corner view ≈ summer

time for a little drama, yeah ? musing on such a theme as summer, when temperatures rise well into the 30's (celsius), rita got me thinking! it’s been a while since we pulled on our striped and flowered stockings (hello, bell), but the echo resonates, et la chaleur! ha!
go on, do stretch those hot legs, y baila! who knows, spain daily might be dancing too... or still...

strolling

strolling. strolling. feasting the eye on all that is good, intriguing and old. bell picked up a piece of my longest passion to date : london. thank you for that! I will most certainly never use it but inside a frame.

i fell in roses too,

and then couldn’t get the jug out of my head.

i'm having a decidedly love/hate relationship with it. is it an intended caterpillar jug design or is it a vase concept gone awry? at a certain point boch believed in it. over here only time can tell. sophie today hosts a lot more goodies.

mathematical doodle

[image: american primitive gallery]
not easily shaken on your average lazy saturday morning i fell off of my office chair just now, while discovering eugene andolsek’s intricate works. and then the story behind the works. and then, most certainly, the man. this kind of work boils down art to what it is as well : a form of expression, not necessarily discovered. mister andolsek got found out, so we can feast our eager eye to his hand drawn webbing. my quilting eyes turn to all sides, i must say. discover the man here…

'to relax me'

can't get enough of james today. it was 'im that started it!

give meaning to

do i read literature, or shall i leaf through a magazine? do i eat organic today, or shall i grab a piece of dry toast? do i put on pants, or shall i squirm myself into a summer skirt? do i run up and down the street, or shall i make that long walk? shall i give you my ears, my thoughts, my eyes, will you? is there time for anything else besides, or has time run out? okay already! long walk it is.

meditate that

i’m figuring, eight more panels of this size make up a half decent blanket. which means in grand total some 444 squares, on the whole just a few more than on this one (which counts 144 hexagons). as i’m doing crochet ‘whilest doing something else’ (like watching a movie, or rather listening to one), i find i’m counting my turns. and my hooks too. like meditating. i find i’m a crochet meditator. does that make sense?

corner view ≈ noticing

i like it when my camera lens shows me things my eye doesn't expect.
is it a ghost entering the scene?

a flower sometimes is something else

i love the contrast of the chipped clay against the black background

have you noticed the make do curtains in an empty shop window?

i hate spiders, but look at the intricate webbing

mesmerized i'm sure, by the light and sky peeking through the broken leaded bathroom window

and how about the evening sun caught on a plain strip of wall?

harsh contrast of nothingness

this reads : ‘as with you’

♥ i hope so too ♥
[and other noticing over on spain daily]

the big sleep

i saw this guy on the train this morning having a rough time of it. all through the course of a few minutes happened this comical scenario which had me wondering.
does he remind you a little of james nesbitt? okay. from the back?
i couldn’t resist. i snap shot him. [sorry, mr. guy.]
riding the train always is eventful.

that sweet (potato) break

on a slack monday morning, if need be, help yourself to a piece of this. recipe/recept.

now, closing down sunday

(sweet potato cake), recipe later, but here's a little wander around our area.

i wonder

this little heart shaped number has me thralled. it has no indication of it being a fancy ash tray (no smokers in the house either), i can hang it à l’improviste (for there’s an opening in the back), it is a little small to accomodate finger food (view the coriander leaf for measure). the inside decor however, reminds me of, hm, lungs, green lungs (does it you?), which is a little uncanny for kitchen purposes. of course, function would be nice, else it's enthrallment. i can settle for that too…. more vintage treasures over on sophie’s.

round up

the week started in wallony, and will end in a brussels suburb. between then and now lies a world of bustle and rest, with a few cooking experiments wedged in. support to son, who’s slowly but steadily progressing towards the end of the june exams, and self support in an even slower mechanism of trying to schedule a much needed renovation scheme. will have to roll up sleeves in summer… so, to give to you, a peek in on tournai (beautiful old town with french flemish history, lots of potential and essential : quietude) and a recipe/recept. i hope you’ll like it as much as we do. time after time.

extremely slow progress

corner view ≈ daily

going away for a few days, even when work related, always seems to sharpen my perception and fill up my senses, as opposed to letting the daily go by a little unnoticed. as the train makes its way through the june landscape, i am genuinely wondering what all is happening on a daily basis to those living in council houses and flats, on farms, in mansions, in a castle or two? because that’s what my eye catches and triggers my imagination, while looking forward to my daily cuppa of joy, which some may call addiction. [while i promise, it didn’t come from here.]. even more daily in spain.

spilling the beans

in his spare time, one of my brothers has always been a true brocanteur. since his spare became full time, he finds himself elbow deep in bits and bobs. wife doesn’t always agree, but there’s no stopping him. i find him in our weekly brocante market on sunday morning, which stocks well on bric-a-brac and vintage paraphernalia, but not always on eye candy. this huge tin canister however, still filled with the original beans, effortlessly did steel the show. sadly labeled [sold] by the time i drew up, it did convincingly throw about its dented beauty. brother told me it would be wheeled away soon to its new premises. unsurprisingly, a coffee bar, and hopefully for decoration purposes only (how old are those beans?). you can barely see it, but on the front reads café jacqmotte, renowned belgian coffee manufacturer for decades. towards the bottom of the can you can only just make out --- haute, which refers to rue haute, in brussels. each morning i see one of jacqmotte's contemporary architecural designs (yes, they have outsourced) : a breathtaking office on rue haute before turning left, into my own modest office. diverse, big, small world. [more flea market finds here.]

