Viggo's Blog: How to Survive Autumn (with Tips!)

Hi fans, Viggo here.
By popular demand I have decided to share my catty wisdom with you once more. Not that you deserve it persé, but I have my good side. And the sun is shining, which always makes me contented.

My woman tells me that convention makes it polite to ask you how you are doing; well, to get that out of the way: how are you?
There. That's done. Happy now?

Someone also told me I should be nice(r) to that silly Maine Coon who lives on my block. Now that's a hard thing for me...I was here first you see. But I'll try. Noblesse oblige.

What I really wanted to teach you though, is how to survive Autumn.
I know that you humans have a problem with those leaves falling. You tend to become down and melancholy, and start to eat fatty things and have an un-resistable urge to snuggle up in wooly stuff or next to open wood fires and such.

Me, I just loooooove those falling leaves. They fly through the air and I can leap at them and chase them, and roll around in them, and come home covered in little bits of leaf, smelling lovely outdoorsy.

So, pay attention now, I am going to give you some tips so that you can enjoy Autumn as well, instead of mooching around feeling depressed.

Tip 1.

Don't view Autumn as the end of something (Summer, dumbo), but as the beginning of a lovely long period where your main aim can be to keep warm and eat.

Tip 2.

Try to have fun with those leaves. See how gorgeous they are, and how great they smell. Make a heap and then leap in it from a distance. (Do make sure that you have removed all sharp garden implements from underneath first, I'm not responsible for any injuries that you have caused yourself by being stupid)

Tip 3.

Find a nice warm lap to sit on. (See photograph for reference; the glass is optional)

Tip 4.
Ask someone you trust to give you a relaxing massage daily.
I myself have my woman for this, but if you do not have anyone, go out and find someone. If you have trouble doing this, because you are shy, or because you are not that attractive (I realize you all cannot be me), see tip 5.

Tip 5.
Go to your local animal shelter or pound and adopt a cat (or two).
I was adopted myself, and my woman tells me often that I am the best thing that has happened to her since the invention of GarageBand and booze.

There you are. Now you'll have no problem to face the coming couple of months until Christmas has you all behaving like a bunch of punch-drunk-led-light fanatics.
Until next time, tarrah!

Limbo!

Good evening to you, my fellow Bloggers and assorted world-citizens.
What do you do (rhetorical question here - but feel free to answer it when the urge strikes you) when you are in limbo whilst waiting for other people to (finally!) do their work?

You write a song about it.
Well, I did...

See that spider? That spider is fulfilling its purpose. It is doing its work, so to speak. It hangs there, gently swaying in the Autumn breeze, waiting for a juicy fly to land.
I am not like that spider. 
I am waiting, yes, waiting until I am blue in the face. But that's the only similarity.
Unfortunately I am not good at waiting, unlike the spider. My type is the pro-active type. The 'let's put our shoulders underneath it and shove that thing out of the way' type. The 'hell yes, divorce, well, let's get it out of the way as soon as possible so that we can move on' type.
The 'I want to get on with my life' type.

Pffffffft.

So. As I said. A song.
Enjoy! 
The link:  Limbo

Viggo's Blog: Happy Animal Liberation Day to Me!

Hello fans, Viggo here.
Did you miss me?

Today, Oct. 4th, we celebrate "Dierendag" (Animal's Day) in my country.

That means we get treated to ridiculous things like bows around our necks, or to something better to eat than normal if we're extremely lucky.

I for one make certain that I don't get within a mile of a bow, and I prefer my crunchy nibbles to any fancy fish I might be treated to.
But today is rather a special day for me as well, for today exactly five years ago my woman came to the Kids for Animals shelter and took me away from there. I can still see her come in. I was playing in the corridor with my two brothers, and I immediately realized that she was my ticket out, so I sprinted towards her and climbed her leg. Needless to say she melted.

I haven't been sorry. I have a great house, with an even greater garden, a fish pond with pretty fish I can watch for hours, and the run of the bedroom. 
I do as I please. I am King of the house. 

And now that the nights are getting colder, with sometimes even ground frost, I climb into bed with my woman again. She's careful not to smother me, although she does shove me towards the wall sometimes and I'm forced to pull her hair then. I do this with reluctance, for she uses that sticky stuff on her hair and it makes my teeth all gluey. But sometimes a cat's got to do what a cat's got to do. 

