Chapels, Windvanes and Cows, Oh My!

HA!  I guess you had to be there...but sometimes it really is like a fairytale. Another joyride on Sunday, this time in the area of Arkel, Hoornaar and Schelluinen, all nearby....

  Arkel is where Astrid used to live, just 3 km north of us in Gorinchem.

I've seen this wee Koepelkerk a thousand times, it seems, but had never been inside.

It has a long history, beginning in 641, but the present chapel was built in 1855.

This past Sunday they had an open-house viewing from 2-4 p.m.

Lucky for me that Astrid notices these things in the paper!

And yes, they have a small congregation with services every Sunday.

I think my dad would have loved being pastor of this cozy chapel.

He was such a lover of books and hymnals.

So am I.

But instead of sheep to shepherd that day, all we got were cows!

Cows and more cows.  

It was a heyday for cows, most of which are grown here for their dairy products.

We did find some sheep, however.  HA!

And two gable stones on the same house.

And TWENTY-ONE weathervanes, of which these are the NON-birds/animals...

...and these are.

Milkweed covers many of the canals right now (bottom-left).

And Spring is still showing off her beauty everywhere.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

On an entirely different note, close to home...

Look what we saw Saturday morning right after breakfast.

Astrid says it's a koolmees (Great Tit), common to Europe.

Apparently this little fella was too young to be frightened, while eating his own breakfast.

After several minutes, he flew off to mind his own business.

Did he know he made my day, I wonder?

That was about the same time I was connecting many dots to fulfill a life-long dream:

P A I N T I N G.

There are so many embellishment and/or manipulation tools these days,

to transform photo images into paintings...without all the mess, I might add.

So as I start my new decade (in two weeks), my dream is becoming real.

This is an oil painting of one of the collage images above.

Here's a watercolor of the same bird but different pose.

And how about a watercolor of the cows!

It may not be everyone's cuppa tea, but for me, I'm in heaven.

You have no idea how soulful this is for me!

(so might as well get used to it)

Holland's Warmest November 1st (2014)

Now that I've finished October's trip to America (!), it's time to come back to the Netherlands before it's already December.

It so happens we were antsy to go back to our favorite pannenkoeken restaurant in the Dutch polder, which we decided to do on Saturday, November 1.  It also so happens it ended up being Holland's warmest November 1st on record, since 1901.

It was November, however, and full of the changing colors.

And since we stopped for everything, here are some stills of the following videos:

The Jan van Arkel windmill (in nearby Arkel) was turning that day.

It's a smock mill from 1851.

You can't really get the full effect of the whirling sound here because of the traffic,
but it was hypnotic that day.

When we stopped to watch these cows, imagine our surprise when the farmer came on the scene.
They were grazing ever so peacefully and then...they started skipping like sheep to him (at the end).
This alone was enough to make my day (sorry about the jiggles).

Speaking of cows, here's one going off to Timbuktu.
VEEVERVOER = Livestock Transportation.
I hope he was just sold to another farmer and was off to greener pastures?

How can you not stop at this photo op by the side of the road!
If we didn't already have a pumpkin at home, I would have bought one.

And, yes, the weathervanes of the day!
The one top-center looks like a space ship.  Hmmm.
The one bottom-center looks like the talons of a big bird that flew away?

 ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Those of you who follow me on Facebook have already seen the following images, but for the rest of you,  there was a Black & White Challenge going around where we could be nominated to submit 5 B&W photos.  These are the ones I submitted:

#1:  "We do NOT have snow here yet but for all those of you who do, this windmill is only two blocks
from our back door here in Gorinchem, NL (from 2009)."

 #2:  "Many of you know I love architecture, but usually I mean the old European structures
that are from long before America became America. However...how can you say NO to this modern structure from downtown Atlanta in 2012! It reminds me of a chorus-girl lineup."

 #3:  "This is a macro shot of some moss between two bricks on a ledge where we live,
taken a couple years ago when we had a dusting of snow. In macro mode it looked like a blizzard!"

 #4:  "This is for all of you experiencing winter way too early this year! This is from where
we live in Gorinchem, NL, from a couple winters ago. More Dutch you cannot get!"

 #5:  "Probably my most favorite place on earth, Kinderdijk, NL, is a village where 19 windmills
from 1740 drain the polder. It's the largest concentration of old windmills in the Netherlands
and is only 20 miles from our home. This was taken on Christmas day, 2010!"

And because you may remember Astrid and I first met each other via our photography (!!!),
I nominated her to post her own 5 B&W images for the Challenge:

 Astrid's #1:  "Fog in the fields 2008"

Astrid's #2:  "Utrecht, 2008"
(with a bit of selective coloring added)

 Astrid's #3:  "Out in the polder/fields, 2008"

Astrid's #4

Astrid's #5:  "The sun makes an effort to shine...."

And with that, we are well on our way to December...here before we know it!

Another Blogger Meet-Up

In my last post I told you that I was gonna meet up with a new Shutterchance blogger yesterday! I DID!

I took the train(s) from Amsterdam to Arkel, 1-1/2 hours and 3 trains south, to meet Astrid, another real Dutch Girl.

Doesn't she look Dutch! :)

Does her Dutchness rub off on me, I wonder? I sure wish her Dutch language did! Her English totally puts my lack of Dutch to shame, so immediately, on the spot, I committed myself to buckle down and get serious about learning this new language, which happens to be MUCH HARDER than German (IMHO = in my humble opinion).

It was a drizzly, rainy sort of Holland day. So even though I had taken my camera, expecting to take an untold number of photos, we both just stayed inside and used the time to get to know each other. Yakkity-yak, yakkity-yak!

And because it was a 6-1/2 hour stretch, we had to eat, of course, so Astrid decided to choose "a room with a view," which happened to be the town's best restaurant, I'm sure. It sits on the Merwede River where barges (background) take their wares to and from Rotterdam, the largest port in Europe.

And was it ever fabulous! Decadent is more like it. But in that moment, we both decided the occasion deserved it. It was a very special, serendipitous, eternalized moment, when you don't care how decadent something is!
What you see above is two different presentations of pheasant. The balled part reminded me of rich turkey!

I was halfway through the white fish course before I remembered I hadn't taken a photo yet (sorry about that), but you at least see the green "vegetable" that looked like a cross between very skinny asparagus and French green beans. WRONG! I don't know the name in Dutch or English but it's a reed-like substance from the sea and it was WONDERFUL.

How's that for dessert! OMG! See what I mean about decadent! On the back of the plate, that's crème without the brûlée. And a cinnamon liquoer drink in the tall glass; I can't remember what in the smaller glass. And a cafe latte that reminded me of my German latte macchiatos!

Then, from our table, we watched the kids going home from school via the ferry boats. How cool is that!

Sometimes I feel like I'm in heaven on earth! Do you have those times? Then you know exactly how I felt yesterday, meeting a kindred spirit whom I felt I had known forever.

Now we'll have to figure out how we can get Donica and a couple other blogger ladies all hooked up for one hoot of a time together. Maybe sometime in the spring. :)