Seeing Amsterdam with fresh eyes

August 18, 2017August 25, 2017 / cultivatingjoy / Leave a comment

JOYFUL GRATITUDE #40

A great thing about having dear friends over from abroad is that you get to explore your city with fresh eyes. It was a wonderful weekend of walking around different neighbourhoods, having lovely talks over steaming bowls of ramen, cycling for kilometers past cute farmhouses along the Amstel and soaking in the atmosphere of a sparkly daytime dj persevering despite the rain…

The last time these friends visited me was in 2006 just a few weeks after I first moved to Amsterdam. So much has changed around Amsterdam since then, practically none of this skyline seen from NDSM was as it is today. I’m so grateful for living in this amazing city that keeps evolving and that I get to rediscover all the time:)

Chilling in Haarlem

August 11, 2017October 22, 2017 / cultivatingjoy / 1 Comment

JOYFUL GRATITUDE #39

There are those magic days where you travel to another city to meet with a friend for no other reason than to go and eat scones! Hooray!

Then you explore the tiny, well-kept streets overflowing with plants, and somehow later find yourself sitting in the sun for hours, enjoying vegan delicacies and talking about ‘everything and nothing’ like we say in French:) One topic leads to another and you start reminiscing about the books you read (or didn’t read!) as a teenager – Adrian Mole’s diary, Watership Down, ‘Fucked up youth’ (??, so curious about that last one;).

So grateful for the simple pleasure of good company, tasty food and lots of laughs!

Back to the roots

August 4, 2017August 2, 2017 / cultivatingjoy / 2 Comments

JOYFUL GRATITUDE #38

I am grateful for a lovely long weekend spending quality time with my family in France. What a pleasure spend the hours like we did, chatting away while baking cakes, practising my portrait skills with my very patient sister as a model (portraits are so hard… I’ve got a lot of practise ahead of me), taking walks with Paolo in beautiful parks, enjoying long meals all together, celebrating birthdays and eating above mentionned cakes;), laughing and catching up…

Fruit picking in Fruittuin van West

July 28, 2017August 2, 2017 / cultivatingjoy / 3 Comments

JOYFUL GRATITUDE #37

Spent a lovely morning last weekend with Paolo picking raspberries and apples at Fruittuin van West, a beautiful organic farm in Amsterdam-West where you can go to pick your own fruit (local and seasonal – hooray!) . There is a lovely dynamic atmosphere, and I like that they share very openly in their newsletters about their fight against pests and the methods they use, as it gives a realistic idea of the challenges of organic cultivation.

Searching through the raspberry bushes to find the ripe fruit, holding them softly between my fingers and pulling lightly to pick them without crushing them, was the perfect exercise in mindfulness.

We walked through row after row of apple trees laden with tempting fruit and picked to our heart’s content, coming home with 4 kilos of appels next to our kilo of raspberries.

Don’t they look delicious?! (Needless to say that as I write this, the raspberries are already long gone, we enjoyed them ‘au naturel’, with yoghurt and in a delicious apple and raspberry cake!)

A dash of orange

July 21, 2017August 2, 2017 / cultivatingjoy / Leave a comment

JOYFUL GRATITUDE #36

These stunning bright orange lichens grow all over the rocks throughout Capraia. I tried to photograph them repeatedly but the pictures don’t really do justice to how marvelous they are.

As we were exploring the island, our guide Mariella explained that Capraia counts in total around 400 types of lichen, which I’d say is not bad for an island measuring just 20 square kilometers. I’m grateful to Pacha Mama for having created such diversity even in the tiny details, with insanely fascinating shapes and gorgeous colours.

Plant spotting in Thailand

July 14, 2017October 22, 2017 / cultivatingjoy / 2 Comments

JOYFUL GRATITUDE #35

One of the wonderful things of exploring Thailand was the quantity of plants everywhere. On many street corners, balconies, house fronts there were lovely plants. There were all sorts of frangipanis (which are one of my all time favorites since I lived in Australia) but the gorgeous colours on these ones shown above defy anything I’d seen yet.

This lovely lotus shot after a small rainshower is magical. Nature really knows how to combine colours.

How could I resist making a close-up of such a tiny furry leaf… it’s pure perfection!

There were also plenty of lovely flowers as decoration around the temples.

In Surat Thani as I was walking by the river, I came across this plant vendor’s shop on wheels. I admired the collection of luscious green pot plants for every taste, expertly squeezed onto every square centimeter of the cart.

Capraia calling

July 3, 2017October 22, 2017 / cultivatingjoy / Leave a comment

JOYFUL GRATITUDE #34

Today some flowers that look kind of like fireworks to celebrate the fact that I’m on holidays! I’m going to Italy with Paolo to a small paradise island called Capraia. The plan is not to have any plans. I’m packing my camera, my journal and a pile of books… I can’t wait to explore the island, swim, eat good food and relax by the sea:)

Ginger bumble bee

June 30, 2017June 29, 2017 / cultivatingjoy / Leave a comment

JOYFUL GRATITUDE #33

While we were hiking up Sgurr Coire Choinnichean (the mountain with an unpronouceable name just above Inverie on the Knoydart Peninsula), I stopped to look out over the gorgeous view (and perhaps also to catch my breath) and came across this cute little fella who was also resting for a few moments. I love how even the bumble bees are ginger in Scotland:)

Enjoying an evening stroll

June 23, 2017June 23, 2017 / cultivatingjoy / 2 Comments

JOYFUL GRATITUDE #32

In these days close to the solstice, after-dinner walks in the lovely soft light are a real pleasure. As Paolo and I stroll around the neighbourhood, we mostly have the streets to ourselves apart for a few joggers or people walking their dog, and it’s perfect to chat and process our day with each other.

A few weeks ago on our way home from of one of those walks, we came across this heron, quietly poised on a trunk by the canal. It seems to me as if he was also enjoying a moment of calm in the dusk. Unfortunately our arrival disturbed him, and just a few seconds later he took flight…

Little haven of peace

June 16, 2017June 16, 2017 / cultivatingjoy / 2 Comments

JOYFUL GRATITUDE #31

I’m grateful for this time of the year when the sun sets really late, making the evenings seem so much longer. During a recent after-dinner stroll with Paolo, I spotted this lovely little place by the water, which seems perfect for escaping the hectic rhythm of the city.

I love the palette of greens, and how the chair looks like it’s just waiting for a casual visitor to sit down and reflect on the origin of the universe, whilst watching the ducks and waterhens paddle by.

Cultivating joy

joyful gratitude