T sTands for This and ThaT

Hi Everybody!

Hope your weekend was good. Here we had too much excitement for my liking, more about that later!

For Alison's summer country challenge at AJJ I have a vase of sunflowers. There are lots of 'trust' fields here where you can cut your own sunflowers and put the money in a tin, and these fields always mean summer to me:

This evening we will be celebrating Elizabeth's T sTands for Tuesday link ParTy, so here a warm welcome to all of the ladies of the T Gang who visit here.

I saw more nice things in the shops here, I would like that goose mug!

I baked a hazelnut cake, cut yourself a slice:

And my drink is frothy coffee, as always:

Yesterday my neighbour sent me a WhatsApp message and told me that there was a huge hole in the road where we live. He sent me these three photos: 

They did some emergency repairs yesterday and closed the street to traffic, and then carried on on Sunday. These pics were taken Sunday midday. And lots of people were cycling through the road to get photos, although the road was closed.

Draining water - the damage was probably caused by the stream, which flows under the road. Normally it's just a trickle, but it was very full when it rained so much:

I know this is just something very small after the damage and destruction that has happened in other places, but it's strange feeling when the road in front of your home opens up. We are all very fortunate that we normally live in a secure environment, and the events of the past days show how quickly things can change. So many are homeless and have lost everything.

And to finish on a lighter note I have a funny for you:

Have a great day, take care, 

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Weekend Post

Hi Everybody!

The past days here have been very sad. Many places have been completely destroyed by the water masses after dams burst and the rivers overflowed. More than 100 people have died, many are now homeless, and lost everything they had. The water masses washed bridges and roads away, houses were broken apart, and some houses floated along the streets. Many places are completely cut off from the rest of the world, and have no electricity or telephone. My heart goes out to all those who have lost so much, and to the families of those who lost their lives. You can read more here. The helpers, emergency services and army are working round the clock to help, and some idiots get in the way while trying to get a good 'catastrophe selfie' to post on their social media accounts. Unbelievable.

In our little town there is flooding at the Rhine and on the meadows, but up till now not more. The Rhine will continue to rise, as we are here on the Lower Rhine, and the flood water will pass through here, so I hope it will be moderate. And I wonder how long people will continue to ignore the climate changes that are taking place. We need to act NOW, tomorrow will be too late.

For Alison's  summer country challenge at AJJ I have another hybrid journal page, the sentiment seems rather cynical after the events of the past days:

And I have another tag for Sandie's music challenge at Tag Tuesday

You still have a week to join in:

And I have some flower and insect  photos to cheer myself up, I don't want to show pictures of the flooding:

Have a great weekend, take care,

and thanks a lo for coming by!

Thursday/Friday post

Hi Everybody!

We have had non-stop rain these past days, and many places are flooded. The Rhine is flooding, and even the stream next to our house, which is usually just a trickle of water, is filled with brown, muddy water flowing to the Rhine. I hope it will soon stop. I had to go out this morning, walked about 5 kilometres in all and was wet to the skin by the time I got home, in spite of raincoat and umbrella. The sirens were sounding all night, calling the fire brigade to help. And it's forecasted to rain again tomorrow!

Last weekend I joined in the 'Art is Magic' weekend Retreat, and it was great fun. There were 21 lessons all together, and I watched them all, made notes and took some progress shots. In the coming weeks I hope to get one or two lessons done each week, time and health permitting. 

Yesterday I made some character faces using Karen O'Brien's fun lesson. Today I put the faces onto some recycled journal pages. I have sorted out lots of stuff made in past years, which is earmarked for collage fodder or paper-weaving. The faces were all drawn with a watercolour pencil on scraps of paper or newspaper. the newspaper got a few holes in it from painting, but so what? Nobody's perfect! The first one was placed onto a watercolour piece made some time back, which I didn't like. The uniform body was cut from a magazine, and given a new head. Then I gave him a fancy headdress:

This face was turned into a Frida Kahlo lookalike. Part of the script on the original page was covered by the head, so I scribbled the misssing words onto the face:

This face was given a cut out body and placed on a paint-wipe page. I think it's a sort of bird lady:

The last one was placed onto a cut out body and given a big heart:

This was really a fun lesson, just letting go of perfect faces and creating something different. I am linking to Paint Party Friday

Rain's TAD theme this week is mornings, so here some morning views from my balcony:

Have a great day, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!