Simply having a Wonderful Christmas Time...

Merry Christmas!

St Nicholas' Eve this year

St Nicholas' Eve last year

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Who is St Nicholas (Sinterklaas)?

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Preps for this year:

Sinterklaas Board Game

Speculaas Muffins (recipe)

My work so far.....

The Good Autumn Life

Exploring Nature

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Having a nice dinner afterwards

Planting the bulbs

Bloembollen TV

Autumn Thingies

pumpkins

&

flower bulbs

Autumn Flower Arrangement

The Tea Garden

English Tea Party Recipes
Lifestyle cards Medici

Garden Tea House Recipe

Places I want to visit: De Pluktuin & Naaldwijk

Hof- en Tuindagen: De Hof van Wouw

Flower Arrangements: Seizoenen
My favourite bookstore: Landleven Kookboeken

Shop: Memory Garden
About dreams: Le Festin, Ratatouille

The cold(er) season

Glengorm Castle, Isle of Mull, Scotland

Spending a day off painting

Yesterday I bought a new Moleskine, which I hope will renew my inspirations for scratching some doodles every now and then. I like the idea of Hemingway sitting in a Paris café (with a caf'é au lait) and reflecting on lifes joys and pains;

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~Life is not a matter of milestones, but a matter of moments~

Snickelway, off Herenstraat

The Herenstraat in Voorburg:

About Snickelways

Garden Centre Visit

Groenrijk

Leidschenveen

Forepark

Music.....

Inspired by the images on RTV West of the concert of "Il Divo" in Scheveningen, 1 July 2007. I watched them after a "day out" with the company I work for, also at the Kurhaus.

Eating Outdoors

Fairy Cookies

Delftblue

Info on Delftware

Info in Dutch

The VOC brought Chinese porcelain to The Netherlands and local potters started to make imitations. Ming porcelain had blue patterns on a white background. In Europe there was a big demand for painted porcelain with flowers, birds, Dutch landscapes and cityscapes. Delftware is famous all over the world and a Dutch icon.

Huygens Music Festival

The world of the Huygens family

This is the house of the Dutch poet and statesman Constantijn Huygens and his family. He was secretary of the stadholder Frederik Hendrik. Life was busy at the Binnenhof so when there was some spare time left, Constantijn fled to his estate in Voorburg. Here he invited many guests, which whom he discussed a lot about art, music and literature. In the gardens he had an orchard and a herb garden, which provided the kitchen with ingredients for the meals. Guests also were allowed to pick apples and berries from the garden. Constantijn was an art lover and a contemporary of Rembrandt, Rubens and Lievens. He also made an elaborate poem on his garden. The garden plan (1640) was based on the Vitruvius Man from Da Vinci. In 1620 he made a trip to Venice. The impressions he gained here were of influence on the rest of his (artistic) life and likely on what we see when we look at Hofwijck.

Liberation Parade Wassenaar

Lady in Delftblue Dress

30 Apr, Queen's Day - Holland

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Happy Easter!

"God thy will is hard

But you hold every card"

~*~

Gethsemane , Jesus Christ Superstar

Nice dresses, castles & romance...

Here's a nice embossing stencil from my local craft shop. I especially like the courting couple down under. The stories of "Twelfth Night", P.C. Hooft (organizing meetings in castle Muiderslot and in his prune orchard...) or royal banquets and feasts have always amused me. I'm not yet sure what to do with the theme, but I'm thinking....

Crafthouses

These Crafthouses are a trend in the Netherlands and at the moment I'm reading "The Rembrandtcode", which takes place in the old centre of Amsterdam. I started, though, by making a gazebo...