Downpour at Dusk

The heavens let fly once more with a serious deluge of rain. No tricks needed to catch it on camera this time. And thus ends a wishy washy and ultimately wet weekend.

Classic Top Gear

The BBC are doing a rerun of Top Gear on Sundays - a series from 2016 during the good old days of Clarkson, Hammond and May. A real blast from the past and a pleasure to see again. And this episode featured the lovely Alfa 4C as well, shown in the lovely Italian mountains so what more do you want?

Sizing It Up

This is a rather rare space toy from my collection, which I got out to photograph for an American acquaintance. I'm selling him another one of these which is missing the driver figure and with my measurements he hopes to find or even make a suitable substitute. With this part of my collection boxed away, it was good to go through some boxes and see some of these toys again!

Wishy Washy Weekend

Nothing much of interest this weekend. Supermarket, bit of cleaning, that sort of thing. These lovely white flowers are the only new ones to report, having appeared on a bush in a pot by the kitchen door.

Another Squirrel

While eating my breakfast in the kitchen this morning I saw two squirrels chasing each other around the large oak behind the house. They'd disappeared by the time I got the camera, but I saw branches shaking in other trees, moving towards our fir tree by the shed. And there one squirrel came down, had a look round and moved off again. This one had darker colouring than the ones we usually see, so perhaps it had strayed into our local squirrels' territory.

squirrel - écureuil - eekhoorn

 

Dragonfly

I saw something fly through the kitchen when I went in for a snack late this evening. I thought at first it might be a crane fly (which looks like a large mosquito but isn't) except that this insect looked different in flight. Lost sight of it but then discovered it hanging off the ceiling slats, to see it was in fact a small dragonfly. First I've ever seen inside the house and we've been here for decades now. Light was dismal so I only got this blurry shot with the large zoom lens.

I managed to catch it easily with a glass and a piece of paper, and tried a few more snaps with my phone before releasing it outside. It was fluttering its wings in dismay so again no clear pictures. I trust it was happy to fly off into the night.

dragonfly - libellule - libelle

Magpies

Early in the morning is good to see birds in the garden, foraging for food. Such as these two magpies, which seemed to have it in for the gooseberry bush, forcefully shaking its branches and then hopping off to peck in the grass. I suppose there's little insects on that bush that they catch that way.

Magpies have very good eyesight, and will fly off or hop away the moment they see you so it's hard to catch them on camera when they're close by. This one hadn't noticed me because I kept well away from the windows.

magpie - pie bavarde - ekster

Feather Found

The missus found this beautiful feather in the garden. I thought it might be from a cuckoo and I've found matching images on Google, but at a good 20 cm it does seem much too large for a cuckoo. The missus thinks it might be from an owl. Which we do hear at night so she's probably right.

As an aside, we have had cuckoos around here, hearing them in the morning. And I remember a young cuckoo having just left its nest, siting on a branch. It was twice the size of two very tired-looking little robins that were bringing it food and must have been its unfortunate foster parents...

cuckoo - coucou - koekoek
owl - hibou - uil

Green Guest

This is a female great green bush cricket (I just found out) which looked like it was taking up residence in our bathroom. Saw it on Sunday evening, then it was gone but this morning it was back. Managed to catch it in a glass from which it then didn't want to budge despite shaking and tapping. So I left it on the sill and by the evening it was gone after all. 

cricket - grillon - krekel

 

Prune

While taking a picture of raindrops, I noticed the prunes are growing in their tree.

prune - pruneau - pruim

Here Comes The Rain Again

Dark clouds have gathered over the neighbourhood after gusts of wind and then the heavens let loose.

Water runs down the kitchen steps.

We decide to have the (nice and tasty) cake bought for the graduation party but which had been left uneaten.

The sun makes a brief appearance, brightening up the wet greenery. And then the rains return for another shower or two.

Asked by his Mum to stow away the bedding after the sleepover, our eldest decides to bury himself in them for a siesta instead.

Flower Update

The Hibiscus has sprung into flower, sporting a number of vivid purple trumpets.

