“Flow” is a series of paintings I have been working on for a number of years. All of these pieces reflect on my inner flow. In hindsight, I can pinpoint what development I was going through when working on them. Call it a diary of some sorts, or soul portraits.

Flow No. 5 took me a long time. 2011 has not been easy thus far, not for me and I am guessing not for most of you either. This era seems to be all about navigating by the stars and discovering halfway through our voyage that some of our waypoints have dropped from the sky.

I am not quite happy with how the painting turned out. It is too stiff, it doesn’t hold a certain “je-ne-sais-quoi” (at least, not to me). Then again, this means it is an adequate representation of these past couple of months – the “wow”-factor has been lacking from my inner flow as well. In that respect, the painting is a success.

Though I cannot improve on certain aspects of my life, I can try and improve on my inner flow. This painting obviously is telling me it is time to do so!

Click here for a larger image (on my portfolio site).

Thank you all for your kind words. We'll manage (of course we will), though it might take some time to get used to life without our fur ball. I've dug up some pre-digital era photographs to help us get some perspective. (He was such a cute kitten! Perhaps I'll pester you with a couple of sentimental posts later.)

Yesterday, a large flock of sparrows gathered in the trees along our street. I hurried outside, but could only capture a small part of their song before my camera battery ran empty.

This sound would've been music to the ears of our forest cat (our other cat is more laid back). He'd surely have tried to secure one or two of these lovely creatures for his luncheon. Afterwards, he would've wandered off to the fields and watch them fly away to the south, happily squinting at the sun.

And so the chirping has changed from feeding time call for the peckish pet to farewell song for the travelling soul.



(Please visit Francesca at FuoriBorgo for more Corner Views of the world.)

I am taking the liberty of stepping away from the usual suspects on this blog to tell you about how we dealt with the recent loss of our beloved Norwegian forest cat. You may skip this if you feel this might be too personal (there are some photographs in there as well).

The good thing about life is that if lived well and in good health, it is very enjoyable, filled with lots of social interaction, sunshine and heaps of good food.

The bad thing about life is that it will, without fail, end, and that the ending is not always pretty.

This morning we got a call that our cat had been found. He was actually just a couple of metres from his usual stomping ground, a cluster of copses on one side of the village, with lots of ditches and a wealth of nice, yummy muskrats.

I so loved this cat. I think in each human life there is only ever one pet that will mean the world to people. He was that to me.

I knew very well what I got into when I bought him almost twelve years ago. It is very hard to keep a Norwegian forest cat indoors. His true cat spirit is to go out and hunt, and his human bit is to be very sociable and tender. That is why it is such a lovely breed.

I trained him for half a year, then let him out on his own. He nearly died in a car accident, but after weeks of recovery, he was up and about, and we could not keep him inside. We tried, but he was very, very unhappy. So we had to let him go, and even now, after what has happened, I have no regrets about that.

Warmth. Joy. Peace. A good hunt (almost every night). Lots of nature. And a rough end.

This has been the stuff of his life. And what a beautiful life it was.

Sometimes Top3 asks for drawing assignments.

The first part of this assignment was to copy a Warhammer figurine as best as possible, focusing on its posture, and at the same time be creative in texturing its body (9.0)

The second part of the assignment was to try and create depth in the box underneath the figurine (7.5)

I especially like his face:

Top3 and Top4 are constantly designing silly things. They prefer big projects which require some help. That's because they love to distract us, preferably when we are working, or on the phone or USING THE TOILET, for Pete's sake.


Tonight Top4 doodled this silly little watch on her wrist. She can't tell time yet, is not really interested in the subject, but the concept of a bracelet keeping score of the hours does appeal to her.


This is just an hour later, after she had fallen asleep. The ink is now all over her hands, and I think the eye has left the building already, perhaps in search of our beloved Norwegian forest cat, who has been on a walkabout since last Friday. I really hope time will bring him back.

Please visit Francesca at FuoriBorgo for more Corner Views of the world!

PS Like our new layout? Still working on a few items, whenever I have the time. (Sjeesh, you'd think this post wasn't about silliness, but about time.)

This evening, we ate pasta with a sauce I very cleverly contrived out of leek and yellow turnip (cooked in vegetable broth and then pureed), mixed with Francesca's almond-parsley spread and topped with fried onion & garlic.

I liked it, though that doesn't necessarily mean it's good, as I do not have a sense of smell and my taste buds tend to feast on the freakiest combinations...

Top3 and Top4 aren't particularly picky eaters, but perhaps my concoction really was too outlandish, since dinner lasted forever and my foodies got really distracted:

This cap sealer was staring me in the eye when I opened the bottle this morning...

Dick Bruna is the creator of these iconic books.

