MyWorld Tuesday

The pictures show Kasteel Hoensbroek one of the largest castles in the Netherlands. It is only a 5 minutes drive from our home. Our part of the country has a rich history. Our province (Limburg) has been occupied by almost any European tribe from Romans and even earlier tribes to Germans, French etc. That's why we are surrounded by castles. They were built by gentry or nobility to defend themselves from enemies. If you would like to know more about the castle please click here.
The castle contains over 60 rooms and is now used as an official marriage location, for conferences,as a museum, for parties etc. I am not sure if there are families living in the castle nowadays. I remember that a few families lived there some decades ago among which was a welknown Dutch writer: Bertus Aafjes.

The entrance


The cour (courtyard)


Seen from the south


North-west

Skywatch Friday

The last signs of winter and the first of spring. I really love those old bare oak trees. They are so much more interesting than when covered in leaves.


A tit has found a place to start a family. I could not see if he/she was feeding or still building.


And only 20 steps away a couple of geese were walking their babies. Dad got really nasty when a duck came to close.


These were the first photos taken with my new camara. Again a simple Kodak EasyShare.

For more interesting SkyWatch pictures click here.

Sky watch Friday

All that water scares me sometimes. This is Holland, two provinces at the coast and below sea level. Fortunately I live in the 'safe' part of the Netherlands far above sea level. Far right you can see part of the Delta Works the huge project to keep the water out. If you click on the pic you'll have a better view.

My World Tuesday

No spectacular buildings or views to show. I went to a quilt retreat last week end with 45 women. You probably can imagine that I need some time to get myself back again. If you are interested in a girls week end out click here

My World Tuesday

We had strong gales last week end which caused a lot of damage. Roofs were blown away, trees fell over etc. We were rather lucky. Only the fence collapsed. But it seems that the snow has finally gone ;-)

My World Tuesday

I am afraid I can't show you exciting pictures today. I wanted to but the weather got in my way. This week end untill today midnight it is carnival here in the southern part of the Netherlands. Today there was a parade in my birthplace and my intention was to take some colourful and merry pictures. But it snowed like it had been snowing for the last 6 days and I really didn't feel like standing in the cold for hours and with my feet in about 4 inches of snow. We live here in a traditionally catholic region and the history of carnival goes way back to the middle ages. Of course it is celebrated much differently now than it was then. Though we don't take part in the celebrations any more it still is fun to watch and enjoy the dressed up people and their music in the parades. But we stayed at home which was a good decision for the snow just would not stop.

This is what we saw in our street, no parade but a snow shovel


I can't remember ever having so much snow in our country!