A Great Tit is taking a bath. The water drops turn into light bulbs in the bokeh of the photo.

The mating season (rut) of the deer starts in September at the Veluwe, the largest nature reserve of the Netherlands and our “garden” close to our new home. All across the area you can hear the belling of the male (stag) deer.

Driving From Trier to Cochem in Germany and exploring the many vineyards along the river Moselle. This river twists and turns from Trier to Koblenz. The hillsides are covered by terraced vineyards where some of the best Rieslings grow.

The Dutch city of Leeuwarden is, together with Valetta on Malta, Cultural Capital of Europe 2018. With a long list of activities and events through the year. We have spent here 1,5 days. The photo shows a part of “Lân fan Taal”: text painted on the square and readible when climbing the stairs of the Language experience center. Language makes us human.

We have spent a few days on the Dutch island of Texel. We joined a boat trip to watch seals at the nearby island Noorderhaaks.

The herd of sheep at the Ginkelse heide in Ede, the Netherlands, is being shaved. Not electrically with trimmers, but traditionally with scissors.

We turned the page to a new chapter in our life: we moved from the busy western urban area of The Netherlands to the border of The Veluwe, the largest nature reserve of the country. This will open a load of possibilites to explore nature and wildlife of the area. Starting today, when I encountered a few mandarin ducks near Schaarsbergen.

Kwade Hoek is a nice nature reserve on the island Goeree-Overvlakkee in The Netherlands. I went here to photograph terns. The photos shows a (I think common -) tern feeding a juvenile. The juvenile seems to be almost ready to catch his own fish… I need to come back here as I would like to have a photo of the tern diving into the water catching the fish, for which I need more patience and luck.

In the Dutch Markermeer new artificial islands are being created to serve as a nature reserve. We booked an excursion to the construction works of these new islands, the “Marker Wadden”. You can reach them after a 75 minute boat trip from Lelystad. Just when leaving the harbour of Lelystad, you pass this colony of breeding spoonbills.