Anyway. Just thought to let you know that I'm still around. That bloody Maine Coon is still around as well, bloody nuisance he is. Yesterday he dared to show his ugly fat face in my garden again, and I set my dog Gina on him. She can hardly walk with her arthritis, but she hobbled towards him anyway, bless her, and barked right into his mug. Ha!  That showed him! 

Right. Time for a wash. See you!

Review: Rattle That Lock - David Gilmour.

Mr Gilmour has been an unknowing witness to my coming of age.
At 14 my first (Gilmour look-alike!) boyfriend introduced me to Pink Floyd, the smell of pot and Lapsang Souchon and an ever-lasting affinity with people who stay true to their first musical loves whilst enjoying all the latest bands.
So it won't come as a surprise to you that I awaited the latest Gilmour with growing anticipation. I am a subscriber to his YouTube channel, so I knew the album was in the making.
Boy, did he make me wait a long time! Years, years, and years. Two months ago he released a preview, which soon had 1,778,225 views and sparked great discussion between Pink Floyd fans and Gilmour fans and their opponents. Then, on September 18th, the CD/album was released.
I've heard quite a few vinyl snobs say that the only true way to listen to it is on vinyl. 
Bollocks! I enjoy my CD very much, thanks.

Is it any good, you want to know...
Ehm...
It has its merits.
(Ooooh, damn, what an awful on-the-fence-thing to say!)
I'll start again.

Is it any good, you want to know...
Well. I have listened to it approximately 30 times by now, and my initial disappointment has warped into a reluctant realization that it has wormed its way into my sub conscience. And I have caught myself humming the title song whilst on my bicycle, and in-between lessons. The four note signature intro (with immediate flashbacks to le Gard du Nord in Paris) has turned into a not uncomfortable worm-in-my-ear, I can tell you! 
There are many musical reminders of Pink Floyd; nothing strange, obviously. And I adore the old Pink Floyd, so they are easy on the ear.

But what I miss are the poignant lyrics. Mr Gilmour himself is quite content with the lyrics on the album, so he tells us in his 'the making of' video and with Polly Samson who wrote most of them, but...I am not. They meander on. Not a bite in sight. Nothing that comes even close to my all time favorite PF line: "Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way".
Perhaps I am being unfair here. And okay, 'The Girl in the Yellow Dress' is an exception. Still no memorable lines, but comfortable ones, nicely rounded off. And the jazzy music is wonderful, love it.

So...I will continue to play this album often, absolutely. Favorite track? 'Today'.
Was it worth the money? Sure. It is a well-crafted comfortable piece of music by a musician I  will respect until his (and my) dying day.
Here's the link: Rattle That Lock
Great artwork, by the way!!!

This photo has nothing to do with the above-mentioned artwork; it simply is evoked by the music. And I'm Dutch. Hence the cows...

Picking the Apples - Such an Autumny Pastime (with recipe).

Good evening to you.
If you feel drawn to this post, that means that you are an apple lover. Good for you, apples are not only healthy, but also a feel-good food.

Just think: if Garfield would have had a love for apples instead of lasagne and pizza, he wouldn't look like this.

This aside; I had to get a cat in there, sorry.

This weekend my son, daughter-in-law and myself picked the apples hanging from our solitary apple tree in the front garden.

There were two good reasons for doing this.

1. I had to get in there before they all rotted from the branches.

2. I had to get in there before the neighborhood kids would.

My apples are yummy, you see. They are Elstars, and when they are fresh they have a sweet but taut, very juicy quality. You can eat them as they are, peel them, dry them, cook them for apple sauce of bake wonderful apple pies with them.

And let me tell you, that's a good thing. Just look at the harvest. And this isn't all. It is halfway through our picking.

In fact, this year we had a bumper crop, as opposed to last year, when we barely had 1 bucket full.

But people with apple knowledge have told me that this is normal. Apple trees tend to have gap years, when they hardly bear any fruit.

To celebrate our great apple year, I thought you might like my recipe for unpretentiously not-at-all traditional Dutch mini-apple pies?

Yeah, thought you would!

First of all, I am a cheating kind of cook. I like to make it easy on myself, since my job is so demanding that I usually come home dead tired.

So I use almost ready-made crumble dough (buy it in any supermarket).

