"Yippee"

"Yippie" is the dog "mascot" on the boat we stayed on when we were on our bike trip. He would stay in this container if reprimanded-like a time out. The other place he would stay was in the saddlebags on the bike.

Fall Anemones

This is a painting I worked on just before we went on holidays and three weeks later the anemones are still putting on a lovely shoe in the garden. Every fall, the abundance of bloom from the coneflowers and echinacea have come to a brown halt and we still get a last,great show from these beautiful, delicate blossoms! They twist and twirl toward the light with stems, buds and flowers gently nodding in the wind. I frequently noticed an abundance of these plants in the dutch gardens we biked past last week.

The painting in the back wall of the room is a "last Judgement" Scene. The women in the room is holding scales as if she is weighing her jewellry but there are other hidden meanings. The artist has the light source coming from an upper window. I just love the richness of the fabrics.

February !st,1953, during high tide and a big storm, the dikes broke and the Province of Zeeland was inundated. This tower is all that is left of one little town. Biking on the dike, we realized how vulnerable the Netherlands is to the ocean.

Relief carving above a doorway

When you look at old building and churches from a certain era, various artists and artisans were employed to decorate the towns and cities where they lived. Their work has lasted centuries for us to admire. The graffiti of another age?

The day before we started the 'bike and barge" trip we biked to Delft and visited the "Vermeer" museum, which, though it contains no real works of his, shows how he developed his art and the intricate use of perspective. I love his use of colour as in this one "Women with Red Hat"

Top Birch #4

We just got back from a wonderful two week holiday in the Netherlands and Belgium.. A"Bike and Barge Tour". We pedalled our hearts out, had fabulous weather and came home with information overload. So much history and art etc. Will post some pictures from our trip in the coming days. I was told that the last of the birch still had to be posted so here it is Gerrit! Here's a picture of our bikes, all ready to go.