100 things I love about the Netherlands: 1

Suldog made a list of 100 he loves about America. That inspired me to make a list of 100 things I love about the Netherlands. BUT… I will try do make this list with photographic ‘evidence’ so to speak. So the plan is as follows: I’ll be posting one (or more) photo(s) every week of something I love about the Netherlands. That will what… take me about two years to complete the list? (Maths were never my strong point.)

What the hell was I thinking when I decided to do this? Two years! So I’m not promising anything. I might get bored or be dead before the list is completed. In which case I’d like to say “I’m sorry” in advance.

So here come the first photos of something I love about the Netherlands. Let’s start with something obvious:

 

WINDMILLS

This windmill is called ‘De Meeuw’ (The Seagull) and dates from 1851. It is situated alongside the Reitdiep (a river, partly canalized) in a very small village called Garnwerd (in the province Groningen). It is an eight-sided stone stage grain mill. Although no longer in use, in Summer volunteers let it turn to show people how such a mill used to grind grains to make flour.

Thursday’s Trifles

Thursday’s Trifles are based on what I’ve read in our local newspaper Dagblad van het Noorden

A fine 50% discount

A judge in Groningen detracted 50 Euros from a fine, because the suspect had taken the trouble to make the journey to the Groninger Court to defend himself. A trip of about 200 kilometres.
The man was convicted because he had, under the influence of alcohol, demolished a window of his brother’s car. The judge gave him a 100 Euros fine, of which 50 Euros were a conditional sentence, taking both into consideration that the guy had already paid for a new window for his brother’s car and that he had made the journey to Court.

 

Mouse shoots dentist

This isn’t funny.
A Dutch dentist died a tragic death on his holiday location in the French Dordogne. The dentist had taken a shotgun into the garden of his holiday cottage to hunt for mice. He wanted to kill a mouse with the butt of his gun, but the blow caused the gun to go off and it killed the dentist.

Inspired

Both Don’t Bug Me and The Hidden Realm post b e a u t i f u l photos. I asked Don’t Bug Me how she managed to create a certain effect (a dark background) and she explained it to me. Then Dave from The Hidden Realm posted some gorgeous macro shots of a flower. These wonderful bloggers inspired me to pick up the camera and give it a try myself.

And look… this is what came out… (now, I’m not saying my photos are even half as good as theirs, but I’m certainly making some progress. Finally the things I’ve learned during the Beginner Photography Course I followed last year start to sink in and begin to make sense to me. Hoorays are in order.)

 

you can click on each photo to enlarge it