What do you need:

- 3 large Elstars (or the equivalent - you need apples that will not bake to mush)

- enough crumble dough for 6 mini-crumbles

- 1 egg

- 100 g pecan nuts

- 100 g butter (I use real butter) + (mind you check you dough mixture for the correct amount)

- 90 g fine brown sugar

- half a lime

- 1 table spoon of cinnamon (I use the organic kind)

- 100 g strawberry (or another kind of berry) jam (I use my home made blueberry jam)

- if you like, whipped cream or ice cream, to put on the side.

How do you make them:

* first of all, you pre-heat your oven (look at the dough packet for the correct temperature!)

* chop up your Elstars and mix them well with the pecan nuts, cinnamon and sugar, squeeze the lime juice over it

* mix up your crumble dough by adding the butter and the egg

* form your 6 mini-pies either sloppily by hand (I usually do) or by making a nest of aluminium foil first (do not forget to remove this later though!), or use ready-bought cupcake paper cups, this works just fine

* now put in a good table-spoon of jam in the bottom

* put your chopped up Elstar mix on top  

Settle your apple pies in the oven and bake until golden brown.

Do not attempt to wash your windows in the meantime! I did once - not a great idea, unless you like burnt apple pie.

Enjoy yourself!

Movie Review: The Dutch Delta (Holland: Natuur in de Delta)

Once in a while a film can show you an aspect of your own country which surprises or enlightens you. This happened to me last night, when I took my old Mum to see The Dutch Delta.

This is my own translation, by the way, because this film is not being distributed abroad (yet). And I so hope it will be soon!!!

It shows my country in the best manner possible. Green, blue, above all with water omnipresent and with some animal species as the main characters, of which the hare is one.

The hare, as Carice van Houten in her voice-over tells us, has lived here much longer than us humans.

The Dutch Delta has been populated for approximately 8000 years, but the animals have been here forever. And they have had to adapt, adapt and adapt again. 

Thankfully we humans lately have come to realize that we should be thankful they are still amongst us, those animals. And that they have the right to a clean, safe environment as well. 

Ever since the industrial revolution they have been pushed into hiding and their living conditions have deteriorated so much that some of them (the sea eagle for instance, but also otters and beavers) have moved out of our country permanently.

But, and this is the good news, now that we have come to our senses some of those animals have returned. The beaver is one, the sea-eagle is another.

Mark Verkerk's film shows us an endless green and blue landscape, flat as flat can be, with ever present wind. This is the country I live in (wind! rain! I have to deal with these on a daily basis whilst cycling to and fro work), but seeing it from the eagle's viewpoint took my breath away.

Especially since I saw one of those "flying doors" (wingspan 2 m) as we call them yesterday over my own little piece of Wetlands, being chased away by the two buzzards who have taken up living in and ruling over our puny 17 acre forest.

For me the animals are the true stars of this film, with a good second place for the cameramen and -woman. Their camerawork is truly amazing. The word 'epic' comes to mind.

Take a look at the link I've provided for you. You will not be sorry! The Dutch Delta

And keep an eye out for a possible release in your country.

Blood Moon over The Wetlands? Jodymoon Rules!

Good afternoon (well, it is here), my music lovers everywhere around the world.

Whilst our moon is gearing up for her Blood Moon phase later on this weekend, we here in The Wetlands have another moon worth watching. And especially worth listening to!
I have blogged about this band before, Jodymoon, but I am presently going to blog about them again.
Why?
Because they are bloody (moon) good, that's why! (pun intended)

Whilst searching out one of their songs on YouTube to link to for you, I came upon one of their own videos from a couple of years ago, and since it is in English (how convenient!) I'll link this underneath this post.
They have moved on (a bit) since then, but their music is consistently brilliant and original. The funny thing is that the people in the know (radio djs, critics) all agree that they are brilliant and original, and still they are relatively unknown in The Netherlands.
Weird, that! And a shame. All my fellow countrymen are missing out.
We are clustered in front of The Voice every Friday evening, where unknown singers are bombarded to "Stars"  overnight, when all this time we have a little diamond in our midst hardly anyone cares about.

So. I've decided that I will single-handedly do my best plug here. Just think - you will appreciate this band which is under-rated in their own country...oooooohhhh....good for you!
Do give the video a try, and if you want more they are on YouTube with some of their songs, often live. 

Introducing Jodymoon