Sunday Selections #69: The bench edition

Sunday Selections, hosted by Kim from Frogpondsrock, is the place to post those photos that have been hanging around on your computer for far too long and that need to be seen and enjoyed by fellow bloggers.

So, here’s my selection for this Sunday: I’m trying to make a series of photos of people who use the bench opposite our house to give their bums a much needed rest from cycling through the countryside. I’ve managed to take four shots on a sunny Sunday in April and it is far more interesting to look at them than I first thought it would be. I mean… they are just people sitting on a bench. How interesting can it be? And yet… they speak to me:

He’s soooo relaxed, but she wants to know and see everything that’s going on.

 

 

They are prepared for everything! And she leads.

 

 

Now, you have to understand that I don’t want them to see me taking their photo, so I sneak out of the garden gate, take a shot and quickly disappear again. But this woman, she just didn’t park her posterior on that bench. She just stood there, looking at our house. And there I was, hiding behind the ivy that surrounds our garden gate, waiting until she finally would turn around and just sit! After ages, I just gave up and went inside. Of course at that point she turned around an sat down. So I quickly took this shot through the window next to our front door. Which is why it is a rather poor quality shot.

He clearly needed this rest, his posture says ‘phew’. She can’t wait to stand up again. And look at his glasses. What’s with those?

 

Now, they are cute. Notice the non-existing space between them and compare that to the other photos. Sweet. And they clearly love blue. Aww…

 

And just for fun I though I’d add some macro shots. Have I mentioned I love my macro lens (I know I have. Lots of times. But hey… I do.)

Sunday Selections #63: the bee’s knees edition

It’s Sunday again. Time for the Sunday Selections, hosted by Kim from Frogpondsrock. They do, you know.
Anyway, if you have tons of photos hanging around in your computer somewhere, waiting for a reason to be shown to the blogging world, hop over to the rocking frog ponds and follow the almost non-existent rules for joining in.

This Sunday Selections being my bee’s knees edition; Kim is Queen of the Bee’s Knees! She participated in ‘the worlds greatest shave’ to raise money for a leukaemia foundation. Not only Kim’s frog ponds rock, she does too! Follow the above links to her blog and see the evidence for yourself.

And Kim… you look really good with short hair!

 

So, back to the Sunday Selections; I did take some photographs of buzzing bees this week that I thought you might like:

Sunday Selections #60: The ‘longing for spring’ edition

It’s Sunday again. Time for the Sunday Selections, hosted by Kim from Frogpondsrock. They do, you know.
Anyway, if you have tons of photos hanging around in your computer somewhere, waiting for a reason to be shown to the blogging world, hop over to the rocking frog ponds and follow the almost non-existent rules for joining in.

This Sunday I thought I’d get into spring-mood again and just randomly pick some photos from a folder dated May 2009. Our first foal was born in April 2009 and she, her mom and our other horse stayed for about 6 weeks with the horses and foals of friends in luscious green meadows nearby. The first two photos I shot there. The last three are of our garden and are mainly there to remind me that it will look like that again soon, for it is now in a sorry, muddy state.
Each winter I lose faith and cannot believe that it will ever look pretty, green and flowery again. And each spring I’m proved wrong.
So, this year I’m keeping the faith! And my fingers crossed.

Cruising the Reitdiep

Coincidentally the Reitdiep is right deep too.

This follows the previous post about the ‘cruise’ through Groningen city on a boat (full) of friends. The boat had to be sailed back to its original harbour in the north of the province Groningen. Most of the people chose not to stay on board for the whole journey and picked a spot to be dropped off (they really weren’t thrown overboard), but I was persuaded to stay on board. And I’m glad I did. We sailed through beautiful countryside and even though at some point it looked like the weather was turning (we wondered if that was the reason we didn’t see any other ship, apart from the Latvians who were following us, and if perhaps they all knew something we didn’t), it stayed dry and warm and lovely.

