An Autumn Break

As most of you know by now, this is the time of year when Astrid and I fly back to America to be with family and friends.  We leave early tomorrow and return on Wednesday, 1 November, three weeks later.

While we're gone, I'll leave you with some images from two of my recent citadel walks from where we live here in Gorinchem, NL.  It really IS autumn!

This is the collage I posted on Facebook after my September 20th walk.

Okay, not technically autumn yet, but who cares!

From my collage posts, I love picking out a few images for my Shutterchance photoblog.

How can you resist the little children leading us!

See how easy it is to dramatize an image?!

Sometimes I "see" it in my mind's eye and just have to play around with it.

The next week, September 27th, was a foggy day, which I love.

The Nooit Volmaakt windmill is just two blocks from our back door.

The sun was trying to burn through the fog.

Then I saw the first of Erik Buijs' 7" mini-sculptures along the citadel path.

It's the one of a man playing "fetch" with his dog.

In fact, the top image is from March where you can see the full view on its 5-ft pole.

Not that I've seen the series but, up close, he reminds me of The Walking Dead!

Our other Gorinchem windmill is De Hoop (The Hope), standing as a sentry midst "foggy" times.

When I posted this on Facebook last week, it felt appropriate after the Las Vegas mass shooting.

Just past the windmill is our Dalempoort, through which you look out to the Merwede river.

On a foggy day it felt so magical.

Today on FB I have posted this collage as a Good-Bye to all my lovelies where we live.
When we return on 1 November, I'm sure there will be many autumnal changes.

We'll spend our first week in Connecticut with friends Ted and Jane.

Then we'll have time with the kids in Atlanta, followed by Bob and Peggy south of Atlanta,

and then the North Georgia cabin in the mountains with the kids before flying home.
For those of you who follow us on FB, we'll try to keep you updated there.

We LOVE this time of the year!

Het Lingebos in Nearby Vuren, NL

You wouldn't know that behind the scenes I am full-throttle ahead on getting posts done on our recent annual trip to Atlanta.  But, you know, sometimes you have to clear the way first....

So before I show you the incredible Oakland Cemetery in downtown Atlanta, I want you to see what we came back to last week.  Astrid says she can't remember when the autumnal colors here where we live were this brilliant.  She says it was the right combination of warmer weather and less rain that made it happen.

Watch and be astounded again by the hand of Mother Earth.

Each week we ask, "Where are we going to eat this Saturday?"

It's my treat, every Saturday of the year, to have lunch out somewhere.  Out.  Away.

Because of the incredible colors, Astrid suggested we go to the pannenkoek restaurant 

in Het Lingebos...the wee forest in nearby Vuren, less than 6 km away.

We parked at the edge of the forest and walked 45 minutes through it to the restaurant,

and then back again to the car.

OMG.  This is exactly what our body-soul-spirits needed.

THIS is why I still live here...if for no other reason!

We had eaten once before at this restaurant in the woods, but years ago with Jeroen and Eva.

I had totally forgotten what it looked like, inside and out.

I even forgot to take a photo of the pannenkoek before it was all but gobbled up.

But you get the idea.

That pot of stroop, btw, is a Dutch pancake staple (even though we don't use it).

It's like molasses!  Good for what ails you.

Walking back to the car, our eyes were again wide open.

Even the cows way back near the highway, in the dazzling sunlight, were happy.

We ALL were happy, soaking it up like there's no tomorrow.

And it's right at our fingertips.

Yes, I'm home!

Atlanta Trip 2015: The Overview

WE'RE BACK!

And for the record...and for you who might have missed it on Facebook...here is a quick synopsis of our just-finished two weeks in the Atlanta area for our annual trip to America.  In the coming days and weeks, I'll fill in the blanks with individual posts, of course.

We arrived on a Wednesday evening and the next day ate supper at son Mark's new apartment.

It's the second year in a row that he made our old-timey favorite potato-sausage soup,

so we're calling it a tradition, including the amazing coconut pie I used to make.

 The next day, Friday, we went to the Cumming Country Fair with g'son Nicholas,

but this time with his dad, Nick...the first time.

It was wonderful to watch them having so much fun together!

This was Nicholas' 13th time at this fair in his 15 years...and the last with us, we decided.

He can always go again but maybe on his own or with someone else.

We've had our memories and can now move on to more flexible times for visiting.

And he agrees.  What a great finale to that tradition.

The next day, Saturday, we went as a family (minus Mark) to the Historic Oakland Cemetery

near downtown Atlanta, founded in 1850.

Where have I been all my life!  I lived in Atlanta 25 years and never knew it existed.

I'd go back again because there was so much to see.

Then we had our annual Sunday-Thursday visit with Bob and Peggy in Jackson, GA.

They always find fun day trips for us, like this Skyview Ferris wheel next to Centennial Park,

where the 1996 Olympics were held.  What a great way to see the city of Atlanta.

We bought discounted Groupon tickets and rode it twice, once in daylight and then at night,

with a delightful restaurant supper in between.

Last year was when we first saw this 1951 MG that Bob had just bought.

This year, after restoring it bit by bit, he took us for a ride in it.

Talk about feeling like the Queen of England!

We took another day trip to the Candler Field and Museum in Williamson, GA.

It's always fun to see the small aircraft that people still fly.

And if the for-hire biplane had been there, Astrid and I would have taken a ride!

Once back to Amy's on Thursday, we drove up to the cabin in two cars.

THIS is THE tradition every year now for 6 years in Georgia's Blue Ridge mountains.

Within the first 15 minutes of arriving I had taken the above pics.

The leaves changed every day before our very eyes.

How can you resist that!

We weren't there for the full moon but almost.

Mark and I both took astronomy in college but he was the one who remembered the "terminus:"

the line dividing the bright and dark side of the moon.

Look at these two images Astrid took below, standing on the cabin deck!
We were the only ones up each morning to see the sunrise around 7:30 a.m.
 

 You remember, of course, that Astrid and I fell in love because of our photography blog!
Needless to say, I keep falling in love.

So many memories from the cabin still light up the corners of my mind:

pool, ping-pong, fabulous meals, s' mores, Spades, jigsaw puzzle, etc.

What a great way to spend quality time with the family we love.

In between everything, I took care of 2 doctor's appointments and my eye exam,

plus getting new (but basically the same) frames for my glasses, which broke after 11 years.

Now I feel all set to go for another year or two before I get checked up again.  HA!

As we like to say, LIFE IS GOOD!

Watercolor Sundays, Coloring, etc.

Many of you who follow me on Facebook have already seen these, but for the record, here they are again.  I'll try to add these after every month of Sundays:

August 9 (photo manipulation):

"To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years.  To destroy can be the thoughtless

act of a single day." -- Winston Churchill

 August 16 (photo manipulation):

"Old age is when the liver spots show through your gloves."

-- Phyllis Diller

August 23 (photo manipulation):

"Some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot, others transform a yellow spot into the sun."

-- Pablo Picasso

August 30 (photo manipulation):

"Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree."

-- Martin Luther

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

For some reason, these last weeks I've been coloring up a storm.  Don't ask me why but I'm addicted to it right now and am having a blast.

 I was attracted to this design because of the upcoming season,

which happens to be my favorite of them all.

Every once in awhile there's a centerfold in one of my (14) coloring books,

and I tackle it, a bit with fear and trembling.  HA!

You really have to pay attention.

And as most of you know by now, I LOVE the VPP

(vanishing point perspective).

I'm not yet happy with the color quality of these scans, which are much brighter (HD)

in real life.  Still working on that.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

It really is my favorite time of the year!
So, I'm out walking...and especially like what it feels like after a rain.

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!