it's fictional

12/06/10 - a morning starting with of a cup of coffee underneath the window, cozying up to my book for the first time this week, is a good morning. while some of the home stuff is slowly finding its way inside moving boxes (to be stored for a few months up to maybe a year), and people for-soon-to-be-new-tenants are being showed around this place, and a new file of builders is stepping inside the new, old house to elaborate on good advice and whisk up more precious offers, i’m happy with this small pocket of time, in which to lose myself safely. although brontë’s wuthering heights is all that i can cope with romantically, alice hoffman is doing something similar in HERE ON EARTH. while realising full well i don’t need a repeat version, i do find i let myself being carried away by the character’s fates. fictional fates, i know. aren’t we all?

calling australia

it’s on its way, my creative play for today. at meet me at mike’s we're having fun. inside the envelope sit scraps and cuttings from years of card making. outside the detective in me hustled a few letters meaningfully together. the letter traveled with me, from home to brussels and back. that’s right. i forgot to post it.
today it is though.
clockwise
1. envelope next to train window
2. envelope sightseeing on train
3. envelope and king of belgium
4. envelope and me, with umbrella

corner view ≈ bliss

what is said of smells, they take us back ? this darling started flowering just two years after i brought a cutting home from home. and won’t you look at it, and smell it? my nose cautiously pressed inside the blossomy peony i am once more that small girl, bouncing up and down the garden path. i’m lazying away the days, face turned towards the blue sky and fluffy clouds. i’m longing for never ending summer and thunderous rain showers, bell-shaped raindrops weighing down stems, leafs and flowers. today, bliss is all this (sound of humming bees included). more over on spain daily.

politically pink

i find the eighties fondly melt into a heap of good songs, a handful of silly frills, and costumes that were vehemently argued to be trendy. i chuckle, do you? the summer of 82 was exactly that. there was a disco at the seaside where night after night die neue welle and new wave lingered into salty air, on which we gladly danced and pranced before rolling ourselves in wet sand. ha youth, and did it ever happen. you have got to watch this, even if you don’t remember. i'm wondering if perhaps some serious lawn mowing was going on a-here, and that chequered green & white frock? bring on the vintage, baby…! make no mistake, i was crazy about the song.

and so it is

this as seen through a glass of water, when a few crumbs were left. great night. lazy sunday morn'... bring it on though.

*doug*house

06/06/10 - when i’m not vintage hunting (hear, hear) i’m probably dreaming about it. and i daresay i’m oft’ rummaging through vintage stuff, spiders included, when browsing our new, old house (papers signed last friday. he he). tonight i’m showing my family around, before popping a bottle or two of sparkling, and then lounging over summer supper. bell is brocante hunting today, but frankly, i can’t cope with humidity when i’m beat. actually, i can’t ever handle humidity! so for now, i’m watching (the) do(u)g on the wall, because i vintage scooped him up recently and he’s coming along to the new, old house. so, beware of our clover, our destiny, our guard! (do go check out sophie's)

first, dessert

variation on this

light, as light

lövet

04/06/10 - as i’m distractedly watching a program on design, i sense the analogy between my own legs being screwed off to facilitate transportation to-and-fro and starting major renovation. yes things are being broken down to bite size bits, and puzzle size pieces, and how will we be putting it back together again? ofcourse i want functional design to satisfy our individual needs. when modernism sustains mannerism, you either love it, or leave it. sounds like ikea. i realise, ikea is how i feel about the new house. but way before that happens...

… we're stirring my dad’s ratatouille into ae fond memory

… we're warming our faces to the june sun through the kitchen curtain

… we're wondering if these stones are coming with us

… we're lovingly cherishing the (finally!) weathered lattice work


…and for once we're consenting to neighbour’s gossiping cat

♥ have a good june weekend ♥

house on fire

04/06/10 - over the last few weeks i have talked to more male builders than i have talked to men over plenty years of unsuccesful dating. dealing for the best conversion offer, proofs to be kind of a game. there are rules that need establishing, there’s a thread that needs following, there’s communication that needs settling. there is, above all, intriguing conversation.
well, i mean, i have learned a lot about construction by now, without having the slightest bit of know how. i’ve come to understand a natural order. i have learned to see how these men come and go, like ebb and flow. they are willing, my, they have me stunned. under their rough appearance lies a soft center. they are careful, pulling one or both eye brows, when i admit we wanna be moving, come september. of this year. they smirk jauntily, scribbling down a few notes, while i’m thinking – one of my future fictitious characters will definitely be a biceptional builder.
See, i love them already, my builders, for their good sense of humour. we will be getting on like a house on fire. well, not fire, exactly.

corner view ≈ from where i'm sitting

what you see is where i’m sitting now, but won’t be for long still.

(ps - and what you see from the window is in the banner)
like any place you and i are sitting in, wo do so momentary.

i will actually be lingering above pretty soon. and then it’s on to here…

to finish off the day in …
now, no…
that i will not show.
(in the meantime spain daily offers many more views)