orange impression

Three more days to go before our queen celebrates her birthday.Or better, we do it for her.

Amsterdam, slowly, turns into an orange city for this happy orange occasion.

We pray for an orangy sun on wednesday !

april weekend

women in art

Just watch and enjoy

nature

Longing for nature, my cityfriend Yvette and I went to a suburban gardencentre to enjoy the violets, the lavender and other greens and colours. The showstopper of the day was a robbin who lives comfortably in the greenhouse of this gardencentre and sings like a lark under the glass roof. On the right the plants I bought to make a tiny garden in a bowl.

perfection

Watch this amazing performance from a group of deaf people. Enjoy !

Glenn Gould

This one is for you Hans

ventriloquist

Ventriloquist Terry Fator won the talentshow America got Talent 2007
Watch this video

paper fairytales

Take a look at the site of paperartist Sue Blackwell.

She makes magical art out of books and other paper elements.

Amazing!

happy easter

A few months ago we desperately wanted a white Christmas. It didn't happen then. Today is easter. A white easter indeed.

easter eggs

One week before eastersunday. I found my favourite chocolate easter eggs in a little British shop nearby.

They're cute and delicious.

pont 13

A sunday lunch on an old Amsterdam Ferry named Pont 13. To celebrate the homecoming of twentyone year old Esra who lives in Tokio for the last four years. Although it was ugly weather we had a great afternoon with nice company and food. I will certainly go back there on a sunny day.

when you are a king

The first single I ever bought was this one by The White Plains. Was it 1971 ?



When you are a king
Never do a thing
Four and twenty blackbirds sing along
Royal gifts they all will bring
When you are a king.
Everywhere you go, people bowing low
Carriages to take you anywhere
Feet won't ever touch a thing
When you are a king

spring messengers

spring is in the air

The temperatures were pleasant,

the light stunning on this

beautiful sunny sundayafternoon in

Amsterdam

storm

And it storms like crazy !

postcard

This postcard caught my eye.

The painting is oil on canvas and made by

Herbert james Draper in 1897.

until death do us part

My parents married in 1959, the 20th of January. They were married 39 years until my father died on the 1st of February 1998. Now almost ten years ago. These weeks we remember.

mimosa plus

January 18th

Eightteen years ago, on the 18th of January, my daughter Emma was born.
Reason to celebrate the whole weekend.

My first tulips of 2 0 0 8

new toy II

This is my other new toy. A Samsung NV10 camera. And no, I didn't win the lottery.

And yes, when I am used to these two pieces of equipment I'll feed my blog.

new toy

I bought a laptop. This keeps me busy. To busy to feed my blog.

It is a HP Pavilion dv6000. It looks great and is user friendly.

Very friendly I must say.

paris

The first week of 2 0 0 8 Emma spent in Paris with her boyfriend. Almost a hundred photo's illustrate their romantic stay in what we know the most romantic city of the world.

heimatklänge

Heimatklänge is a documentary film made in Switserland. A portrait of three people searching for their musical identity in a Swiss context of jodeltradition. In particular Christian Zehnder has an amazing talent for unconvential use of his voice and is able to give Switserland a new sound without losing old traditions. Try to see it.

as it is in heaven

Yesterday I watched the DVD of "As it is in Heaven". A wonderful moving Swedish film.
The absolute highlight of the story is Gabriella's song. It goes right to your heart.

winterflowers

christmastree

After years of irritation at Christmas

Amsterdam has a tree to be proud of.

Emma

streetcar

In tram number 10, on my way distributing the Worldagenda of Amsterdam, I enjoyed Amsterdam-views other then my own neighbourhood. On this first day of december the weather was ok. Specially the light on and around the Java and KNSM Island was really bright and beautiful.On this Photo, taken from bus number 42, you see NEMO. The science Museum built like a ship.

magical colour

In loving memory

G E J A

May 4th 1958 - November 17th 2006

Almost a year went by since my dearest friend Geja died of cancer.

I miss her every day.

A little monument for her on my blog.

music in your lunchbox

"Amsterdam has got it" is our slogan but now and then urban surprises from other cities pop up. Like "muziek in ontwikkeling" in Haarlem.

Once upon a time (about three weeks ago) there was a female violinist who, after visiting a friend, walked through an empty building where people were working at that moment. She noticed that the acoustics in the room were excellent so she took her violin and started playing. It felt like magic and together with her friend Ziggy Klazes, who took the initiativ and a webbuilder they started "music in development" . Free, short lunchconcerts at large building locations. This initiative is now a fact and the website is in the air. For locations, dates, time and a preview go to

www.muziekinontwikkeling.nl

Dauphine

This afternoon we had a goodbye lunch for my friend Liz who will be in Buenos Aires the next month. The location was a fairly new restaurant named Dauphine, after this charming car made by Renault. It was also the first car that my father bought in the fifties. Sweet memories.

it's in the air!

