Ardnarmurchan

"Up the airy mountain
Down the rushy glen
We daren’t go a-hunting
For fear of little men." 

- William Allingham, The Fairies, 1850

 

© KH

Autumn leaves

The falling leaves drift by my window The falling leaves of red and gold - Eva Cassidy



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Frostbite

Never say there is nothing beautiful in the world anymore. There is always something to make you wonder in the shape of a tree, the trembling of a leaf. 

- Albert Schweitzer

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A rose

But he that dares not grasp the thorn 
Should never crave the rose. 

- Anne Bronte

 

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Orléans Cathedrale Sainte Croix

I never weary of great churches. It is my favorite kind of mountain scenery. Mankind was never so happily inspired as when it made a cathedral.
- Robert Louis Stevenson

 

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Clan MacDonald Graves

The Massacre of Glencoe     13 february 1692

The graves of the Clan MacDonald, Glencoe Scotland



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Thursday Challenge, Soft

This weeks Challenge: "SOFT" (Pillow, Blanket, Feather, Animals, Clothes,...) 
I chose this photo of a bumblebee in a yellow flower in my garden last summer. 
I like bumblebees. They are very soft. I had one as a 'pet' when I was a child. He fell in the dogs water bowl and I fished him out of there. Put him on a dry place, fed him sirop or so I thought. (I was 9, I didn't know bumblebees didn't eat sirop) But a few days later he seemed stronger and flew away. I could pet him so I try to do that with every bumblebee in my garden. They are very soft indeed! 
Personaly I love this picture. Makes me think of my pet bumblebee! :-) 



Other Thursday challenges can be found here

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Foggy wednesday

Let us go in, the fog is rising 

- Emily Dickinson 

 

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How now brown cow?

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Ice flowers

“a thing of beauty is a joy forever” 
― Robert Frost

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Misty sunday morning

It's a beautiful day (Queen)





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The Jacobite Steamtrain

In dreams, we enter a world that's entirely our own. 

-  Albus Dumbledore

 



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Geese

Watching birds has become part of my daily meditation affirming my connection to the earth body. 

- Carol P. Christ

 



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Thursday Challenge, Books

I consider myself a real bookworm. Imagine my surprise that while I was reading this fellow came creeping by.
No not a bookworm but still.. :-)



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More Thursday challenges here

Sparrow

sing little sparrow sing want you to sing little sparrow singi want you to sing little sparrow si-ng, ah a pretty bird song -Marvin Gaye

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Path

I don't know what my path is yet. I'm just walking on it.
Olivia Newton-John

 

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Blackberry flowers in november

There are always flowers for those who want to see them.

- Henri Matisse 

 

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The sound of silence

*The Sound of Silence* 




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Beetle on Thistle

There are always flowers for those who want to see them.
Henri Matisse

 

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Maria

Sometimes a picture is worth more than a thousand words. Even more with beautiful music. 





Maria in Nijmegen



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Thursday Challenge, Hard (rock, ice, steel, cement..)

These photos were taken on the Jurassic Coast in Dorset, England. There are so many fossils to be found. Lots of  very big ones which are to be admired by everyone and left alone. But you can and may pick up the smaler ones and take them home with you. Or hammer them out of the rocks. Which we did. Some are lying in my garden now! You can see the hands of my ex-husband who was hammering away on some stones. ;-) 




They told us that some fossils are animals or plants but some are just Dino poop! Really!



Other Thursday challenge photos can be found here

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Moth

In my garden I have some herbs. Thyme, oregano. The oregano blooms in summer and attracts all kinds of insects. Bees but also moths. Most common in my garden is the Silver Y moth or in Dutch Gamma uil. 
He likes my oregano a lot so I could take lots of photos of him. 




A huge tongue!



A large body:



Very hairy



© KH

Northumberland

On our way back from Scotland in 2008, we visited Hadrian's wall and Northumberland. They call it 'the forgotten county' for a reason. It's so lovely, but most tourists drive through it, on their way to another destiny. 




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The best things in life...

The best things in life are free. So is nature. I enjoy this time of year so much. Autumn is my favorite season. Up until now we had summer in spring, autumn in summer and summer in autumn (Quoted from Daan)  weatherlike. If you must believe the different weatherchannels we can expect a horrorwinter. Cold, snow, freezingly cold and so on. We'll see about that. For now I'm going to enjoy this weather. I love grey skies, yellow leaves against those skies and all those surprises you find on your walks in the woods. 








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Bright red and yellow

This morning when we went for our sunday forest walk, we came upon a piece of land where the trees were all lined up. Chris, my boyfriend, said that it were trees specially planted there for industrial use. But eventhough they stood in straight lines, their colours were so bright and colourfull. From bright red to lovely yellow. The leaves were falling down rappidly and the trees are almost bare. But I was amazed by those colours. 








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Apple dumplings or appelbollen

Today was very productive. I just finished painting our garden shed, or at least the first layer of paint. It has to dry now and tomorrow we can put layer no 2 on the shed. 

But first I started this morning with baking some Apple dumplings or as they are called in Dutch: Appelbollen.
I'm not sure how the real apple dumplings are made but this is a real Dutch recipe.

I used 8 apples, 8 pieces of puff pastry, sugar and cinnamon.
Take the core out and peel the apple. Put the apple on a piece of puff pastry and fill the apple with a mixture of sugar and cinnamon. Wet the edges of the puff pastry and fold the pastry around the apple so that the ends of the pastry fold over the apple. Put the apple with the folded side inside an aluminum tray and cover the top with an beaten egg. Puncture a little hole in the top.
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celcius. And bake the apple dumplings for about 25 minutes.
 (I have a gas oven so it may depend on your own oven)













© KH

Mushroom art

When I take my weekly forest walk, I take lots of pictures. You see all kinds of mushrooms in all kinds of shapes, sizes and forms. Differents sorts some off which I even don't know the names off. Doesn't matter, they are lovely just the same. 


This one grew on a tree trunk that lay on the ground.




© KH

Thursday Challenge, creative

As long as I can remember I draw. I have lots of sketchbooks filled with drawings. Nowadays I don't draw as much as I did. Most of the time only when I'm on holiday. It's a pitty really because I find it very relaxing. But I simply don't take the time for it and (what is more the issue I think) I'm very critcal of myself.
Just like writing you put your heart and soul into something. But I don't mind to put my stories online or my poems. But I had to think twice before I took this picture of my drawing. The critic in me I guess.

It's a drawing I made on holiday in Scotland.
Loch Leven.



© KH

More thursday challenge blogs: click here

Ceps or Eekhoorntjesbrood

They're back! Eventhough last year they were immediately picked as soon as they showed them selves. They are supposed to tasted good. But I let them stand there for everyone to see. They look so good (okay I admit, tasty even) and majestic between the other mushrooms. 


First a picture from last year (my camera was not doing what he was supposted to yesterday and today) which I took with my former cell phone and then the pics I took yesterday and this morning after a rain shower. 








not sharp enough I know:



© KH