Nimavenl - Nicole's Random Ramblings

I've been spending a lot of time writing, lately. For my blog, not so much. For my story - a ridiculous amount. It's not a story I want to publish, however it is a story I want to write. Because I like the story and because I want to get to know this world I'm developing in my imagination. For years, different story-related ideas have been going through my head - the look of a dress or garment, the view from a certain location, the interior of a room, the way words sound in a to-be-discovered language. They're all snapshots from a world I'm trying to create and 'seeing' them (in my imagination) can sometimes feel as if Real Life is a dream and Storyworld is reality, leaking through into Dream Country. What I want is to create an entire world with its own countries, continents, weather patterns, customs, habits, religions, languages, building styles... I want to create a detailed world where everything is different from our world yet still familiar and hu...

The Day The World Disappeared | Nimavenl After enjoying the latest episode of The Walking Dead tonight, the world beyond the living room windows suddenly seemed to disappear.  As the fog rolled in and the footpath and houses across the street turned invisible, I couldn't resist the spectacle outside and - of course - took a gazillion photos. It isn't every day that the world practically vanishes, after all!  The street and the footpath below, the windows of houses across the street, trees beyond those houses and buildings in the distance - all gone. All that could be seen was what the photo shows - vague shapes nearby with lights behind them; the shapes only clearly recognisable as trees due to the brightness of the lights. With so much of the 'known world' suddenly missing, we wondered - What would we do if a Walker [a zombie] suddenly appeared out of the mysterious haze? How would we respond to such a strange sight? Would we even react to flesh-e...

Not nearly as 'pretty' a photo as the previous one of a neat snowed-under world of white rooftops and branches, however just as magical and possibly lots (and lots and lots) more interesting than 'just another snow photo'. If windows could talk of snow and nonsense... | Nimavenl Something tells me I'll definitely be doing some more exploring today...

It started snowing last night... And the world looks magical right now! Loving it! Winter Wonderland | Nimavenl If the snow holds for today, more photos to follow soon! Don't think I'll be able to resist this winter wonderland for long!

Another photo from last Monday when it was crazy misty / foggy and the world looked A-MA-ZING! More photos to follow when I've had time to work on getting the others ready to publish. Misty Monday Magic | Nimavenl

Very much enjoyed the foggy weather today. Couldn't resist a photo walk down to the river and had an absolute blast stomping through the mud. More photos to follow soon! Disappearing Bridge | Nimavenl

Ladybug on a Leaf by Nimavenl Photography The world is changing once more as it does every year. Green leaves are slowly starting to turn yellow, orange, red and brown. The flowers, sunshine and blue skies of summer give way to the grey skies and golden colours of autumn. Not long now before we turn the heating back on and get our winter coats out from storage. Yellow Sprig by Nimavenl Photography I love the cold purity of winter snow, the new beginnings of spring and the warm weather of summer. However what I love even more are the amazing colours of autumn and the way the world seems to farewell summer and the warm weather in slow stages of colourful changes. If only winter didn't follow autumn, it would be my favourite season! ;-)

Ice on a Table | Nimavenl Today is the second day of November which makes yesterday the first day of November. Yesterday was also the first time this autumn that it hailed. When it starts hailing it means it's cold enough outside to get my coat, gloves, beanie and scarf out. It means summer is gone, autumn is ON and winter really is on its way. Do I make a bad Game of Thrones joke now and add that yesterday's hail definitely shows that Winter is Coming ? Maybe not... Winter in The Netherlands is nowhere near as cold as in other parts of the world, however we do often get snow and ice. Not enough of it that we're snowed in or forced to stay home -- or able to hold the Elfstedentocht , most years -- however definitely enough to turn roads into slippery slides. Hail | Nimavenl Biking isn't always smart in winter, which means I get to look forward to the warmth of public transport and crunching through the snow on foot, enjoying the winter weather with my came...

As it gets colder outside and I am trying to find excuses to stay indoors more and more, I'm trying to come up with new ways to entertain myself away from the wind, the rain and the cold. I've rediscovered my 1000-piece "Starry Night" puzzle by Van Gogh (yay for getting past the point I was at last time!) and am trying to decide on other crafty projects for when the puzzle is finished. I take photos, like puzzles & games and I enjoy writing, however that is about as creative as it gets for me. I'm perfectly content spending a whole weekend doing puzzles, playing games and reading a good book. I enjoy doing those things as much as others would enjoy a DIY project, the restoration of a car or building model trains and such. I do love the feeling of being productive, however when the weekend comes around I'm happy to turn my brain off and enjoy Weekend Mode. No stress, no hassles, no customers yelling at me, no alarm clocks and no schedule to stick to....