On this last day..

..of 2014 I chose a photo that we made during our Summer holiday in the U.K., of a (in my opinion) typically British shop window in Hawes, a village in the Wensleydale in Yorkshire.

I wish you a wonderful and memorable 31st of December, wherever you are!

Chevy

Even though this Chevrolet pickup has an unattractive rust colour and has some dents here and there, it is a vehicle you don't see every day! I noticed it standing in front of our house a few days ago, with the driver trying all he could for a long while before he went on his way again.
And what do you do when you know less than nothing at all about cars? Yes, stay inside and take a photo..
Note the two 'outdoor' seats in the back!

Monday mural

This mural in the Walstraat in Deventer pictures an ordinary city street in the 19th or early 20th(?) century. Note the signs advertising for Talamini Icecream, and the one on the right of Charles Dickens.
Talamini Ice is an Italian ice cream brand and is known in Deventer since 1933.

Linking to Monday Mural.

Winter walk

There was rain and snowfall in the lower half of our country yesterday, but in the north -where we live- it stayed completely dry. This morning we joined the 'Oudjaarswandeling' (lit. 'Old year's hike), a 10 km (6.4 miles) hike held each year on the last Sunday of December, and starting in the village of Exloo. Halfway we passed the skating rink in the woods, that showed just a tiny layer of ice after the frost from last night.

The second half of the walk continued along a beautiful area with heather, called 'Molenveld'. In the distance is the Exloo sheep herd.

From the archives #46

Madeira (2008)

An example of the characteristic Portuguese tile work on a road sign somewhere on the island of Madeira. Apart from the beautiful art work, I think it was the contrast as well that made me take this photo.

The Milkmaid

'The Milkmaid' -in Dutch: 'Het Melkmeisje'- is a world famous oil-on-canvas painting by Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675), a Dutch painter who was specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. Throughout the years the painting has been exhibited in several countries in western Europe and the United States, and is nowadays part of the collection of the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum.

We saw this very special version of The Milkmaid painted on a wooden shoe in Garderen, last Summer.

Midwinter horn stroll

This is a photo from last year´s ´Midwinter horn stroll´ in the area around the village of Zuidwolde. Midwinter horn blowing is an ancient tradition in the east part of our country, and is practiced during the period from the eve of Advent through Epiphany on January 6. The blowing of the horns was thought to rid the earth of evil spirits, and announce the coming of Christ.

Fijne kerstdagen / Merry Christmas

The lamplighter

This sculpture of a 'lantaarnopsteker' (lamplighter) is found across the entrance of Prison Museum Veenhuizen. Before there was electric light, street lights -mostly candles- were lit manually every evening and put out again at dawn. Another lamplighter duty was to carry a ladder and renew the candles, oil, or gas mantles.
The sculpture was created by H.S. Bosma.

Ebenezer Scrooge

'A Chrismas Carol', published in 1843, is probably the best-known novel by Charles Dickens. This mural from the Walstraat in Deventer pictures Ebenezer Scrooge on 3 doors, with texts above translated into Dutch.

The texts from left to right /translated into English (by me):

"Who and what are you?" Scrooge asked.

"I am the Ghost of Christmas Past"

"From a past long gone? Scrooge asked, as he watched 

the figure closely."

No. From your past."

I am the Ghost of Christmas Present, the ghost said.

Look at me. And even though the ghosts' eyes were bright and friendly,

Scrooge did not really want to look at him.

But he obeyed with respect.

You have not seen anybody like me before the ghost said.

The ghost stood between the graves and pointed at one.

Scrooge came closer, trembling. His eyes followed the pointing finger 

while his knees gave way, and on the stone of the neglected grave

he read his own name: Ebenezer Scrooge.

Linking to Monday Mural.

Wilhelmina-tree

Wondering about the meaning of the 'W' on the fence, we were told that this tree was planted in 1898 when Princess Wilhelmina (the grandmother of our former Queen Beatrix) became Queen of the Netherlands at the age of 18. Since then it is a tradition in our country to plant a tree at important events in the lives of the Dutch Royal Family. The most recent occasion was on 30 April 2013 with the abdication of Queen Beatrix in favour of her eldest son Prince Willem-Alexander.
So this tree is at least 116 years old! I took this photo a few weeks ago in the village of Veenhuizen.

From the archives #45

Alberta, Canada (2012)

The Athabasca Glacier is located along the 230 km (140 miles) long 'Icefields Parkway', a beautiful scenic route through the Canadian Rocky Mountains that we drove from Banff to Jasper. A snow coach with giant wheels brought us from the Icefield Centre onto the glacier, where we got out to have a look around and take photographs. It's a very tourist-thing to do, but a nice experience!

Groninger Museum hallway

A view into one of the colourful hallways of the Groninger Museum.


For more reflections around the world go to Weekend Reflections.

Texel lighthouse

A photo from several weeks ago, taken on the sunny beach of Texel.

Chemist's sign

The nostalgic sign of ´Drogisterij De Kruidnagel´ ('The Clove Chemist's') in Deventer.


