The Sinterklaas Parade in my Town

Lots and lots of little children together with their parents or grandparents were gathered in the main street of my town Saturday afternoon. They came to see the Sinterklaas parade. Sinterklaas is a holy man, a friend of the children, a colleague of Santa Claus, let's say. He lives in Spain, but he arrives in Belgium at the end of November, and on the evening of the 6th of december, he brings toys and sweets to all the children.
I did not want to miss the parade, so I was there with my camera ...

The black faced men are the Zwarte Pieten or Black Petes. They are the helpers of Saint Nicholas. They help Saint Nicholas to distribute all the gifts and candy on the 6th of December. But above all, they have to keep an eye on the children to make sure they're good. When I was a kid, Black Pete told me he would come and fetch me and put me in a big brown potato bag if I did not finish my soup. I had many nightmares and sleepless nights over that!

But now, all they really do is throw some candy ...

... and pose for me!

Autumn 2012

The last two weeks have been rather busy around here,  that's why I haven't gotten round to posting the rest of my pictures from that gorgeous photo walk yet! The weather has been dull, rainy and gray since then, and that's a pity. The leaves haven't all fallen just yet, and their colors are still gorgeous. I have the afternoon all to myself today, so I'm gonna see if I can take some more Autumn pictures. I'm sure It won't be the same without the blue sky, but I'm gonna try it anyway!  

  

 

The walk continues ...

It was a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon when we made this long photo walk. Part one of this series of photos is here if you're interested. 

We continued our walk. It was a photographers dream, behind every curve of the path, there was another great photo.

Patches of sunlight highlighted beautiful details ...

and threw shadows on the trees... 

Blue skies and gorgeous Autumn colors reflected in the pond...

 

I will be back with more photos from this beautiful walk sometime later this week.

Friday's Fave Five, the Halloween Edition

A perfect week like this one just would not be complete without a collage of some of the highlights from it. That's why it's always a good idea for me to join Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and share five favorite things from the week that has passed.

1. Our daughter Patsy invited us for a little birthday dinner last Saturday. She's such a great cook, dinner at Patsy's is always a treat. She made a delicious pumpkin soup as a starter, and a roast of deer with salsify in a curry cream sauce. Yummmmmmmm!!

2.  Sunday was such a beautiful sunny day, so we went out on a photo walk to try and capture the beauty of Fall. We had a rather unexpected photo opportunity when we met a falconer who was hunting for rabbits with a Harris Hawk. I was able to make some amazing photos of the man and his bird. Photos still need to be published, so come and see next week!


3. It was a bit of a slow week this week, no cooking lessons or ceramics class, which gave me a lot more time to spend behind my computer. I found some time to blog, and I just LOVED all the comments you gave me. It's great to get in touch with all of my friends again!

4. A Halloween market was held in my town on Wednesday evening.The whole town was decorated with pumpkins and skulls, the shop assistants were dressed up as witches and vampires, shops were open until ten ... It was a fun evening! Of course I was there with my camera, pictures are here if you're interested.

5. The Blue Tits around our house are already thinking of Spring. They were thoroughly inspecting the nest boxes on my patio this afternoon! The nest box on the bottom left of this collage is a new one my hubby bought as a birthday gift, and we repaired the other one, so there are two for rent this year. Let's hope they'll vacate one of them next Spring!

Halloween in my Town

Halloween has become quite a commercial success over the last decade here in Belgium, and for the second year in a row a big Halloween event was held in my town yesterday evening. The shops were open until ten, and there was a Halloween Market at the market place. Of course, I had to be there with my camera ...




Some of the kids were dressed up and went from shop to shop trick or treating.
There was even an inflatable castle for the children.

The whole town was decorated with pumpkins and skeletons.

Shop keepers were dressed up as witches ... 

There were special treats on sale like pumpkin soup with spiders or these pretty Halloween muffins at the baker's shop.

I've never seen so many witches, and they happily posed for me.

some  sweet ....

some a bit evil ...

... and scary ones