zondag 26 augustus 2007

Schoolfietstocht 2007

Prachtig weer en een route van maar 10 km maakten de fietstocht dit jaar een leuke gezinsuiting. Mirthe heeft dit jaar zelf gefietst!

Uitrusten op de camping... Anna zit weer in een anti-foto fase. Komt wel goed.

Mijn nichtjes zitten dit jaar ook bij Mirthe op school, Vanessa zelfs bij Mirthe in de klas. Familie in de buurt is iets wat ik als kind ontzettend heb gemist. Ik hoop dat Mirthe en Anna het ook leuk vinden.



Met haar lintje voor het fietsen! Ze is gegroeid, sinds haar verjaardagsfoto's, vind je niet?
Bij Opa op de zondag


Dit lief egeltje komt binnenkort bij ons in de tuin wonen! (Moet de tuin een beetje opruimen voor hem, anders wil ie vast niet blijven :-)


Hoekje dat ons altijd aan het huis van Opa en Oma doet denken... Spiegel, lamp, glaswerk en foto. Beelden van het huis waar Papa is opgegroeid.


Gelukkig zijn er ook lekkere hangstoelen bij Opa!
Anna's installations

The house is full of these little scenes that Anna sets up while I'm doing my housework. I'm intrigued by the frogs on the pony puzzles, and why the dog is stretched out on the ground -- dead? Asleep? Anna is an artist of few words, though, and usually won't explain what's going on. I like stumbling across them at unexpected moments and taking time to make up my own story.


Corners of my home (that are driving me crazy)

Going to try and clean these up this week.




maandag 20 augustus 2007

This kid is driving me crazy. She's not too happy with herself either, which makes it hard to stay upset, and to draw the boundaries she needs. It's not easy being Mirthe, or Mirthe's mama.

Morgen is een nieuwe dag.


"Me", first day of first grade.


Anna reminds the viewers at home that she is, in fact, three -- and will remain so for at least another five months. (As if we could ever forget!)





It was a pretty-in-pink start to the school year. First grade for Mirthe, and Anna's last half year of preschool. In January she'll start kindergarten, when she turns four.
On the last day of the vacation, we took the bus into town, which the girls consider an adventure all by itself. At the beginning of the summer I had promised they could pick out a pony at the toy store and then we'd have coffee at the Hema. Mission accomplished in under two hours -- two happy little girls, two ponies with new homes, and one wiped-out mama.


This pretty little reminder that it's still summer arrived in my mailbox a few days ago -- thank you so much, Hetty! It's beautiful!




Gratuitous photos of cats in the sunshine. Just so you know, the sun does still shine in Holland. But you gotta be quick and enjoy it while it lasts.



Finally got a picture of Snippy as we know him -- with his mouth constantly open, asking/complaining about something. Hobie's just laying in the sun, all: "Dude, chill. You have no idea how good you got it." (Hobie is our stray, who lived 2+ years on the street before we took him in six years ago. He's like a cross between Annie and Cats. Also, he looks and acts exactly like a giant woolly bear caterpillar. Woolly would have been a good name for him.)

maandag 13 augustus 2007

Photos from Maine


Pake snaps beans on the back porch. He's got two vintage Texasware bowls there, I'd forgotten that my mom has them. They're bigger than mine and have funkier colors, still I like the ones I have the best. Funny how that goes. I made your potato salad this weekend Mom, the one Uncle Arthur always liked so much. The one you always made in the big yellow bowl, with the plastic lid. I made mine in my bigger Texasware bowl, and after it had set up for a while in the fridge I transferred it to the big yellow bowl I'd bought a while ago at the AH. Somehow that bowl makes it taste better :-)


This is a painting I did almost twenty years ago. It seems like a lifetime ago. (I'd forgotten that my mom had this, too.) I like the way you have it in the window, with the little perfume bottle next to it. When I look at this picture I can smell the breeze coming through the window, fresh sea breeze, scented with pine and blueberries. But I can also smell the painting, all those years ago, the layers and layers of oil paint. How the corner of the painting studio that was mine smelled, musty, dusty. All that sanding of gesso before I actually got to paint. It's a small painting, done on a hardwood plank -- walnut? Cherry? It took a long time to paint, despite its size. It amazes me to think of those days. The whole day in which to paint, no interruptions but the ones you make yourself. When I think about trying to paint like that now, in my life right now, my head explodes. There are days, many days, when I don't even get to go to the bathroom alone, without running commentary and/or interruption. And I look back on my twenty-something self and think, girl you didn't know what you had. Or what you would miss, twenty years on.


This is the screen porch, if you look through the right window you can just see a bit of my dad's silver hair as he's snapping those beans. I think I'd spend a lot of time out here, if I ever get to visit. I like me a porch with screens.


Mom's flower garden this year. Oh, poppies. And the grass is looking good, Dad! (The grass is always greener on the other side of the ocean...)


This is overlooking the bay. I love those big rocks. If I were, say, six-years-old -- those would be my horses and I would be a cowgirl, rounding them up.

zondag 5 augustus 2007

Donderdag gingen we met een last-minute naar een camping in de (Belgische) Ardennen. Het was maar een paar dagen, maar we hebben genoten -- en het mooiste weer van de zomer gehad!

De meisjes sliepen op een piepklein kamertje (wij trouwens ook, alles was piepklein) met een 'boomhut', dat was echt vet cool. Mirthe wilde daar slapen maar ik heb nee gezegd -- ze valt nog weleens uit haar bed, dan liever niet van anderhalf meter hoog!


De eerste dag, vrijdag, gingen we naar de ruines van een 13e-eeuwse kasteel in Franchimont. Laat in de middag, met een stralend blauwe lucht. Twee meisjes die, desondanks het ontbreken van echte prinsessen, het toch erg leuk vonden om overal op, onder, door en rond te klimmen.

Eric is gek op foto's 'naast' iets, vandaar die foto naast het bord van het kasteel. Ik heb er een bloedhekel aan :-) en omdat ik meestal de foto's maak, komen er vrij weinig 'hier-sta-ik-naast' momenten. Maar deze keer heeft ie (met hulp van de kinderen) zo lief gevraagd.... :-)