Finally, a bright colour! I can hear you think that. I must admit that I missed it too. Today’s outfit features a baby soft lime green cashmere jumper. Such a find. It was one of the few bright colours in that shop, so it was easy to spot.

My black jeans that I could wear every day. They are my favourite at the moment. The way they are cut is excellent; they flatten my belly and my legs seem even longer than they actually are. I put a safety pin at the back of each leg to shorten the hem and prevent them from dragging across the street.

Below: We started at this little canal in The Hague. We, being Marjolein and me. She has become my go-to photographer.

Below: As it was still chilly, I put a Uniqlo heat tech shirt on underneath the jumper. The belt is from a skirt which I gave away (wrong length).
This is my easy styling, black and white with a bright colour. I should really be more creative.
In my defence, I did add pink earrings and not black ones, thus adding another colour = more interest.
The lamp post you see on the right, is indeed slanted. A car must have knocked it in this position.

Below: A stump like this reminds me of the first English sentence I learned at school. “Splash goes the water. A fish, cries the boy, as he sat on the stump of a beech tree.” Funny, how you never forget.

Below: Balancing on the railing. One wrong move and I would have had to swim.

Below: We moved on and passed a church. Beautiful building but I can never be in the picture too as I would be tiny. Mind you, you can see our reflection in the window.

Below: The church is from around 1845 and was built by order of King Willem II as a stable. In 1853 his son Willem III, donated the stables to the Nederlands Hervormde Kerk (Dutch Reformed Church). The stables were too expensive to upkeep, even for a king.

Below: In this street were some nice houses and this overhang was particularly nice. There wasn’t enough distance to get it all in the photo.

Below: Close-up, subtracted from a larger photo. I keep forgetting to let Marjolein take a proper close-up. The pink earrings by Lara Design are new. I asked Marcella to get me some big earrings and she offered me the pink ones. Excellent. Then I wanted silver buttons with them. She went through her buttons box and came up with big ones to keep everything in proportion. Happy me, I think they are smashing. She offers this custom-made service to all her clients.
I am not promoting her earrings as a barter deal or so. No no no. I do pay for them, but as we have become good friends, I do get a discount.

Below: And here is my partner in crime, Marjolein. She wore a fantastic shirt which she got with a heavy discount. That’s the way to buy expensive stuff.

Below: Close-up of her shirt and bag. I have the same bag but it doesn’t come out to play very often. A pity really, as it is sweet.

Below: We had coffee and lunch in a restaurant we have been before (Barista Café). I can recommend it.

Below: On our way back, I realised that I hadn’t taken any photos of beautiful buildings. No problem: I parked the car, got out and photographed three fabulous buildings from nearly the same spot. It was in Groot Hertoginnelaan.

Groot Hertoginnelaan is a smashing old and wide lane, 1.5 kilometres long. It was named after Groothertogin (Grand Duchess) Sophie van Oranje Nassau, daughter of King Willem II (the King of the stables above). The lane was built in 1893 and used to have big trees in the middle; alas no more; there is a tram running now.

Below: Groot Hertoginnelaan around 1910 with trees in the middle.

Below: This is Grand Duchess Sophie van Oranje Nassau. (Photo credits.)

So much for a bit of history.

Below: As times are changing, this beautiful building at Groot Hertoginnelaan is now a Best Western hotel. It is not expensive but there is nothing left of the building’s greatness once you step inside.

Below: Third and last photo of a beautiful building on Groot Hertoginnelaan.

And that concludes this part of the post.

What happened in my life this week

Let’s start with an outfit.

Below: My green jumper from Essentiel Antwerp and my cream high waisted trousers by JUST Female.
I wore it this week the way I featured it on the blog in 2021 but the weather wasn’t warm enough for it.

My physiotherapist is doing her best to get my stiff neck supple again. It takes a couple of sessions. No idea how I got it.

The pedicure worked her magic on my feet and my toenails are bright red again. A bit early as it isn’t warm enough to wear open toe shoes, but I am ready. In winter I never bother with nail varnish on my toes. I would only see it myself for half an hour a day.

Below: Oh gosh, I came across this photo from 2010. With brown hair. How time flies.

Marjolein and I did another photoshoot in a picturesque part of Rotterdam, called Delftshaven. It is now a canal with old historic houses on both sides and it used to be a little village. Although, at some stage, they did earn the right to call themselves a city. The weather was beautiful and we had a lovely day.
You will be surprised when you see the outfit we photographed (next week), but here is a preview of the area (below).

I saw my dear friend Lia who graciously took outfit photos too. As a blogger you can never have enough photos in stock. It was another gorgeous day; we even had trouble finding a spot which wasn’t flooded with sunlight (bad for outfit photos). She refrained from having her photo taken for the blog. Too much bother, she thinks haha. Love her to death.

The adventure we had when we were 17 and spent our first holiday on our own without parents is something we will never forget.

We stuffed everything from a tent to clothes to food in two second-hand old prams and took the train through the country. Why? Because I couldn’t carry a backpack and a pram is the easiest cart to handle. (Some blurry ancient photos below.)

Below Lia with our prams.

At the end of the holiday, I came home to my parents and told them:
“Hi, I am only stopping for a day. I am going back to Amsterdam (wrong word), because Johnny (wrong word) and I are going to live together (wrong word) in a sleep-in (very wrong word) in Amsterdam.”
How naive can you be??? All of this in one sentence at the age of 17. The front door slammed tight, the key was turned and I was grounded. Never saw Johnny again. I am over him now, obviously, but it hurt for a long time. We didn’t have mobile phones at the time, I had no money and I didn’t dare to run away. His actual name was Patrick Ingan, I think, a Swiss guy from Luzern.
Below: Me and Johnny.

Luckily, I met Ron who made and makes me very happy. Perhaps I told you this story before, I cannot remember.

Anyway, this is it for this week.

Greetje