We Peaceful People Have It Tough, These Days

Hi there, my peace-loving friends.
'Cause that's what we are, right? 

I cannot imagine anyone in his or her right mind, no really sensible intelligent well-thinking person, who wakes up in the morning and thinks "Right, who can I kill today? What kid can I tear limb from limb, what mother can I rape, what man can I behead, what village can I pillage, how much blood can I shed to fill up the emptiness of my heart?"

Yet I woke up this morning and the first thing I heard was talk of war, of terrorists, of bombs, of jet fighters and that all of this was the reality and justified and "the right thing to do".

Well.
Have a listen to the song in the link below. And then dig out your peace signs and your placards and plaster them all over the Internet!

What is it good for? Absolutely NOTHING!

10,040 Readers?! Wow-wee, So Nice to See You!

LWhen I started this blog on November 24th 2013 I didn't dare dream that so many people would bother to read my stuff!

I thought that if I could scrape or drag in a couple of readers a week, it would be lovely.
Not knowing that I would have hundreds a week, and sometimes more than 1,500 a month at any given time.

And the parts of the world that you live in amaze me as well. Hundreds of readers a week in Ukraine? I mean...sure, great, wonderful that you are reading my blog folks, especially in the event of politics going on (I try - and mostly succeed - to stay away from politics; I'm certain that you have noticed); keep it up by all means.

On the subject of statistics:
my American readers are the most numerous, 
closely followed by my own countrymen,
very closely followed by people from the Ukraine
and the rest is quite evenly divided between Australia, South-Africa, India, Germany, England
and the occasional reader in France, Poland, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Greece, Latvia, Russia, Ireland, Canada, Rumania, China, Thailand. 

Now wouldn't it be wonderful to have, say, Hawaii, or the Solomon Islands, or anywhere in Africa, or Surinam.

Anyway. For ALL of you, I have looked up one of the funniest little videos I could find. It is about cats... They are one of my pet interests, simply because I think they are so inscrutable and always doing their own thing. So if you hate cats, skip it.
(Although...you could try it anyway, perhaps you'll surprise yourself by laughing out loud)

Link: I dare you to watch this without at least smiling.

Well? Bet you smiled, or even laughed out loud!

Have a wonderful evening, until next time.

It's Official: Autumn Has Arrived in the Wetlands!

We have been enjoying a gone-away-and-then-back-Summer for the last fortnight, but now temperatures have plummeted. Nights and early mornings are misty, clouds hide the sun, leaves are falling, spiders are absolutely everywhere (and they are HUGE this year) coats have been recovered from closets and people start talking about turning up the heat.

So I thought I'd do an Autumn post. With lots of Autumny photos, to help you get in the right mood and prepare for this melancholy time of year.

Credit should and must be shown to the French FB site Photo'graffiti, where many of these photos were uploaded in the first place. But I have found some photos elsewhere on the www as well, and some of them are simply my own.

I don't know about you, but falling leaves make me somewhat sad. Even though I admire their lovely colours, and like their smell, the trees shedding can give me a big dose of melancholia.

Then again the hazelnut tree peppering my garden with nuts gives me a happy feeling. Must be the prehistoric gatherer gene still going strong inside of me...I simply love gathering nuts.

When my kids were little we used to collect leaves and chestnuts and put them in an Autumn display on the windowsill. All kinds of insects would come inside as well, and try to hide behind the curtains...These days we have put up an insect hotel outside (much more practical).

This last photograph is one by my son, Wibe Koopman. He took it in Denmark. I love it.

Stop Your Messing Around...?

Good morning to you (Yes, Ukraine, especially to you! 119 readers in a week? Wow!). Last night I went to a great Ska concert.

A Message to You, Rudy

Click on the link and enjoy the long-lost music of The Specials.
It is such a shame that this wonderful music genre has all but disappeared from our radios. But, thankfully, not from our collective memories!
My local theatre, TweeHondjes, had reserved their largest hall for a ska concert by the Dutch ska band Peen! and it was filled with two kinds of people: youngsters who have been turned on to Peen! and oldies like me who have lived through the Seventies and Eighties and who have fond memories of the brief Ska revival (after all, the original ska came from the fifties I believe).
And it was wonderful. I was dancing non-stop.

This Sunday morning my knees are protesting and my back hurts, but it was worth it.
For those of you who do not know much about Ska, let me educate you (a bit).
One of the best known artists is Desmond Decker.

Live BBC footage of The Israelites

And we Dutchmen got acquainted with Madness in the early Eighties and locked this bunch of English madmen into our hearts. Let me show you why. And do sing along, the lyrics are provided!

Boat on the River Nile