Back from Spain!

Hi Everyone! We're back from Las Alpujarras, a mountain range in Spain. What lovely unspoiled scenery, here's a sample. We found lots of nooks and crannies and collected all sort of goodies for La Naranja. We're waiting on some deliveries from Spain and doing the final preparations! Lots of great photos to sift through. Busy Busy Busy!

What's available now at the flower market.

Only 258 days until Christmas!

If flowers are not your thing and you've been dragged to the flower market in Amsterdam, you might want to while away your time in this charming shop about halfway down the market. Open all year, it has some of the best Christmas stuff around. The little blackboard in the center of the entrance counts down the days until Christmas.

Alley off flower market, Amsterdam

What I saw Easter Sunday, Amsterdam 2009

Christian Huygens was a Dutch physicist who
studied time pieces and optical devices. His accomplishments include discovering the first moon of Saturn, Titan. This commerative tile work honoring him is on Leidsestraat, usually in shadow but I got lucky this day. Since it's at the second-story level, it largely goes unnoticed by the shopping hordes passing below.

What I saw Easter Sunday

The canal boat ride outside The American Hotel was jammed today, perhaps people pouring out of the famous jazz brunch the hotel offers on Sundays. Finally, the trees over the canals are getting leaves.

little lake in volkstuinpark

The volkstuinpark boasts its own little lakeway, with several manmade bird habitats to attract and harbor wildlife.

The little lake in volkstuinpark sloterdikermeer, Amsterdam

A-frame in volkstuinpark, with matching garden house, aww!

house in volkstuinpark

The entire garden park is surrounded by either a fence or this canal, which effectively acts as a moat against wanderers over from the Westergasfabriek park. There were bags of dirt and compost everywhere, people getting their little proud plots ready for spring and summer. I get the distinct impression that this tiny community engages in garden one-upmanship to a fierce degree.

ranch style in volkstuinpark

So small, but it makes you think: how much stuff and space do I really need??

darling house at a volkstuinpark

I just love it when they have little things that match, like this adorable blue property here.

The People's Garden

Happy Easter everyone! It's kind of a hazy cool day here, but no precip so far. I thought this would be a good day to show you some pics I snapped a few sunny days ago at one of my favorite corners of Amsterdam, the People's Garden near the Westergasfabriek.

Go along the tracks west from Centraal Station and you'll soon encounter the sprawling culture complex in far west Amsterdam called the Westergasfabriek. It's a sun grabber magnet, full of people enjoying the open spaces and many cafes that do a brisk business on the grounds of this interesting bit of urban renewal.

This entry is not about the Fabriek, but about the less-touted collection of little faerie-like garden houses at the far corner of the Westergasfabriek, called the Volkstuinpark Sloterdijkermeer, which roughly translates as the People's Garden Park of Sloterdijkermeer.

Personal open space is a rarity in Amsterdam, as most people live in flats above the ground. Parks abound and people use them freely, but there is nothing like quite having your own little plot of dirt to putter around in and grow some flowers and vegetables, and these little People's Gardens are extremely popular.

This particular garden park must be the Beverly Hills of these little neighborhoods, because there is room for a an entire, albeit tiny, house, along with an even tinier matching mini garden house and maybe room for a tiny pond or stream. Cars and motorbikes are prohibited in the area. It's a perfect warm-weather retreat. Amsterdammers wait up to ten years to get one of these places, which are only open from March through October.

This entrance way is foreboding, but I just blundered on in there, figuring I'd play dumb if anyone tried to shoo me out. I'm so glad I went, because there is probably no better time to grab a shot of these houses, as some of the owners still weren't back and the foliage has not obscured them. They are just perfect for two people, so darn cosy. I want to get on the list!!!

Amsterdam entry tiles

What is happening??? Here are two examples of the kind of tiles I see frequently oustside Amsterdam building entrances. Now, the choice of tiles that I typically see is, to me, mind-bogglingly wrong, and I just can't figure it out. The Dutch tend to have excellent, European-refined taste and have turned out centuries of beautiful art and architecture. So what the heck happened with these entrances? These were put in a long time ago, and I have to wonder why. Did the taste of the time run that strange? Did people use remnant tiles for their street entrances? I really have to document more of these.

Redhead with dog.

There is a certain red hair color that Dutch women wear, that I find very intriguing. I love these women with big wild red buns, and you see that quite a bit here. This was snapped last weekend, when spring peeked out for a spell. Taken in Amsterdam's Oud West neighborhood, on Bosboom Toussaint at the edge of Helmersbuurt. We're back to a cool rain today, I'm afraid.