Trees

As I mentioned under Sidewalks (see the button above Trees in the left-hand side bar) level II is about the thatness of that. This was another assignment within level II and is obviously about the treeness of trees.

A branch here and there, February 2014

Contemplative workshop, level II: trees

A grey day, February 2013

Orange leaves on a branch, November 2012

Staycation is over: back to work!

My staycation is over, actually already by a week and a half but I've been postponing to get back to you about it. I had set myself some goals for the staycation and below I will tell you how I went about it.

• start my calligraphy E-course. Ehm, I actually started last weekend, so that's a week after my staycation. Only last weekend I felt that I had the space in my head to actually sit down and start the process and I am loving it. Here is a picture of my first efforts (Roman capitals):
  
• finish organizing my study. I tackled that for the most part: I placed an extra shelf in the bookcase, cleared out most rubbish on my new desk and hung up some cheerful images (the framed painting is from my hand, painted on the second Yoku class). Below is a picture of my desk right now. It is a happy place for me to be.
  
• upload pictures from former travels and citytrips from before my blogging time. I started on that and uploaded one trip (to Braunfels, Germany), but realized there were way too many trips. I decided to make it an autumn/winter project and to maybe upload a trip every week (travel Tuesday?).
• finish my photo book on Summer 2013. Finished! Look for the book over here. I am quite happy with it.
• do little DIY projects like: folding envelopes with pretty paper, painting quotes or words on canvas. Have not started on those, but I bought all the materials so it is just a matter of timing. I did make another small DIY: sea shells in a glass jar.
• be a tourist in my own town of Amsterdam and visit at least two museums. I actually went to one museum and that was the Design Museum Ghent (Belgium). Highly recommended.
• try out my 'new' secondhand 100 mm lens that a friend gave me. I showed my first and only attempt over here. I definitely need to practice more.
• paint a wicker chair and a living room table. Yes, I painted my wicker chair yellow, but I am still pondering on the colour for the living room table. Below you can see what my living room looks like now:
  
• go to Ghent on a weekend trip. Check! We had a lovely time in Ghent. We made plans to go back there in winter time.
  
• try out more exotic juices and smoothies. Did that, mainly smoothies. You can see them on my smoothies page.

Overall I had a wonderful time, saw lots of girlfriends, enjoyed the sunny weather (no guarantees in Holland about the sun and temperatures) and I was creative. One spoiler: my broken up relationship. I guess it will take me some time to heal.

Display boards

A few years ago I went on a special trip to the White Desert of Egypt. One of my plans is to post the photos on my blog, but today I want to share something else with you. On that particular trip I found many crystals, stones and pieces of what looks like melted iron.

Many years I displayed these little treasures as in the picture above, loosely arranged in the window sill.

I have been looking for years for a proper display, something flat with sections, something like an antique letter box from a print shop.

And last Saturday I found just the thing by happenstance (I just love that old fashioned word) in a pop-up store around the corner of my house.

Apparently it's from Bali and the boards look like they had a life before this one. I asked the shop keeper and he advised me to check out the website of doing Goods, but it does not seem to work yet. Maybe the boards were used in a shop for jewelry or coins? Who knows, I love them and I think the little legs are adorable.

Vondelpark: reflections

Last Thursday a friend of mine came to dinner. After dinner we went for a stroll in the Vondelpark, Amsterdam. It was the golden hour: the sun cast its soft golden light on the trees and plants.

Many people were out there walking, jogging, cycling and/or talking to friends.

This swan is part of ArtZuid Junior, the international sculpture route of Amsterdam. All the sculptures are designed by students and tell the story of the Vondelpark. The exhibition is located in the Vondelpark in honor of its 150th anniversary.

reflection of chemtrail in water

reflection of pink clouds in water

What struck me was that there was hardly any wind. The water was so smooth that everything was reflected with such a clarity that I had to grab my camera and snap a few photos.

reflection of clouds in water

Raspberry-mango smoothie

Yesterday I felt like splurging a little and I bought a little box of raspberries in the organic store. They looked really delicious and I was dying to make a smoothie with them.

So this morning I did just that and I loved the tangy bite of it and the soft pinkish colour! I made this smoothie with yoghurt (from the farmers market) by lack of any non-dairy milk, but you can use any liquid you like.

Ingredients:
1 handful of raspberries
1 mango
1 banana
bit of yoghurt
bit of chia seeds
spoonful of rice syrup
Peal the banana and mango, add all the other ingredients and blend well. Delicious!

Sidewalks

Level II workshop in Miksang Contemplative Photography is about Making Contact. This is about meeting fully the thatness of that, before our thoughts and without afterthoughts kick in, totally in the moment, without any pre-conceited ideas. Level II is about experiencing the totality instead of going into elements. It has a sense of stillness, it is no moment and it is not moving. We go into the experience of going into the thatness (THAT is what you see, outside of you), not exciting, not poetic. If you'd come back the next day, you could meet it again (event-free zone).

One of the assignments in level II is Sidewalks and it's about meeting the full sidewalkness of sidewalks. Below are a few examples. Click on the caption below the picture to go to the corresponding blog post.

orange grid on street, August 2014

street, June 2014

sidewalks of Prague, April 2014

train station platforms, August 2013

campus sidewalks, July 2013

yellow sidewalks, February 2012

workshop level II: sidewalk, February 2012

By totality of that is meant the bodily feeling of that by making contact. Be conscious of what you see and have curiosity to explore. The world is a sacred place in all its aspects.

Street: Orange grid

A few weeks ago the faded orange grid on the tramtracks close to campus were repainted. I've been wanting to go there and photograph it since before my staycation, but didn't get round to do it.

Today I walked over there in between rain showers to have a look. Because the streets were still wet the orange colour just popped. Unbelievable!

You probably all know by now that I love patterns and these were so fantastic, I got a little excited by looking at them.

I also like the fact that you can see the old and the new layers of paint, they're quite crude actually. Nothing subtle about it, but then again, these patterns are to warn pedestrians so they should be plain to see.
Anyways, I enjoyed looking at the orange patterns, I hope you do too.

DIY: mini photo book Summer 2013

One of my staycation goals this year was to finish my mini photo book of my vacation of Summer 2013. I succeeded. Most of the book was already done, but I needed to deal with some final details like lettering, buying extra materials and creating a cover.

I re-used a cardboard parcel as a box in which I could lay my mini book. On the front cover I stuck some photos that I didn't use in the mini book and I strengthened the edges of the photos and the box with gold-colored washitape.

The sticky letters and numbers I used on the cover of the box are available in most bookshops or office supply stores.

The mini book fits neatly in the folds of the cardboard box, I didn't have to resize or do anything about it.

I used two silver coloured rings for binding all the pages together. The mini book contains three different colours of card stock: white, red and blue. Red was used for the first part of my vacation, a short to trip to Braunfels, Germany. Read the blogpost about that trip over here.

red section: Braunfels, Germany

The white pages contain train tickets of travel days, photos of outings or social events. The blue pages contain photographs of the assignments of the Miksang Contemplative Photography workshop, level I and II.

theme 1: Colour

theme 2: the sidewalkness of sidewalks

On our day off we would like to go to nearby villages to have a look around and buy some lovely fresh French pastries. 

theme 3: pattern

photographing each other

last page of mini book

All the photos were developed at a local print shop.