To the bunny show!

 Always ready to corrupt others with my love for bunnies, I took my friend One Badass Mother to the bunny show last weekend :) Technically it was a small animal show, they had pidgeons and geese and turkeys as well, but cute as they are, I was there for the bunnies. My friend didn't think she liked rabbits, because of a bad experience when she was a child. She never really understood my love for these little critters, and that was something that had to be changed. We had a good time, and were even thought to be "the press", with our superduper professional looking camera bags ;) Small town living.

Unfortunately they had no angora's, but the other bunnies were all adorable, and I loved how all the breeds had different personalities. The little dotted Mini Rex's were our favourite, very active little boys and girls, very curious and not at all nervous. And a lovely coat too. Maybe, one day..

    

Mission accomplished, she now wants ten rabbits!

A windy autumn walk with Sofie

 

 Oh, hurry up!

I take a long walk alone with Sofie a few times a week, usually on these roads. It's beautiful there, I've shown pictures before I think. Right now, autumn time, it's the best. I love how everything looks different every day, new colours, less greens and more reds and yellow, it's gorgeous. And these berries, aren't they lovely? My mom always took some home from the park, but these were growing in a private garden, unfortunately.

 Sometimes I even get to see wild life, birds of course, and squirrels, sometimes even deer, though I have to get up early for those. Today I got very close to a pheasant, I guess he wasn't really paying attention as I could get within less than a meter before he realised Sofie and I were there. 

It's pumkin time

 I think it's quite clear now that I love autumn. And this is an other reason: Pumpkins!

So very delicious to eat and oh so pretty as decoration. I'd place them all over my house if my partner wouldn't stop me.. There's a little farm store close to where we live that sells all sorts of thingss throughout the year. Always the lovliest freshest fruits and vegetables, honey, marmelade, sometimes soap or other goodies they get from locals. They have a "pick your own flowers" garden and sell the prettiest sunflowers I've ever seen. Fresh out of the field, so they stay pretty for a long time at home.

I always love visiting them, they are the nicest people too.

This day we got pumpkins. Two smaller ones, that I haven't used yet, and one big one that gave me over 4kg of pumkin flesh. I made a whole lot of soup and even though I'm usually not really a big fan of soup, pumpkin soup is the best. We ate it with my dearest GG's freshly baked bread and some soft goats cheese.

Omnomnomnom!







 GG carved up the rest of the pumpkin into a super awesome cute little kitty Jack O' Lantern. Isn't it adorable? It is!

 

And when I start cooking, I can't stop. These apples came from the same farm we got the pumpkins from, I made a lovely apple sauce out of it, with extra cinnamon. Used honey as sweetener, as I'm trying to cut all refined sugar out of my diet, trying to live a more healthy life. I think it tastes even better than sugar.  

Use about 100 - 150 grams of honey for 1kg apples.

 Some almost-healthy banana muffins to finish my kitchen time. Ran out of ingredients to make more stuff ;)  
The recipe is from 'How to be a Domestic Goddess' by Nigella Lawson.

Now to think of all the lovely things I can do with my other pumpkins. And the new pumpkins I'm totally going to buy over the next few weeks. It's only pumpkin time once a year, after all. Eat ALL the pumpkins!

What's you're favourite pumpkin recipe?

Fotography: +1xp

Oh, excuse me the geeky title.

Just like my friend One Badass Mother, I decided to work on my photography skills. We seem to have a way of motivating eachother to try out new things and work harder on things we were already doing. I suppose about 22 years of friendship can do that, even though our lives got in the way and we're not joined at the hip anymore, like we were in pre-school. Whatsapp rocks :)

So. Photography. I think I've always taken decent pictures, just not mind blowing you know? I didn't really know how some of my settings work, and editing on the computer? Err.. Click some buttons, and tadah!? No, usually more of "ta...meh." I decided to get Lightroom and to start shooting in RAW. Something that has been scary for a while, but just like so many things, I should have done it a long time ago. I also decided to try using some more buttons on my camera, and, well, it helped! These are some pictures I took this week. I especially like the pidgeon picture. I love birds, so maybe I'm a little biased. Long way to go, but learning things is fun, and I hope to see some improvement over the next months.

PS: the sheep was super scary to photograph. He got a little pissed off at me and my camera, he was threating me like an angry bull. Stomping is hoof and all, I basicly risked my life! But look, he's so pretty..

Autumn is coming

 And it makes me happy!

Don't get me wrong, I do love warm summer days, and especially loved the evenings we spent at the nearby lake past summer. Swimming with our dogs, enjoying the evening sun. I loved having dinner in the garden, and playing with the little pool. I loved making little camp fires in our garden, of those of friends, and just talk and have a good time. Picking berries with my man, and the blue skies. Summer is good. 

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But autumn is better :)

I prefer colder temperatures, I love how good everything smells when it has rained, the sound of rain pouring down, the wind in the trees. I love the red and orange colours the leaves turn into, and kicking them up when I walk down the street. You never get too old for that. Curling up on the couch with a blanket, a cup of steaming hot tea and a home made muffin. Lighting some candles, a little incense and listening to some music, or reading a book. Or listening to a book while crocheting, a perfect combination. Back to crocheting blankets, and this winter I am going to learn how to knit. For real.

Although everything is still green, the little forest we like to visit is definitely showing signs of autumn.

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This town

I live in a small town in the eastern part of the Netherlands. I haven't lived here all my life, I was born in Gouda, close to Rotterdam. Spent most of my teenage life in Rotterdam, and found my love GG there. He was studying in Rotterdam, but born in Winterswijk, this small town in the eastern part of the Netherlands. Five or six ago, we moved to a flat here, two years later GG bought us a house.

There isn't much to do here, our garden is too small to keep pony's, our neighbours get upset about unkept gardens and we're surrounded by them, let's just say: Holland is not Sweden, but what I absolutely love about this town, is the rural area around it. I only need to walk for ten minutes to get out of town, and feel free in this little pretty landscape with old farm houses, cows, horses, sheep, and my little puppy dog of course.

 

I take this walk almost daily, together with Sofie, who likes to run up and down the dirt roads chasing pinecones I kick away for her. It's nice and quiet, even on the days with good weather, I hardly see anyone else walking or cycling there. Crazy, it's such a pretty place.

Hello ladies!