Thursday, January 26, 2017

Backyard Bits-n-Bobs


In America, of course, we say bits-n-pieces.  But don't you just LOVE the British bits-n-bobs!

Anyway....

Thanks to our Dutch friend, Janny, we've already had two fun outings this new year not far from home, one weekend after the other.

First, we drove to pick Janny up to go see the Leather Museum (De Looierij) in Dongen, 30 km. from home.  It's a museum about the history of tanning and the leather-making process, dating from the 1890's.  Dongen happened to be the home of a profitable leather industry in the Netherlands, back in the day.

Too bad we didn't know we could take photos until our visit was almost over.
But here are a few pics I snapped at the end, most of which are of the times, 
not of the leather-making process.  Oh well.

HOWEVER...not to be disappointed...a block or so away was this church with its half-ruins.
This is the Oudekerk (Old Church) from the 15th century.
Originally Roman Catholic, it was "confiscated" by the Reformed Protestants in 1648.

During a storm in 1928, the roof of the nave caved in and has remained a ruin since then.
I don't know if they still hold church services there but they do have a Facebook page!
Can you imagine getting married in those ruins on a sunny, gorgeous day?

We ate lunch there in Dongen where Astrid and I had our favorites:
latte macchiatos and uitsmijters!

The three vanes on the right are the ones we saw that day.
The bottom-right is apropos, of a leather tanner.
And the bear is from the home of someone whose last name is Bear (in English).
Thanks to Janny for scouting out my first bear vane ever!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

That was the weekend of January 14th, the day my brother, Nelson, turned 75 (since we're talking about bits-n-bobs)!

During that weekend, Janny told us about a vacated swimming pool in Oosterhout, 29 km from home, not far from where we were in Dongen.  Without even thinking about it, we went to see it the following weekend (which happens to be last Saturday).

Like I said, it's a vacated swimming pool, but did I mention...with 18,000+ art tiles!
Who thinks up these things?!

All I could think about was how my little camera could pick up details from 1200 mm away.
But first, I wanted to see the forest before zeroing in on the trees.

Some of the sections had multiple tiles in their themes.

Some were grids of only 9 tiles, following a theme.
"We are all angels with one wing.  We have each other to embrace in order to fly."
(How wonderful is that!)

This was one of my favorites of the multiple tiles.  :)

Then, from individual tiles, here, there and everywhere, I picked out my own themes.
This one for me is everything Dutch.

There were body parts lying around.  HA.

And animals, birds, insects and fishy things.

Some things actually reminded me of some of you who frequent here...
like Ruth's sumac in Michigan, and Robin's cactus in Arizona.

We're everywhere, aren't we.

But did I expect this?????????  NO!
And that reminds me of the Dutch response to Trump on YouTube, for those who haven't seen it yet:


It hit me after seeing this that one of the reasons why I fell in love with Astrid is
because of her humor, not connecting that it's DUTCH humor.  OMG.  It's true.

But back to the swimming pool...so many bits-n-bobs.

And when I went down to the "water's edge," I was able to see the 3-D effect on some of the tiles.
Not all were ceramic tiles.  Most were paper.  But what an effect.

THANK YOU to Janny who gave us the shout-out to these two outings in January.
What a great visual start to this new year!


14 comments:

  1. Love this post! You always have such great variety. Your first visit had the beautiful architecture. Then the old pool is a modern masterpiece. Such creative minds and who thought of using the pool that way? Dutch creativity!

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    1. Thank you, Marie. As I often say, Leave it to the Dutch. :)

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  2. wow i'm just going gaagaa over those pool pictures... your fave one, i have now made as my desktop, lol it was my fave too!! but i still want the sheep in the fog!!

    and that video about trump and the netherlands made me totally laugh out loud :)

    brilliant post, my friend!!

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    1. Now you know why I often go bonkers during the day, processing photos!!! :D

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  3. Holy cow, that swimming pool! So imaginative. And how sweet of you to think of me and sumac. <3

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    1. Sometimes what's in our own backyard is the biggest treasure of them all, Ruth! You'd be surprised how often I think of you when I'm out-n-about. :)

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  4. C'est vraiment très intéressant cette exposition Ginnie et les architectures sont très belles aussi. Je découvre beaucoup de belles choses sur ton site In Soul.

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    1. You're so very kind, Marie. You honor me by stopping by here to visit! Thank you.

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  5. 'Ditjes en datjes'....
    The very first picture of that machine is to measure the thickness of the leather. After running through the man marks the spots and by this they decide which part of the leather is good for what they want to use it for...
    That swimming pool was something else... wow. I have to come back to this post and look at it more careful. I am glad I took my binocular to look at more careful, I did miss a lot though.
    Ha... there is humour and humour and I think we have a different look at the world, we talk funny too ;)...
    Thank you for this post. Another memory added, I know I keep repeating myself. We are blessed, so blessed with these opportunities to travel around. IHVJ.

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    1. I'm constantly learning new things from you and laughing WITH or AT you every day. HAHAHA! Laughter really IS the best medicine. :) Thank you for choosing to be my Partner in Crime. We make quite the team, don't you think?! :)

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  6. Oh those tiles!! What an incredible art installation! And that abandoned church...one can only imagine the images in golden hour! How fortunate we all are to be able to get out of our own backyards and experience the world. One just never knows what will be uncovered. Thanks for the cacti shout out! I feel the same when I see an interesting manhole cover, ha!!! xo

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    1. Thank you, Robin. Don't you just love how things we see everywhere remind us of people we know! :)

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