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With heart and soul
With heart and soul Wow! With her wild flowing hair this poster girl explodes in an outburst of energy and joy! In last week’s post we could admire the natural beauty of Gond women at the village pump. This week it’s admiration for self-willed Western girls in their choice of a musical instrument after their…
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Women at the village pump
Women at the village pump Such a common sight, but always inviting to pause for a while and enjoy. Here it’s a few women of the Gond tribe with their feet in the mud around the village pump, cleaning vessels and jars. The shiny silver of the traditional armlet, anklets and elaborate belt reflects its beauty…
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Canal towns
Canal towns Amsterdam, the Venice of the North as it is sometimes called, isn’t the only city in Holland that can boast of its beautiful canals. Canals in historical cities like Alkmaar, Haarlem, Leiden, Delft and Utrecht definitely have got class as well. The canals in Utrecht are very special indeed, because they are different.…
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Shipwreck
Shipwreck No, no African boat people drowned in the Mediterranean. Only a harmless event of children at play in a countryside abounding in water. Wet clothes, that’s the only discomfort they’re suffering. A house on the waterfront; a boat or cycle as favourite mode of transport; more Dutch than this you can’t get it. Photos of the week:…
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Weerribben
Weerribben An old peat bog: after centuries of peat production now a nature reserve to explore leisurely by canoe or silent electric boat. Peat once was popular fuel enabling people to make it through the long, cold winters. With shovels it was dug and cut into bricks, row after row, layer after layer, creating the channels…
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Giants in the wind
Giants in the wind In the last decade the number of electricity generating windmills in Holland has increased considerably. In some regions even to the extent that one can speak of an uncontrolled proliferation, with action groups as a result that protest against the pollution of the horizon. See for example the situation in a…
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Flatland
Flatland Maybe it’s thanks to my Dutch origins that I still remember with delight the little book Flatland, in which Edwin Abbott gives full rein to his mathematical imagination in his description of a two-dimensional world. Although the Dutch landscape – especially its immense, flat polders reclaimed from the sea – does come rather close…
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Roadside entertainment
Roadside entertainment Moving images, stories told with moving images, invariably attract the attention of children, women and men. Most animals on the other hand, like the cow or bull here, can’t care less. Last week’s post spoke of the close relationship between man and cow in India, the last one almost being considered by man…
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Home again!
Home again! After a long day wandering around the village or town, looking for vegetable scraps, paper, cardboard – in short, anything edible – a cow returns home. Is the cow sacred in India? In a sense, yes – at least to a certain extent. She is one of the living, part of the family,…
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An endearing smile
An endearing smile The young lady has taken refuge against the blistering sun in the cramped space between wall and tree. Confronted with my camera, she sees the amusing side of her position and presents me – and you – with an endearing smile. Photo of the week: Ganj, Orchha, Madhya Pradesh, India 2007
