Mitzi tries for a portrait

It's more that I tried for a portrait of Mitzi. She grows so fast and never sits still for long; as soon as she hears a sound she either turns her head to the sound or is off to the other side of the room.

In these pictures she's sitting in front of the insect screen in the window of my study on the first floor, where all things happening outside kept her sitting (relatively) still.

What? Already?

Last week I noticed giant bird flocks swarming around in the air. Usually it's an indication that the birds will soon start their migration towards the south, wich surprised me because august is not even over yet and the weather has been very hot (but then what do I know; I just don't want to think about winter yet).
Anyway, early morning a few days ago I saw a flock while I was shaving and later when I was downstairs fixing breakfast I suddenly heard loud twittering coming from the back garden. It turned out our neighbor's rowanberry (dutch: lijsterbes) was being raided by starlings (spreeuwen).
It was a bit early for good 'n bright pictures but here's what I captured.

The owls are not what they seem

My mother found out a few weeks ago that she has a young long-eared owl (Asio Otus, in dutch called a ransuil) in her garden. She found some of it's pellets a few weeks before that but didn't know where they were from. We have no idea why it would find this a great place to stay as my mother lives in an urban area (although most houses in her neighborhood do have big gardens). It's going to be interesting to see what it will do in a month or two when it gets colder and the walnut tree will lose its leaves.

Anyway, it certainly is 'something else'. I managed to get a nice picture too (as usual, click to enlarge).

Daniël's Nineteen!

Wow, nineteen already! It made me think about this and what a blessing it is that he is not in some far away country, fighting in a war. Instead he will be spending his nineteenth year pondering what to done since he failed his propedeuse at the university of applied sciences (in dutch we call it 'hogeschool').

So, how very appropriate the pondering picture below of Daniël a month ago in Scotland.

Introducing: Mitzi

A friend's cat had kittens three months ago and we got one. The kittens are a cross between a 75% norwegian forest cat and probably a european shorthair (they don't know who of the five neighborhood tomcats is the father).

It looks like she might get the longer hair of the norwegian forest cat but we'll have to wait and see to find out for sure. What we do know is that she has a very loud purr and behaves like the hyperactive cat from the cartoon Gaston (in dutchyland we know it as Guust Flater).

So here is a picture of her resting in between attacks.

Our own bell peppers

About three months ago we bought a bell pepper plant (the dutch call it 'paprika') with three orange peppers ready to be eaten. The peppers are about half the size of the ones you buy at the greengrocer but the taste is very good. We never thought it would do much after that but look at the picture: it just keeps on giving.

Johan live at the plaza

On the 2nd of august I went to see a free outdoor concert by the dutch band Johan on the Canadaplein in Alkmaar. It was a lovely sunny day and Johan is becoming a trademark for 'good music'.

More pictures on flickr.

Check out their new album '4' or the compilation box '12.5 Years, 3 Albums, 36 Songs' that contains their first three albums and a DVD with clips.

Update: three weeks later Johan has announced they will split at the end of the year (they will finish the current tour). Sad news but what a great quartet of albums.

As I can't seem to find clips for their new album, here are some clips from their 'THX JHN' album.

Scotland 2009

We returned from our holiday three weeks ago and no blog up yet. Tsk, tsk.
Scotland was beautiful and full of sun and rain. We stayed at a lovely cottage in Pitlochry. Here are some highlights (as usual you can click the images for a bigger picture), more here. I have included a slideshow at the bottlom of this post.


We had a rough sea on the way to Newcastle. This is what leaving the IJmuiden harbour looked like:


Reservoir at Pitlochry power station dam:


Pitlochry dam and fishladder:


Waterfall near Pitlochry called 'Black Spout'. Thanks to the lookout point all pictures on the webs look the same.


Culloden.


A place called Queen's View, Craiglich.


Scotland's smallest working destillery: Edradour.

12,5 Years

Last month (no actually almost two months ago already, time flies) I happened to be working 12,5 years at my company. Cause for celebration! Of course I bought cake for my collegues but I also got a budget from the company to go out for dinner. While I was considering the when and the where some people from my department were layed off. A big surprise as six months before our department already took a hit. With all these happpenings, I was not in the mood for festivities.

