Drops

 After a rain shower,
I noticed these beautiful drops sitting under the garden hose.

Bull finches

 Have been struggling a lot with health issues lately, not quite able to do my regular posts.

However the gold finches (in Dutch) or bull finches (in English) have kept company by visiting everyday in the birdbath for a splash.

First comes the male and mostly a minute or so later, she pops up as well. 

A wonderful amazing colorful couple. I love their stunning colors!
 

 

It's extremely hot here, it's more inside weather then being outside.

I wanted to make a card for a friend of mine, but before I send it, I can put it on my blog as well.

Not being very active lately. due to spending a lot of time to prepare for the exhibition. and as well having a lot of pain in my back, which is not so much fun.

Forcing me to slow down even more than I did and having swallowing a lot of painkillers to make it endurable. That's a few reasons of my absence on my blog. 

Anyway I wish I could change my body to be less painful and be able to do the things I want. 

 

Exhibition delayed till July 10

 The exhibition in Lunteren is delayed to one week later. July 10 2026

so t will be from July 10 till Oct 17 2026

Sorry I heard this too late, to be able to announce earlier. 

Exposition

 I'm busy preparing my paintings for an exhibition.
 My new oil paintings to be seen on the first floor and 
on the second floor the original paintings of my cards.

The exhibition will be in "De Koepel' in Lunteren.
Boslaan 90 
6741 KG Lunteren
In a lovely kind of watchtower in the middle of the woods.

 The exhibition will be from Juli 04 until October 17 

Here is a link about the location.
Here a link about how to get there.
by car or train info 

 

see image below of the watchtower

Funny drawings

 My eye caught these funny drawings, on a leaf.

Its it a tiny caterpillar making these lines? 

I think I can see a very small creature on the lines. 

Woodpecker young

 Woodpecker has a young.
I noticed this a week ago, when he went to and fro with a beak full of food, flying away.
i kept on providing food, hoping that the young woodpecker would come himself.

After waiting and sitting ready with my camera, The young woodpecker came.
Such an adorable bird. 
The brilliant red on top of his head is amazing.
It's a different place than the parent, who has the red spot more at the back of his head.
When the parent is there, the young acts, as if he is not able to pick the food for himself. However, when the parent has gone, the young is well able to pick the food...

Roses

 One of my favorite roses. The frangrance is mesmerising awsome!

The roses name is Amsterdam 

Young Coal-tit

 This morning I discovered a baby coal-tit, loudly calling for his mom.
I told him to stay there for a while, so I could get my camera.
He did. When I came back he still sat there loudly calling for mom or daddy.

He is so adorable.

Golden beetle

 protaetia cuprea metallica, (copper chafer), ( gedeukte gouden tor)

This morning I saw a new insect. I had never seen before.

I got my macro lens,and made some beautiful photo's. Because he sat on the edge of the birdbath, he got a beautiful water dropplet on his shield.

I looked it up and got the name, he's called a golden beetle, though in english he's named with a copper shield. That's weird. I like the gold better!
Unfortunately The photos I took with my Canon camera are  ot in the folder I put them in. I don't know what happened.

 Before I put the memorycard back in the camera, I always delete the photo's so that I don't get all doubles.

So cannot get the photo's back. This is it.  

Anyway, Happily I had also made some photo's on my phone. However these are less quality than I take with my Canon. 

Woodpecker painting

 Have recently been working on several paintings. 

Here is one of them, a woodpecker sitting in the wisteria.
Oil on linen 40x50 cm

Blue-tits are out!

Last Saturday it was The day for the blue-tits to take off.
It took a whole day, for them to fly out one by one.

I don't know how many have been born. (they can have 5 -12 young)
Such a great sight to see them peek out the hole.
I wonder what they are thinking...when they see there is a whole world out there.
And fly into the unknown.
That's a challenge. There is no option to stay inside the small box.
Freedom always wins.

Squirrel swimming

 

 

 

 

  

  

 

  

 

Brave Squirrel!!!

A squirrel is coming almost every day, to cash some nuts.
I hide them in the flowerpots and sometimes in the water. 
See what happens!
He is not afraid of the water. He is a good swimmer! 

Ant

Ant struggling to find his way.

(Click images to enlarge, to see all the details)
 

Broad-bordered bee hawk-moth

Sitting outside in the sunshine, i noticed a kind of butterfly that I thought have seen before. because they move so quick and never sit still for a while. I told his to stay so that I could grab my camera for a better view.

Which he did.
He moved from one violet to another and I was able to get some nice pics.
I looked it up. I thought it was a hummingbird-butterfly, as we name it here. but they gave me a different name, which appeared later to be the same one.
Got some lovely close ups...while he is drinking violet-nectar.

Broad-bordered bee hawk-moth, Glasvleugelpijlstaart, Kolibrievlinder, Hemaris fuciformis.

He seems to be a night moth, but he's flying during the day.
Such a beauty!