Sweetsauer's Photo Scavenger hunt.

I love photo challenges, I'm sure most of my readers know that by now!! I found this scavenger hunt over at Kirsti's -who is a wonderful photographer herself by the way- and decided to join in. The post from all the players had to be up by May first, and here is mine.
Of course, a scavenger hunt would not be a scavenger hunt if there was not a little competition involved. So please, if you like my photography, please please please hop on over Sweetsauer's
and vote for me please? I'm not going to beg for this again after this week is over. But I will beg and pleade for a vote every day of the week until May 7th! So brace yourselves!! (Or vote for me?)

Here we go!

1. Cool or interesting architecture
It's a restaurant near the river Schelde in Antwerp. I don't REALLY like it all THAT much, but I thought it'sarchitecture is ... well, it's ... "interesting." And I like the black and white against that beautiful blue sky.

2. A sign of Spring/Autumn (So. Hemi)
Magnolia's do not last very long, but to me they are the ultimate Spring flower.



3. Something musical : A street musician in front of the Cathedral in Antwerp. His music was isangelous.

4. Something sweet : I'm on a diet!! ;-)
And she IS sweet isn't she?



5. Something metallic : I found this one in Gent, when I was still looking for letters for Melli's alphabet challenge, and I did not use it then, so ...

6. A landscape : Apple trees in Haspengouw, the fruit region of our country.

7. An interesting doorway : The door of an old fashioned candy store in Antwerp, on a sunny day around Easter. The aroma of Belgian chocolate tickling your nose, does that sound interesting?



8. A reflection : Petals of blosomming trees floating on the water, a gorgeous blue sky on a beautiful Spring day. Heaven.


9. A cemetery : This is the cemetery where my grandparents have their final resting place.



10. A pair of shoes : You have NO idea how many pictures I took of my new pair of shoes before I was satisfied. Sheezz!! It may not look that way, but it was a hard one!


11. A body of water : From my recent walk with my blogger friend. A pond, beautiful reflections in the water, luscious Spring colours, blue skies, a picnic and a chateau. What more could one want?

12. A drink : Ahhhh, that was the best coffee I had in my entire life!!


13. A mosaic or mural : Graffiti in Antwerp.

14. Rain: We get enough of that here in Belgium, but I much prefer tiny drops like these.

15. Classic car (1970 or older) : This one is at the Palm brewery.


16. A work of art : That dog is a mosaic made out of thousands of small pieces of glass. Each tiny fragment has it's own reflection. I can appreciate the work that must have gone into that one!



17. A church : The church where I used to go to with my grandmother every Sunday.
So many special memories from this place. That's why I chose this one.


18. A statue
Shit happens! ;-)


19. An interesting sky
Okay, okay, I stretched it!

20. Something in motion : Great Tits, nesting on my patio.


21. Lights at night : Antwerp by night.

22. A silhouette : Antwerp at dusk.

23. Something historical (pre-1900) : Old farm house at the open air museum of Bokrijk.

24. A shot from an unusual perspective : Let's look at it this way, shall we?

25. Flowers : Blossoms from a cherry tree.

26. Self-Portrait : Yours truly ...

Quilly'sThree Word Thursday

Thursday is Quilly day ...
Each week, Quilly gives us three words to work with.
This week's words are: paladin, intransigent, & invidious
Click the links to find their definitions.

The door creaked as it budged and gave way. The rustling sound of the leaves on the floor behind it startled her. She felt a slight cringe in her stomach, but she knew she had to go through with this.

She closed the door behind her. The firm click of the latch marked the end of an era, and the beginning of a new one. Only for the briefest moment did she allow her mind to wander on what her life had been her like before she had chosen this new path. She blinked and shook her head as she tried to ban the memories.
She had put up with the invidious accusations of her quondam husband long enough. She could no longer abide his intransigency. It was his stubbornness that had driven the two of them apart.
She had given it much consideration, but then decided life was too short and too precious to waste it on a life without love.

Ever since she was a young girl, she had dreamed about what it would be like to meet her knight on his white horse. She had made up stories and fantasies of how handsome her paladin would look. She had often wondered what it would be like to share a life with a man who adored her.

How she had met him was sheer serendipity. It must have been some kind of a blessing to make up for her horendous past she thought. Such blessings are few she knew. She had always been brought up to believe paladins are extinct heroes that owe their existence to young maidens dreams. But now she had found him. Only a few more steps until she would feel his arms around her.

This was not a dream, this was real.

Or was it?

PS: I was not at all satisfied with the first version of this story, so I took the post down again to edit it. This still is not as fluent as I would like it to be, and I'm still not sure where this story is taking me to, but it's a start. Right?
Well ... at least I tried. And BELIEVE ME, I tried hard!!

ABC in idioms, A and B

If "language is the dress of thoughts" ( Johnson),
then idioms must the wardrobe.


When I was a kid, I was always fascinated by the colourful language my grandmother used.
She had such a way with words, she had her own funny ways to describe things and that memory still makes me smile. As long as people have been around, they have tried to communicate with each other. As a means of getting the message across as clearly as possible, idioms and sayings have found their way into our language.
Now, because a picture paints a thousand words, I thought it would be nice to make this a new photo challenge. The idea is to pick an idiom, or a saying, ( even slang is allowed) and illustrate it with a picture. Each week we'll cover two letters of the alphabet, okay?
So here we go...

By the way, I sure hope people will join in on the fun, I'd hate to be the only one?
If you're in, let me know in a comment and I'll add your link, okay?

A rising tide lifts all boats."

This idiom was used by president Kennedy and it means all people will benefit from a better economy. So let's just hope the tide rises again soon huh?

B is for ...

Bread and butter issues are ones that affect people in a very direct way.

I had fun looking for them, and I learned a lot.
I can't wait to see what others will come up with?

Okay, we've got a first entry and she did great! Hop on over to Quilly's to check what she has up her sleeve!! Click the link to see Quilly's post.

And Mar joined in too, here's the link:

Thom has joined in as well.

And another entry came from Cindy, it's here:

Ruby Tuesday, Raindrops

It's back to rainy days here in Belgium. We've had a fair share of sun and blue skies, but our Belgian Mother Nature seems to need a drink every now and then! ;-)
But that's okay, that still does not stop me from taking pictures ...
There is a lot of magic, even in a tiny raindrop.

My rubies for today, rubies in a raindrop...

Look for more Ruby Tuesday pictures at Work of the Poet.

Macro Monday Apple Blossoms

Find more Macro Monday pictures at Lisa's Chaos

I'll try and visit everybody as soon as possible, but I am in the process of installing a new PC right now, and I'm still trying to figure out how everything works ( or does not work, aarrrgh)
Bear with me, okay?

Weekly Winners, Don't Sit under the Appletree ...

Gorgeous Spring weather, blue skies,
and apple trees blossoming ...
a photographers' dream.

Haspengouw is a region in Belgium famous for it's fruit producers.
I never had a chance to see the fruit trees in bloom, until last Sunday.



Find more Weekly Winners at Sarcastic Mom's.