den bosch

Den Bosch - Museum quarter - Wednesday 6th of November

An unexpected mild sunny day this Wednesday.

We planned a visit to Den Bosch and started the morning with a visit to the Design Museum and the adjacent Noord Brabant Museum.

We walked and did some shopping in the area. Our best-loved store in Den Bosch is Westside; three floors with fashion, art, accessories, vintage furniture, books, inspiration and a mellow plant corner.

I found a very special plant (never seen before) and came to collect my green baby at the end of the afternoon for practical reasons.

We had lunch at CÔTE Bar Bistro, and yes on the terrace in the sun on Parisian bistro chairs. (in November!)

and I swapped my funky gold leather boots for chunky sneakers at the end of the afternoon.

fantasia

Fantasia is a traditional exhibition of horsemanship performed during cultural festivals and for Maghrebi wedding celebrations.

The performance consists of a group of horse riders, all wearing traditional clothes, who charge along a straight path at the same speed so as to form a line, and then at the end of the charge (about two hundred meters) fire into the sky using old muskets or muzzle-loading rifles. The difficulty of the performance is in synchronizing the movement of the horses during acceleration of the charge, and especially in firing the guns simultaneously so that one single shot is heard. The horses were bred from the Arabian and Barb breeds or a mixture of the two.

The Fantasia is considered a cultural performance and a kind of martial art and it also symbolizes a strong relationship between the man (or woman) and the horse, as well as an attachment to tradition.

In Morocco, Fantasia performances usually take place during local seasonal, cultural or religious festivals.

I was lucky to experience a Fantasia performance in the Agafay desert, during sunset at one of our workshops in May 2017.

A few weeks ago we walked in Essaouira and guess what we found in front of a curio shop in the medina? A Fantasia painting!

In beautiful colors, simple, but authentic, and battered, and old, with horsemen and berber tents in the desert, and signed by a seagull. We both loved it and decided to make a deal with the antique dealer. Everybody happy and so we cycled back from the medina to our hotel just outside Essaouira, Henk with a Fantasia painting under his arm.

New painting in da house, souvenir with a story...

bright royal blue

Throwback to Essaouira.

Old men and giant nets, seagulls everywhere, the salty smell of the ocean and icy fish spread out across old wooden tables. Long before the tourists arrived, people were making a living here off of the sea. It seems times have not changed overhere.

Even if not in the mood to buy fish, this the harbour is an excellent place to visit. The purity, colors and smell are utterly incredible. It's a dream for photographers like us.

The entire harbour is full of the most picturesque little blue boats. Essaouira blue boats!

The bright royal blue that covers the hull of every boat and adorns the shutters of every window speaks of thousands of years of history. This color harvested from the shells found on the Purple Islands that protect Essaouira from the open sea.

handmade moroccan beanies

It's November. Beanie season has started!

Traditionally I brought a new beanie collection for you from Morocco. Striped, uni or with a harlequin pattern, all unique and one size. The soft and warm beanies are very comfortable to wear and won't ruin your hairstyle.

Would you like to wear a beanie this season? Just have a look in my ETSY SHOP, choose your favorite one and support Aisha. The unique moroccan beanies are all handmade in moroccan crochet style by Aisha from Marrakech & crafters from Essaouira.

This season I found some new models, slightly shorter than the regular beanies. Below an example of the Moroccan beanie new style.