Linking to signs, signs.

Bird nest?

Photographed in Veenhuizen. Must have been a huge bird..

Monday mural

A mural on one of the doors inside former prison building 'De Rode Pannen', now part of Prison Museum Veenhuizen. The text says 'multiple person isolation cell'.

Taking part in Monday Mural.

B&B

The inviting entrance of a Bed & Breakfast in the Walstraat, Deventer.

From the archives #44

Finland (2010)

In the weeks before Christmas, but also in every other month of the year, people from all over the world come to Santa Claus Village at the Arctic Circle near Rovaniemi, Finland, to meet Santa at his residence there. For us it felt a bit strange to see this during our holiday in August!

This pretty girl called Tiina, according her name tag, was selling Christmas cards and stamps inside the post office of Santa Village. All post will be stamped by hand using the special postmark of the Santa Claus Post Office.

Dachshund-bench

Another image from Deventer. I was really charmed by that 'dachshund-bench'! :)

Murano love

Something completely different today, with a photo made a few weeks ago at the Wouter Stips exhibition in the Singermuseum in Laren. This is one of the displayed Murano glass sculptures called 'Murano Love'. Art that appears to reach for you..   And I love it! How about you?

Antiques

Let's stay in the Walstraat in Deventer, as the previous days...   this time an antiques shop with a very elegant sign!


For more signs visit Lesley's signs, signs.

The Pickwick Papers mural

Another Dickens mural from the Walstraat in Deventer. This one is in colour, obviously, and like yesterdays mural it has a text in Dutch translated from English. It is based on The Pickwick Papers, Dickens' first novel that was published in 1836.

The text:

Vooral in de buurt vind je ze nog steeds! Oude herbergen!

Misschien wel een half dozijn..........onregelmatige zonderlinge oude

gebouwen zijn het, met zalen, doorgangen, trappenhuizen en grote zolders.

Geheimzinnig genoeg om inspiratie op te doen voor wel honderd

spookverhalen.......................................................

And my own translation:

You find them mainly around here! Old inns!

Maybe half a dozen of them................crooked odd

buildings they are, with rooms, passage ways, stairwells and large attics.

Spooky enough to find inspiration for over a hundred

ghost stories................................................

The Little Dorrit mural

I went shopping in Deventer last Saturday and photographed several nice Dickens-murals in the Walstraat. This black and white one pictures a scene that refers to Dickens´ serial novel ´Little Dorrit´, and has a text translated into Dutch.
Little Dorrit was originally published between 1855 and 1857, and is a work of satire on the shortcomings of the government and society of the period.

The text:

"Dit was een gevangenis, mijnheer,

Een strafgevangenis?  ...... Kon iedereen hier naar binnen?

Iedereen kon naar binnen, zei de man nadrukkelijk

Maar niet iedereen kon weer naar buiten! "

and my own translation:

"This was a prison, sir,

A convict prison? ..... Could everyone get in here?

Everyone could get in here, the man emphasized

But not everyone could get out!" 

Linking to Monday Mural.

I will honor Christmas..

The town of Deventer is well-known for its Dickens festival that is held each year just before Christmas. I found this text on a shop in the Walstraat.

From the archives #43

Finland (2010)

The first time we crossed the Arctic Circle was in 1995, near the village of Jokkmokk in Sweden on our way to the North Cape. For me it was a special moment that I had looked forward to; I was finally getting to a region that had been on my 'places to see-list' for soooo long.
Since then we crossed that 'magical' latitude many times, but it will always be special in a way. As it was for this group of tourists on that day in August 2010; holding a glass of champagne they were ready to cross the Arctic Circle just north of Rovaniemi, Finland.

De Rode Pannen prison

During our visit to the National Prison Museum in Veenhuizen we joined a guided tour in cell block building 'De Rode Pannen' ('The Red Tiles'), a convict prison built in 1939-1940. De Rode Pannen has 46 cells, and was used until 2008 for those prisoners who were extremely agressive and hard to handle. With specially trained warders and a special approach it was tried to 're-educate' these men. A stay for about 3 to 4 weeks was usually enough to change their behaviour.
Since 2012 the Prison Museum is allowed to organise tours inside this building. It is however still 'ready for use'.

Taken from the same spot as the first photo, but now looking up to the (partly) glass ceiling, and one of the cell doors on the right.

Prison Museum Veenhuizen

Last Sunday we visited the National Prison Museum in Veenhuizen. This village in the province of Drenthe was and is known for the prison complexes, of which one is still in use. The other one, named ´complex no. 2´ that you see on the photo, is now the National Prison Museum. From the 19th century the Department of Justice used it as a penal colony, so it was not an ´ordinary´ prison.

Veenhuizen used to be closed off to everyone but the inmates, and the staff and their families who lived in houses provided by the department. Since 1984 the village is freely accessible for all, which in fact doesn´t really seem that long ago..

Exception

This orange bicycle with flowers in Den Burg (Texel) was advertising for a fashion shop, and it was parked in front of a house with a fence and a sign that clearly said: 'GEEN FIETSEN PLAATSEN' ('NO PARKING OF BICYCLES'). I guess the exception proves the rule..