 

this friendly bunch were going towards Groningen city

 

the captain

 

this mill in Garnwerd featured in my first post (I think) about the 100 Things I Love About The Netherlands

 

could have Photoshopped this into a straight horizon, but who cares…

 

 

 

couldn’t be more Dutch

 

 

very picturesque

 

apparently the owl is still there, weeks later, which makes me think it might not be a real owl

(duh)

 

what’s left of the on-board-picnic (hiccup… burp)

 

okay…WHO put the horizon on this weird angle?!?!? (hiccup)

 

ahh, that’s better

 

and that’s it for this post

 

I’m trying to keep the jungle surrounding our house under control,
so I’m not as much in Blogworld as I’d like to be. I need a clone. Or a gardener.

This is your captain speaking;

I hope you’ll enjoy this mini-cruise through part of the historic city of Groningen.

The inner city of Groningen is surrounded by a circle of interlinking canals, also known as the ‘Diepenring’. I’m taking you on a cruise through the west- and southside of the Diepenring.

Groningen is a University city, famous for the Martini Tower, a church tower from the 15th century and lovingly known in Groningen as the Old Grey One (or ‘d’Oale Grieze), and for the Groninger Museum, opened in 1994 and designed by Alessandro Mendini.

We’ll start our cruise at part of the Diepenring that’s called the A. I’ve always found A the best place to start things.

If you look to your left you will see the ‘Hoge der A’ (high side of the A – the canal is called A). If you look to your right (shown below) you’ll see the ‘Lage der A’ (low side of the A). You can see that Groningen used to be (and still is) a thriving city. Trade over water used to be an important part of life here. In the fourteenth century, Groningen became a member of the Hanseatic League (1282-1669), a collaboration of merchants primarily from Germany, Scandinavia, England, Poland, the Baltic States, Russia and the Netherlands.

A lot of these buildings date from the latter part of that period. The warehouses are now transformed into apartments. Most of the ships are enjoying their pension and are used as homes.

 

 

 

 

Just above the houses on the ‘Hoge der A’ you can see part of the tower of the ‘der Aa-kerk’, a church that dates from around 1200.

Looking back: the Hoge der A on the right side and the Lage der A on the left side.

But we’re turning our heads (and bodies, unless you’re an owl) around again and will continue our cruise. We’re heading for the A-brug (or A-bridge).

The building that seems to be on the bridge is called Heykenshuys and houses a cookery shop on the ground floor and offices above.

On our way back we’ll see the other side of the Heykenshuys and the novel way in which this bridge opens.

But we’ll continue our tour, heading South toward the train station with the white statue of ‘t Peerd van Ome Loeks’ in front of it. A world famous statue, well: world famous in Groningen at least.

It is a statue of a horse (paard or ‘peerd’ in local dialect) and its owner, uncle Loeks (or Lukas). It is positioned with its backside towards the town and its head towards the train stations, so the first thing the unsuspecting traveller sees when leaving the station isn’t the huge backside of a horse. The NS (the national railways) thought that it would be more welcoming to see the front of the horse first. They may well be right. Although, as many of you loyal readers know, I have a thing for a nice bum.

The train station is a beautiful building, dating from 1896 and completely restored in 1999. It has a beautiful ceiling. Well worth a visit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The other thing, and possibly even more shocking than the bum of ‘t peerd van ome Loeks could ever be - but who am I to judge - the unsuspecting traveller sees when leaving the train station is the Groninger Museum. A very modern building, built as an island in the Diepenring.

 

 

We are now sailing towards the eastside of town, to the Oosterhaven (East Harbour).

We turn the boat and return the way we came.  Now we can see the ‘d’Olle Grieze’ or the Martini Tower.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the other side of the Heykenshuys, the building with the cookery shop. Looks like a totally different building from this angle. And the bridge opens in an interesting way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were followed by a sailing yacht with three guys on board. One of them wearing the tiniest of swimming trunks and he didn’t really have the figure for it. Slightly disturbing and the less said about that, the better. I didn’t take a photo (collective sigh of relief). They were all the way from Latvia (I asked them when we were negotiating a lock on our way to the northern part of the province of Groningen. We didn’t recognize their flag and couldn’t make out which language they were speaking.). 

Another historic building on the Hoge der A and a last look on the Noorderhaven (North Harbour)….

