Blogless Thursday, Can't Blog, Won't Blog ...

Tink thinks Thursdays should be blogless,
but I think I may want to cheat today.
But we won't tell her, so if she comes over to see if I have been blogging,
we should all hide behind the couch, okay?
Never let her know we're all here,
because then she'll know I've been blogging anyway!
There are some things to be considered here.
First up, there is Melli, begging for dragons.
Now, I will have to dissapoint that girl for the rest of the week,
si I think I really should let her have her this one.
I keep finding them in the strangest places, they are fun!
This one lives on the canals in Bruges,
and you only get to meet him if you take a trip on one of the boats,
if you're lucky, and you look for him real well, that is ...
Here he is, ladies and gentlemen ...
** Drumrolls **

There, I think I may have made Melli happy.
Next subject please.
You see, I'm not going to be able to blog from tomorrow
up untill Monday evening, because I am out of town.
Out of the country, to be precise.
You see, today I'm packing my suitcase,
and I'll be leaving for London, first thing tomorrow morning.
Of course I'm not going to leave this place all empty
and blogless for the rest of the weekend,
you should know me better by now!
I have a couple of posts planned, so don't be sad.
I'm keeping a little bit of eye candy in store here,
just like you're used to getting around here, every day of the week!
So please drop by tomorrow for a Sky Watch Friday you wouldn't believe,
for a colourful Photo Hunt on Saturday, a Weekly Winners on Sunday
and I have a little question I want you to answer on Monday.
Please leave me a comment or two, that would be so nice!
I promise I will be back with loads of pictures for all of you to enjoy!

In the mean time let me take you on a sneak preview tour in London ...
By clicking this link you can take a tour on a boat on the river Thames.
You can drag the boat along the river,
and click on the buildings to get pictures and some history
on the buildings you see on that tour.
It's like taking the tour with me, you really ought to try it!

And I'm throwing in some of my own pictures
from last year's trip, now how's that?




You want more? Of course you do!
There will be more of them on next Sunday's Weekly Winners .
Of course that is cheating,
since I will be digging them up from my archives, but hey?

I'm cheating here as well, since today is supposed to be blogless,
but I didn't hear anyone complaining, did I?

Wordless Wednesday Dragons for Melli

I'm supposed to be wordless today...
But, um ... shhhhh!
Melli wanted me to find a dragon, so shhhhhh!!!
Here they are ...


Find more dragons at Melli's blog,
and get your Wordless kicks here

Ruby Tuesday The Shooting Constable Windmill

I find myself looking for ruby pictures week after week
ever since I joined Ruby Tuesday for the first time a couple of weeks ago.
It has become a weekly habit, or should I call it an addiction, hmm?
Anyway, as some of you might already know,
my hubby and I made a photo hunting trip again last week,
- this also has become an addiction, I should add -
and when we came across this windmill,
I knew I had found my rubies for this week!

It was a perfect day for a wedding, 08/08/08.
(You can see a bigger version of it in my Weekly Winners post from last Sunday)
But also a perfect windmill for a Ruby Tuesday.

I walked around it, and took pictures from every possible angle.

As you can see, there was some heavy weather coming up from one side,

while on the other side, the sun was still shining ...

And of course ... I'm saving the best for last!

Or at least I think I did?

Now, some of you might get confused.
I live in Belgium, not Holland.
We in Belgium, we have our own windmills.
In fact, the technology to build windmills was invented in Flanders,
(Belgium that is) don't let those Dutch people fool you!

Most of the windmills were lost throughout the years,
but in the last twenty or thirty years,
a lot of them have been restored and are functioning again.
This one was relocated in 1981.
It came from a village close to where my grandparents used to live.
A police officer trying to prevent that fired a bullet into the mill.
The mill is now called "Schietsjampettermolen" in Flemish.
If I translate that it would be something like " the Shooting Constable Windmill"
How's that for a story huh?


Update:
Quilly asked me in a comment:
How would shooting the windmill prevent it from being relocated? And why was the constable trying to prevent it from being relocated? Was it being kidnapped against its will? I need a bit more of this story!
quilly | Homepage |


Well, I looked it up for you.
The original mill on this location dated from the 16th century.
But it was destroyed by a storm.
In 1981, a certain Mr Van Hoe bought the Houtavemill.
which stood in Houtave, the village next to my grandparents.

He wanted to restore it and put it back up again in Kruishoutem.
It was in a very bad state when Mr Van Hoe bought the mill.

This is the mill on its previous location in Houtave.
It was dismantled and taken down, to be transported
to the new location, but the local chief of police
shot into the air twice to try to scare away the workmen
and thus trying to prevent the relocation of the mill.
As far as I can see, there must have been
some kind of a dispute on the sale of the mill.
There was a legal battle for more than ten years
before the judge finally decided the mill was to stay in Kruishoutem.
They renamed it Schietsjampettermolen,
and I translated that to "the Shooting Constable Windmill."


