The snow hit us hard

As you can see. Didn't have time to save the bike and put it inside. Too bad. By the way, the bike survived and afterwards was even in a state to be used again. We've seen worse.

Fall revisited
The last fall picture I want to show you this year. It was taken in our garden. Every year I'm photographing this little tree (it doesn't reach any higher than a couple of meters). But, what it lacks in size it makes up in appearance. In the fall it's standing there showing off it's bright red, flaming leaves. It's just gorgeous, I can't get enough of it.

Fall 2009
Fall is over its peak now. Trees are losing there leaves fast. Because of the rain and the wind. The picture you see here was taken two weeks ago when the sun was still shining. It looked like pure gold to me. You're maybe wondering what I did to make those leaves shine like gold? Actually, nothing. Sometimes I use Paint Shop Pro to enhance contrast or saturation, but not in this case. Only thing is I framed the photo. Enjoy!

Castles in the Air?
Castles, castles and more castles. When you go the river Loire(France) and surroundings you will bump against castles every 10 kilometres. Here you see Chateau Chambord from the outside and the inside. Also Chateau Chenonceau, a beautiful castle built over the river. It has a wonderful garden as well. The stairs of Chambord are said to be developed by Leonardo da Vinci who lived the last years of his life here in France. Enjoy.

Update
It's been a long time since I posted to this blog. Have been busy at work, writing for another blog and doing a lot of other stuff related to the web. Never mind though, I promise I will be more faithfull and diligent and really try and do my best. Since June (my last posting) we've been on vacation to France. We biked along the river Loire and saw a lot of beautiful castles. Also visited Paris and the Champagne region and the coast. Took a lot of pictures. One of the castles we visited was Chateau Chambord, a huge castle. And as far as I'm concerned the most beautiful castle we saw. One of these days I will show you more pictures of castles. Hope you'll like this one. By the way, it's been taken with my Olympus DSLR camera.

Vacation in France
A picture I took last summer vacation. We were camping in France, Normandy to be precise.
This is the coast that's been painted a million times by painters like Monet. They knew what to paint, they knew beauty when they saw it. Take a look for yourself.
It's taken near Etretat with my Olympus DSLR camera. I used a normal zoomlens, 14 - 42 mm. I must say it produces brilliant results so I'm very satisfied with it.

Interesting Quotes
The greatest gift is a passion for reading. It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites, it gives you knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind. It is a moral illumination.

Reading is thinking with someone else's head instead of one's own.

Tell me what you read and I'll tell you who you are" is true enough, but I'd know you better if you told me what you reread.

According to a recent survey, men say the first thing they notice about a woman is their eyes, and women say the first thing they notice about men is they're a bunch of liars.

Women always worry about the things that men forget; men always worry about the things women remember

More Flowers

Flowers in garden

Exile on Main St.
Probably the best album of one of Rock and Roll's greatest bands, The Rolling Stones. The album was released in 1972, and initially wasn't met with lots of praise. But slowly over time it's quality was recognized. It takes time to get used to the songs on this album, to appreciate them, but the more you listen to them, the more you see how masterful and basically how "Rolling Stones" this album is. Rock and roll, blues, country, soul, it's all to be found here. It also happens to be the last recording of the Stones with Mick Taylor on guitar. I used to think the older albums were better, not so anymore. I've finally come to the conclusion that Exile on Main St. is the quintessential Rolling Stones album. Favorite songs? Hard to say. A few of my favorites are "Torn and Frayed", "Loving cup" and "Turd on the run". If you really want to get to know the Stones, then you should listen to this album. Highly recommended.

Spring, definitely spring
It's been awhile since I last posted. Too much to do. Had a couple of nice days this week. Temperatures are rising and the sun is shining. And everywhere you see blossoming trees and flowers. It's such a nice time of the year if you ask me. Probably my favorite time. Good for biking and taking pictures, two of my favorite pastimes. Here you see a composite of three pictures I took ( taken with the Olympus E 410) last week in our garden. Speaking of our garden, I really should mow the lawn, although I think it's a better idea first to sit in the garden for a while.

