WHAT DID YOU DO THIS WEEKEND ?

Helps you to remember what you have done on the weekend of June 29. If you participate please put the little logo on the top of your post and leave your link.

When I opened the stores on Saturday, instead of light and bright sunshine, it was grey and dark and the rain dribbled on the roof ! I just wanted to return "under cover". Instead I got up, and was in a real bad mood ! After having done such interesting things like putting the laundry in the washing machine, I started blogging which brought me into other countries were people complained about the heat and that they couldn't go outside either and even had to wear masks because of haze.

I had to take an umbrella when I went out for some window shopping, where it was dry at least.

Of course when you look for something, you never find it. Which was my case. When I came home Mr. G. had just finished watching his Formular 1, and seemed happy about the results.  I returned to my computer and googled for something to do this week. There was strictly nothing besides outside activities, but visiting things in the rain is not really my cup of tea.



From computer I switched over to TV, but before I folded the dammit laundry.

On Sunday it seemed to be better and a miracle happened the sun came out ! I did a little walk through the market in the neighbor town found an open shoe shop (shops are closed on Sundays) and followed David Bowie's song to put red shoes on, but for that I had to buy them first, which I did. This made me feeling better.



In the afternoon, Ilona who had been in the same mood as I decided to go for a walk in the Gaasbeek park and it was really nice. The wood smelled so good after all this rain, the castle looked beautiful, and there were quiet a lot of people.

After an hour walking through the park, we were thirsty and went to the Tavern located opposite the castle. As neighbors we had



Alpacas, which are new and I saw them for the first time. The "hippie" on the bottom right, cheered us really up !



Then we watched the peacock, courting a cute peacock girl, unfortunately without success, she chased him away !

Refreshed and happy we returned home.  Mr. G. had been in Silverstone UK for the Formular 1 again and was also satisfied with his afternoon. He doesn't like to walk !

OUR WORLD - Gaasbeek park

The Gaasbeek castle is surrounded by a very beautiful and big park ! you can spend hours in there



The wood looked as if it had snowed



But it was a carpet of these little flowers





Fishing is allowed and picnics too







And especially for kids there is a little zoo !

While you are reading this I sit in the airplane taking me to the South of France to spend a week with my friend Claudie.

A CHARMING VISIT

more participants at Jenny Matlock's Alphabet Thursday

The dictionary explains that a visit is to go to and stay with (a person or family) or at (a place) for a short time for reasons of sociability, politeness, business, curiosity, or to stay with as a guest.


In my case the reason was just a visit of a good friend. I have met Claudie living in the South of France at the Côte d'Azur, through blogging in 2006. She came for the third time to the North, fortunately not into a too cold weather to  change a bit her daily routine, what I do too when I visit her.

Having such a nice visit are also holidays for me !



We started having a Doner in a little Greek restaurant in Waterloo, which was very good as you can see !

After a nice coffee with my friend Ilona, we started to visit the three castles not far from Ilona's home.



First we went to the Castle of Beersel an old medieval castle dated from 1300. Unfortunately we couldn't go inside because it was just being renovated.



A little farer was the castle "The Gravenhof" now a restaurant. We had a quick look inside and Claudie took some pictures. It's a very beautiful place and often used for wedding receptions.



The weather cleared up, sunshine came out and we could visit the the castle of Gaasbeek dating from 1240. Some historical explanations were written on this mirror horse and we had quiet some fun with taking pictures !



It is a very impressive building and has a huge beautiful park.



Here too we didn't have a chance to visit the castle from inside because it was Monday and closed !



After a long walk through the park, a little tired we had a drink in the restaurant just opposite the castle. It's wonderful sitting outside, there is a little zoo and Claudie petted the donkey which immediately arrived to say hello (probably expecting some food !)

The next day we visited my favorite shop, the Indian one where you just feel to be in an Indian home.



Claudie was delighted to see all these beautiful things and the ladies (all volunteers) offered her an Indian tea which she loved ! All things you buy here is for street children in India and for a village.

In the afternoon, we went to Brussels to see the exposition of the painterKandinsky.



We were quiet disappointed because there were lots of other Russian painters too and we had expected only to see Kandinsky's paintings. We felt a little cheated. After the exposition we had a drink inside a part of the royal Palace with a nice beautiful little square where we could sit and had a very much needed drink !

Quiet tired of all these visits we returned home !

Visits from friends are wonderful !