Odds and Ends or something like that....

The time just flies and I keep taking pictures, but never seem to get them to my blog!  I thought I'd post some random pictures today.  Hope you like them.

This house is wonderful and hidden back off the street and abandoned...can you imagine?  I took some pics of it one early evening and after reviewing them, I thought I saw something odd in one of them.  I won't say what it is...you tell me if you see anything weird...lol.  Here it is:

 I think I mentioned everyone rides bikes here, everywhere and every age.  If I didn't, they do! LOL

 An old window with a lace curtain.....

and a neighborhood cat in the rain... He (?) was in the backyard, under a roof, watching me.

Kind of a cool old door...

This picture is from an ancient cathedral called Amiens in France (told you they were random...lol)

Some awesome clouds........

and a walk with Ivy a few minutes later...

Whut chu talkin bout, Willis?!

Window shopping today in Gent

OMG, SO much has happened since my last blog, I don't know how to catch up, so I'll start with today and hopefully work my way backwards (easy to say..LOL).  But before I do, I'll catch you up on some of my news.  Three weeks after I got here, Marc had a stroke!  Can you imagine?!  Suddenly, besides being worried to death about him, I had to drive amongst these insane drivers here, find my way to the hospital and market and take care of things at home...not the easiest of things to do when you don't speak the language or understand the road signs! LOL...

But..... he was out of the hospital after a week, and then on very heavy medication.  His new nickname of "Stoney" was well deserved...lol   OMG, it truly was like being with someone who was stoned 24/7.  It wasn't until just a few days ago he came out of the stoned state and is back to normal...whew!!  He's been able to drive (he's not supposed to for six months...argh) and does fine, so that's fine with me. 

Ok, now back to today....we decided to go to a museum and do a little window shopping downtown, and I wanted to share the pictures with you.  Here's a pic of Gent this afternoon...cool and rainy.

Look at the window of this candy store...I've never seen anything like this before.  Every time I see it, it's just amazing but I never have my camera with me.  Today, I actually remembered to bring it (duh!)

Right around the corner, I found this shop which, sadly, was closed.  I'm not sure what they were selling but I left drool all over the window...........

 I don't know why, but it seems to me that as women get older, they get what I  call The Miniature Disease.  Everything looks cuter in miniature...but why?? LOL  A few more pics of this wonderful window.  I want everything in it...I SO covet it!

 On to the museum which was housed in the first hospital in Gent...positively medieval.  This part of the museum was Victorian to the 70s.  I found only one sampler in this section (1877) but...there is an older part of the museum which will open in October and I am hoping they have some awesome needlework.  Nevertheless, I found lots of good stuff and took a few pictures.

ABSOLUTELY DROOL-WORTHY

 And now, a few weird things I spotted......lol....always fun to find.

Last, but definitely not least, the newest member of the family: Ivy, an almost 3 months old Yorkie.

Til next time, have a great week!

A Walk through Gent and my new favorite antique shop

Ok, week two is still in the archives, waiting to be posted, but I thought I'd share some pictures from the other day as we walked around town, stopping every hour or so to have a coffee (more caffeine) at outdoor cafes which are everywhere.

A medieval canal runs through the oldest part of Gent, which made it a seaport.  Here are a few pictures along the canal

...sigh...I would love to jump in this boat!

 A wonderful weeping willow next to an outdoor cafe.

Window boxes are everywhere. I could do ten blog posts

just on them....hmm...lol

This shop window caught my eye right away, with all gorgeous wool roving.

The ancient cathedral towering above the city...

and the pagan Greenman who guards the entrance to the crypt, the oldest part of the cathedral.

There are medieval towers just about everywhere you look.

A little outdoor market with fresh herbs...

This was a tiny medieval door I was DYING to open....

And now, my new discovery, only blocks from my house.......!

where on my first visit, I bought a sweet little old watercolor box from Paris

and then.........on our second visit, we bought this "thing" that we thought would be perfect for my studio upstairs.  After we got it home, we realized what a monster it was.  It has 40 drawers which are beyond perfect for someone who LOVES drawers and organizing things IN drawers.....

There is NO way we can get it up the stairs, so Plan B is somehow getting it up to the second floor outside from the back garden.  This means shoving it up a ladder with ropes (I think..lol) and having someone on the second floor roof...a couple "someones" I think, who will then grab it and hoist it through a HUGE window that goes into the studio.  That's the plan anyway.... If there's any way, I'll try to take pictures of this.....it ought to be interesting.

We have four little adorable kitties here, so I'll end this blog with a few pics of the kittens.

My first week in Belgium!

Last week we did a day trip to the North Sea at a sea shore in France.  Along the way, I saw my first REAL (and very old) windmill...it was amazing!  And how convenient was it that there were flower beds full of tulips close to it?!

We continued on to the seashore, to a spot where you could look across the English Channel and see the white cliffs of Dover.  It was a little hazy and my pictures didn't show the cliffs but here's a few of the beach where we had a picnic and a snooze in the sun.

We stopped for coffee (as usual) on the way back in a little village in France and I snapped a few shots of the red clay tile rooftops.  I'm so inspired here and I think photography, combined with some sort of mixed media artwork could be in the future...lol..

Not that my photography is anything to get excited about (yet, anyway...lol) but I can picture using these rooftops somehow...

I also got to see an amazing art exhibition of a Belgian symbolist painter, Gustave van de Woestyne at the art museum here in Gent.  This was one of my favorite paintings...

and I managed to get myself in trouble there, as well... So typical for me...lol.  Apparently I got "TOO CLOSE!" to one of the paintings and a little twerp who worked for the museum freaked out and came over and lectured me in Dutch.  When he finished his big warning, I told him I didn't understand a word he said.  I DID get a little satisfaction out of that! LOL..  Actually, all I had done was point at something in a painting, but apparently he thought my finger was a combo finger/switchblade or something.........sigh..... lol

Another day, we took a walk through the city and I saw this huge cat looking out an even "huger" window of the second story, watching all the activity below. 

A few last pics of an ancient abbey very close to here, in ruins now, but absolutely wonderful!

Stay tuned for Week Two, which included a trip to the Netherlands AND a fabulous antique shop I found!

It's been a long time

  .....since I've been back to my blog and I just had a heck of a time trying to sign in to it.  Sometimes I really long for the BC days (before computers).

Time is just FLYING and May 17th will be here before I know it.  I thought I'd share some pictures of my new city where I'll be living.  The old part is medieval and well restored.  Here are a few photos of it as well as the Gent Castle, Gravensteen, which I definitely plan to go to!!