However, it was a good opportunity to see some of the old faces together one more time. So I picked restaurant De Kale Pater (The Bald Priest) and sent invitations. It was a great evening: beautiful weather (we could sit outside in the courtyard), everyone was in a good mood and the food was tasty. I even got presents! As I now have an iPod Touch my collegues surprised me with iTunes Gift Cards! Now I can legally download stuff (gasp!).


The only annoyance was that afterwards there were no more trains running from the Haarlem central station due to a malfunction somewhere. Luckily Lynn was still awake and willing to drive over and pick me up!!

Oh, and more pictures here.

Father's day surprise

It's a bit uncomfortable, typing letter for letter on a display, but I'm getting the hang of it. At breakfast I was surprised with an Ipod Touch!
So, taking some time off from painting the inside of the house, I have been playing with my new toy.

What a great gift from Lynn and the kids!

Double rose?

I have no idea if this is unique (probably not), but Lynn pointed out that we have a rose with a double heart in our front garden. So, I had to snap it (I'm not making much pictures lately (or blogging for that matter), I will see what I can do about that).

Dog Eared Moonlight

The second album by The Milk & Honey Band on Andy Partridge's APE label. Need I say more?


The album is wrapped in a beautiful cover that resembles an old and worn Penguin paperback.

Just listen/see for yourself: the beautiful opener 'Just You' and the first single 'Disappear'.

King Cat

Our cat Maui has claimed Jumper's basket. From the looks of his evil grin (see below) he has no intention of giving it back up. The only thing missing is the big sigar.

Smiling Worlds Apart

This month's music tip comes from The Shadow Kabinet (which is one man band Steve Somerset).


We had to wait a long time since Hark! which was released in 2004 (it seems that'legal complications' may have held up this new album). I have the feeling this may have been a good thing because 'Smiling Wolds Apart' sounds very confident. The sound is more varied: from the 'full orchestra' opening with 'There Must Have Been A Moment', via the lovely accordion accents in 'What Am I Supposed To Do?', the surf guitar sound of 'Surfing On The Shadows' to the subtle mellotron and plucked violin sounds in the beautiful 'When Winter Comes To England'. Sitars in 'Sylvia The Psychic' and something that sounds like a lost 'I am the Walrus'-era Beatles track: 'Just As Lost As Me'.
With 19 tracks (and clocking in over an hour) it may seem to be a bit much to take in but it's a nice, varied album.

It's available at CD Baby, there's an offer with a bonus disk at Kool Kat Music. Or you can send a message through the MySpace page. Maybe there are still some free buttons left!

A Farewell To Monty

Last saturday, our norwegian forest cat Monty died at the age of 17 (a very respectable age). We like to think he had a good life with us.

Bird feeder

Until now, I've never posted a picture of our bird feeder in action.

This month's music recommendation

It's time I started a montly (monthly? Well, we'll see how it goes) music recommendation.
How about I start with Zender? Read a great review of their (first) album 'Acid Avenue' in the dutch magazine OOR.I like how there is a 'radio' theme throughout the album (of course referring to 'zender' which is dutch for 'transmitter') sometimes creating the impression that someone is tuning the radio you're listening to a different channel. Some tracks are short and catchy, some are a bit longer and feature guitar solo's that give me a 'Pink Floyd'-feeling (in a good way).
One point of criticism could be that the version of the song 'Lux' doesn't sound as bright as the rest of the album, the single version sounds much more 'direct'. I first thought it was an evil ploy to make us buy the single, but you can download it for free.


Update: new single 'Something’s At Stake' out now, again downloadable.

Who is that smart-looking guy?

Finally we have bought a suit for Daniel. Straight from the rack except his trousers needed some taking in (something I can only remember from half a life ago). Added new shoes (european size 47, I'm glad we have some good shoe-shops nearby!)
And look what a smart-looking guy he turned into, eh?

Mascotte

Our daughter likes her new school a lot, she leaves the house with a smile even though she has to travel for about an hour (taking the train to Amsterdam). One of the current projects is making a proposal for (and of course designing) a mascotte. She has chosen our son's nature study group (NJN) and has made her design with sketches and drawings. One of the final steps is presentation of a concrete model, she has chosen clay and of course I couldn't resist to snap it.

Let it snow...

I finally took the opportunity to take a picture of our (still new-ish) terrace covering with some fresh snow. It doesn't snow that much here and when it does most of the time the temperature is just above the freezing point.


Indeed, as I'm writing this the snow is already melting away (in fact you can already see the first traces on the left side in this picture).