(10 am – promoted by ek hornbeck)
the clouds own this little country. the low lands… my new home, The Netherlands.
it’s 22:00 hours and we’re driving back from brussel
and then i see them: a mountain range of blue-black sapphire clouds filling the horizon…
the sky is kind of a green turquoise…
with a charcoal glaze and somebody just turned the dimmer switch way down low
we speed by a row of white windmills, modern and obelisk-like, they strike me as incredibly imposing,
and science fictional in this late daze of twilight
and yet. yet, i like them.
and the graceful movement of blades cutting through air
we pass signs for antwerpen, gent, brugge, breda, rotterdam, utrecht, den haag, delft on our way home to leiden. and i think about how lucky i am. to be here. to experience life on this side of the world.
i’ll have to take some pictures of the daytime clouds. fluffy. floats. in a macy’s day parade. pastels in pink and purple. but the drama is in alfred hitchcock-perfected shades of gray. caught in folds, on the tips of its fleece, or invading the entire cloud. i don’t know… the gray gives it a perspective. like they are bigger than they should be. or something. like they have more than three dimensions. it’s the light, i think. over this flat (i mean flat) unending landscape that tricks the eye because it, in so many places, is below sea level.
yeah. clouds here are as much a part of the landscape as the windmills. an intricate part of the land’s texture, color scheme, and scenery. and sometimes, they just hang there. with peaks like a perfect merangine. well, maybe you need to visit and see them and then the Dutch artists’ rendition of them…
this is Vermeer’s view on delft… awesome painting and i recommend going to the Mauritshuis in Den Haag to see it first hand.
it’s weird. to be happy. in these times. and yet, i am angry too. it’s a weird mix. . .
in early June, all over Holland, it looked something like this: high hopes for the european cup (but spain ended up winning)
the rest of the pictures are on my walk to the center of Leiden…
i love this picture because it says alot about where i live now: a guy in suit and tie on a bike vying for the road with a bus… ya gotta love it!
our garden…
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how do i say that in dutch?
ik woon in Leiden. Ik ben pf8. ik heb een dutchman!
‘s avonds!
like the clouds were too close or something…the perspective was ‘off’…
or maybe that was me…yeah…’off’…that’s one way to put it 😉
Thanks for posting the lovely pics. Enjoy your new land–I’ll enjoy “escaping” via your pics & descriptions whenever the clouds here become too oppressive.
Interesting – the pictures of Lieden of your “walk to the center of Leiden… ” look like they could be parts of Vancouver near downtown. Very similar atmosphere.
You sound like your really enjoying the place! 🙂
and photos of your experience that you are having in your new environs! Your expressions so remind me of so many experiences of my own, when I first visited Europe (19 years old, alone, with a couple of Berlitz books, LOL), and the detailed letters I wrote from there to friends — “my eyes were becoming ‘fat” from all that I took in.”
It’s a whole different mentality, in so many ways, pf8, and I think you’re “getting it.” And, it seems to suit you and your visual/spiritual/emotional needs quite well — at least, that’s my impression! Mazel tov!
How do you do your thing? Mmmmbawwwwwwwah! (?)
it’s lovely pf8!!
mrD & I are saving our pennies…maybe one day we can visit!
i love the yellow doors…
& the corner cafe
& the cobbled streets
it’s just lovely
& i hate when the sky is glomering too 🙁
What fantastic shots! Thank you for sharing them and your new
life there. Can’t wait to see it all for myself! 😉
And your garden!! How wonderful!!!!!!!
from my computer. I loved getting a taste of that. Thanks for the photos and descriptions. It really does give a bit of the flavor of the place.
and perspective. Thanks for sharing. It’s so human in a good way. It’s beautiful, aesthetic, what else could one want. I bought a new bike last week it’s called the Amsterdam, it’s a ‘townie’, it is designed from the bikes in your new land. I love it. As I can not join you there I am going to try my hardest to create and contribute to the Amsterdam spirit of Portland OR. We humans should all realize it’s community and that it’s neighborhood. Wish I was there, but I do have a place, a neighborhood, very similar in spirit. Lucky us, viva the life of sanity.
I love your description of the clouds.
The pics are beautiful too.
Thank you pf8!
I’m not sure why but this song came into my head. I like JM’s original edition best.
…but superbly love your wondrous poetry of prose which flows and billows like the clouds themselves. And the pictures, OMG!
thanks pf8, so glad to hear you are happy. It’s all the better if you can be happy even when the world is such a mess, but without losing the larger awareness.
XOXOX…blessings, and all that…
…nothing like that big dutch sky. And the cafe pix make me want apple pie…so bad…