happy new year

peace, love, creativity, lots of laughs from the birdhouse to all of you out there.......

'the sun just touched this morning'*

somehow, this is all connected



*Emily Dickinson, the collected poems,  part two Nature, poem number v (B&N, 2003 NY)

the small apple

Yesterday: spent the day-after-xmas (window)shopping in Amsterdam (we'd stayed with my sister) and visited the Apple store, I have never seen a store like it, ever, everything is Perfect, a very weird sensation to walk in a Perfect World

new&old, after a long walk we ended up having coffee and Apple-pie in the cafe-restaurant in the theatre, seen here in the background, opposite the Apple store

usually when walking throught the city centre, we walk through 'our' old street, the Runstraat, where we used to live as a couple before the children and the move to the countryside: second floor up is what we called 'home

Today: water level's gone down! this measuring stick refers to NAP, Normaal Amsterdams Peil, which is the referenceheight to which heightmeasurements are related in the Netherlands. Simply said NAP more or less equals average sealevel. However I can't make out how this measuring stick compares to the NAP, because there is no '-'  or '+' sign above the numbers in the blue here; does it mean the waterlevel's 90 cm above NAP or what, will investigate further - have not yet found an answer on internet; I'm hoping the guy who works for the pumping-station will visit one of these days, he'll probably know more.

sun and water

water level's still rising

x-mas day

pumping station's pumping

water's rising

the dikes protect us

boundaries are disappearing

new pieces are emerging

today I've finished (almost: still have to make a new plinth) installing a 'new' dishwasher in our kitchen, accompanied by a lot of grumbling on my part, all the kitchen units were handbuilt by us and therefore nothing is straight(forward), and because I was busy anyway I thought I might as well fix the many loose wires, which involved drilling through the walls and a lot of thinking, planning.....and then with all the rain the verandah-roof started leaking from countless holes (it'll have to be replaced this spring) and so I decided to tack plastic sheeting to keep the water out, the to-do list is becoming shorter, in betwixt all this I am enjoying the holidays. Fortunately I'm not cooking this evening.

winter in the Netherlands

black and white and grey

and fluffy browns

the only snow we get is on a tablecloth (from Germany)

Merry Christmas to all of you who are celebrating and to those who don't: happy holidays - I will be relaxing at home with the boys, after past hectic weeks, with a long list of 'things-to-do' and an even longer one with things to enjoy!

shortest day

...doesn't even feel like it is daytime, however am in a good mood
My reaons to be cheerful:
D's eye is healing well, went for a check-up yesterday and the doctor's very pleased!
have at last managed to finish something since the exhibit: two small cloths;
we will be eating at my sister-in-law's on the 25th and at my sister's on the 26th, so no cooking stress or planning;
apart from the 24th I'll have two weeks Holidays, the boys will be home around midday after two weeks of school/tests: they are Tired and Need a break! I'll be here with Tea & Cake;
went for a walk with Tungsten

'sun-moon & leaf' ca.19x27cm

'moon-star & flower'  ca.19x29cm

instead of a christmas card, I'll be sending these small cloths; the red one to my parents and the white one to Mia

a Good Thing

today is grey and brown,
on a day like this you need a walk with the dog to cheer you up!

leading the way

he's caught wind of some animal (probably pheasants)

coming away from the river towards me

rolling around

rubbing his head in the dirt

whenever we go for a walk Tungsten will drink from puddles, rivers, streams, it's obvious that to him outdoors water tastes better than tap water; he'll wade through it when possible and after having gotten back onto dry land he'll roll around and rub his head and neck, I've tried to capture this on the photo's above; it Always makes me smile, which is a good thing

tree dance

after yesterday's downpour a sunny day; the plants are flopping, so I can now walk through the wilderness along the river to one of my favourite tree-spots; there are two willows, along the river bank, hugging the edge, they're growing horizontally as well as upwards, together they form an enclosure, now of course the branches are bare, when in leaf one is completely hidden 

Tungsten sitting next to one of the 'ground-branches'

- we're off to a christmas dinner with a group of friends, D's first social engagement after his op; I wonder if there'll be any dancing, did a lot of that last evening: I'm guessing 4 to 5 hours of jumping on the dance floor, feeling very fit

frozen

this picture was taken yesterday after a night's frost; today it is considerably 'warmer' with Rain and more Rain; it's our annual office party this evening, have to get ready for the dancing, for me that involves a lot of jumping all over the place!

moody

faithful companion

moonstruck

there are times when I wish I had a better camera, like this morning at 7:15 just as I was getting into my car: a clear sky, the colours ranging from orange to a dark cobalt blue, up above the moon a floating ball and you could see the crescent  and I felt like reaching out to touch it

mud

weather has changed completely: temperature has risen (slightly) grey skies, rain and drizzle, feels colder; from white to brown

manage to get a bit of sewing done in the evenings

still working on this autumn piece, colours suit today

p.s. collected my car yesterday afternoon and guess what: the men there had vacuumed the inside!! it was a pigsty, must have hurt their eyes; anyway did not get a chance to thank them, as they'd already left; will drive by later this week and do so.

early morning walk

dropped the car off at the garage for a repair to one of the sensors and walked back home with the dog. After a hike on the cycle-path we entered the golf course; the general public is allowed access onto a footpath with 'sloten'= canals on either side, photo above.

coot (meerkoet) prints 

I think these are hare tracks

the golf course path ends, one crosses a small road and the walk continues into the woods, on the right; to the left a farmer's fields and yet another 'sloot'. You can see all sorts of tracks in the snow: roe deer, humans, dogs, rabbits and hares, various birds

Tungsten LOVES snow

we met two other people in the woods, with cameras; no other dogs, a pheasant flew up, other than the tracks, very little evidence of animal life