"On 11 September 1883, Van Gogh boarded the train from The Hague to Drenthe. He spent three months in Hoogeveen and Nieuw-Amsterdam/Veenoord and made a day trip to the artists' village of Zweeloo. In Drenthe, Van Gogh found a vast and dark, but wonderful landscape that stayed with him."
#vangogh #drenthe #canal #turf #peat

London day 2 : cap au nord, de Archway à Paddington, en passant par Camden.

Tunnels are long, narrow, cold, drippy, and dark.

1½ miles (2½ km) of tunnel takes a half hour at 3 miles per hour (5 kmh). That's a long time of keeping the boat pointed down the middle, avoiding the tunnel walls. Occasionally you peer back and peer forward; is the light at the end of the tunnel larger then the one behind, yet? This photo is about ⅔ through, with 15 minutes remaining to reach the end. It's so hard to judge distances.

Unseen by me, two geese slipped into the lock ahead of my big, 17-tonne boat.

Halfway through filling the lock, there's a honk from below. The geese had swum between the steel boat and the brick wall of the lock chamber. The boat is 6½ feet wide (1.95m), the lock 7 feet (2.15m). Not a lot to spare.

I had to hold the boat away from the wall while herding the geese back to the open space ahead of the bow.

‘Paddington in Peru’ and ‘Bridget Jones’ Boost Canal+ as Media Giant Reports Solid Q1 Growth
#Variety #Global #News #BridgetJonesMadAbouttheBoy #Canal #PaddingtoninPeru

https://variety.com/2025/film/news/paddington-in-peru-bridget-jones-canal-plus-q1-growth-1236381166/

In the olden, golden days of yore, when horses pulled boats along the canals, speed was of the essence.

The faster you could go, the sooner you could get your next load, the more money you could earn.

Wherever there was a bridge the horse couldn't go under, it would have to be unhitched, walked around, and rehitched – time consuming!
Any small bridges had a slot for the tow rope to pass through. (See photo.)

I saw a duck with ducklings 4 days ago. Only 5 ducklings, so some had already become snacks.

I fed them mixed birdseed, which sinks. Only the duck could eat its fill. The ducklings, still so tiny, did their best. One stuck its head under to chase a seed. Very cute. Wish I had pics but I was busy parcelling out seed.

And 3 days ago we moored across from a nesting swan. Beak tucked under a wing the whole day. I fed its mate.

#Villagio #Mall in #Qatar is a large upscale shopping mall with an #Italian theme . It includes a Grand #Canal, #gondola rides, sky-like ceilings, Italian-style house facades and even an ice rink and an amusement park. Have you been there? https://backpackandsnorkel.com/Qatar/Day4/#542

Amsterdam illustration

YOU CAN FIND IT HERE: https://fineartamerica.com/featured/amsterdam-illustration-patricia-hofmeester.html

By https://buff.ly/3i3uCm2 #homedecor #LoveArt #photography #mastoart #finearts #photography #artforsale #wallartforsale #AYearForArt #BuyIntoArt #giftideas #amsterdam #houses #canal #illustration #beautiful #boats

The boat's domestic batteries are aging and need a bit of relief once the sun sets. Solar panels don't work by starlight.

The freezer has a couple of bottles of ice, to keep things chilled overnight, when the fridge dial gets adjusted from 2 to ½. One ice bottle moves to the fridge at night.

About once a week there's a forgotten thawing bottle of ice in the fridge all day instead of refreezing in the freezer.

Loving the fresh spring green colors that are showing more and more.

Spring evenings can be chilly. To warm the boat, a cast-iron stove burns briquettes, scooped in from the bucket at left and arranged using tongs.

Ashes fall through a grate into a drawer that gets emptied into an ash bucket.

On top, a fan gently pushes heat through the space. It runs on an electric current generated from the stove's heat.

Behind the stove are fireproof ceramic tiles that look like oak planks.

: Lock 2, Belan Locks
: lock
: https://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=52.6389642776183&mlon=-3.16071246720555#map=17/52.6389642776183/-3.16071246720555
: Photo by chelsea_steve on Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/27449997@N06/54441031109