Nimavenl - Nicole's Random Ramblings

This week's Photo Challenge photos are here! When posting about this week's Photo Challenge in my earlier post on Friday , I wrote about possible topics. I really should make it a habit to decide on topics earlier in the week, that would probably make these Challenges a lot easier! "While "Summer" would probably be the most logical topic for this week's Challenge, I'm considering other options as well. Options such as Rain, Sunshine, Heat Wave and Ice Cream. Although "Ice Cream" would probably be too expensive seeing I'd have to buy all the ice cream before being able to take photos of it! As you can see from this post's title, I decided on Sunshine as the topic for this week. Mostly because today's sunset was simply stunning, although not all of the photos were taken today. Either way - Enjoy this week's Challenge photos! Sunshine on the Water Sunshine through the Tree Sun shining on the Tree Sunny sky...

Note To Self: Use knife to cut vegetables, not to slice finger. 2nd Note To Self: Tomatoes good. Tomato sauce good. Hey why is it red I didn't spill any tomato there... Oh wait because I cut my finger. .. Blood sauce bad. 3rd Note To Self: When cooking, the pot on the stove with boiling water in it is hot. Hot means auchie ow auw ow = bad. Really: Duh. Remember not to to touch. 4th Note To Self: Walking away from kitchen while cooking is not advised. Sitting down to write notes to self is fine, usually, just not when it makes you forget about stirring. 5th Note To Self: Remember note number three. And for crying out loud, don't pick up a hot pot with your bare hands, you will hurt your fingers. 6th Note To Self: That pot holder hanging on the hook by the stove... Use it... 7th Note To Self: No, that cloud does not look like Drogon. Really, it doesn't. Which doesn't mean it wouldn't be cool to ride a ... Cooking! You're cooking! Stop dreaming ...

Biking home two days ago, I couldn't help myself and simply had to stop to take a photo of the setting sun, shining up from behind a cloud. That evening I saw two photos on Facebook that showed the same sky, photos that were taken over twenty kilometres away from where I took this photo. It made me wonder how many people saw (and loved!) this beautiful sunset. How many looked up in wonder, how many smiled, how many stopped, even if only for a minute,to gaze up in amazement? How many stopped worrying, stressing or running around and just spent a moment adoring nature and the beauty on display in the sky above? Shining Sunset Sky | Nimavenl

Hello Nature, My Good Friend I love spending time outside enjoying the beauty of nature, admiring trees and flowers, watching birds fly or ducks quack at each other. Spending time outdoors helps me feel alive and connected to nature and the natural world. It reminds me of the important things in life - smiles, enjoyment, love, compassion for living creatures, appreciation of nature. We live busy lives rushing from appointment to appointment, feeling stressed or pressured for time, focusing on have-to s and must s instead of embracing life with joy and wonder. I try to spend time outside every day enjoying nature, appreciating the beauty of the natural world and feeling connected to the planet and to other living beings. While outside, I remind myself to breathe and just be, to watch the birds as they dance on the wind, to appreciate the warmth of the sun and smile at the beauty of the world around me. Nature balanced me and reminds me that no matter how stressed or pressured I ma...

The wind is raging outside, the trees are blowing in the wind as if they're small shoots and news reports ( Telegraaf.nl, in Dutch ) speak of trees falling down, trucks falling over, cancelled flights at Schiphol airport and severe weather warnings in parts of the country. There's a big storm raging, indeed. Stormy Weather Today | Nimavenl Code Yellow for most of the country, Code Orange for everything to the north of me and in Germany the storm's bad enough that they've named it Hurricane Niklas. Wow! " The KNMI weather bureau is warning of dangerous conditions throughout the Netherlands and has issued a code yellow weather warning. Gusts of 110 km an hour have already been recorded on the Wadden Islands to the north of the country. " Storm brings transport chaos to the Netherlands | DutchNews.nl Clouds were raging past outside my windows earlier (see the photo to the right) while right now, all I'm seeing is blue sky with one tiny cloud. The b...

I love clouds. I love nature. I love taking photos.  I love taking photos of clouds.  So, here's a photo of a gorgeous cloud. Enjoy! Cloud on the Horizon | Nimavenl

Gondelvaart A photo posted by Nicole M. Verhaaf (@nimavenl) on Aug 19, 2012 at 12:49am PDT

Orange Overload A photo posted by Nicole M. Verhaaf (@nimavenl) on Jul 21, 2012 at 6:01am PDT

Gorgeous evening A photo posted by Nicole M. Verhaaf (@nimavenl) on Jul 20, 2012 at 1:02pm PDT

Sunshine! A photo posted by Nicole M. Verhaaf (@nimavenl) on Jul 19, 2012 at 12:31am PDT