Six centurys of salt water through my genes...

Pieter Moorman had a school-project about the VOC, the first company ever to be financed with stocks and during almost 200 years the wealthiest and most powerfull trade company in the world. The class organised a trip to the Batavia, a real wooden build replica of a VOC trade ship that sunk on a reef in Australia.

On the picture he explaines some details about the ship. I was the main sponsor of the project, I supplied the tickets. (I got them free with a beautifull barter deal with the Batavia ship-yard.) I also drove one of the cars with kids.

Standing on the main deck I felt the salt water running through my vaines and genes. I felt very at home on this deck and wanted to sail away, searching for treasures, pirates, slaves and trade. I wanted to command the crew in the mast setting the sails. Damn the British and to hell with the Spanjards, lets sail to the Indies!

Another dead owl

Beautifull blazing and biting I held this owlschick in my hand two days ago. It was pushed out of the nest as every year one ore two chicks are. The real struggle for life is everywhere around us. Today I found it in the barn dead. The mother sometimes brings the fallen chicks a mouse, but the chicks in the nest go first. It is complete and has a wingspan from almost 60 centimeters. A beautifull bird. At night I watch the parents fly in and out, very silently and smooth.

The next party, a beach party?

The day after. Another party, Nicky's birthday-party. Let's use the tent again! There's only a slight little problem, the party-animals decided that sleeping on a party was not their idea of having fun. So after the usual formalitys and a brief introduction around the table the party became a real beach party. Playing volleybal, eating, drinking, kissing, chasing horses, and playing more volleybal at four in the morning, and having breakfast at six in the morning and playing more volleybal.
Members of the party-gang were Yvonne, Jenna, Angela, Britt, Caspar, David, Willem and Nicky. Because of messing with sneezing powder David ended in the swimming pool, cooling down as you can see.

A Pyama Party

A pyama party in a tent, a birthday party can't get any better. The flags guide the way to the tent. And what do you do all night? Messing with fire is always entertaining for little boys. This is the gang, from left to right, Job, Gillian, Lars, Stan, Wei Lei,Twan, Stijn, Alwin and Robin. The party was given by Stan, Job and Twan.
The next morning breakfast with daddy's pancakes. Looking very sleepy, but being a man at night means also being a man the next morning!

Our new old boat

This is our (Twan and Me, Father and Son) new project. This is a very special boat, called a 'Leukothea'. It sails, with a sloop rig, you can realy row with it and it has a beautifull round shaped hull, in Dutch we call it a 'vlet'. It's very seaworthy. We use it as a tender and for fun, and to learn how to sail and row. I hate to see little kids in rubberboats with an outboard engine, looking bored, making noise and learning nothing. Give them a boat like this and they learn everything while playing and fiddling around. We debatted a long time about the name and the colour. The one followed the other, it will be black with yellow stripes, and the name will be 'Black Pearl'. And yes, we have a pirates flag.

Never intended to make...

By accident you press the button, or it's still on timer, or whatever, but you didn't intend to shoot the picture. Sometimes you remeber the moment, like the day I wanted to take a picture while driving from behind the wheel.. Sometimes your kids mess around before a mirror. This one I don't remeber, but its obvious that it was taken on board the boat, as was this one, showing someones foot. The floor is always a fine subject for a picture, and the furniture or the waterhose in the stable. And last but not least, the out of focus and out of frame faces of people, mostley your narcistic daughter trying to make a self-portrait. For some stupid reason all these pictures still stand on my hard disk, using precious space. Now they even made it to the internet!

What do I do to make you love me?

Artist: Anupama Bagwe

The gallery of your mind
Still hangs on
Without your smile
It came out strong

The color of your thoughts
From the canvas it came to me
Not prepared I was
Not allowed to see

Now I long to stare
But nowhere you are found
Just the shade of paint from where
I feel that you ‘re around

The tears I felt
Where they yours to shed?
The pain I saw
Do I have to forget?

The picture of your mind
Still burning on my soul
Wondering if we’ll ever meet
And make each other whole

The Deer, The Car and I...

I met this Deer on a beautifull evening on the road to a party where I was going to. The Deer didn't survive our meeting. All I saw of her was a brown flash. I heard a big bang and that was that. This was not the meeting I had in mind.

The Car is made in France and as everybody knows the French have a lot of style, but are not very practical. This also affects their way of building cars. Their cars are beautifull styled, but technicaly not very practical. Beautifull solutions for problems, but nothing easy to fix. And a lot of plastic. This is what needs to be fixed.

And I, whell, I have to repair another car. The parts that need to be replaced cost alltogether almost 600 euro's. So with a lot of glue, polyester, tape and pieces of leather I will tinker everything on its place.