Melli's ABC ... The Much Dreaded Q and R

It's time for Melli's Alphabet Challenge, and we've reached the dreaded week.
Today we have to come up with our Q's and R's.

I must have grown an alphabet brain since I got started on this challenge weeks ago.
Finding Q was easier than A!
I found my first Q when we went to Leuven. That was in the second week of the challenge.
It's the one on the bottom right.
All I had to do was to tilt my camera a little to get the right angle.
And once I knew what I was looking for, it was EASY!


There.
Boring huh?

Oooohh, Suzie Q!! Ain't she pretty!

And how about this one?
As for R ... Let's see...
Now wait a minute!


With a little bit of goodwill? That's Q and R in one picture.
Now ...


Two R's in one picture?

Two more?

And now for my little "pièce de résistance"...

Q and R right next to each other.
Okay okay, I can hear your protests!
" Those were probably meant to be!!"
Let me assure you, they were NOT.
Look ...
This is where I found them.

There.

Nothing more to add!


Find more Q's and R's at Melli's place.


Unless?
It looks like I'm going to have to do a little shameless begging.

Have you enjoyed my Scavenger Hunt pictures I published earlier this week? In case you haven't seen them, they're here. They're a great way to get to know Belgium and the way we live a little better. If you like them, would you do me a favour?
Would you vote for them please?
You can cast your vote here.

I hate to beg, but look ...
I'm in fifth place at the moment and the voting continues until the 31st of this month.
It's not that I want to WIN, it's just, I just don't want to drop down?
So please, pretty please?
Thanks!

Weekly Winners Art in the Streets of Leuven

We made a long photo walk in Leuven last Wednesday, and I took dozens of pictures.

Follow me ...

The town hall alone is worth the trip, look ...

It dates from the fifteenth century.

Late gothic style.
You could look at it for hours and still find new details.



Did you think time had stood still in Leuven?

It has not. There is also contemporary art .
This is " the Totem", a work by Jan Fabre.

A giant beetle on a stainless steel needle. Bizarre?
Jan Fabre often uses beetles and bugs ( even real ones) in his work.
Take a look at this work of him, it's called Heaven of Delight and it's a room at the Royal Palace, where the ceiling is covered with the shields of shiny green beetles.


This is the Balloon of Friendship by Danny Tulkens.

The sculptures inside are copies of the original ones.
They had to be replaced because some of them were damaged by vandals.
One of them even got stolen, never to be retrieved again.




This statue is at the city park and it's called "Kamerood 60" by Jan Rosseels.

This is just a tiny impression of Leuven.
There is so much more ...

Find more Weekly Winners at Sarcastic Mom's.

Weekly Winners View from the Backyard

When I was twelve years old, I stayed in this château for ten days.
My very first holiday, and the first time I was away from home.

I remember the long walks with girls my age in the surrounding park.
I can even recall some of the conversations we had.

This is how the château looked in my memory.

I can still hear the music coming from this window, as a signal we had to gather in front of the building.

And then we would cross this bridge to go inside.



I think we had to go through this door to the place where they served our meals.


But when I revisited this place, I was truly surprised to discover that this is the real front door.


And this is what you're supposed to see when you visit the château.

The front side.

And the real main entrance!



Find more Weekly Winners at Sarcastic Mom's.

" Contrasts" Window Shopping for Sepia Scenes

Last Summer I was out on a photo walk in Antwerp, looking for some neat reflections.
I was "window shopping" on the Meir which is the main shopping street, when I saw this.
I thought it would be interesting to see the old house from across the street reflected in this shop window. The original antique (woodwork? I'm not sure? ) garlands incorporated into the modern architecture of this building also caught my attention. It took me a while to find the right angle and "frame" the house into the reflection on the window. I did not want any disturbing reflections of people other than the ones across the street. That is quite a challenge in a busy shopping street, but I was rather pleased with this one.

Using just a lit of bit of colour in a sepia is an idea that appeals to me a lot, and when I saw this picture, I wondered what it would look like if I turned it into sepia keeping only the reflection in the window in full colour.

So I played with it a little, and here is the final result ....
What do you think?
Which one do you prefer?

I used my Corel Paint Shop Pro x 12.
I duplicated my original, and used it as a background.
Then I turned the duplicated one into sepia, and then removed the sepia part with the reflection using an eraser tool.
The same technique I used on my "Christmas house" picture, remember?
So here it is folks, my sepia for this week.
Click on the banner or here to see more Sepia Scenes.

I would have posted this earlier, *whining* but Mr Blogger did not let me upload my pictures!

There, that said, over to the next topic, my picture of the day.
I'm still the one co-player in this challenge I think but I won't give up.
A picture a day is what I'm aiming for and I think it's fun. Time consuming, but fun.
I'll tell you more stories about that in tomorrow's post.
Anyway, today's picture was taken on Tuesday, I took loads of pictures on Tuesday and it would be a pity wasting them just because it's Thursday today!! Oops, am I bending the rules now?
I hope not. I had too much fun shopping and chatting and cooking with my daughter yesterday to worry about pictures much, I hope you'll forgive me?
At least I'm honest, right?
So here we go ...

Now how did that come about?
I'll tell you all about it tomorrow!

Oh yes, one more thing. The daily picture photo challenge hosted by Gail has a new name.
It's now called "Thru my Eyes 2009" Gail and I are having so much fun, why don't you join us?

Weekly Winners, Brunch at a Château.

We enjoyed a lovely brunch at the "Kasteel van Zwijnaarde" last Sunday.

Of course I had my camera with me ...



Before I went inside to enjoy some glorious food,
I took a little walk to capture the beauty of this place.
( Click the link to see pictures of the food)

View from the bridge.




Some lovely reflections ...



Old ornaments.



Visit more Weekly Winners at Sarcastic Mom's, the homeblog of Weekly Winners.
And don't forget to visit the others to see their favourite pictures of the week.