For more signs around the world go to signs, signs.

Going south

It has been cold with a grey sky for days now and temperatures have dropped till freezing point. It took a while, but with a chilly wind blowing from the East, winter has arrived. This photo was taken about 1,5 weeks ago, it's a view we see a lot at the moment!

Kissing couple

To celebrate the 70th birthday of The Dutch painter and sculpturor Wouter Stips, the Singer Museum in Laren recently exhibited his most recent work. And I loved it! This bench in one of the rooms circled a wooden sculpture of a kissing couple. Sweet, don't you think?

In another room there was the same 'kissing couple' in colourful Murano glass. This glass is made on the Venetian island of Murano, home to a vast number of factories and a few individual artists' studios.

Sinterklaas tradition

If you´re in the Netherlands at the moment, you won't be able to miss Sinterklaas and his 'Zwarte Pieten' assistents! Even though all the towns and cities are getting ready for Christmas with all kinds of decorations, the celebration of Sinterklaas and the giving of gifts on 5 December comes first.

We happened to "catch" Sinterklaas alone with one of his Zwarte Pieten preparing for a parade through the streets of Den Burg on the island of Texel, 2 weeks ago. They were slowly walking several rounds on the parking lot; apparently Sinterklaas had to get used to riding the white horse...  Earlier that day they arrived by boat in the small harbour of Oudeschild.
The three of them were happy to be photographed on this private moment, even the horse -called 'Amerigo' according to the tradition- seemed to look in the camera ;)

If you would like to read more about this tradition in our country click HERE.

From the archives #42

Finland (2009)

In March 2009 we made a 5-day huskytrip in northern Finland, with a group of 8 people and a guide. We each had our own sleigh with 5 dogs to take care of, and spent the nights in wooden cabins in the forests without electricity and running water. A real adventure and without doubt one of the best weeks we ever had.
This photo was taken in the afternoon, during a short stop while crossing a lake.

Going up

Climbing the stairs and seeing lines, inside the Texel lighthouse.

NAP

This mural inside the lighthouse of Texel shows the highest and lowest point in the Netherlands, compared to the zero level of NAP. 'Normaal Amsterdams Peil' (NAP) or 'Amsterdam Ordnance Datum' is used as the reference water level since the end of the 19th century. Originally the zero level of NAP was the average summer flood water level in the IJ just north of the centre of Amsterdam, then still connected with the open sea. Nowadays zero meter NAP is about the same as sea level. NAP is an official and very important measurement system for our country, and its data are used for protection against floods, water management and all kind of studies.

The mural shows the Texel lighthouse on the left, where we were standing on 33,6m above NAP. The lowest point is the village of Nieuwerkerk aan den IJssel (6,76m below NAP), and the Vaalserberg (322,2m above NAP) is the highest point.

Watching the NAP levels while climbing the stairs inside the lighthouse.

WARNING

This sign was shown in an interior design store in the village of Den Burg on the island of Texel. It (the sign) was for sale, as well as hundreds of other small and big, and cheap and expensive (and normal and funny) things for your kitchen, hallway, livingroom, bedroom etc.etc..   A shop where I could easily spend hours looking around! ;)


Linking to Lesley's signs, signs.

Another..

..photo taken in the centre of Laren (NH), last weekend.

Laren village green

This is a view of the village green and puddle in the centre of Laren, a village in the province of North Holland and the oldest town of the region called 't Gooi. In the past, this puddle was used for drinking water for cattle and has the old Dutch name 'Coeswaerde'.

Lighthouse light bulb

Each floor inside the 150 years old Texel lighthouse had information panels with photos and/or a small showcase telling about its history. Interesting was this exhibition of huge light bulbs -having a size of about 60 cm- that were once used.

From the archives #41

Athens, Greece (2010)

Most likely visiting the Temple of Olympian Zeus (also known as the Olympieion) on her own, this lady took her time to make a selfie with the ruins in the background.

Marga Weimans exhibition

These photos taken in the Groninger Museum are from the first major solo exhibition of the work of Dutch fashion designer Marga Weimans (1970). She graduated from the Royal Academy for Fine Art in Antwerp in 2005, and is seen as one of the most striking designers of this moment. This creation 'Wonderland' was made of colourful felt, and was inspired by the contrast between dream and reality.

Characteristic for Weimans work are the richly contrasting graphic patterns, by means of which she refers to her Surinamese background. The theme of the collection of this last photo is 'Citylife'.

I visited the Groninger Museum yesterday, and just managed to view this wonderful exhibition as it ends this Sunday.

Take a book, return a book

From what I´ve read there are many Little Free Libraries in the Netherlands already, but this one in the Texel island village of Den Burg was actually the first one that I have seen here. I must say I love the idea and hope a lot of Dutch people agree with me :)  As the text on it is in English I guess this little library was imported, in Dutch they are called ´straatbieb´.
If you're new to it and would like to read more, click HERE for their official website.