Halloween

Not a pumpkin but it does have the right colour all the same - by chance this orange happens to really fit the occasion!

In the past our youngsters would dress up and celebrate Halloween in the street on the other side of our little neighbourhood. An energetic Canadian mother had started the tradition together with a few other houses in the street. Their large garden was turned into a churchyard with fog from a smoke machine and her husband scaring the willies out of visiting children, dressed as a vampire and going "I'll drink your blood!" amplified by a guitar amp on full reverb. Nowadays these festivities have moved to the Marnix quarter opposite the Delhaize.

Eating Indo

The missus is cooking an Indonesian meal today. Yum.
(Used to be funny: the pot of sweat & sour vegetables appears to have Elon Musk's Asian cousin on its lid.)

Cloudy Day

The weather is turning cloudy.
Which looks splendid when seen from my client's offices today!

Autumn Approaches

Our cherry tree is turning a lovely reddish colour. The photo doesn't do it justice but it contrasts beautifully with the trees behind it that are still green. 

cherry - cérise - kers

 

Winter Time

The clocks went back an hour during the night so we could lie in an hour longer this morning (yay!). All the modern stuff does the change automatically but for the rest I  did a round of the house to adjust. Starting with figuring out the ancient menu on the VCR (first time for this thing since getting it for a euro at a street market). And then the oven and clock in the kitchen.

The timer of our heater takes longest. I purposely got this mechanical unit as a replacement a couple of decades ago because it's simple and sturdy. No useless fancy menus and hardly anything that can go faulty. But to go back an hour it needs to be turned forward a full week minus an hour and that takes a while - its only drawback if you can call it such. 

Last but not least the old Alfa and we're done.

First Fire of the Season

The chimney was swept yesterday, and I noticed the rod operating the flap underneath was the wrong way round. Managed to fix that today and the chimney now draws as it should again.

With the fire going nicely we sat down before it with tea, enjoying the sight and the warmth once it was hot enough.

I'd found the same biscuits that my Mum used to serve with tea when we came home from school in Holland - coconut-based Nizza by Verkade - which are excellent to dunk in one's tea and provided quite a taste of nostalgia.

Benjamin

Storm Benjamin passed by during the night and early morning. The sound of it made us feel extra comfortable while snug in bed even though the radio tells me it was only half as fierce as it was near the coast. It did fill the air with leaves (visible in the photograph) but without stripping the trees - most withstood the winds with ease by the looks of it. Rain was relatively modest as well.

Juvenile Art

The Wood Owl centre where the Repair Café was held also had an art exhibition by local teenagers. Where a couple showed some promise but most displayed the earnest clumsiness I recall from my own efforts at that age. The 3D-printed piece above I thought was brilliant though - an amusing comment on Jeff Koontz's work.

Repair Café

The second edition this year, where an international group of volunteers were again present to repair a wide variety of mainly electrical items.

Taken apart, examined, connections tested and checked and in most cases brought back to life. Other than taking pictures I helped figure out a food processor this time.

Clothes got mended and zippers replaced. Knives and garden shears got sharpened again as well (see previous post).

This pair of vintage film projectors were nice to see and returned to working order.

The venue's mascot was also present - a wood owl (actually called tawny owl in English) because that's what the place is named after. The girl inside later came round for cake and a drink from our buffet.  

tawny owl - chouette hulotte - bosuil

 

Lights in the Dark

Days are getting shorter. Together with a thick cover of clouds it's getting dark earlier in the day. Lights are on; it's cosy indoors.

Walk in the Park

Well, forest really. Where three generations went for a walk at the Tervuren end together with a very enthusiastic little dog! 

The dog is getting a bit old so won't do more than an hour's walk which was just a nice length for me as well.

Chestnuts

Plenty of chestnuts have dropped into our garden already. So I opened up a couple to eat, after heating them in the fire. Not bad. 

chestnut - châtaigne - kastanje

Cooking Fire

We had some family round for two birthdays - our eldest and also the missus. We set up the present I gave her: a tripod and cooking pot to cook outdoors over a fire. Where the popcorn pan she got at Aywiers also got its first outing with tasty results.

 

We had laid out a table inside for the main course, but first we had tomato soup outside. As well as cake afterwards around the fire again.

Noisy Neighbour

A couple of times a year there's a noise like a gigantic vacuum cleaner heard in the distance. Not very loud but noticeable all the same. It's the farmer working his fields on the opposite hill. Which he does do on this Sunday f ex, despite the local council prohibiting noisy activities on Sundays and bank holidays. His combine harvester comes out at night once a year, probably because that machine is hard to get to his field in the daytime.

Onset of Autumn

Autumn is starting to colour everything a lovely orange and gold. Most large trees are still green but some are taking a head start here and there.

Our Japanese maple is adding a touch of bright red, which also stands out beautifully against the green around it. The leaves the wind blew onto it reverse the effect.

Autumn colours go well with our goldfish too.

maple - érable - esdoorn - acer japonicum

 

Small Feathers

Found on the roof today: two small feathers. Actually looking larger in the photo, the smallest one isn't longer than my thumbnail.

Spikey Balls

The strong winds have also dislodged a lot of chestnuts. Our garden is littered with them but on the table they really stand out. 

chestnut - châtaigne - kastanje

French Food

On our way back from Aywiers we happened upon an Intermarché so decided to stop for some much-needed groceries. 

Much like Dutch chain Albert Heijn being limited to Flanders due to packaging in Dutch, Intermarché from France is limited to Wallonia due to packaging in French. The place provided a nice holiday feeling to our visit, with the unfamiliar layout and primarily French brands and products.

Having said that, the small international corner featured the largest assortment of Reese's peanut butter products I've ever seen!

A good point made here (pun intended).

And that evening the missus was cooking French food. Yum!

Back to Aywiers

With the strong wind and rain we thought the garden fair at Aywiers would be a wash-out, but a reassuring phone call told us it was open for business despite the weather. And indeed it was, under dramatic skies.

Having often been here before, everything is now very familiar though still very much a pleasure to stroll through. We bought more tulip bulbs and an Agapanthus root to plant, had sausage rolls and local drinks and the missus of course tried on some more expensive country coats.

The gardens are absolutely lovely in their own right, so I took more photos of the grounds than the actual greenery on sale. Except for this display of rusty silhouettes which I wouldn't want in my garden but looked very effective here.

The leaves under this tree weren't from that tree; the wind had blown them there to rest in the lee of the tree. And when we left, the wind had broken branches to land on top of our car.