Reviving vs Surviving

Some days it's extremely hard to deal with circumstances. Especially when there is totally nothing you can do about them. It often takes a while before I can accept the fact that I am in such a place.
Last days I've been looking for ways to stop surviving, and to start reviving. And although I could't leave the circumstances behind, playing with ingredients and flavours made me feel happy:
photo 1: farmer's cake with apple, raisins, and cinemon.
photo 2 & 3: puff paste with brie, apple, walnut and honey.
photo 4: Courgette with mozzarella and basilicum.

Niet alleen...

Chased...

It's never safe in the woods...

Merry Christmas

At the drawing and paint classes I give we made an illustration with watercolour, inkpen and pastel. You can read the little story here.


I wish you a very nice Christmas and hope new windows and doors will open up for you in the new year - opportunities to see dreams fulfilled!

Saint Nicolas

A couple of weeks ago we welcomed Saint Nicolas in Ommen. Today I found some old photo's of myself 'celebrating' the Dutch festivity. (I was very sad because my teacher was going to be taken to Spain in a bag by St Nicolas' helpers(I realise it sounds terrible if you're not Dutch...))


This year I was suprised by a feeling I got when Saint Nicolas shouted "Hello, mr. de Bruin" to me while going through the streets! I knew the actor, but felt so happy and exited that he KNEW MY NAME... It was such a funny experience - suddenly I was that little boy again!! Ha ha ha

Leaving the path

Some weeks ago I spent a couple of days in Germany. The sight and smell of the trees and hills invited me to enter their world of beauty. One thing I always do when I go for a walk in an unknown area is to ‘leave the path’, and discover my own… I can’t resist the adventure of entering and discovering the unknown.


One of the books I am reading at the moment is ‘Maps of the imagination: the writer as cartographer’ by Peter Turchi – an inspiring book about mapmaking, creative processes, and the different ways of observing and visualising the real or imaginary world around us. It seems that no matter how many discoveries we make as human beings, we keep on telling ourselves we’ve reached the end of the knowable world. At page 226 its about developments in science and the limitations of current technology.
- The genome map and tools like the Hubble telescope don’t merely allow us to see what we know more clearly; they give us a sense of all we don’t know. “Whenever we couldn’t conceive of what’s out there,” writes Richard Panek, “it was because we didn’t yet understand what the preconceptions might be that were restricting our view.” Which is to say, Seeing is an art which must be learned and relearned.-

While I say “I can’t resist the adventure of entering and discovering the unkown” I realise at the same time that I am terrified to do that with planning my daily life and imagining my future… While being encouraged by some positive experiences, I am also overwhelmed by the limitations and the fear I had with gaining them.
I long to discover new worlds; the possibilities of my life, but to do so I have to encourage myself to leave the path which I restrict myself to...

Joie de vivre

Last Thursday night I went to the citycentre of Breda on my own. With the purpose to enjoy the special shops my eye caught the other day and to wander around.
I saw quite some shops with cooking utensils, but also with books, and other specific things. I bought a 2nd hand book about Chagall and 2 sketchbooks (but couldn't find a book about combining flavours and herbs where I was looking for too).
It was such a beautiful night... I sat at a cafe with a coffee, felt the soft rain, a breeze, watched the few people on the streets, enjoyed the colours of the lights, and the shops. While sitting down with my coffee the moment made me think about a piece of mixed art or music. The combination of lots of different elements playing together; colours, shapes, lines, everything together. Also the combination of hearing, sight, touch, smell and taste.
To 'be aware' of them opens a door to a whole new world...