Cover

It looks like one of the covers i designed and am most proud of will never actually be printed, so i might as well publish it virtually here

Visitor

Have had a few visitors in my new house already. Most of them human. This one, though, was a tad more arachno and decided it liked my bath-tub and stayed there for a while. I'm always impressed how such a relatively tiny creature can scare the shit out of a relatively big lump like myself. And as much as i respect spiders and enjoy that their diet consists of creatures i'd rather not have in my home, i need my bath and this fine specimen was a couple of sizes too large to tolerate in my home. So i got the widest glass i have and an envelope and went to evict him. As i moved my hand closer to catch him under the glass, i kept fearing he'd jump up like in the movies. Thankfully the movies are quite wrong on this count. As soon as i'd trapped him, i put the envelope under the glass and released him outside. Had the shivers after that, and wondered why spiders are so scary.

Swimming pool

It's good to have your perspective switched every once in a while, i sometimes think and sometimes not. This swimming pool by Leandro Erlich quite literally does that



(source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/purplecloud/217628552/sizes/l/ )

Siiso

Lovely colors in this piece by Siiso, called 'Underwater'.



(source: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5517417 )

The well of lost plots

Matej Kren is an artist who has used books to make sculptures. The picture below reminded me of a title in the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde, The well of lost plots (the latest title in the series, 'First among sequels', still makes me giggle).



(source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/16239588@N00/820100684/sizes/l/ )

Snow on branches

Yesterday between 10 and 15 cm of snow fell -though snow never really falls, does it? It twirls and tumbles and frollicks (is frollick a word or dogfood?).

Morning gold

While driving to pick up some Danes for the competition yesterday, Boo and i were treated with a spectacular morning sky, so i asked her to take some pictures

Blueish grey

Grey can be very beautiful, in that melancholic way, i think. One of my favorite Ani songs is Grey. The sky today seemed to be having fun with variations on a theme of blue and grey.

Pilot whales

The list of animals i want to swim with of course includes whales. This lucky guy is swimming with Pilot whales



(source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/curly98/3044869698/sizes/o/ )

Sky lanterns festival

There's a festival in Taiwan where they let hundreds of sky lanterns loose each year; imagine watching that as a kid, it must be magical.



(source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dans180/2285581423/sizes/o/ )



(source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26974647@N08/2542664410/sizes/l/ )

Narwhal

If it's not enough that a Narwhal's tusk is a thing of immense beauty, it also has a really incredible function:

"Nweeia has discovered that the narwhal's tooth has hydrodynamic sensor capabilities. Ten million tiny nerve connections tunnel their way from the central nerve of the narwhal tusk to its outer surface. Though seemingly rigid and hard, the tusk is like a membrane with an extremely sensitive surface, capable of detecting changes in water temperature, pressure, and particle gradients. Because these whales can detect particle gradients in water, they are capable of discerning the salinity of the water, which could help them survive in their Arctic ice environment. It also allows the whales to detect water particles characteristic of the fish that constitute their diet. There is no comparison in nature in tooth form, expression, and functional adaptation."

(source: http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2005/12.15/01-narwhal.html )



(source: http://www.doobybrain.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/narwhal-in-water-blue.jpg )

Another sky

Can't stop photographing the sky. I love the way it absolutely does not seem to care we think its beauty is almost cliché and makes another variation on a theme. I always wonder who painted the sky -assuming dead artists in heaven are allowed to go nuts on the biggest canvas. I think it was Magritte last night.

c'est tres ohlalala

This is the Renault Dauphine. I like it a lot



(source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/21924316@N02/2728218661/sizes/o/in/set-72157606522395179/ )

Swimming with elephants

New on the long list of animals i'd like to swim with: elephants




(source: imagincreativity.blogspot.com/)

The eyes of my old apartment

A friend said this weekend she'd miss one of the windows in my old apartment, so i took some pictures of the windows for her. One of them came out quite nice, and i played with it a little today



It made me think of 2 things. One was the expression that the eyes are the windows to the soul. In my old apartment, the windows were the soul of the place. Another thing that popped up in my mind were two lines of a Dutch poem. Roughly translated, they go:

"The clouds, never as fair as when they, framed
by attic windows move past the sky."

interesting flaw

Last thursday, the full moon was shining through a tree in a most beautiful yellow way, so i tried again to shoot it several times, but alas. Some of the mis/outakes were pretty in and of themselves, though

Shoot the moon

and miss completely





Gotta learn how to do that; the moon was so beautiful last night.

odd corona on tree

One of the windows i look out of at the office had this view today

real Orca

Maybe it's stupid, but one of the reasons i so adore my new suit is also because i've always been fascinated by orcas. One of my best dreams was about meeting a killer whale -strangely enough in a flooded street near where i used to live. I'm looking at ways to one day freedive with orca's for real, which can be done in Norway and New Zealand, and maybe also in Canada. In other words, waters too cold for my new suit -though i don't think the orcas would mind.



