A Stain on Orange Family

While everyone is in the festive mood, dressing in any orange color they could find in their wardrobe, going out to catch the orange spirit during Queen's day celebration.

Concerts setup with free music, orange balloons raising up high...

Stalls getting ready for the big catch/cash with orange parasol at the bar table...

Ladies dressing in red, white, blue (Dutch national flag colors), distributing leaflets

Stalls were setup for a day tax free market. Selling things you don't want like but still enough people bargaining and watching...

An attempt of assassination of Queen and royal family happened in the city of Apeldoorn where the royal family celebration supposed to take place. The incident caused at least 5 deaths and many injured... Not a day we expected and certainly not expecting Queen's day to end with a Dutch flag half mast...

Orange Family

The last 3 days have been extremely busy at work, thanked God tomorrow is public holiday in the Netherlands, the Queen's Day. I just realized I have enough orange color to live up to the festive day. Dutch takes orange color personally to the pride, and surely tomorrow everyone will be wearing orange and eating orange color stuff...

In fact I have already starting to use my orange leather bag since end of last week. May be I should put on the orange shirt and orange sneakers???

How about the orange color jumper?

And a can of softdrink in orange color can?

Happy Queen's Day and most of all Happy Holiday!!

Tulip Mania

Just as what I have imagined, this is what I saw in reality, we didn’t have a clear sky in the afternoon and it was rather cold but the weather remained dry. We didn’t have a clear sky in the afternoon and it was rather cold but the weather remained dry. I love flowers, and Saturday was a colorful day full of flowers and colors… I was really excited and my spirit is uplifted by the colors and I thanked God for making my life colorful with such vibrant colors in Spring. Here are some photos of the flower fields which are comparable to what I have painted. Watch out for a photo album that I am busy loading at the moment.
This week will be a short but busy working week for me… have a blessed week!

Imagining....

This is where I am going and what I am doing today, hopefully the sky stays clear for the rest of the afternoon…. The painting is purely based on my own imagination and impression of what I wish to see afterward, the truth sometime may be very different from the reality but at least I dare to dream… and will dream on lying on the seabed of tulips and bulbs under the clear blue sky.....

Interpretation

This is the last champagne house we visited at Épérnay (Champagne region of France). It is not of a known brand (at least for me) and Champagne De Castellane is the name. Somehow the architecture of the building captured me more than the other big name champagne houses. It also inspires me to really sit down, take my time to study, do a bit of thumb analysis and actually painting down my interpretation...
Time flies, before I realize it is weekend again...what are you going to do this weekend?

Earth Day Graftiti

Yesterday is ‘Earth Day’, and this is my graffiti last night when I was bored watching internet movie. I have heard so much about Earth Hour and Earth Day lately...

I suppose whatever it is called, let us be a little gentler with our Earth and the environment we live in today.

Be it is conscious with water, electricity consumption; be responsible with the waste we produced, dispose things in a proper way would save this Earth for years to come…

Let’s do our little part… will you?

Every Child is an Artist...

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up. ~ Pablo Picasso

What have you been doing lately in your spare time or at your leisure? I am enjoying the two sketch books that I recently acquired through bol.com.

One of them is Paris Sketchbook by Graham Byfield and Mary Kelly.

And my other love goes to My Italian Sketchbook by Florine Asch and Dominique Fernandez. Both artists use different techniques in watercolor painting. I have been studying the water color strokes, the mix of colors and the use of ink pen to depict the contour of the objects. I am still learning to apply those techniques into the nice sceneries I captured and try to have my own way of interpretation in watercolor and not being a copy cat.

How about you? Are you swamp by the mundane of life? Did you kill the creative side of you due to the routine of working life? I am determining to revive the artistic side of me despite of the heftiness of reality…

Do something that is of your interest and follow your heart…
Have a blessed day....

Sunday Afternoon Tea

Also on Sunday afternoon, while resting/recovering at home I made some afternoon tea for myself.

For some left over sour strawberry, I added some pressed ginger to the honey seasoned sour strawberry. My stomach is cold, anything that will warm me up would be good, ginger is always a good source of warmth and it goes well with the sweetness of honey.

Besides the ginger strawberry, I also brewed a cup of Kusmi Kashmir Tchai, a kind of light and fragrance tea good to wash down the cranberry oat scone.

I missed the sunday service tough I know my body condition then would not permit me to sit or stand too long... Hope to be back to normal again coming Sunday.

Soto Ayam

Johannes made soto ayam for lunch on Sunday. Despite of not feeling well then, the scent of Coriander did stir up my apetite.

A dollop of sambal manis, generous sprinkle of fried onion, and lines of ketchup manis on top of the steaming hot white rice is a perfect match for the tasty soto ayam.

Boxes of Surprises from Vincent Dallet

Vincent Dallet outlet at Reims

Mouth watering cake display

Box of surprises from Vincent Dallet

We visited his shop twice, once in Reims and the other time at the original outlet at Épernay.

Le Maca ‘Rose

Vincent Dallet is famous for his Le Maca ‘Rose, kind of the Macaron but coated with Dark chocolate, dusted with pink sugar and stuffed with nice fragrance raspberry and biscuits de Reims. It looks cool and dark outside but rosy and pink inside.

Assorted Macarons

Dallet also has a wide selection of Macarons, I bought a box in Reims and another box again in Épernay.

We also bought back some nice tarts and enjoyed them at home.

They are not just beauty to the eyes, but also a real sensation to the taste bud..

Enjoy!

Forsythia

I painted the Forsythia 2 weeks ago…. I hope to find you in good healt.
I am not well since last Tuesday evening and struggled for the next 2 days and finally decided to call in sick yesterday.
The weather out there is so fine but it is ashamed that I am lying on my bed and hardly find any energy to go outdoor or even move.
I feel like the lady in the Bible, in the book of Mark 5:32 -34, and only my faith in Jesus can heal me.
I wish you all a good weekend and good health and I wish myself well soon….

Delectable Plateau de Fruits de Mer

Restaurant La Coquille at �p�rnay, for seafood lovers, this is the right place to go...

My Kir Royale

Making his choice and decided on this...

Staring at the Plateau and thinking how to finish...

The cutlery we used (like the rustic colors)

The pile of shellfish...where to start emmmm....???

Take a close up look and decided to start with....

Oyster, what else? Fresh, soft, lightly salted sea water...yummy...

And then a clam

And then langoustines and then cockles and then shrimps...

Now let's tackle the big brown crab

Look at the crab egg, the crab meat is not great though, a bit too stiff

but it can be forgiven for the crab egg

Scrumptious crab egg, wash down with Kir Royale

After a l....o....n...g time of eating and we both were full..still a bit to tackle....

Ok...ok, I will try to finish off the oysters but still enough cockles and clams left untouched

And the empty shells... the waitress came round 3 times to empty it...

What else can I say.... no starter, no dessert but a rather high cholesterol but luscious, succulent meal that happen not too often...

Walked out totally filled and satisfied, and now walking towards Vincent Dallet's outlet...checking out the dessert