Blauwe Kamer
Just visited the Blauwe Kamer today. It's where I used to live. It was beautiful, the weather was really nice. Everywhere you can see spring nearing. Of course I couldn't resist to take a few pictures. The images you see here were taken with my digital Olympus (E 410 DSLR), and I used Paint Shop Pro to make this strip. Hope you'll like it.

Canada
Fall, 2008. Clockwise: Lake Superior, Lake Ontario, Train in Agawa Canyon, Ragged Falls (Algonquin Provincial Park)

Hugh Sloan Wilson
Not too long ago I read a book written by Hugh Sloan Wilson. It was called: Evolution for everyone. Appropriate and fitting in this Darwin year. It was an eye-opening book for me. In it Mr. Wilson describes and explains what evolution is. He points out that the recipe for evolution is actually very simple. Not only that, it can also provide you with explanations in other scientific disciplines than biology. Ask yourself, why an animal behaves the way it does. Does that behaviour have an evolutionary compound? So, was it beneficial for its survival in the past? The same goes for human behaviour and even culture, try to see it in an "evolutionary way" and a lot of incomprehensible and amazing things can be explained. He proves his point with many examples. The book reads like a novel and I can absolutely recommend it. Yesterday I read an article about religion and evolution. Here on Noorderlicht, and here on RichardDawkins.net. Quote: "Scientists say they have located the parts of the brain that control religious faith. And the research proves, they contend, that belief in a higher power is an evolutionary asset that helps human survival." That's a fascinating thought and puts religion in a whole new perspective. I had already read this in Mr. Wilson's book and to me it seemed very plausible. Another quote: "When we have incomplete knowledge of the world around us, it offers us the opportunities to believe in God. When we don't have a scientific explanation for something, we tend to rely on supernatural explanations," said Professor Grafman, who believes in God. "Maybe obeying supernatural forces that we had no knowledge of made it easier for religious forms of belief to emerge." Anyway, this makes interesting reading, I think.

Vase
I made this vase with Paint Shop Pro and I think the Sinedots filter. I'm not completely sure though. The creative process is often one of trial and error - I just do things, change settings and see what comes out. If I like the result I save the image, or try another filter. That's the way I work. Hope you'll like it too.

Happiness

"The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be.”

“It isn't what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about.”

“Happiness always looks small while you hold it in your hands, but let it go, and you learn at once how big and precious it is.”

And the recipe is.....
Simple. Look for a wall with graffiti. Take photographs. Go home. Import your images in Paint Shop Pro XI. Resize the images, use the caleidoscope filter and play a little with the settings. There you go, the results are amazing, at least they surprise me every time again. Here I used three separate images to make one. Enjoy!

Ultra Fractal, PSP, Blade Pro

2009: The Year of......
For the Chinese 2009 is the year of ox, but it's also the year of science and it is astronomy year. Don't forget Darwin (I should have started with Darwin because 2009 is rightfully his year, his impact and ideas deserve it to be commemorated and honored) and Calvin. For many more things 2009 is the year. For music lovers 2009 is the year of "Tommy", the first ever rock opera. Tommy , a double album by the Who, was first released may 23, 1969. So 40 years ago. Reviews at the time of release were mixed. Nowadays it's considered a masterpiece. It elevated the Who to stardom and really made their name and fame. Quote: "In 1998 it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for "historical, artistic and significant" value." If you want to know all about Tommy, take a look here at Wikipedia, they have a large piece on it, its history, chronology, an analysis, recoginition and stuff like that. Right now I'm listening to Tommy. And every time again I'm amazed by the beauty of the music. It's not much of a story, but heck, most opera's are thin in that department, but the music...........it's awesome. Through the history Tommy has been staged by several (opera) orchestras, a movie has been made, a musical, and now Di-rect, a Dutch band is performing Tommy, in a dutch translation, in theatres in Holland. So, all you people who up until now have been missing out on Tommy, it's getting time for you to right that omission.

UltraFractal
UltraFractal is a software program which enables you to make fractals. Together with FractalExplorer they are the two programs I always use to create fractals.
Combined with Paint Shop Pro they offer endless creative possibilities. Throw in a few plugins and filters and the results can be just awesome.
The other day I was playing with UF and PSP and came up with what I call "a jewel". You may also call this abstract, I don't mind. Hope you'll like it.