Back from the Netherlands

 

It was such a beautiful stay in the Netherlands! Though "stay" isn't the right word: after one day in Noordwijk we went to the Veluwe - to visit the famous 

"Kröller-Müller Museum". 

A "Museum & Sculpture" - including many paintings from van Gogh that I had never seen before (not even in print). 

I quote from a brochure: "The Kröller-Müller Museum is the lifework of Helene Kröller-Müller. Between 1907 and 1922, she and her husband Anton Köller bought almost 11,500 works of art (...)." So this is her: Helen Kröller-Müller 

Very interesting also the 25-hectare outdoor gallery - with 160 modern sculptures in that garden, though we didn't see very much of that because it rained heavily. 

You will know me by now: I enjoyed the surrounding nature, though dripping heavily, as much as the art. 

And am a little bit proud of a photo I took through the window: 

foxglove before a tree. 

 

I Deleted an App

 

Dear You, 

yesterday evening I got a WARNING on my cellphone. A warning from my new weather forecast App. 

"Terrible thunderstorm in the evening" it said (no: shouted), and gave advice what to bind, shelter, save and keep tucked away. 

I am amenable to influence. Though I had my doubts: the sun was shining and the air quite hot for the beginning of May. I looked at the four red blossoms that had - finally - opened on my well-winter-protected tiny camellia, sighed and started half-heartedly to change my balcony into a fortress.  

Well, well, well. As you see on the photo above, the thunderstorm came. With strong wind. 

Best watched from inside, as lightning started too. 

Rain, pouring. Which was good, as we didn't have much rain here the last two month. 

But nothing terrible happened. Just a normal thunderstorm. 

And I got a bit angry. I know that it is important to warn people - remembering the catastrophe we had in the Ahrtal. But still I felt that here one had been dramatic with intent: the media blow up every molehill to a mountain, every pimple might be cancer, the weather report uses the vocabulary of war. 

Our world has so many real problems, so much terrible things happen, so many liars and drama-queens (and kings!) around. 

Angrily I deleted the App - and loaded a beautiful new one up  instead that my son had recommended: it tells me which birds are singing just now around me. 

Of course I know the song of the Eurasian Black Bird, the Great Tit, the Blue Tit, the Sparrow, the Common Chaffinch, the  Greenfinch, the Common Cuckoo. 

Yet the Serin was new to me. 

So: this App makes me happy - not terrified for nothing. 

 

Happy Easter!

 

Spring gives us so much joy!

 

I know a few secret places where I find the first lovely smelling violets of the year. They were the favourite scent in Marlene Dietrich's perfume - it is called "Berlin" by Frau Tonis (you find her shop near Checkpoint Charlie). 

These little tulips flower only for two days.  

Aren't they beautiful? 

Isn't spring such a sign of hope and a new beginning? 

I will read - as every year - "The Enchanted April" by Elizabeth von Arnim, and watch the very well-made movie on a DVD too. 

Just Doodling

 

It happened by chance. I drink a Nespresso first thing in the morning. The capsules are in a sort of cube, in two layers - and between these layers is a little white cardboard. 

I took the little white card, and my Japanese fountain pen - a few dashes with the pencil and then I drew whatever stood in front of me in the tiny vase on my breakfast table at the window. 

I love to sketch! 

Well, and suddenly I saw that I had drawn quite a lot of little tiles. Here they are. 

Put on the first laptop I ever owned 😁

Coming back from Rome

 

"On my birthday I want to sit on a terrace in Rome in the sunshine and drink a cappuccino", said the Flying Dutchman after half a year of cold and rain and wind and dark clouds and a leaden sea in the Netherlands. 

The sun is shining and spring comes just around the corner - even quicker than the marathon runners who blocked a lot of streets - no way to cross the road to get to the Campo da fiori on our first of five days here though our hotel was very near. 

"Look, look!" 

And good-bye Roma! 

 

The Sunday-Quote: William James on Cheerfulness

 

"The path to cheerfulness is to sit cheerfully and to act and speak as if cheerfulness were already there."

This is one of the rare cases that I found a quote in German, loved it, and looked it up in the works of William James - brother of famous author Henry James. 

Believe me or not: I love the German translation even more! 

"Um gute Laune zu kriegen, muss man sich vergnügt aufrichten, vergnügt um sich schauen und sich so verhalten, als wäre die gute Laune bereits da." 

Re-translated (and please don't be to rigorous with my grammar) it goes like this: 

"To get into a good mood, one has to to cheerfully straighten oneself, look around cheerfully and act as if cheerfulness were already there." 

(Maybe it is "straighten oneself" contra "to sit"?)