Onder de Dettifoss

Op zee bij Kopenhagen

The meeting of the waters

There is not in the wide world a valley so sweet
As that vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet;
Oh! the last rays of feeling and life must depart,
Ere the bloom of that valley shall fade from my heart.

Yet it was not that nature had shed o’er the scene
Her purest of crystal and brightest of green;
‘Twas not her soft magic of streamlet or hill,
Oh! no, — it was something more exquisite still.

‘Twas that friends, the beloved of my bosom, were near,
Who made every dear scene of enchantment more dear,
And who felt how the best charms of nature improve,
When we see them reflected from looks that we love.

Sweet vale of Avoca! how calm could I rest
In thy bosom of shade, with the friends I love best,
Where the storms that we feel in this cold world should cease,
And our hearts, like thy waters, be mingled in peace.

Pite river dramatics (Zweden)

Na een bezoek aan FOAM geïnspireerd door Awoiska van der Molen (donkere natuur) en Jacques Henri Lartigue (vierkant format)

‘Birch on the moon’ was made during a long walk on the tundra of Finland. The area gave me an immense feeling of being alone on the moon. The tree was just an anomaly. I had to put it into my picture as the wide landscape all around me had no other particular point of interest. The green floor and blue sky were clearly beautiful, but it was not what I was looking for. And then I remembered how to think in 2 colours. The black and white contrast would do it for me and I am very happy with the result. While I was still dreaming away with this picture sinking into the peaty ground and as my feet became wet, I realized there could be no water on the moon. My wife picked me up a couple of hours later, back on earth.

De Nijenbeek is een relatief jonge ruïne. Op 12 april 1945 beschoten de geallieerden de burcht vanaf Gorssel met granaten en tanks om de Duitsers die in het bouwwerk zaten te verdrijven. Toen dit gelukt was, trokken de geallieerden de rivier over om hun opmars ter bevrijding van Nederland voort te zetten. Ze lieten de burcht grotendeels verwoest achter.

De huidige ruïne werd in de 13e eeuw gebouwd als Donjon (verdedigingsburcht). Van de 16e eeuw tot de 19e eeuw werd erin gewoond. De Nijenbeek bestond toen uit een kasteel met voorburcht.

Op de top van de heuvel is het nog frisser dan in het dal

De Kooltuin, Alkmaar