandler) could NOT handle our Holle. She just ignored him. He was stunned. It was a slight comfort for us. We didn't do everything wrong then, Holle just had a mind of her own. The training was held in a field surrounded by woods, next to a small fishing lake and most exercises were done off lead. Well.....as soon as we took the lead off Holle she would disappear. Usually to take a swim in the lake. We were always left until last to do an exercise. So that everybody else could go and drink some tea or coffee while I was out looking for Holle. What a dog! She built quite a reputation for us. Cosy and I used to have a reputation too. But a good one. If we were competing in a hunting competition somewhere in the Netherlands, sometimes total strangers would come up to me and say: "Ah, so thát's Cosy! What a wonderful dog." I mean, thát is special isn't it? But Holle had a different reputation. Not that she wasn't a kind and happy dog, just sort of a loose canon. Until I had a bright idea. What if we would use a collar (in hunting 'we' don't use a collar, because if the dog has to search in the woods, a collar can get caught in some branches and a dog can choke itself), take the lead off, but attach a very long line. So that if Holle would run off, I could stand on the line and she wouldn't get very far. And that turned everything around. She began to understand that partytime was over and that it was actually quite fun to do something good and get a reward. Yippee! She is a very well behaved dog now. Most of the time. Sometimes she gets into Holle-mode again, but I can see in her eyes that she's making plans of her own and I can warn her by saying: "Holle! Watch it!" And then she goes back to her well-behaved-mode. She and I are best friends now. I never thought that would happen. It's hard to take a good picture of her when I'm alone with her, because she doesn't leave my side and always looks up to me like this. And if I go down on my knees, she often tries to eat the camera. And if I tell her to stay somewhere so that I can get some distance between us, her ears drop and she gets a very sad look on her face. That's our Holle! ABC Wednesday is a fun meme, hosted by Mrs. Nesbitt. Take a look here to see the other H-posts of this week. Or post your own!

Monochrome Monday, Tumtum

Monochrome Monday is hosted by Monochrome Maniac Aileni.

Camera Critters - The Zoomies

Since I've started reading some dogblogs, I've learned something new.

Dogs can get 'the zoomies'.

That's when they tuck their butt under and start running like mad.

I knew that dogs can run like idiots, but I didn't know it was called 'the zoomies'.

Biggles has the zoomies!

Cats can get the zoomies too! Mozes gives a demonstration.

Even horses can get the zoomies. Willem was kind enough to show us.

Camera Critters is a fun meme, hosted by Misty Dawn.

Today hubs has bought me a wonderful, and I mean WONDERFUL, present. A new camera. From now on, I will use a Canon EOS 40D with an EF-S 17-85 mm IS USM zoomlens (if that means something to you, it doesn't to me, but still I am extremely happy with it) to make my photos. Until I've figured out what all the buttons and menu-options are for and how to use them, I will happily use the fully automatic, idiotproof point and shoot option it offers. It may take me some time to figure out what the camera can do; the user manual consists of about 200 pages! The photo at the top, Biggles in zoomies-mode, was shot with this new camera. If I press the button it takes a picture! With my old camera I could press the button, make a cup of tea, do the washing up, and thén it would take the picture. Missed lots of great photomoments that way. This one reacts immediately. I mean...gosh!

Now the only thing I need is a caddy to carry my camerabag and the user manual ;-)