Weekly Winners, First Signs of Spring

How would you know that Spring is in the air?
Let me take you with me ...

There are of course the Spring flowers at the local market.

We could have a drink or even eat outside again ...

The street artists are back ...

More colourful than ever it seems.

Or not so colourful ...
But he's handsome, isn't he?
Or ...
I could take you to the botanical garden,

and we could look for signs of Spring there ...
Not much ... at first sight?

There would of course be some Spring cleaning going on ...

New sprouts .

The old and the new ...


Hamamelis blossoming.

Crocusses of course.
Click to enlarge this one, there is a bee on that leaf, can you see it?

Primula's .... aaahhhh ...

So sweet ...

Don't you just love Spring?

I know I do!


Find more Weekly Winners at Sarcastic Mom's.

Fun Monday, This is Where I Live

Pamela, from thedustwillwait is our host today, and this is what she wants to know ...

Show me in pictures or tell me in words what defines the place where you live.
I want to leave the interpretation open to include any possibility.
I'm looking forward to finding out more about the place you call home.

I tried to find as much video's and pictures as possible to show what life is all about where I live.
You can click the links if you want to, and you can enlarge the pictures by clicking on them as well. Enjoy ...


I live in the municipality of Schoten. ( click on the link to see the Wikkipedia page. I'm not going to bore you with history and facts and figures and all that stuff)
Schoten is a lovely place not too far away from Antwerp.
As a matter of fact, the bus across the street takes me to Antwerp in less than twenty minutes.
This is the skyline as seen from my patio.

Shops are just around the corner from where I live, look ...




Yes, well okay, it was made around Christmas, but it gives a pretty neat idea what I'm talking about. Oh and um, it is not custom for us to walk in the middle of the street when we do our shopping. There are no cars in the video, it must have been filmed on a car free shopping weekend.

Is there a college or university close by that seasonally changes the way your world operates? Or maybe a winter influx of retired snowbirds?

No, no retired snowbirds I'm afraid, but we do get to see some exotic people from all over the world each year in Summer. Schoten is very famous for it's Folklore festival, an annual folk dance festival that has been held here for over fifty years now. The slogan they use says: " You can see the world in Schoten". And it's true ...

Did a famous person put your town on the map?

• Bob Mendes, writer of thrillers and detective stories (b. 1928)
• Michel A. J. Georges, biologist and professor at the University of Liège (b.1959)
• Marijke Hofkens, television actress (b. 1963)
• Marie-Rose Morel, politician (b. 1972)
• Véronique De Kock, Miss Belgium 1995 (b. 1977)
• Geert Steurs, professional road bicycle racer (b. 1981)
• Thor Salden, a.k.a. Thor!, singer (b. 1997)

I found this list of famous people from Schoten on Wikkipedia, and I was amazed we have so many! There is one person I would like to add to this list though.
His name is Dos Winkel. He's a world traveller and an amazing photographer and he does some very extra ordinary underwater photography. Among other things he photographs fishes' eyes!
This link will take you to his website, to the page with the astonishing fish eyes.
(Click on them to see them full size)
Reproductions of this work adorn the walls of our new police station by the way.

Oh and one other thing...
A jazz event called Schoten blues. They're great!

Is there something about your neighbourhood that makes it unique. Good or bad?

It's beautiful ...
This is very unique to me. It's the old windmill. Or what's left of it.
This is my view from my kitchen. Regular readers have often seen it appear in my pictures.
I think it's still very photogenic, despite the fact there's but half of it left.

Our neighbours live in there. It used to be much much higher, but they took the top off years ago. The walls of that mill are so thick and the building was so tall, that when they took the top off they built three small houses with the bricks that came off it.
The next pictures were not taken by me, I've found them on the net while I was looking for old pictures of that mill. But the funny thing is, this one has my car on it. Well, this used to be my car some years ago. And for one reason or another, I don't think I have one single picture of that car, ... until now!

The building on the left is the apartment building where we live.
But this is how it used to look ...
Awwww ...
From days gone by ...

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.

Fun Monday Come on in...

This week's host for Fun Monday is Julie, and this is what she wants us to do:

I have decided to put a twist on the traditional Fun Monday. Instead of standing in your front door and taking a photo of what you see outside, let's turn around and take on of the inside. Maybe that will prompt some of us to pick up a tad (you know who you are). :)

Okay, come on in!
I'll give you the grand tour ...
You can click on any of the pictures to enlarge them a little bit more, okay?

I live on the first floor, you need to climb a spiral staircase first.
I haven't photographed that one because it looks rather boring, and it's in urgent need of a good cleaning. Melting snow and snow boots have left there traces, I'm afraid.
Anyway.
This is what you see when I open my door for you.


My welcome moose is still on the door.
I've become rather fond of him and the winter is not finished yet.
I'll let him stay a little while longer. The chair with the wreath is outside.
That chair was put there years ago because of our upstairs neighbour.
He had lung cancer and desperately needed a place to rest halfway climbing those awful stairs all the way to the second floor.
Unfortunately the man died many years ago, but the chair is still there.
Inside is my old sewing machine, a place where we usually put our keys and stuff.
The door on the left is the door of my living room.

So there ...
This is my living room. And yes, my Christmas tree is still up!
The only thing I dislike about it is that there is only one big window in the front,
and the other one is at the other side in my kitchen.
This area tends to be rather dark sometimes, especially with gloomy weather like today.

If you walk past the dining room table to the back, that's where my kitchen is.
It's an open kitchen, and I like that. I can still talk to my guests and see them while I'm cooking.
The kitchen has more light because it's close to the window of my patio.
It's the heart of the house really. When I'm not blogging, I can most likely be found there.
It's also the place where I have coffee with my friends or family visiting as well.


And while I'm at it, I might as well show you the rest.
(Well most of it, I skipped the bedroom and the guest room)
On the left you see my blogging space in the study, and on the right my bathroom.


There. I hope you enjoyed this little peek into my world.
You were more than welcome.


Most of the pictures for this post were all taken today.
That's part of a photo challenge called "Thru my eyes"
I share with my partner in.... um ... no, not crime ... photography and blogger friend Gail.
We have challenged ourselves to try and use that camera every day to get to know it better.

How was Lissabon,

How was Portugal?
How was Lissabon?
What was it like?

Well ... it was unlike any other city I have ever seen.
I'll show you, or you might never believe me ...


The Portuguese people are unspoiled, hardworking and friendly.



With a never ending love for the good things in life.

From the land ...


or from the sea ...


Meeting other people comes first,



and they do have a way of entertaining people.
( Meet my new friends, they're gems, I just got to tell you that!)


The boys were not bad either ...

All of them making sure the girls can look their best.


Incredible beauty in nature. In the sea ...

or on land.


Art is everywhere ...




even in the little things of life ... like breakfast!

It was a breathtaking experience.
I'll tell you more about it the next days to come ...