Next to the kitchen door, a second hollyhock has produced a lovely pink flower. More buds are present on both plants, but they seem to take their time.

The missus calls these 'Chinese bells' in both white and a soft violet.

And the Hydrangeas on both sides of the driveway have started their flowers too, going from pink to violet.

hollyhock - rose trémière - stokroos
hydrangea - hortensia

Change of Colour

Our Japanese maple has decided to turn more green. Especially underneath.

maple - érable - esdoorn - acer japonicum

Foreign Chores part 2

This Saturday, the older generation went back to Maastricht to tackle the window frames in the student room.

Meanwhile the younger generation were having friends round for a barbecue and sleepover to celebrate the graduation of our youngest earlier this week. The missus had borrowed her father's party tent and we put the large umbrella over the barbecue because there'd be some rain forecast.

A tent had also been prepared just in case, but there were no takers.

Before the barbecue, badminton and petanque were played. The Atalanta showed up again for the evening's spot of sunbathing.

The older generation finished the window frame (two coats) and cleared up the rest to leave a reasonably presentable room. On our return home we were happily surprised to see all traces of the party had been exemplarily cleared up in the morning before the guests took their leave.

Tiny Predator

This tiny little fellow sat patiently waiting in its web amongst the potted plants by the kitchen door.

Atalanta

This is a Vanessa Atalanta butterfly, aka Red Admiral. These regularly show up at the end of the day to bask in the last sunlight. This one kept an eye on me, first closing its wings when I came too close and then taking off to keep a bit of distance. So I got the other camera with the larger zoom lens on it, found it sitting on the lid handle of the fire bowl and sneaked this close-up.

Mr Blue Sky

Snapped on the way to work this morning. 

 

Graduation!

 Our youngest graduated as a Translator/Interpreter today! Brother, parents and grandparents went to Maastricht to witness the event.

First and last photos by official photographer Jonathan Vos; middle photo from one of the family members.

Congratulations to one and all!

 

Lost and Found

Inbetween the TV cables and stuff I found this voucher from the Librairie de l'Escadron. This bookstore specialises in militaria books and is fittingly located in Squadron Street behind former army barracks in Brussels. No idea how long it's been lost in the bookcase but I'll have to have an expedition into town to see if they'll still accept it.

The printed tinplate soldiers are from a range depicting troops at Waterloo made by Brivio in Italy in 1970 or so. They were originally offered by the Corriere dei Piccoli comic strip magazine and a Belgian magazine has also offered them because the first ones I found at local toy swap meets before getting more online. There's now a full set with some duplicates on the mantelpiece.

Clean Entertainment

After being spammed for months by the cable company we had them replace the digicorder by their new cloud-based system (as if this world hasn't enough data centres buggering up the environment already). It also needed a new modem which didn't work and had us without TV and wifi for a week before it got resolved. Modem and accessories are stored in a special space I had incorporated at the rear of our bookcase so all the electronics had to come out for the new equipment.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, I sorted the mass of cables from a spaghetti-like tangle to something slightly more organised, labeling each one on both ends while I was at it. And took out about a dozen cables that were now redundant as well as two power adapters left over from the old cable gear.

The end result looks nice and tidy, inasmuch as this sort of thing can ever look tidy. With the new stuff all using HDMI there now was a free scart slot on the TV to permanently hook up the old VCR as well. Which prompted us to watch the video of our marriage (35th anniversary coming up in less than two months!).

How young and innocent we were...

Hare-Brained

This hare was caught in our headlights when we turned off the chaussée. Instead of escaping inta a garden, the silly thing kept running in front of the car until we turned off into our street.

At the end of a long day's work and a long drive, isn't this a welcoming sight?

hare - lièvre - haas

 

Foreign Chores

On the way to Maastricht to help our youngest move out of student digs. We stopped for coffee on the way at a Total service station, where they have really nice Italian sandwiches (recommended!).

Five years of student life took a lot of work to clean and restore. Everything needed a lick of paint after getting off the grime.

The outside of the windows didn't escape a cleanup either. The missus always does a thorough job.

We finished the walls today. The window frames will need to wait til next weekend.

It was late before we could call it a day.