Summer 2017

Oh my, last post on this blog in ... August?! I didn't even notice that the time was passing so quickly, even though I've had it in the back of my head that I really, really should be back to blogging soon after the summer break.

Well, there are several reasons for this long break but one of them is certainly instagram; another reason I will write in another post soon. So, instagram happened in a moment of boredom and I immediately got hooked in spite of my initial reservations (the fact that I was already a very late starter didn't make those reservations smaller). Then I got really into it. And now I'm kind of out of it again.

I still think instagram is a great way to share visual information and for example I discovered some interesting calls for testknits which I would have never seen on Ravelry otherwise. But the main reason why I'm less busy with it now is mainly that it took the focus away from my beloved blog! And there are certainly many things that you cannot do with instagram that the blog can do. I have the impression that I'm not the only blogger that got sucked into this because many of the blogs I follow regularly are also updated less frequently or seem to be hibernating.

So I decided to turn my attention back to the blog, where I can go into more detail with many things and which I still like because it feels a little bit more "permanent" than the fleeting nature of likes and comments of instagram. Let's see how I get on!

For now, here are some snaps that we (because for many pictures I can actually not take credit myself) have taken over the summer months with our new camera - an investment that now only requires that we actually learn how to use it properly. 

Spring in Brussels

Crazy spring - first it's freezing and you feel like winter never ends, the next minute it's 30 degrees and you've been catapulted straight into the middle of summer! Of course, the latter never lasts long but was quite a shock to the system I have to say.

After travelling so much in the last couple of months I was happy to also have few quiet days to relax at home and especially to take care of our plants on the balcony. Every time when I returned from a trip, there were some new green sprouts somewhere to be seen. Some were planted by me, some (not to say most) where brought in by Thomas who loves to go plant-shopping.

Now we live in a mini-jungle and I love all the greenness of it! We try to have a good mix of different plants and many wildflowers to feed the bees, who really seem to appreciate the effort. Lately we also have added some lettuce, strawberries, and onions to have something edible in the mix, too. I actually prefer flowers but why not give it a try.

In terms of projects I have not advanced much, I have to admit. My turquoise Minetta pictured above is still a WIP (can't decide whether I should rip it or not) and my second project, the grey alpaca cardigan, has simply been too warm to hold in my sweaty hands over the past days! The back piece is finished though, and I'm halfway through the right front. I did do some spinning though. It may have been a bit of cheating because I used some pre-assembled roving (I don't know the correct term but it's more like unspun yarn similar to Plötulopi) so I hardly had to do anything except pushing the pedal. Well, it WAS relaxing for sure.

More pictures of the balcony jungle coming soon!

Springwinter

The change in the weather couldn't have been bigger from one week to another: last weekend it was so cold and rainy we actually cut our daytrip to Namur short (it just wasn't fun anymore once we were soaking wet) and the following Saturday we have breakfast on our terrace in our t-shirts! But if it's this way round, I definitely won't complain.

I'm making the most out of the weekends I'm spending in Belgium because for some reason there is always something planned. We met up with some friends for a "crafternoon" last Saturday and I managed to work a bit on my Birki cardigan and also made some nice finds in a local charity shop. On Sunday, we went to Namur as I mentioned above but ended up  in the Félicien Rops Museum instead of walking up to the citadel because of the awful weather.

 When we turned up at the museum reception they told us that the entry and the audio guide were for free on every first Sunday of the month - how lucky were we?! And also good to know for future museum trips. The museum was nicely done but to be honest, I'm not a big fan of the artist. His view of women is, to but it lightly, extremely biased. In his personal life he left his wife to live with two (much younger) sisters and had affairs with both of them, but in his art women are depicted at best as objects, and at worst as manipulative witches that are only after the men's money or even in a pact with the devil. Definitely some issues there!

But Namur is still a very charming small town. Originally we had planned on going there because Thomas, even though he is Belgian, had never been and I only remembered it vaguely from a daytrip a few years ago. The conclusion of the trip was that we should probably go back in summer, when we can enjoy it a bit more. Also, literally everything in town except for a few restaurants and the museums was closed so there wasn't much else to do.

The following weekend (let's skip the boring week, shall we?) we had more museums on our agenda: Museum Night Fever in Brussels, one of my two favourite cultural events of the year - the other is the car-free Sunday and Open Monument Day by the way. I think I haven't missed a single edition since I arrived in Brussels and loved it every time. Although this time, I found the activities on offer not quite as interesting but that might also depend on which museums we went to. Still  fun night though and chapeau to the Brussels museums for organizing a major event like this with so much success!

Now I think I've had enough museums for a while and I hope we'll have real spring here soon so we can spend some more time outdoors again.