Two (and more) in a Tandem

 

The Emerald Belt

This isn’t a poem:

The Archipelago,
or large group of islands
that make up Indonesia,
is known as the Emerald Belt,
first named so by Dutch writer Multatuli,
pseudonym of Eduard Douwes Dekker (1820-1887),
who referred to Indonesia’s beautiful nature
and the numerous islands
the country consists of.

 

Did you know?

The artwork is provided by the ever brilliant Alias Jinksy,
who invites us to hop on her bicycle and write something if we feel inspired by it.

A fun day out, part 2

See for part 1 of our fun day (well, afternoon… or actually two hours) out the previous post.

 

There were two ladies in folkloric costumes.
(Remember the post I did about those? You can find it here. These costumes must be from Drenthe.)

 

This box contains owls’ pellets…

…and these children (and adults) were taking them apart to see what the owls had been eating.

If you wanted, you could climb up a tree.

This mother sent her poor son up.
He was actually screaming: “I want to go down now!”, but mom wanted to take his picture first. Cruel!

Hubs was looking for some new light fittings. We might have to move to an even bigger house.

There was a pizza baker on a bike (you can just see the ZA of pizza).

The mother of all swings.

Okay, I haven’t a clue what this is. You? But it’s cute.

And goat- and other cheeses.

And there were lots and lots of different types of mushrooms…

 

…but only one type of beetroot. The very decorative chioggia beetroot.

 

What can I say; the sun was shining and the atmosphere was very… relaxed.

A fun day out, part 1

 

I found this photo in a box full of old photos.

 

 

No, I didn’t. I took it today, when we went to the ‘Buiten Bezig Dag’, a fair that was held in the grounds of Havezathe Mensinge in Roden. (A ‘havezathe’ is a fortified building, originally a large farm. In the 17th century you had to be the owner of a havezathe in order to be able to get a knighthood.)

Buiten = Outside
Bezig = Busy
Dag = Day

We didn’t know what to expect, but hey… the weather was nice, we had a couple of hours to spare (a luxury), and I thought it might be a fun opportunity to take some photos. On our way there we followed this beautiful old car. Until it took a left turn where we had to take the right one.

 

As we were at the entrance of the fair, we encountered some friends of us who were just leaving. We hadn’t seen them for a while and it was nice to have a little chat with them at such an unexpected place and time.

Havezathe Mensinge

Pink seemed to be the colour of the day…

Interesting…

 

And this smartly dressed gentleman was doing something intriguing…

…something I’ve done myself a couple of times; although I’ve never dressed up for the occasion…
He was dowsing. In Dutch that is ‘wichelroedelopen’.
I’ve used a dowsing rod to find water. Long story. And, although I was quite sceptic, I’ve discovered that it actually works.

These rather attractive guys are architects.
I liked their inventive use of straw to keep the wind from blowing their designs all over the place.
They also had a market stall, but used this as their ‘office’.

 

More mad hats…

Creative metalwork….

I’m not quite sure what the red metal object is.
But I dó know that the little stall in the background is the smallest ‘poffertjeskraam’ I’ve ever seen.
More about that in the next ‘100 things I love about the Netherlands’-post. (Mr. Rhymeswithplague will be very pleased. As far as I know ‘poffertjes’ are a real Dutch speciality.)

 

There was lots more fun stuff going on at this ‘Busy Outside Day’-fair. More about that in the next post.

Don’t miss it…

100 things I love about the Netherlands: 6

The Dutch skies,

made famous by Dutch painters from the Haagse School (the Hague School), a group of painters who worked in The Hague somewhere between 1860 and 1900. They rebelled against the opinion of that time, to idealize the subjects that were painted, and tried to give a more realistic image of their subjects. Painters like Hendrick Willem Mesdag and Jacob Maris wanted to capture the atmosphere of the landscape in their paintings and stay as true to reality as possible, especially focussing on the light.

Of course they didn’t have a Canon EOS 40D camera. Life would have been so much easier for them.

Very Important message

Okay guys and girls, listen carefully: I will zay zis only wanz:
I’ve decided to start another blog for my photos. It’s called brinkbeestphotos. You can also find the link at the bottom of the page. Exciting, isn’t it? Who will be the first member of my photo-fanclub? Will it be you?
The main reason for this new venture is that I think sometimes my photos need a place of their own, without too much other things going on around them. Oh that sounds really pretentious. But I’ve registered for a workshop Horse Photography and a Photoshop course. All this schooling will hopefully result in lots of shareworthy shots.
(Perhaps I also need to start a blog about words I’ve invented. You may think I’m making mistakes, but I’m just doing some creative and inventive spelling ;-))

Of course I’ll still be posting the usual nonsense and stories about my life in general in this exact location. And to prove that I’m totally over the stupid Lyme disease and can blog ‘til I drop again, I’ve also accepted an invitation to join in the fantastic Fridge Soup blog (my first official Fridge Soup post).
I know, I hope I’ll end up in an institution that has internet access ;-)

Raindrops keep falling….

…on my Hosta .

Send some sunshine over to other parts of Blogworld where it’s raining and this is what happens; they send back some rain.  A little rain was welcome, but it rained all afternoon. It’s sort of a tropical humid environment now. I can see the moss growing on the patio. Life threatening circumstances. Chances are I’ll slip and break something important. Hope the rain returns to sender before that happens. Or that it will be one of our limited edition precious porcelain cups. Or saucers.

Notice the artyfarty stuff going on at the bottom of the photo on the right. It’s a Windows Live Writer option.

Oh, and I’m guessing (I haven’t tried it out yet, but I’ve ticked a few boxes and chose a couple of options) that if you click on a photo now, it will open much bigger and in a new screen. Or on a new screen. Or whatever is the correct term.

The only problem I encountered in WLW ‘so far is that I couldn’t upload the hilarious Youtube video of the fireman (the previous post). So I had to use Blogger for that. I’m not bothered by that. Are you?

But where's Captain Jack Sparrow?

This shabby looking sailing boat appeared from the mist when we were on our sort of photohunt around the shores of the Hoornse Plas in Groningen. The thick mist and the fresh snow that covered land and ice made it difficult to see where the land stopped and the lake began. A matter of keeping our fingers crossed and treading carefully.

On closer inspection it turned out to be a work of art. With metal sails. I'm guessing it lies on the sandy beach that is created on this side of the lake. It could also be in the water. I didn't have the heart to examine that any further. It's just big enough to seat two persons. Me and Johnny Depp? But where is Captain Jack Sparrow when you need him?

(I have it on good authority he's alive and in France. Perhaps I'll try again this summer ;-))