Oman

Over Christmas and New year we visited our son and his family in Muscat, Oman.   One of the highlights was certainly a visit to the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque. A marvel of engineering and Islamic art.

The mosque has a capacity of up to 20.000 believers.
The (hdr) picture is from inside the main prayer hall.

Photography

Recently I have been accepted in a small photo club: "Ut Fotocollectief" , from Hulst. Only a handful of enthousiasts, guided by a professional photographer, are aiming to make an annual exposition on a theme connected with the part of the Netherlands where all members live, Oost Zeeuws Vlaanderen.
We are still discussing: will it be dikes, water or walls. The photo's have to be taken in our small part of the world. A first attempt by me:



Big fish

Especially for Ton Pekel: Yesterday one of the largest containerships in the world passed the Western Scheldt: MSC Taranto, a ulcs (ultra large container ship) of 366 m long by 51 meters wide.

Ton: some more pictures on : http://www.flickr.com/photos/lescatalpas

Ship photography

Since we left France I have been looking for something interesting to take pictures of. It used to be flowers, butterflies and other bugs. Things that our garden here in Holland does not offer as abundantly as overthere. But, we live just a few hundred meters from the Western Scheldt. This is the busy river connecting the Northsea to Antwerp, Belgium. I have taken to making pictures of containerships. With modern technology from www.marinetraffic.com I can see the ships coming on the computer, and when it is an interesting one I go to the river.
Some examples:

Bad weather

Last night we had a freak thunderstorm passing our town. Hailstones the size of marbles and 30-40mm of rain.  Many people had their cars turned into golfballs. The garden was a mess. Most leaves are shredded and flowers have been demolished.

More Cormorants

Apparently these birds are quite successfull around here. They are known to eat 500 gr. of fish per day. This means these 6 guys eat over a ton of fish per year. No need to buy a fishing rod....

Cormorant

This Cormorant is trying to dry his / her wings in the rain. Pfff....... What a lousy summer, we  miss France..., or at least the weather in France

(click the picture for large version)

House move

As from today we own a new house in Terneuzen, The Netherlands. It's a rather modern house compared to our previous house in France. In the above picture it's the second house from the left.

Not too many butterflies overhere, but we have cormorants right in front of our doorstep. More pictures of these shy birds are to follow

The French adventure.

The French adventure is drawing to a close. Mainly because of family circumstances we have decided to move back to the Netherlands. The house has been sold, a new house has been bought.
We are now entering a very busy period of packing, moving and unpacking, so there will be little time for blogging. Once settled in Terneuzen, the town where we bought another house, we will update our followers.
Meanwhile we are enjoying the very early spring, with all it's splendor. Les Catalpas is always at it's best this time of year.

Smelly business

On thursday the 20th of January we had our sceptic tanks cleaned. As our access road is so small we had to use a local farmer with rather small equipment.
The sceptic tank of the main house......

........and the sceptic tank of the gîte.

Enough space now for at least 4 years going to the toilet.

Cat and Mouse

Miepje, the daughter of our stray cat Minoes, is growing up to become a real hunter. The mouse and Miepje were having a good conversation....................

until the mouse offended Miepje. Needless to say somebody lost out.....

Walnut country

Another view from our garden. As you can see, we have our own viewing point, the only difference with the previous topic being that we are overlooking walnut orchards in stead of vineyards. Yesterday afternoon it was particularly nice with a very clear rainbow.

Wine country

View over the Lot valley from Bélaye

My brother and his wife joined us for new year's eve and the first week of January. A good time for some sightseeing and going to the Lot valley to buy the famous Cahors wine, Malbec as it should be. We usually go to Chateau Latuc, run by a Belgian family. Very much recommended.
Their (pricey) white wines, which are very unusual in the Cahors area, are comparable with good Burgundys.
The picture is from Bélaye, a superb viewing point.