Ah, Western Australia...

Ah, Western Australia... how I miss your beautiful beaches and your perfect weather! The snowy grey skies we have here in the Netherlands today make me really long for something... hmmm... slightly warmer.

Kinderdijk

Last weekend, together with a few of my colleagues and a group of 70 students, we braved the absolutely freezing weather conditions to go and visit Kinderdijk, a beautiful Unesco protected area with nineteen magnificent windmills.

Most of my students arrived in the Netherlands from Australia just a few weeks ago, and the weather difference between what they left behind and what they've been faced with over here in the last few days/weeks couldn't really be any more extreme. A few of them actually came to me, while we were walking from one windmill to another, with a worried look on their face to let me know that they believed they might loose a toe or two to the cold or at least get serious frost bite. I smiled, thinking it was a silly joke, but quickly realised no one was laughing. They were genuinely worried. And so we snapped a few photos very quickly and hopped inside the visitors' center to go and watch a video about it all in a slightly warmer environment! 

P.S. I still have one or two wedding posts to show you. Soon!

Brrr...

Brrrr... it's been getting colder and colder over here in the Netherlands. The other morning everything was frozen and covered in a thin layer of frozen dew. It looked very pretty but wasn't very enticing for the whole getting-out-of-bed thing! :-) 

Anyway... it doesn't matter much to us because... we're off to warmer climes for a little while!

P.S. yep, the middle picture is blurry. Try and stand in your pajamas in the freezing cold and take a proper close up shot when there's not much light... :-) I still like it. It makes the plant look really soft.

Yesterday's morning dew

When we woke up yesterday we couldn't see further than a few meters out of the bedroom window: the whole city was taken over by a thick layer of mist. It got caught in the spider webs on our balcony, and looked super pretty.
The bicycle ride to work that morning, especially as I got closer and closer to the river, was pretty eery and magical. I wouldn't want to wake up to this weather every morning, but once in a while it's quite fun!

Cold weather

I quite like my cold-weather clothes and so I don't mind the temperatures we have currently over here in the Netherlands (it really hasn't rained much this fall, so it's been surprisingly bearable), but when seeing this photo just then, I really wished it was nice and warm for a little while.

Usually autumn and winter are ok, because we know we'll be flying to the southern hemisphere early in the new year, and we just hang on until then to see the sun... but this year we'll have to deal with the dreary weather all the way through as we are staying on the cold side of the planet for the whole season. Better get used to it and embrace the ugg boots and scarves then!


P.S. We don't celebrate Thanksgiving over here, but today I am especially aware of how wonderfully lucky I am. I definitely tend to take things for granted a little too much, and it's nice to stop and think about it all from time to time.

Torre dell'Orso

The seaside at Torre dell'Orso was just as pretty as we had hoped it would be. And everything just looked so beautiful in the late afternoon light... it made our walk on the cliffs absolutely breathtaking.

Almost the end of August already

It's the 28th already, almost the end of the month, and we are yet to have a full week of real summer weather.
Maybe we'll get a lovely autumn? I really hope so.

Light beauties

Voice is back. Not completely but almost.
And the weather has been brilliant this weekend. Makes me very happy!

Sun and heat, here we come!

Our tickets for a weekend of sun and heat are booked. Hip. Hip. Hip. Hooray!

I don't expect the beaches in the heel of Italy to be quite like this one (this was in Western Australia in February) but I just cannot wait to see them. And to feel the sun on my skin again. Oh, I'm so excited!!

Now

I want sun.
I want heat.
I want summer.
Now.

No more rain.
No more wearing winter clothes in August.

And maybe a beach. Yeah, i want a beach too. Now.

Summer's back!

Today's sun and warmth made me forget all about the liters of rain we've had recently. It was just perfect.

Yey! - I love summer.


P.S. I suddenly got this urge to do some origami on the weekend... and started making colourful 'waterbombs' (Am not planning on using them as such, even though the weather would allow it. Am instead thinking of hanging them by the window... still need to make lots if I want to do that though, so let's see if the urge subsists a few more days).

Soft sounds and lights

I was extremely tempted to turn the heater on tonight.. it's been rainy and cold all day, and I just was tired of this ugly damp feeling that's everywhere. But it's June. Almost July! There's no way I'm going to turn the heater on in June!! So I lit up some candles. I guess they do produce a little heat -not enough to make the thermometer in the living room go up any degrees though- but psychologically it makes all the difference. And with this CD I bought today (discovered here), it turned out to be a lovely evening after all.

Blah...

I've been sick all day. And Mart is away...

It's been another one of these days with beautiful sun and crazy rain alternating pretty much constantly. I did nothing but sleep, try to eat and drink a little, witness the weather go crazy and watch one or two episodes of Private Practice. Why can't it be as good as Grey's Anatomy...? I miss Grey's...

Anyway. It's the first time in my working life that I have to stay home because I'm sick. And I'm not planning on doing it often: it's not fun!

Rain and sun

The weather has been pretty crazy over here lately: it cannot make its mind. One minute it's raining cats and dogs, the next it's beautifully sunny. And back to rain and cold. And sun. And rain.
Lucky I have a handbag big enough to fit an umbrella, sunglasses, my stripey cotton scarf and a little cover for my bicycle seat (very handy when it's totally wet and you don't want to have a wet bum at the supermarket) - that way I'm prepared for any weather!

I can't say I love this type of weather, especially when it lasts for days, but it does have two very good points:
1. the parks, fields and plants get all the water they could wish for and hence look beautifully green
2. when the sun does peak through the clouds it makes me feel tremendously happy. It reminds me that I should not take things for granted. It's good to be reminded of that from time to time... :-)

10 things about me today

1. I ate our first balcony-grown strawberries of the year.
2. I made Sarah's orange cake again. It's still in the oven.
3. I'm super proud of my mum, who has been teaching and exhibiting all over Europe recently.
4. I started this list yesterday but got distracted, so I'm finishing it today.
5. I spend way too much time helping my smurfs get a better village on the iPad.
6. I love warm, sunny weather like we've had today.
7. I've been (thanks to Mart) listening to a whole lot of 'mash-ups' (for cool examples, see here and here).
8. I like sweets better than savoury stuff.
9. I should start reading a new book.
10. For the long weekend ahead, I wish we could go back to the second house from the left on the photo below...

Pollen everywhere

A thin yellow layer covers absolutely everything over here at the moment - it's the yearly pollen attack! I have to say I don't remember it ever being so bad; maybe it's because it hasn't properly rained in days and days, and the pollen just accumulates everywhere.
What's for sure, is that we have all been feeling the effects of it. Mart, Sarah and I spent a large part of our weekend sneezing and sniffling...!

What you see above is the rooftop under our balcony... pollen accumulated in the small puddles there, and when we had a few drops of rain on Saturday it made pretty leopard-like patterns.

They are forecasting showers later this week - fingers crossed they will wash everything away.

Sun again

The sun is back today. It makes things so much better!

itchy-sneezy-sunday

I hardly can stop sneezing - spring is definitely in the air!
I still managed to eat this delicious breakfast though, nothing could stop me eating 'poffertjes'! (Dutch people eat them for dinner with powder sugar, but we like them for breakfast or brunch on the weekend, with maple syrup and blueberries...)

Spring is in the air

Sun, beautiful sun

I had a day off today.
I spent it sleeping in, finishing our new wardrobe (and folding tons of clothes, to then arrange them neatly in there), watching a bit of Desperate Housewives and enjoying the beautifully sunny light our apartment was bathed in all day long. It's so good to see some sun again after months of grey skies...! And as you can see above, the sun today was majestic all the way to the last little bit... so nice!