The waiting dog..

..in front of the restaurant at the market square in Bourtange.

Foggy countryside

Two more photos from yesterday. Here we are on foot on our way to Bronneger, a hamlet near Borger.

The weather still allows cattle to be outside.

Animal drawings

Drawings on the wall surrounding a skateboard area next to De Kwinne youth center in Stadskanaal.

The artist obviously likes animals :)    I'm linking to Sami's Colourful World.

Schoonebeek Heath Sheep

We passed this flock of sheep in a field near the village of Orvelte. Their long and woolly tails are typical for the 'Schoonebeeker heideschaap' or 'Schoonebeek Heath Sheep', a Dutch domestic breed. They are strong though gentle, often mottled and with black spots on the head.

Howdy!

I'm linking to Saturday's Critters.

Exloo sheep

A flock of sheep near the Molenveld nature area, just outside the village of Exloo.

Both photos are from last Sunday.

I am linking to Eileen's Saturday's critters.


PS. due to the amount of spam that I am receiving lately, comment moderation is now on.

Giacometti

Both photos in this post show art by Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966). They are part of the Fundatie Museum's current exhibition 'Facing Fear', with sculptures by Giacometti and English sculptor Lynn Chadwick (1914-2003). Their work pictures the sense of fear and disillusionment that pervaded Europe during the Cold War period.

In Giacometti's work he reduces the human (and animal) form to its bare essentials.
´Walking Man´ is seen as the ultimate symbol of the solitary traveller in time that we each are in our heart of hearts. Despite his attenuated boday and narrow head, the walking man is inseparably connected to the earth by his larege, heavy feet. -from the museum's info.

Cattle farm

Yesterday I showed you the North Sea side and beach of the island of Schiermonnikoog, today a view from the dike along the Wadden Sea side, that has several cattle farms.

Dragonfly

This dragonfly sat on a stone flowerpot in our garden earlier today when I caught it on camera. 

I'm linking to Saturday's Critters.

Watching

A photo from one of our walks this Summer in the Westerwolde region. The group carefully watched us passing by. I'm sure they were happy to be in the shade that day!

I'm linking to Saturday's Critters.

Anloo

Coming from Gasteren we had this view towards the village of Anloo, in the province of Drenthe.

Hummingbird hawk-moth

Every now and then we spot one -or sometimes two- hummingbird hawk-moths (kolibrievlinder in Dutch) on the buddleja in our garden. Apparently our warm and long Summer attracts them. It's amazing to see them behave like actual hummingbirds.

We tried before to photograph them, it's not that easy as they are very agile and don't stay long at one place. I made these photos today.

At a safe distance..

..but looking VERY sweet and cuddly. These two and the rest of the herd of Highland cattle were behind a fence in the Drentsche Aa Nat.Park.

Sunday hike

Both images are from our hike today in the Drentsche Aa National Park. Starting in the village of Gasteren we explored a variable landscape with forests, fields of grass, streams..

..and heath with sandy paths.

Beavers' work #2

A bit further on our hike in Isojärvi Nat. Park than yesterday's post, we passed a small lake called Lepolampi and saw this sign:

 ..that indicated a detour was necessary..

..because a small part of the forest was flooded due to beavers! It must have been a while since, as many of the trees standing in the water were already dead.

Dragonfly

Usually dragonflies don't "sit" still long enough to take a photograph (not for me anyway), but this one landed on the wooden plank path in front of us and stayed there for about half a minute. We saw them a lot during the hikes we made in Finland. Photo taken in Patvinsuo National Park.

Ducks

While eating an ice-cream and sitting on a bench, a couple of ducks decided to come round and see if anything tasty would come their way.

One duck even jumped over the white line that was (I think) put there to keep them in the water, onto the stone quay. But ice-cream is not meant as duck-food, and our sandwiches were long gone. Sorry!

Highland cattle

On the same walk where we passed the sculpture ´Highlander´ that I showed you yesterday, this vast animal stood still in the middle of the path just after a crossing and apparently wasn't going anywhere soon; maybe it was just happy to be in the shade as it was a very warm day.
Our hiking route told us to take a left here, so there was no need to get closer..  Phew! ;)

A baby bird #2

 More! More!

They will be going into the big world soon. I hope they'll make it!

Note: I took this photos last Saturday afternoon. Sunday morning it was totally quiet in and around the bird house. I was told once that birds tend to fly out early mornings so that they'll have the maximum daylight to get used to "the world outside". Clever thinking, isn't it? :)

A baby bird #1

Food! I want food!

The baby blue tits in one of the bird houses in our garden seem ready to leave the nest soon. This one was leaning out so far that I expected it to fall out any moment, but it didn't.

The parents are determined to feed their youngsters as many times per day as they can.

They fly to and from the bird house every few minutes. Being a bird parent means working hard! But the young birds keep calling out for food.

I'm linking to All Seasons.

More sheep

On the dike at the Dutch coast in Groningen.

While the moms didn't seem to be bothered by humans passing by, the little lambs followed our movements closely..

I'm linking to Saturday's Critters. Happy weekend!