…..and we are on our way to the north of the province of Groningen to bring the boat back to its original harbour. A beautiful journey through the countryside. As I said, I’ll post some photos of that on a later date. You’ve seen enough for now I guess.

You know, Groningen is complaining about the lack of tourist visiting. Most tourists go to Amsterdam and leave the rest of the country for what it is. Even the Dutch people who live in other parts of the country think Groningen isn’t worth visiting, or they think it’s too far away. HA! Would you come to Groningen if you were to visit the Netherlands? Be honest.

 

Click on the link to the tourist information board and find out everything you always wanted to know about the city of Groningen.

Oh, don’t laugh and 100 Things I Love About the Netherlands # 17:

I love the town of Groningen.

OH, DON’T LAUGH

So finally we could enjoy an afternoon and out with friends on their boat, the Hendrik-Salvador.

I mean, we were promised numerous outings for almost four years now, but somehow we only managed to get on board on one occasion, two years ago. That is mostly due to our private zoo that we can’t and don’t want to leave alone for too long and our friends normally keep their boat in a harbour that is almost an hours drive from our house. But last Saturday afternoon we left all the four-legged hairy and two-legged feathery ones to fend for themselves for the afternoon and jumped on board of the lovely boat that our friends temporarily rented a space for in a harbour in the town of Groningen, not far from our house. We were going to enjoy a view of the town from the water. With him being the captain, her being a fantastic cook and taking care of the catering on board, another friendly friend, who just keeps laughing and giggling when he’s had his first glass of wine, joining us we were ready for an afternoon and early evening full of fun.

ANYWAY…

It started out alright.

The weather was good (it is unusually warm and dry this Spring in the Netherlands).

The harbour, surrounded by lovely colourful houses.

I even spotted an Indian. He was looking in a different direction.

And then we left the harbour to sail (is it called ‘sailing’ even though it isn’t a sailing ship?) through the town of Groningen.

We sailed (?) past a real sailing ship, the Ecolution, initiated by the first Dutch astronaut; Wubbo Ockels.

A very interesting ship; if you follow the Ecolution-link (after you’ve read this post of course), you can find out everything about it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first bridge opened to let us through, the second bridge did too (interesting blue underside),

the third bridge opened in a different way…,

and then we came to this bridge.

It stayed closed.

Oh sure, HE could go through…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and THEY could go through…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…but we had to wait for one-and-a-half-hours before that bridge would open to let US through. Apparently bridge keepers have to eat too. And I suppose they take a nap after dinner. And then they have coffee. And then they kiss their wife and kids goodbye, hop on their bike and cycle to the bridge to open it for innocent people who own a boat that is just slightly too high to go under the bridge.

ANYWAY…

We decided to turn the boat around and go back to enjoy a bit of the countryside around Groningen. Perhaps we could go into Groningen from the other side of town. So we went back and came to this bridge…

…that THEY could go under, but WE couldn’t. And since the bridge keeper was enjoying his dinner…

ANYWAY…

There was nothing else for us to do than moor the boat and enjoy the idyllic view… (of a whole row of portaloos hmmm)…

…have a nap…

…watch the ducks swim past…

…open another bottle of Prosecco…and hate envy people in a rowing boat…

 

 

…and one-and-a-half-hours later the bridge finally opened and let us through to sail (?) back to the harbour, because it was getting too late for us to do the whole Groningen-tour that night.

On our way back the guys on board decided to inspect the motor compartment. While we were sailing (?). In the other direction! No one was steering the ship. But did we, women, panic? No, we didn’t. We’d had a lot of Prosecco. It does wonders for one’s ability to relax and enjoy the sunshine…

 

 

AAAAANYWAY…

The food was great, the wine was very enjoyable too, as was the company. So we did have a fun time.

 

The next day I got a second chance to take photos of the town of Groningen, from the water. Our friends had invited some other people (some I knew, some I didn’t) to do the Groningen-tour by boat and then sail the boat back all the way to its original harbour all the way up in the province of Groningen and invited me and hubs to join them. Hubs decided to stay at home to take care of the animals, so I could enjoy the entire journey.

Some previews (I’ll post more photos later this week):