While Marjolein and I were in The Hague, photographing last week’s outfit with the lime green cashmere jumper, we went into a shop…where I totally fell in love with this wide green and white floral skirt. Sometimes such a skirt can make you look enormous, like a hippo, but that all depends how it is cut. And this skirt is cut so well, it creates a perfect A-line.

When I tried the skirt on, I was wearing the lime green jumper and they went so well together. Now that it is still a bit chilly, I am wearing a shirt underneath. I like it better without, but sacrifice the look for comfort.

Be prepared to see a lot (and I mean a lot) of photos.

Ron will probably say it is too much, but I know, dear readers, you feel differently.

Below: Marjolein and I were in Delfshaven, which is now an area of Rotterdam but used to be a village. At a certain time they even earned city rights. Rotterdam preserved the historical look very well. The first photo of the post and the two below were taken from a bridge over the canal.

Below: Isn’t this stunning? We were so lucky with the weather.

Below: This is from across the canal, looking at the same houses as above.

Below: We started quite early in the morning and stayed on the side of the canal where we’d find shade. This pretty step gable building has a stained glass shop on the ground floor.

Below: Let’s use the shop as background. The blue bag I am holding is the pasticcino bag by Weekend Max Mara. I bought it years ago in a Max Mara outlet near Amsterdam. It was therefore less expensive. Which is good as I think it is a ridiculous design. You are supposed to hold it like I do in the photo below and in the first photo at the top. So inconvenient. And it is still popular.

Below: An old-timer from around 1972 (is that an old-timer?). It is a Citroën Ami, probably only known in Europe as it is a French car. The owner clearly looked after it well.

Below: I took photo after photo of this historical spot in Rotterdam. I had never heard about it. There were tourists who had though haha, but it wasn’t bad. We only saw two groups.

Below: This beautiful house offered the possibility of a sitting down pose.

Below: As the opportunity was there, I took it. Nobody there to shoo us away.

Below: Close-up of the two stones in the brickwork above the first floor windows.

Below: And a close-up of the facebrick in the middle. I adore facebricks.

Below: Another facebrick somewhere on a house. It looks rather modern for the year 1649.

Below: We walked towards the mill. Here you go, a genuine Dutch mill.

Below: Marjolein laid on her back to take this photo haha. Like a true photographer.

Below: Here she is. Marjolein thought the neck of her new jumper was a bit bare and used the collar of the shirt to fill it up.

Below: These are the earrings she was wearing.

Below: There are more buildings to come, but first we had lunch. I was having a sandwich with pesto and I attract stains like fire attracts moths. I covered myself with two plastic bags. The waitress thought it was hilarious and insisted on taking a photo which I had to put on the blog. Done.
It is so nice when you get older, you just don’t give a fig about what people might think of you.

Below: Outside of the restaurant was a beautiful old tree for me to sit under. I had ‘fluffed up’ my hair as I am still without my hairpiece. Not doing too badly, am I?

Below: The magnificent door of the Protestant Orphanage.

Below: Some explanation about Delfshaven and the orphanage. Both in Dutch and in English.

Below: A bit further down from the orphanage was a distillery.

Below: Explanation about the distillery in Dutch and in English.

Below: Close-up of the three medals which the distillery won In London, Paris and Amsterdam.

Below: The stork on the building is Henkes’ trademark, the distillery brand. Can you see he is holding a fish in its beak?

Below: Two geese appeared on one of the bridges. I decided to take a photo of them with my iPhone.

Below: Not bad. The second goose is bending his neck to pluck his feathers.

Below: Of course, they also had a church.
The letters on the boat say: ‘1912 Nooit volmaakt‘ (Never perfect).

Below: There were so many beautiful buildings. This one has a sign saying ‘Rust Roest‘ (Rust never sleeps).

Below: Close- up of the building’s top, the one shown above.

Below: I think I should stop now.

With this virtual tour through historical Delfshaven you have been travelling vicariously through me. I hope you enjoyed it.

What happened in my life this week

We are not done with photos yet as I had another photography workshop. This time ‘Birds of prey in flight‘. We were with a large group (32 participants), two falconers and two photographers to guide us. It was marvellous but I didn’t do well enough. You are about to see three birds in flight and they look good but when I zoom in on my computer, I can see they don’t stay sharp. And that is the whole purpose of the exercise haha.

Below: Three photos of falcons in flight.

It is so much easier when they sit on the hand of the falconer haha.

Below: Beautiful creature.

Below: Serious looking owl.

We were guests at a farm where they had cows, calves, sheep, lambs etc. So nice.

Below: Darling little calf was curious.

Below: The sheep and lambs were in the field.

Below: As soon as they saw that I didn’t have any food or treats for them, they turned their backs to me and walked away.

That was rural Holland.

Below: Now for some city life. This is the Basilica of Saint Nicholas in Amsterdam.

I had to go to our capital to see my jeweller. Arthrosis in my right hand had formed a wider knuckle on my ring finger and my ring didn’t fit anymore. They are going to enlarge it and put a ‘spring’ in it, so it won’t turn when it has passed the knuckle. How ingenious.

Below: Our friend Arine came up from the south of the country. We chatted and also went out to sit on a terrace in the sun, as by her request. Lovely and kind woman.

Below: I wore this outfit for Arine’s visit. Here is the link to the original post. I only changed the earrings.

I am going to stop now. This post is long enough. Too long?

Greetje