It's in the air! After publishing a few jumping photo's myself, I came across this one when I checked my mail this morning. It was send to me by "All the Best".

maths

If only these two girls had been there when I went to school. I hated maths but maybe I would have overcome my fear of numbers, figures and difficult formulas by reading their blog.

jump

Inspired by the last picture of jumping children,

this one from the archives.

livingstones

Absolutely beautiful. These natural looking livingstones.

Papermoon

I have a soft spot for paper. And for little shops that sell it. Papermoon is one of those shops that I simply have to visit every time I'm passing by. Packed with cards, wrapping paper and other paper wanahaves. The owner always has a surprising collection. Today he showed me a paperdoll of Sinterklaas. A typically Dutch winterfeast on the fifth of december when we celebrate the birthday of Sint Nicolaas. A family evening with hot chocolate, pepernoten, presents and funny rhymes.

Alles is Liefde part II

Yesterday we went to see

the movie "Alles is Liefde". It was as good as they told it would be. Great script, wonderful cast and beautiful Amsterdam as the perfect set.

alles is liefde

Four years ago, in 2003, I left the cinema incredibly lighthearted after watching the movie "Love Actually". After this event I bought the DVD as a medicine to overcome any kind of dip. This week I look forward to see the Dutch version of a lovestory- collage. The previews are promissing.

Noorderkerkstraat

12.54 pm

Cinekid

Tonight is the opening of the Cinekidfestival. A great filmfestival for children.
This time the location will be The Westergasterrein in Amsterdam West.

Thursday trails

summerlight

Les Choristes in concert. I don't know why, but today I had to think back of seeing the great French film "Les choristes" .About a teacher with a passion for music that makes difficult pupils of a boys school sing like angels. Every now and then I have to listen to the soundtrack CD with lots of moving songs. This song, "lueur d'ete"means summerlight.

saturdaymorning trails

Brouwersgracht - Haarlemmerstraat
+
Coffee Company - Lindengrachtmarkt

around my corner

There are moments when I fall in love with my neighbourhood all over again. This afternoon, in the autumnsunshine, with just the right temperature outside, I had one of those moments that I captured in this picture.

Children's books

Today the Dutch week for children's books started for the 53rd time. My favourite writer and illustrator, Joke van Leeuwen, did it again . She won a price for the illustrations in her book "did you see my little sister?" For dutch readers I can also recommend her book IEP , published in 1996.

This book brings joy to both children and parents while reading it to them.

pretty serendipities

I found this autumncoloured painting by David Kroll on a blog called pretty serendipities. Pages full of beautiful and interesting entries made by Elena Karo. I don't know who she is and her last entrie was in 2005. Wonder why she stopped blogging. Anyway it is worth to have a look .

forever

Tonight on Dutch television the documentary "Forever". A film made by Heddy Honigmann released in 2006. It is a story about the dead and the living at the cemetery Pere Lachaise in Paris. A beautiful story, a wonderful film. 95 interesting minutes at NED. 2, 10.50 pm

Starring.....

I had some fun with flickr toys using a photo of my two nephews, David and Milan to make a movie poster. Milan is having his sixth birthday this weekend.

Jeanne

On a French blog, le vestiaire de Jeanne, I stumbled upon this girl wearing very attractive clothing

carfree sunday

Today the centre of Amsterdam was carfree. The weather was great. With my friend Liz we made a boattrip on a historical ferry. A sundayafternoon well spent.

new soul

Nothing worth watching on TV, I visited other surprising blogs. On one of them I came across this music clip. Nice enough to share it with you. Name of the girl is Yael Naim and the album is called New Soul.

Emily Dickinson

It's all I have to bring today

This, and my heart beside

This, and my heart, and all the fields

And all the meadows wide

Be sure you count

should I forget Some one the sum could tell

This, and my heart, and all the Bees

Which in the Clover dwell.

l

Emily Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Though virtually unknown in her lifetime, Dickinson has come to be regarded, along with Walt Whitman, as one of the two quintessential American poets of the 19th century.
Dickinson lived an introverted and hermetic life. Although she wrote, at the last count, 1,789 poems, only a handful of them were published during her lifetime. Some of these published anonymously and some may have been published without her knowledge.

Tonight I saw a play about Emily played by

Roos Blaauboer.

www.rosmarie.nl/Emily_Dickinson_voorstelling.

maison for sale

This gorgeous house in France is for sale. It is situated in the Cantal nearby the village of Salers.The landscape is mountainous with stunning views, the air is clean and the meadows are full of flowers in spring. The area is not yet discovered by tourists. If you are interested let me know by e-mail and i'll fill you in about the details.

portrait of a smart rabbit

Not just a rabbit

hotspot

View from the new penthouse appartement of a friend. In the middle of the harbour area of Amsterdam on top of an office building. Today almost all the members of our small coffeeclub came to celebrate this new and fantastic house with, ofcourse, coffee and dutch applepie.The view is like a film. The constant activity on the water and the ever changing famous Dutch skies.

Put on your favourite music,

stand on the balcony

and enjoy !!