(source: nationalgeographic.com )

Orca RS1

Have a new suit, the Orca RS1. It's made of very thin and flexible neoprene, and coated so it creates less drag in the water, and has panels so you have more grip on the water. And it's sexy -maybe not on me, but in general they're the sexiest pyjamas i've ever seen. The only reason i hadn't fallen for it completely yet was because i hadn't tested it, but last night i did, despite throbbing forehead. With squeeking sinuses i submerged and came up a happy man: it is a very very good suit. I hope i'll take it far.



(source: orca.com )

Pata Pata no more

About 3 weeks ago a friend send me a link to a youtube movie in which a 76-year old Miriam Makeba was shaking her booty to her classic 'Pata pata'. That's one of those songs that just keep coming back into my life, at least once a year, to spread its sunshine. A couple of days later i saw a poster for a concert she was going to do in Amsterdam, and thought it was a nice coincidence. Today i learned she passed away last sunday after a concert.



(source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Miriam_Makeba.jpg )

The link to this sun of a woman and the reason why now i'll always have association with big old booty swaying to this song is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6w1u8o9ZBc

Lemons

Someone recommended eating 3 lemons as a cure for the sinus-inflamation in my forehead, and since i'd never really tried eating more than a small bit of lemon, i figured i'd go for it. It helped, inasfar that it was so overwhelmingly sour that i forgot about my throbbing forehead for a while. Had 2 entire lemons (well, without the peels) before i had to give up. It took about half an hour before my face relaxed enough to have expressions other than "SOUR!!!!" again.



(source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/awfulsara/68772420/sizes/o/ )

And i think it's going to rain today

On the way to work today, these big fat grey clouds invaded the blue sky at speed. Had to pedal hard against the wind to be indoors before it would start pouring -strangely enough, it never really did.



(the view reminded me of the Randy Newman song 'I think it's going to rain today'. If you don't know it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60AChuvfzUo )

Moon and tree

The evening was full of beauty last saturday; after that sunset and the red red tree, the moon was out in a sky still a little light blue with some flards of cloud. This was the view from my new front door -that is, the view when you can zoom in a bit

Red tree

It's that phase of autumn where some trees have already lost all their leaves, the hedges have started getting brown, but some plants have left their most spectacular colors for their swan song. This tree outside my new place couldn't be more red even if it was a communist

Sunset

Had to stop the car in the middle of the road to photograph this sunset. Was so engrossed by it that it wasn't till two cars passed me that i realized i was blocking the right side of the road.

more cirrus

Lots of whispy clouds saturday evening

Playing Doberman

What i like about this picture is that you can tell that he's not going to give up his boomerang once he reaches his boss. Oh no, he's going to make him chase



(source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rhhardin/3009079944/sizes/o/ )

Tatra

The Czech have built some pretty great cars, especially Tatra.



(source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tatraskoda/2430341885/sizes/o/ )



(source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tatraskoda/2347668323/sizes/o/ )

They've also built a rather cute little truck/van (the 805)



(source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/29725182@N07/2953233677/sizes/o/ )

Steampunk

Been getting more and more fascinated by the esthetics of steampunk. This version of a manta i found particularly gorgeous



(source: http://www.operagallery.com/oeuvres.aspx?id=37&o=3&g=0# )

And this piece i'd like to have in my house



(source: http://www.operagallery.com/oeuvres.aspx?id=37&o=23&g=0 )

Lilac breasted roller

What i didn't know about sparrows is that they like to dress up for Brazilian carnival



(source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/digital_art/57268339/sizes/o/ )

Misty night

This was the view from my window last night; the mist lingers and is still around today, though a lot less orange.

African daisy

A friend sees flowers as proof that god exists. I wonder, going from that hypothesis, if the African daisy is then more proof god is on dope. A flower, shaped like a cartwheel made of spoons?



(source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/algo/19880174/sizes/o/ )

BTW: just to make the point scientists are weird too, the scientific name for this flower is 'Osteospermum', which sounds like the kind of diagnosis you get when you have trouble peeing.

Praying for Cara Blouin

Thank you for the (cauli)flowers, Bellissima.



(source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/daniele82/1213606022/sizes/l/ )