Sassenstraat Zwolle

View into the Sassenstraat in the direction of the 15th century Grote Kerk or Sint Michaëlskerk (Great Church or Saint Micheal's Church.

-- While I was preparing a blogpost for tomorrow I accidentally deleted the one that I had posted already for today (Whaaaa!), so this is a re-post. I'm terribly sorry because a few comments were deleted as well... I feel really clumsy :((

The swan as symbol

The swan with spread wings on the exterior wall of the Lutheran Church community centre in Utrecht symbolises Luther and the Lutheran Church, while the date refers to the month and year in which the centre in the Hamburgerstraat was built. The tile tableau on the photo was made by the local Westraven tile factory.

View from a bridge

View from a bridge in the centre of Utrecht.

I´m linking to Weekend Reflections.

Doris

No, it's neither a drone nor a spaceship.. it's the anemometer measuring the speed of wind on top of our garage roof yesterday afternoon at the time storm "Doris" passed us. To be honest I didn't know our storms were given names, but as it arrived from the U.K. and apparently was called Doris there, it stayed Doris here :)

We don't live near the coast and it was (only) force 7 here, but at the North Sea coast people had to deal with force 9 or 10 and dangerous conditions like heavy wind gusts.

And it rained a lot as well. This photo was taken through an upstairs window towards the line of trees at the back of our garden.

I´m linking to Skywatch Friday.

Utrecht shopping street

Another view from Utrecht with the 112 m high Dom Tower.

My cappuccino in ... Emmen

Enjoying a cappuccino at "Chez Nous" in Emmen.

The restaurant has a modern interior with lots of wood. They are located at the Noorderplein, next to the library.

Utrecht street

Canal reflection

View on one of the canals in Utrecht.

Utrecht street

On foot from the train station to the city centre of Utrecht, with the Dom Tower in the background.

Dick Bruna (1927-2017)

It was in the news yesterday that Dutch artist and children's author Dick Bruna had passed away at the age of 89. Dick Bruna became known worldwide with his cartoon rabbit Nijntje, known as 'Miffy' outside The Netherlands. The books were part of my childhood, and with me many many other children. Since the creation of Miffy in 1955 over 85 million (!) books have been sold.

This photo was taken at the Dick Bruna exhibition in the Buitenplaats Museum in Eelde, that I visited back in March 2014. The text on the right tells about the typical style in which Miffy was drawn: the openness, the safety of Miffy's world, how she always stays young...

Crocus

It's a great feeling to know that Spring is near..    Happy Friday!

I'm linking to Floral Friday Fotos.

´What a coincidence!´ by Milan Kunc

Following up on yesterday´s post this is another piece by Czech/German artist Milan Kunc that appealed to me; an oil painting called ´What a coincidence!´. As explained yesterday it was part of a Groninger Museum exhibition last year, showing German Neo-expressionism from the 1980s.

Punk girls by Milan Kunc

One of the exhibitions in the Groninger Museum that I visited last year was called "Nieuwe Wilden" ("The New Wild Ones"), about the late-modernist or early-postmodern painting and sculpture that emerged in the late 1970s.
On the photo are 4 punk girls from Düsseldorf painted by hand in Cubist style by Milan Kunc (Praque 1944). I like his art a lot!

Stadskanaal

View from the Buinerbrug (Buiner Bridge) into the Hoofdstraat (Main Street) in the village of Stadskanaal. The canal is also called Stadskanaal.

Knokke sea-boulevard

No doubt crowded with people during the Summer, the sea-boulevard in Knokke was deserted on the sunny though windy November day when we were there. Knokke is the most north-eastern seaside resort on the Belgian coast.

View towards Knokke

During our hike in nature area Het Zwin in Belgium we had this view towards several beach hotels near Knokke and the Port of Zeebrugge in the distance.

Art at the coast

Wood sculptures at the Belgian coast, near Knokke.

Both photos were taken last November when we visited Het Zwin nature area. These sculptures were near the bronze artwork Running Hare that I showed earlier.

Enjoy your weekend :)

Pigsqueak

We had just enough snow earlier this week to cover the garden with a tiny white layer..
This plant, called schoenlappersplant in Dutch and Bergenia in English is aka "elephant's ears" -due to the shape of the leaves, and aka "pigsqueak" -due to the sound produced when 2 leaves are rubbed together... haha I will definitely have to try that! :)

I'm linking to Nick's Floral Friday Fotos.

Healthy??

The owner of this fish and chips stand in the city of Bruges was advertising in a way that caught attention; "Gezondheidsapotheek" literally means "health pharmacy".

Conzett Bridge

The Conzett Bridge crosses the Coupure canal in the city of Bruges. The bridge -only allowed for pedestrians and cyclists- was designed by Swiss architect Jurg Conzett, in the year 2002 when Bruges was European Capital of Culture. The bridge floor is connected to 2 huge steel pipes than can rotate so the floor will be lifted and boats can pass.
Photo taken in November last year.

Exloo sheep-pen

The ladies of the Exloo sheep-pen were having lunch as we passed there last Sunday.

The Exloo flock has about 200 Drenthe Heath sheep. Whenever they are not at the nearby Molenveld heather fields they can be found here in the centre of the village.

I'm linking to Our World Tuesday.

Monastery herb garden

View into the Ter Apel Monastery courtyard with the herb garden, seen from the first floor. Not much to do there in Winter obviously other then waiting for Spring. Still a pretty view I think..

Sunday hike

Mountain-bikers are a common sight in the Exloo forests. We enjoyed our hike today!

Early signs of Spring

Even though it´s early February there ARE signs of Spring to see, yay! This plant (from which I don't know the name, sorry) is on a sunny and sheltered spot in our garden, and look at the many green buds there. The photo is from earlier this morning.
It looks promising, however weather prophets tell us that more Winter weather is to be expected at the end of next week...

Happy Saturday!

Monastery hallway

The interior of the Ter Apel Monastery is a mix of history and modern days, which makes it so interesting as a museum. Originally dating from the 15th century the monastery has been beautifully renovated. This photo is from one of the hallways on the ground floor, showing an arch and very old floor tiles, as well as modern glass doors and ditto ceiling.

Monastery window

From yesterday´s visit at the Ter Apel monastery: I really liked this view through one of the higher (partly stained-glass) windows into the monastery garden.

The Spine 2.0

Following the symposium ´Danish Experiments in Architecture and Industrial Design´ in the Ter Apel Monastery last month, a number of Master Students of the Aarhus School of Architecture made this construction inside the Kanunnikenkerk, the church belonging to the monastery.

The Spine, as it is called, explores the material qualities of artificial straw and the potential of the historic building techniques of thatching. The Spine 1.0 was part of the Aarhus School of Architecture´s exhibition in Milan 2016; the Spine 2.0 was especially made for the exhibition here at the Monastery in Ter Apel.

The Spine can be viewed until March 8. For more information (only in Dutch) click HERE.