This is what's left of it on the previous location in Houtave.
(I nicked the two previous pictures from MrGoogle,
I hope he'll forgive me)
There, that's the whole story as far as I was able to track it down!

Update number two:
Now this is really something special folks.
I never knew the story of that windmill
up until now, when I did the research for Quilly.
I found the black and white picture, and updadet the post with it.
I posted the update, and went back to my chores here at the house.
While making up the bed, I had this lightbulb moment.
That's when I remembered ...

I was sitting on the backseat of my grandmothers bike,
looking at that mill as we drove by it every week when I was a kid!!!

I had no idea when I was taking pictures last Sunday
that that was one and the same mill from my childhood memories!!!
No wonder I was so attracted to it!!!
Thanks Quilly for making me do the research!

For more Ruby Tuesday pictures,
visit Mary the Teach at Work of the Poet.

Fun Monday Favourite Picture

Host for today is AOJ and the lurchers, and this is what she wants us to do:

Show me your favourite photograph and tell me why it's your favourite.

It can be one you've taken yourself or one someone else has taken, a snapshot or a more professional image. Is there a story behind it? Do you love it for the memories it gives or just because it's pleasing to the eye?

Show me and tell me!

When I saw the assignment, I thought this would be easy.
And then I started to browse through my pictures,
and found out it just isn't!
So many pictures, and so many beautiful memories,
picking only one is so difficult.
Pictures of happy moments together with my family,
my parents, my daughter, my husband ...
Pictures from one of the trips we made last year,
Normandy, Provence, Morocco, London ...
The skyline where I live, a beautiful sunset,
tits nesting on my patio in spring ...
All of them beautiful pictures, and memories I cherish.
Every day, and not so every day moments in my life.
I share them on this blog every day,
if you want to see my favourite pictures,
just browse through my posts and you'll find loads of them.


But if I have to pick a favourite one,
it would have to be one from that beautiful September day.
This is the apple tree in the garden where I grew up.
It must have been there almost all my life,
I can't remember that garden without it I think.
We had a swing right next to it,
and I remember sitting in its shadow,
playing with my sister, or reading a book there,
so many memories all connected to that tree.
But I can never remember as many apples on it as last year.



It was a beautiful day at the end of September,
we don't get too many of those here in Belgium,
especially not that time of the year.
We were all together at my parents house,
celebrating my sister and my daughter's birthday,
eating outside in the garden, a perfect family day.
And at the end of that day,
my father picked the apples from that tree.

And this, my dear friends is truly MY favourite picture.
It shows my father like I have always known him,
and that's how I will always want to remember him.

Always busy doing something,
and picking the fruits nature has given him.

And yes, thank God, both my parents are still alive and healthy.
I hope to keep it that way many more years ...


Visit the other players here.

Weekly Winners This is Belgium ...

It was a very busy week for pictures this week, and I took loads of them.
On Thursday I went for a walk with two blogfriends.


It had been raining quite hard that day.


rain = puddles.

puddles = reflections.
reflections = pretty pictures, so we didn't mind!

The next day I had a photo hunting date with my husband.


The village of Deurle looks like a postcard...

Or an art gallery?

Decay with character.

Antique baluster as a garden fence.


Driving off into the countryside ...

Sinking away into oblivion.

It kept it's treasure hidden safely behind the rusted bars .

Nature and drama.

This is not a painting.
And no, it's not Holland either, we have our own windmills in Belgium!


Fiday 08/08/08
A perfect day for a wedding ...
(Click on this one for full size view. )

One more?
Okay, but that's the last one from me for today ...



If you want to see more pretty pictures,
visit the other players at Sarcastic Mom's blog,
the home blog of Weekly Winners.

Photo Hunt " Dark"

This week's theme is dark.
I saw some very dramatic dark skies yesterday,
but I wanted a different approach on this theme.



Yesterday was a beautiful day, full of serendipitous events.
My husband and I made a photo hunting excursion,
we often do that lately. We get some healthy exercise,
while I take pictures, and try to get better at it.

We went for a walk in Deurle,
a beautiful and very artistic village near Gent.
I had never been there before but the village is a real gem.
There will be more pictures from there later on in the week.

This huge dark sculpture suddenly caught my eye.


It's a bronze, and it's called Mother Earth II.
It's made by a Belgian sculptress, Ann Deman.
If you click on this link, there is an interesting slide show
on the making of this sculpture.
I thought it would be perfect for this week's theme "dark",
and I made a few pictures from different angles.





There, this is my take on this week's theme.
If you want to see others,
visit the home blog of Photo Hunt,
and don't forget to visit the other players ...

Sky Watch Friday Kiss and Make Up

This is my first Sky Watch Friday.


I was working in my study last night, um... blogging I mean,
when I saw those pink streaks in the sky.
I grabbed my camera and went outside to catch this pretty pink sky,
and the view from my patio, the "skyline" of the village where I live.
It had been raining severely all day,
and I think this was a "kiss and make up"
surprise gift from the weather gods ...




You can see Sky Watches from all over the world here.