Liberation Day

Today I am feeling a little better: I didn't spend the whole day in bed as I did yesterday, but I moped around the house a little. Moved some little stuff about and my new desk looks like this now:

I am happy with it already! I can just sit down and start working on my photographs, internet is available, lots of light (at least once all the scaffolding is gone), what a joy! The picture above my desk is one of my own art prints sold by Society6. I become happy every time I look at it. One of my housemates thought it was a painting and he was enthralled by it.
As the weather was really good today, I thought it would be a good idea to take a little walk.

I went over to the Vondelpark and saw all these people enjoying themselves, like this guy lying in the grass. He totally surrenders himself to the sun.

Kids were playing on the Iamsterdam while their parents were watching and/or taking photographs of them.

You see, today is Liberation Day: we Dutch commemorate that we were liberated by the Americans and Canadians from the Germans in 1945. Yesterday we commemorated the dead, today we celebrate our freedom by hanging out our national flag, having a day off and organizing lots of festivals in the country.

I also sat a few minutes in our front garden, enjoying the view.

While I was still feeling a bit week from this kind of stomach-flue, I was not much in the mood for festivals, but walking around the park was just what the doctor ordered. Flowers were blooming, music was playing and the people were friendly, like these three guys. They saw me walking with my camera and asked if I wanted to take a photograph of them. "Sure!" I'll email them a copy, they were pleased with the shot.

And images like this are to die for: the light, the dirty water (dried petals have fallen in) and the branch. It was a flash of perception and I pulled the trigger. 
I came home happy as a bird.