french finds

This morning we visited our friend Lammie in her surprisingly nice and special Saturday shop.

The shop was packed with new finds from France.
We had coffee in front of the shop on the small french terrace at the harbour and had a chat with fellow customer Carmen from Almada (Lisbon), needles to say it was all about 'a vida portuguesa'...

After coffee we went back inside for a closer look at the motley french collection and did some serious shopping.

we spoiled ourselves with white harlequin plates, more yellow and black plates, a blue vase of opal glass, a grape vase, a tea towel with fish print and a gift for a friend. In short, we bought a lot, however we hadn't stopped by for a long time.

If you'll ever visit Dordrecht, you should really drop by.

Saturday shop by Lammie - Knolhaven 15 - 3311 BJ Dordrecht

aubergines

Homegrown aubergines in the backyard.

Almost ready to be harvested. It's the first time this year that I have tried to cultivate an aubergine plant in my garden. After years of tomato- and pepper plants, I wanted to try something different and this vegetable plant turns out to be a good choice.

The deep purple veggies have grown so fast during the past tropical weeks. It was interesting to monitor the growth of the eggplant closely and to see how the attractive lilac flowers turned into aubergines.

It reminded me of the artistic aubergine paintings by Erik Mattijssen from an exhibition a year ago. The paintings are so colorful and inspiring. The Pacifico painting from 2009, with eggplants in food cans, was my favorite masterpiece.

If only i would have planted the plant in a tin... I have to remember this for next year.

Next week I'm going to try the Zaalouk recipe, a delicious Moroccan aubergine salad with eggplant as the main ingredient.

coolness at the end of the day

Recover from the heat at the end of the day, in nature around the corner.

the beach to ourselves

Saturday 8th of August

We set our alarm at 7 am and left for the coast early. Once at the beach, we walked a long way, just a little further than most people would do. No doubt many will follow today.

The beach, silence and light are beautiful at this early hour, getting up early on a day off was worth it.

Breakfast on the beach while we had the beach to ourselves.

Obviously not for long. After a while the beach slowly filled up.

on a summer evenin'

A spontaneous evening picnic in nature on a august summer evening.

Hurray for a heat wave as far as I'm concerned.

linen laundry

Linen laundry drying in the sunshine. Garden doors open. Those simple summer pleasures.

I did a lot of laundry today and the racks in the laundry room were already full of bedding, so I had to improvise how to dry the wet linen curtains.

We don't have a dryer anymore and line-dry all laundry instead. Which also saves a lot of ironing.

To avoid the (too) long linen curtains touching the floor, while they were still wet, i took two chairs to support the fabric.

august

Saturday, 1st of August.

We celebrated my birthday at home with family.
Unlike previous years, when we used to celebrate my birthdays abroad. But hey, it was a lovely summerday and it felt just as special as a 'holiday birthday', like the ones in Cadiz, Madrid, Pamplona, Berlin, Antwerp...

Nowadays we travel in the early and late season, so I will be celebrating my birthday probably at home more often in the future. Nothing wrong with that...

Dahlias on the table. The August flowers par excellence!

My birthday party was relaxed, with the kids, my sisters and niece. We ate cake, had lunch together at the round kitchen table and dined in the garden.

And evermore it feels kinda special Yves Saint Laurent was born also on the first of August.

His characteristic portrait, which we found in Lisbon some weeks ago, got a 'place of honor' in the hallway.