Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic...

 (Lee este post en español aquí)

Three months have gone by since the last time I wrote here on my blog. In the meantime, I have been travelling, working and enjoying the company of  friends and family and I cannot think of a better way to spend my days. 

This year I have been very lucky - I have been on short holidays three times: to beautiful Andalusia in Spain, to the Ardennes in neighbouring Belgium and to the Argo Saronic Islands in Greece. I fell in love with all of these places and I feel it would be a dream come true to go back to each one of them some time in the future.
In late August, my parents came all the way from Argentina to spend two months with me in The Netherlands.  It was the first time my father visited Holland, so we made sure that he got to see as much as possible and we also spent two weekends abroad in Germany and in Belgium. 

My parents during our visit at the Southern Sea Museum in the NL.

Finally, the time came to pay our annual visit to my home country, Argentina. Right when a quite unusually beautiful autumn was beginning to set in in Holland, the four of us -my parents, my husband and I-  flew together across half of Europe and over the Atlantic to land here in the southern hemisphere some 25 hours after leaving home. Here in the south Nature´s cycle is just beginning and trees are not losing their leaves but rather filling up. The usual brown and earthy colours that are so common in Córdoba, are slowly changing into green again and it is warm and sunny most of the time.


I usually feel sorry to miss the beauty of the autumn in The Netherlands, especially this year when it has been such an unusually fantastic season, judging by what I´ve seen in my friend Alison´s blog -A Flamingo in Utrecht- lately. Here are some of the shots she took around the city of Utrecht:

Autumn along the Oudegracht. ©Alison Netsel

Mist in a street in Utrecht. ©Alison Netsel.

 

Autumn Domtoren (Church bell tower) ©Alison Netsel

But the beauty of the spring in Argentina makes up for all that I am missing in the northern hemisphere. It is during this time of the year when the beautiful jacarandá, a typical tree of these lands, get covered in gorgeous purple flowers. I recently admired them in the photos my friend Diego -from the blog in Spanish, Contacto con lo Divino- took in Buenos Aires. Here are some of his pictures:

Jacarandas in bloom in Buenos Aires. ©Diego Bianchi

Beautiful light trhough the jacarandas. ©Diego Bianchi

View of 9 de Julio Av. in Buenos Aires. ©Diego Bianchi

I still have three more weeks to enjoy my holiday here in Argentina, during which I hope to see more of my friends and family and enjoy visiting all the familiar places that mean so much to me ...

Hasta la próxima...!

Spotted in the Netherlands: It's that time of the year...

hacer clic aquí, si prefieres leer esta entrada en ESPAÑOL

Autumn has set in - oh, yes! It is *that* time of the year, again. Days have shortened considerably, the skies do not always look bright and woolly but mostly grey and dull,  though there have been exceptionally pretty skies like these captured by blogger Alison in Utrecht.

Sunday walks in the nearby forest of Westerveldsebos have a particular charm during this season and, together with my husband, we have already been on our first mushroom hunt of the year. Look at the size of this one!

 
My husband put a coin (a big 25c. one  from Argentina he carries always with him) on top of it, to give an idea of the size of this big fellow.

This other one, somehow reminds me of the hats Princess Máxima sometimes wears to events like the opening of Parliament for Prinsjesdag

There is something else that always tells me that we have passed the autumn equinox once again. On Saturdays, as we ride to and from the shooting club where my husband usually goes to practice, we often spot roadside stalls selling farm produce:

Farmers usually put up these stalls along the road where people can stop and take their pick of the recently harvested produce and -get this- leave the payment in a tin or box. Sometimes there is a fixed price, like in the next photo; but sometimes, you can leave whatever amount you think is appropriate.

Back home in Argentina, I used to spend a lot of time in my grandparents' farm, but I never saw this kind of produce sale over there.
I can't help thinking if people actually do leave money behind or they forget to perform that part of the transaction; and if so, does it actually make it to the farmer's pocket or do some people take the coins as souvenirs as well as pumpkin and a couple of courgettes for their soup or Sunday pie?

North & South - Autumn & Spring

In a couple of days I will be heading south to visit my family and my friends in my country - Argentina. I will be going towards the spring then, because as you probably know, Argentina lies in South America, in the southern hemisphere.
I am quite anxious about my trip - how will I find everybody? Will I find things much changed? Of course, I am also very excited about going back home and I am looking foward to spending time with my people, visiting the places where I used to live, the place where I was born and lived most of my life and also new places where I have never been before.

Calamuchita Valley in the hills of Córdoba, Argentina; a place where I used to spend all my summer holidays.

I will stay in touch as much as I can and I will keep posting whenever I can; but, as you can imagine, I will be quite busy catching up with family and friends most of the time and my husband and I will also be making a roadtrip that will probably take about a week.

What will I miss from my second home, here in Holland? Definitely not the weather as you may well guess! But I will be missing the beautiful colours of the autumn in the Netherlands. Last year I took my holiday a bit earlier in the year and I got back just in time to capture the last of the autumnal splendor in the parks and forests near Zwolle.

Park "Het Engelse Werk", in Zwolle:











The "Zwolse Bos":











It is goodbye for now from the Netherlands and I will be writing back again from Argentina! Thank you all for your visits and your comments!