Red-Purple-Pink Saturday

An ante-nostalgic snapshot of the soon-to-be replaced trusty old red mailbox at the end of our street. All of the red mailboxes in the Netherlands are going to be replaced by orange mailboxes within a few weeks. Why? The mail service has changed hands (again). Why on earth the new management think spending a fortune on replacing perfectly good mailboxes is going to help their image, I don't know. But there you have it.












Directly translated from the Dutch, these are called 'blue grapes' - though clearly they are purple and not grapes at all. Anyone out there know what they are called in English?!















Yep. A pink weaver's house. Cheeky little thing, isn't it?
(Taken Thursday in Leiden from in front of the bakery where I bought a sandwich.)
















The ears! On Friday morning I met this lamb up the road from our house. She was kind enough to pose long enough for me to get my camera out and switched on. I suspect this cooperation was due to a vain hope of something yummy emerging from my bag.

Orange Friday

Mmmmm... fresh squeezed orange juice coming up! The nets oranges come in are funny things - the red nets make the oranges look riper and the green nets make the oranges look fresher. The distributors of these oranges is clearly trying to please everyone with this two-tone net.















This little hobby horse was given to me by my brother for Christmas when I was 14 or 15, and I still love it dearly. Thanks again, Jeff!

Black, White and Brown Thursday

Black, White and Brown proved inspiring...






























A black bird bathing alone at the edge of the Hortus Botanicus, Oma's lamp, the book I am reading just now, and my favorite shell...

Green Wednesday

I knew immediately that I wanted this first photo for Green Wednesday, but did not know whether the tree in our front garden would oblige... Monday there were only tender buds that were more red than green really, but I have seen this tree burst into foliage within a matter of days twice before. Magical! Never ceases to amaze me. Wow.


Pleased to have my green photo, I spent the rest of the day hanging out with the girls. The following photos were taken while Maddy was at her swimming lesson:

Ribbit


Bubbles: the best 29 cents you will ever spend


Go on. You know you want to...

Blue Tuesday

"Blue mooooooon, I saw you standing alooooooone, without a dream in your heeeeaaaaaart, without a love of your ooooooown..." All day, this song has been playing in my head as I looked for beauty in blue. Saw lots of traffic signs in blue, and noticed a huge blue sign for a shipyard for the first time after having driven past it hundreds of times. Funny how that works. Spend a day looking at peoples ears and everyone will start looking like garden gnomes. Try it, it's true!

I also noticed a charming balcony in a row of houses I pass on my way to work:


In the end, I found the most beautiful blue things at home:

In hindsight a rather misguided attempt at ordering books, but still aesthetically pleasing...

An the first of several gorgeous turquoise blue gifts from Véronique...

Yellow Monday

Hello all -
I am joining Véronique and Marc in a belated celebration of "Colour Week" (link to originator's website to follow...) Today is Monday, and Monday is yellow...
Thought you might enjoy these "hot chicks":

Come on baby, light my fire... Chick candles courtesy of Martina!

Happy Easter!!!

6:30 a.m. : "The Easter Bunny came!!!" (repeatedly and with glee as Easter goodies were spread out for the full effect at the foot of our bed) When Mama sighed that she hadn't gotten anything from the Easter Bunny, Sonia said "Ach, mama - jij mag deze." (oh, mama - you can have this one) as she handed over her new felt sheep egg warmer. hee hee. (The Easter Bunny HAD brought mama and papa some chocolate, so all was well in the end)

6:37 a.m.mama and papa were pulled out of bed with a sigh and a groan

6:39 a.m. Downstairs we all went to find the table ready for Easter breakfast... WOW! Papa was ready with the video camera...

6:43 Easter egg hunt... It was drizzling outside, so the Easter Bunny hid chocolate eggs inside (well, traditions are sometimes adapted for the sake of convenience...) and 4 properly painted eggs (one had not yet been found at the time snapshot below was taken).


We had a wonderful day - hope you did too!
love,
Sam