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

Those lovely colors of Autumn ...

Thanks for those lovely comments on my last blog post, it was so nice to find out I still have some readers left after such a long break! Your comments made me realize I DO miss blogging more than just a little bit.

This week is a holiday week, a lot less busy than my usual weeks, so I have more time on my hands. I also have loads of pictures to share for now. We'll just have to wait and see how it goes beyond that, won't we?

Let's just pick it up where I left off ...

 

What a beautiful beautiful blue sky, we don't get that every day around here! 

 

 Those leaves had such a beautiful color I just had to pick some to make a Fall decoration at home.

 Me, waving at you!

Anyway,  on with the walk ...

I really loved this quaint little house, I've never seen any like it!

The shrub with the blue flowers echoed the color of the shutters ...

It was even prettier than the photo!

The walk continued, I so enjoyed it, taking it all in, paying attention to every little detail. I still have lots more to share, so I'll be back!

My weekend in Pictures, I'm BAAAACK!!

I got an email from a befriended blogger asking me if I was okay, because it's been so long since I last posted. She told me she missed my stories and my photos. I was very surprised, I never thought anyone would care whether I blog or not.
To be honest, I do miss blogging sometimes too, it's just that I don't get around to it as much as I did before.
I still take pictures - not as much as I used to though - but they just seem to linger around on my computer. And that's a shame, really.
Maybe I should publish something from time to time eh?

Maybe I should just begin by telling you what I've been up to this weekend eh? The weather was gorgeous, crisp, cold and very sunny. Unlike the west of the country where my Mom and my family live, we did not get any rain around here.
On Saturday, we got up early because my hubby had to catch a train to Brussels and we still wanted to go to the market before he left. I had to keep myself busy all afternoon, so I baked four loaves of bread ...  

... and made some new Fimo jewelry beads. I had gotten a birthday gift in the mail from my sister the previous day and I wanted to play with some of the new colors I got.

Anyway, here is what I made ...

Saturday evening we were invited by our daughter Patsy and her hubby for a little dinner party for my birthday. Her food was delicious, as always!

Sunday was an even sunnier day, so we decided to go out and capture some of that stunning beauty of Autumn ( which never lasts all that long) with my "Big Guy" camera. We had a very long photo walk and I took over three hundred photos! Not all of them good, mind you, but still... And at the end of our walk we met a falconer, and I was able to take amazing photos of the man and his bird. It would be a shame to waste such beautiful pictures, so I will publish more from this walk later this week. 

Friday's Fave Five, Chocolate and Good Music

Friday already! After an uneventful weekend I've had a pretty busy week with a lot of good stuff going on. Time to join Susanne's Friday's Fave Five and share some of the highlights from it ...

1. A day out with my friend Nana on Wednesday. At ten in the morning when we were supposed to meet up it was still raining cats and dogs. The rain really was poring down with buckets, and at first we didn't really know what to do with our day. Nana bought herself a cute umbrella and put on some good music in her car. It was an hour's drive to reach our destination in Holland and we sang along with the music the whole time. That cheerful mood of ours must have changed the minds and the moods of the weather gods, because by the time we were halfway there the rain had stopped! Later in the morning we even had sunshine! We went to Etten-Leur, a small shopping paradise in Holland.

2. Shopping for shoes at bargain prices. I've been looking out for red shoes for quite a while now, but had not really found them until now. Nana took me to her favorite shoe shop.The shoes over there are a lot cheaper than in Belgium, and not only did I find the red shoes I had been dreaming of, I also found two more pairs! A girl can never have too much shoes now can she? I paid only as much as one pair would have cost me in Belgium! 

3. Alcohol free Pastis. Pastis with the taste but without the sugar and the alcohol of our regular aperitif.
We stay away from alcohol during the week but me and my hubby are addicted to our aperitif ritual whenever he is home. This is a perfect alternative!

4. Toblerone mini chocolate bars. When I was on holiday in Switserland as a teen I tasted Toblerone chocolate for the first time in my life. Although I haven't bought it much over the last decade, I still think it's a heavenly treat. I found these individually wrapped minis in a local supermarket, and now I can enjoy the almond and nougat laced milk chocolate with a nice cup of Senseo coffee!

5. A hand written card from Kamil Vojnar. We bought one of his art photos about two years ago, and he let us know he will be in his galery in Saint Remy in France during Summer. Too sad we're not going to Saint Remy this year, but it was nice hearing from him. I'm sure we'll get to visit him and see his latest work when we go there next year.

Friday's Fave Five, Summer Days

We've had a couple of nice "warm-weather-feels-like-Summer" days the past two weeks, so I spent more time outdoors rather than behind my computer, that's why I haven't posted in over two weeks!
June already, I just knew the month of May would whiz by in a jiffy!
It's Friday, that means it's time to look back upon the week that has passed and post some favorites. Time to join Susanne's Friday's Fave Five!

1. Last Friday was our 21st wedding anniversary, and my husband surprised me with a lovely bouquet of roses. He knew I would most probably welcome him on the patio, when he parked his car down below. He didn't want me to see the bouquet just yet, so he smuggled it in through the front door before he parked the car! That man is so smart, he still knows how to surprise me even after all those years!

2. I've got my camera back!!! My Big Guy has been fixed, and it cost me nothing! This time they had to replace the shutter, but there was a six month warranty on the previous repair job, so they did it for free!
I'm a happy camper now!

3. The roasted pineapple we had on the barbecue. We injected it with rum and coconut liqueur and roasted it for an hour. Served with some ice cream it was delicious!

4. We were invited to spend a day in the Ardennes by our daughter Patsy last Sunday. It was a beautiful day, and we made a nice long walk before lunch. After that, lunch was prepared on the barbecue. It was wonderful to be outside all day and enjoy each others company in the warmth of the sun.

5. We love to experiment and try new flavors on the new barbecue, and with the warm weather we had last weekend it was time to enjoy our patio! This time we tried shrimps with a raspberry dressing, served as an appetizer. I would never have imagined shrimps with raspberries, but it's wonderful!