Monday, July 31, 2017

Walking with a friend

I love walking and I live in the perfect place to do it. Mostly I do this on my own. I love the peace and quiet and the freedom to just take my time and enjoy the view, take pictures or just sort of medidate while moving and not having to talk to anyone. I am an introvert to the core of my being, so I don't often walk with others. But ... every now and then I make an exception.

The nice part of having the company of another person is that you get to see everything around you with fresh eyes. Now no one could ever accuse me of not seeing the beauty of the island I live on, but the enjoyment of someone who is visiting instead of living here makes it extra special somehow. It makes me extra aware of the privilege I have to be able to live here. It makes me grateful.

Here is one of my favourite companions to walk the island:



Every year my friend Monique visits for a few weeks during summer vacation, because she loves it here. We usually take the time to explore a little together. This is often a very relaxed slow going business. Yes, we walk, but we also spend hours on benches or having very very long lunches or drinks in local restaurants. There's lots of chatting, but also plenty of comfortable silence.

Recently we took a walk around the area of Kroonspolders which is on the west side of the island. I have shown pictures of this beautiful landscape before, but I can never stop taking pictures when I'm there. It was a windy pleasant day and we took our time strolling the area.













We enjoyed watching the endless landscape and spotting birds. We are not very knowledgeable when it comes to flora and fauna, but we had this free poster with local birds on it, so we could check them off. We were both very sorry we did not bring any binoculars, a thing I tend to forget all the time even though I have a very nice compact one.

After all that walking and watching we went to the Posthuys, which is a restaurant/hotel near the area, and enjoyed a very well deserved lunch while sitting on some very comfortable chairs.


We sat there for a long time and it was most relaxing. The great thing is that Monique shares my love of journaling and drawing and creativity in general, although she is more of the 'sketch what you see' persuasion and I am more of the 'patterns and doodles' persuasion. Of course we brought our journals/sketchbooks with us. It's nice to be around someone who just gets it, you know. ;-)

Just to prove I was actually there too, here's a picture Monique took of me at the beginning of our walk:


This is a bird watching cabin in the middle of the area that is otherwise restricted. The view from there is spectacular and some of the pics above were taken from that spot. On the bench you can see the free bird watching posters. Of course I took two of them so I could cut them up on both sides, which I did that very night and they live in my journal now. The parts I didn't use will go into my folder of collage fodder.


All in all it was a very good day and I hope you enjoyed tagging along with us vicariously through this blogpost. Wishing you some good times of your own and of course a wonderful and artsy day!