They were a hit back in the sixties, when Top1 was a toddler.

I think they were a hit in the seventies as well. I can't remember if I read these, but I must have, because I know most of them by heart.

And they most certainly were a hit in the noughties, when Top3 and Top4 were toddlers.

So I'm guessing that they'll be a hit with our grandchildren too, toddlers in the upcoming roaring twenties.

For more Corner Views of the world, please visit Francesca at FuoriBorgo. (It'll be worth your while!)

Top4 is a very bright girl. At six, she knows all numbers and letters by heart. In fact, she mastered this even before her birthday - remember the Crafting Planet? But somehow, since she was still in kindergarten, she felt she didn't need to act upon this knowledge. She kept her quick wit and zest for crafting, but lost interest in books, other than comics and the ones we'd read to her.

Worse, she regressed to toddler stage on more than one occasion, complete with endless tantrums and silliness about not knowing how to dress or tie her shoelaces. She'd refuse to help with folding the laundry or tidying up. Despite a few helpful moves, more often than not, the answer to any request or question was: No!

For a while there, I feared she would go even further back, to the first two years of her life, which she basically spent on my lap, either nursing or commenting on the current state of affairs. (She was an early talker.) We attribute this clinginess to the fact that she had whooping cough as a baby. She just wouldn't lay down anymore. And I don't blame her. Laying down equalled turning blue and gasping for air. (Top3 had whooping cough too. Hell of a time.)

But lo and behold, earlier this month she started grade 1 and within a week (in which we forced ourselves to be strict, which I don't particularly enjoy, since my own upbringing was very strict, but it works for her) she is back to reading and writing, undressing and dressing, cleaning her room, asking polite questions, trying to be helpful. Not all the time, but she's definitely making an effort.

Apparently she feels it's time to do something with all that brain power.

To celebrate, I arranged some of the cute cards she wrote us this afternoon, to simulate the Dutch flag.

Top1 knows a lot about physics, and I am catching up. Lately, I've been reading a lot about the string theory, dimensions, black holes, the Big Bang and the like.

As this weekend was National Heritage Day in the Netherlands, we decided to hop on over to Dwingeloo, since 1956 the proud host of a radio telescope used to pick up radio waves of hydrogen emitted by gaseous clouds, pulsars and other elements in the universe.

What appealed to me most, was the enthusiasm of the volunteers operating and restoring this old telescope. These are very bright people, mainly retired astronomers, some of them famous in their own right.

They explained about pulsars, dead stars, still emitting waves, like a heartbeat, long after they've seized to exist properly.

And they told us the story of an astronomer so in love with this particular telescope, the work he'd been conducting here, that he requested he be buried underneath after his death. Part of his ashes are indeed there.

Though their work is all maths, lots of equations and arithmetic sequences, at heart these men are little boys reaching out, with a very romantic outlook on life and death and the universe. They are not afraid to live a life of knowing, each and every minute, that earth is just another planet and we are just a herd of silly creatures roaming this tiny speck. And yet again, through their continuous efforts to grasp what the universe is all about, they demonstrate the greatness of the human spirit. Our ability to look beyond the nitty-gritty, to step away from the details and dwell on the bigger picture, is that not what makes us a very special race?

Stargazers are amazing.

I don't know about you, but I have a hard time coping with chaos. Large portions of my life have evaporated whilst I was busy tidying up around me, again and again and again, to get some grip. Stuff and chaotic surroundings get to me easily.

So it feels wonderful to finally be able to say: I like Chaos. Better yet: I love Chaos. 'Cause that's what this brooch Top1 just put up on his Etsy shop is all about. Chaos captured in solid brass.

To me, the toothy grin of this Easter Bunny is indispensable.

Why, you ask?

I don't really know. It just feels like that. I've thrown out lots of stuff Top3 and Top4 made in school for a variety of holidays, but I can't bear to part with E.B.

When I'm old and senile, he'll probably sit on the one shelf I'm alloted at the retirement home, and I'll honestly believe I was the one who made him. (Truth is I could never muster such a superb grin. This bunny is all Top4's doing.)

Go visit Francesca over at FuoriBorgo for more Corner Views of the world!

So, we're back. It's quite hard to be back, actually, especially since this second week of camping was much better than the previous run. We started with rain (lots of it), but ended up extending our stay to enjoy a bout of perfect weather.

Here's a totally random impression of our adventures on the Dutch island Texel:

We Found A House Of Cards

Top 3 and Top4 Went Up Up Up

Top4 Endulged In Her Hobby (Sleeping)

Top1 Played "Find Waldo" At The Beachcombers Museum

We Visited This Proud Lighthouse

And I Finished A Pair of Toe-Up Socks For Top3