[20101121.16:11:11]

salmonid voracity [ahem]

tessa kiros has got a lot to answer for, as does nigella. they make us drool, right? does that happen to you? now i'm staying at l's, we've been like cats with two tails. l's gravad lax is a wonder, i've boasted about it before. what she is doing to a salmon tail! oh boy. you better try it at home, if you're a salmon lover, ànd a lazy cook. because this sea baby just needs a quick turn four consecutive days and you're done. and then you'll eat it, you'll ravish it, what am i saying, DEVOUR it. so catch that fish and follow the lead (recipe E/recept NL, as promised). this being excellent party food, gravlax will make your festive holidays sparkle, (as much so as your guests).

corner view ≈ taking a different perspective

imagine an old dictionary you find in a thrift shop, and you tear it up.

you collect the images in a box, for future reference
with vintage stamps you make a whole new showroom of stools that would make doctor zhivago blush (i promise! i don't know where he pops from!)

you open up a box of tea bags while humming lara's theme, and you simply do not want to break up the order of things; you just want to stare at it? 

you're walking a cold winter's day off your thermal boots and your eye gets drawn to a new (imaginative!) world map of broken tree sticks and dying earth.
all this and more happened to me as i was cleaning up my photo library. thank you dana, for such a wonderous theme. i am traveling towards different perspectives as we speak, this is getting curiouser and curiouser. ;)

strobo white blast {renov # 10}

 
wouldn't it be good.... (remember the song?). what a long time ago. i'm humming it today, because i know that before long all will be good. not that things aren't good anyway. it's been raining (too) hard, it's true, but kitten is keeping me company in my lap. i greeted my sweet central heating specialist, trying not to grow too desperate over the fact the builders managed to roof up while forsaking the exhaust pipe for the central heating boiler! oh glory, they will be hearing from me. and they will be drilling that hole too. blast!
little update : all is well that ends well. had a good ♥-to-♥ chat to my favourite builder. he's finishing up as we speak. next week the kitchen window and doors to the garden are arriving. my central heating will be finished before long.... it's getting there, i tell you, it's getting there. and so. i think the time may be at hand to post a preliminary before/after?  i know everybody loves before/afters. so do i. thank you for having a look at just a few curlicues. feel free to click on images! 
UPDATE 1C - studio fully insulated and plastered
(small window te be installed his thursday)
as i'm leafing through my picture gallery, i revel at the long and winding road  (now there's another song) we've traveled already.... [far more impressive before/afters are coming up. and that's a promise!] 
1A - studio-to-be before anything got done to it
1B - plastering in studio and bedroom 2 halfway

2A - son's bedroom before anything got done to it
 2B - son's bedroom fully plastered and insulated
3A - old outbuildings when first viewing the house
3B - new built kitchen extension with favourite builder roofing the top
and now then, on to something completely different : crochet! remember these buggers? begging for attention they are. here comes. let's finger massage the old limbs then.


corner view ≈ anything goes!

so. anything goes! you better believe it.
blue trees [reflection in blue shiny car]
green concrete [painted play field]
black lions on yellow [ornamental church ceiling]
orange plaster [painted wall]
and purple spikes [sun shadow on brugues painted door]
prince william is getting married, or so i'm told. it's my boss who uttered it today, and i asked meekly : 'who's getting married ?' just goes to show. anything goes!
beatles are on i-tunes, it seems. whatever that means. i thought they'd already been on it for ages.... but! anything goes. and music does live on forever. don't you just love it too? what's going on over at yours ? [via theresa and laninja]

tattoo you

boch vintage earthenware
fickle business. you look for the original series name for a vintage boch* line, and you get infected by computer malware. does it ring a bell? so. i am not a dab hand at technology as you may well know, but getting attacked is something else. it kind of sets me off on the wrong foot completely. 
dutch gnome design on vintage mug
after the panic a notebook scan, and safe removal of the culprit. if all were that easy (i did surprise myself though), i'd be able to tell you the name of the vintage earthenware line (first image above). as it is, i find myself in the dark. any suggestions?
one litre jug, catching the rain
also, braved the receding rains this morning and under rescue chopper noises, engaged myself in a few soaking grass shots. nothing like a good old dewy hike, bar the flooding character of the river, a few hundred yards beyond. visit herlibraryadventures for more vintage goodies.
almost like a tattoo, 'mange tout' design
 
* belgian earthenware factory

corner view ≈ autumn (fire, walk with me)

autumn. outono. fall. По-русски. automne. herbst. autunno. otoño. høst. höst. 简体中文版  秋天. eλληνικ. 日本語 . herfst. udazkena. it is a beautiful word, really. and it holds beautiful colours...... just as long as it doesn't rain, hail, storm; blows gales, hisses, pours, nor drizzles. right? plenty more showers (ahem) over at all those pretty corner viewers-around-the-world..... and hosted by theresa. let's!

'groebe' or sloping open surface in woods

trees' roots

tiny, tiny mushroom growth on dead tree branch

nature's still life
more of the above (in possible slideshow) here.

i feel a grav'lax coming on

salmon dear on his first night of marinade


















oh yes! honey salmon is resting and juicing as we speak. friend l. is doing great in turning salmon over once a day. by wednesday, we will all be devouring pink, marinated goody. we will throw in a pot of finnish mustard. and the recipe? it'll come to you, just keep eyes peeled (and mouth watering). of course we're getting our inspiration from somewhere! leen swears by tessa kiros, while i'm thinking nigella, nigella, nigella. i don't know why...

gravad lax

sluis (holland) lies close to knokke-heist (belgium), and totally not nearby terneuzen (holland). well, chatting in the car doesn't help, albeit it the best remedy for a cloudy saturday out.
so, back on track for just about ten pounds of salmon for a serious gravad lax (it is in the making right now), a few dorade filets, a handful of rays and two pounds of shrimp from the north sea. we love fish, do you notice?
back home, we taught zaza (the kitten) how to eat a shrimp. it was her first shrimp ever. she played with it, jumped at it, made fun of it. we had our veggies, fricassee style. 


mixing, diving, admiring

i showed these a while ago, monumental heads strewn over museum square in brussels. i now know they belong to javier marin, contemporary mexican artist. we saw them again today, as we strolled uptown, after we researched a projectile of a different kind.

every morning of this week, walking into the office
orange blob
i saw a huge something nearby museum square. i only saw it from afar
willy&wanda, if you like
it made me think of THE GYRONEF, a much loved flying object in my childhood years of SUSKE & WISKE (or BOB & BOBETTE; in anglophile countries only very temporarily edited as WILLY & WANDA).

frontal view, brand new magritte museum just beyond
the object i am talking about though, seemed to have a huge pedestal for a foot. its orange colour, well, moved me.
'old england' art nouveau instruments museum, to your left
coming up closer, we were disappointed we couldn't get in (the children that we are, huh?). we were wondering. is it a submarine, a giant amoeba, a preliminary nigella mixing tool? we chuckled. does it tickle your fancy?

hallowe'en ...

... come and gone, i'm a little late to slip in a moment i had just last night. it is silly what one picks up on a building site, and it's even sillier what all one can do with it. or not. as long as one keeps feeling ...