Variation on a theme. You have seen me wearing orange trousers with sock shoes and you have seen me wearing these pebble coloured trousers with the Daisy Duck shoes. Today I am wearing an orange kimono style jacket with the pebble coloured trousers and the Daisy Duck shoes. The jacket and orange trousers are a suit. Apparently, combining clothes I you already own, is getting easier for me.

Marjolein and I toured through a lovely old part of Amsterdam, called Jordaan. Be aware that if you park your car there, you pay €8 per hour.

We started with coffee and apple pie at café Hegeraad and wandered through the streets behind the café.

Below: I am ‘sitting’ on one of these posts that prevent you from parking your car there. Not a comfortable seat.

Below: This bench was much better. I am surrounded by plants and flowers. So lovely.

Below: The residents of this house, take greenery very seriously. A lot of old houses were torn down in this neighbourhood as they were not built to last very long. Mind you, there are enough beautiful old houses left to enjoy.

Below: I cannot make out whether this is a house or a side building or…whatever? In any case they were flying the rainbow flag as it is World Pride Days in Amsterdam. Good on them. We need more respect for the queer people.

Below: We discovered a little almshouse courtyard.

Below: Serves beautifully as background.

Below: This is looking back from the courtyard to the entrance.

Below: There is a plaque hanging in the entrance archway. It is a memorial sign marking the 350-year existence of the Raepenhofje (almshouse), founded by Pieter Adriaensz. Raep. If you click ‘Raepenhofje” in the previous sentence you will be linked to a page with more explanation. It is the oldest almshouse in Amsterdam and not really open for public. We were in and out quickly and kept very silent.

Now we get to the flaws of this jacket. It slides to the back and often leaves one side at the front longer than the other side. So, I pinned the two front sides together.

Below: In this photo I am trying to pull the front sides down making this a very weird sight.

Below: Here is another blooper photo. Better only to wear this jacket open as I did in this 2021 post with a white column underneath.
I chose to wear my long green ‘coral’ earrings by Lara Design.

Below: The warehouses have been converted into apartments (expensive ones). The shutters make them picturesque.

Below: The first photo at the top of this post is taken in the spot below, on a bridge across a canal, creating a striking picture.

Below: There were more warehouse apartments on this canal. This one is with the Amsterdam coat of arms.

Below: Marjolein spotted the two apartment buildings with a stag on both of them. Did you spot the lady on the third floor looking out of her window? The glass doors are stable doors and there isn’t a French balcony, just a big steel beam to stop people from falling. Most of the residents decided to put plants on the beam.
At the top of the left building, it says ‘t Vijfde Groene Hart’ (The Fifth Green Heart). It was built around 1725. The big building on the right is called ‘Het Kleine Groene Hert’ (The small green stag). There is also another building called ‘Het Groote Groene Hert ‘(The big green stag).

Below: One last outfit photo, sitting on the stairs, leading up to a door. Not my best picture.

Below: Marjolein did much better with her stairs photo. Isn’t she lovely in blue and white with a touch of green?

Below: Love these houses with the white piping and the round, pointed and triangle windows.

We had a last drink at the Theo Thijssen square (see the statue below). Theo was a writer and a teacher.

Marjolein took photos of me with other earrings than the long green ‘coral’ ones; earrings that would also go with this outfit.

Below: My mint green ones from polymer clay, ever so light weight. Not my best photo; I call this my potato head, don’t ask me why.

Below: Also polymer clay and also a good match with the outfit. Better image of me.

Below: The cream bag I scored a couple of weeks ago in the sale (50% off). You saw a sneak preview last week when I showed my golden yellow blouse at the end of the post. Because I didn’t have a close-up of the long green coral earrings, I included them in this photo. It made Ron laugh; he said, “It looks as if your bag has chicken legs.

Below: Two last houses.

Below: This is the basement window of the house above.

Below: It is like the leaning tower of Pisa, very much at a slant.

What happened in my life this week

We enjoyed a belated Father’s Day outing with the children and granddaughters at a pancake restaurant whose owners had created a miniature children’s wonderland, complete with fairy-tale buildings and plenty of entertainment.

Below: There were green trees and pretty flowers everywhere, but of course, the strange buildings with witches etc. were the main attraction. The brown tubes you see coming out of the house are slides.

Below: Zoë on her way to the ‘bakery’ to sell us bread.

Below: We had pancakes for lunch indoors (because of the wasps). If you pressed a red button, the ‘band in the attic’ started to play, real loud. See the puppets at the top?

Below: Little Evy started to ‘dance’. Her moves don’t differ much from mine haha.

Below: I was really pleased with this photo as it was taken unexpectedly and I am standing straight!

While we were at the pancake restaurant, Ruby’s husband called me. Ruby, my posture teacher, is in hospital in Sweden with a basilar skull fracture. After several weeks in intensive care, she has now been moved to a ward. She understands a great deal and can say a few words, but her recovery is expected to take at least a year. Most importantly, she is alive. I remain deeply grateful for her course.

After quite a long time, Janneke and I met for coffee again. Comfortably on a sunny terrace, overlooking the Spaarne canal, although we didn’t see much of that view. Talk, talk, talk.
Below: One of Janneke’s sons was with us and he took our photo. Whenever temperatures are right, I will wear this outfit. Love it. (Link to original post.)

Ron’s brother and SIL came for a visit, always nice. As it was warm, I wore my Essentiel Antwerp summer dress (below). We stayed in the shade of the garden which was comfortable.

Below: When it became hot that afternoon, I switched to sandals. I prefer the dress with cowboy boots but Roman sandals are fine by me on hot days. The colour of the dress is more like below than above.

Below: Ron came across a photo of his first boat on Facebook. It was a notary boat, also known as a saloon boat. Although it was lovely, it had one major drawback: the steering wheel was inside at the front, so the skipper could not feel the wind in his hair. His second boat was much better, but he has since sold that one too.

Below: The lovely blue and white Lintico top is not a good combination with my narrow yellow trousers. Husband Ron liked it; Marjolein and I did not. Marjolein even joked that I looked like SpongeBob haha.
The top looks much better with the wide white Lintico trousers, an outfit I wore a couple of weeks ago to the Rembrandt Days in Leiden. Never mind, I will think of other combinations.

Question:

Do you all know how to recognise a link? For instance a link to an older blog post or to a Wikipedia page? You can spot a link because the letters of a word (or a few words) in a text are blue.
These are the two clues that there is a link.

• Different colour: The words appear in a bright colour, in my case blue, that stands out from the black or grey body text. (I have added another clue; I make the words italic.)
• Cursor change: When you move your mouse pointer over the text, the arrow icon changes into a small pointing hand.

Most of you will know this, but I happened to come across somebody who didn’t, which made me decide to mention it. In the first paragraph of this post I included two links if you want to check.

Greetje