Shell... what a shame !

"Amnesty International and Friends of the Earth said on Tuesday they had filed an official complaint against Anglo-Dutch firm Shell for shirking responsibility for oil spills in Nigeria and wreaking havoc on the environment (...)". whole story here...

Shell: 50 years damaging the Nigerian environment. What a shame !

The Dutch Politicians Strip

Under the motto "The Naked Truth", six Dutch politicians - all leaders of different political parties - go out of their clothes to show how green their plans are. To check Greenpeace website click here - while the link lasts ! I have doubts whether Greenpeace serves to any purpose. But the site is funny (and what has been seen cannot be unseen).

Crazy Weather (Tempo Doido)

Devastating rains in Brazil, a cold Dutch spring and today I have just read it is snowing in the northern Spain and southern France - where thousands are without electricity. (all photos: O Globo on line)

Sylph ?

Photos: Niburu.nl

Because several European airports are cancelling flights in relation to the volcano eruption in Iceland, we are enjoying a very blue, clean sky at the moment in the Netherlands. Fewer flights = fewer chemtrails. Last week it was crazy, I had taken so many photos of them (Wed. and Thu are generally spray days in the NL).

Instead of chemtrails I read on the net that more and more sylphs have been spotted the last days.

Castle Groeneveld

Last Sunday I visited with hubby and kids "Landgoed Groeneveld" - Estate Greenfield. It was described on the net as a romantic estate in English style. Here goes the translation into English from the text on the board above (and from the folder distributed at the reception):

"Castle Groeneveld is an imposing country house from the XVIII century. It was built around 1710 under the command of huguenotte Marcus de Mamuchet van Houdringe, from the French nobility. Later on, the mansion served for a long time as a summer house for well stablished Amsterdammers. In the castle, expositions and activities are organised in the fields of culture and landscaping. During the end of the XVIII and beginning of the XIX centuries its landscape was completely modified. From its original French charactheristics it acquired a more English style. (...)"

With a total of 120 hectare, Groeneveld is located in the Vuursche, a 1200 hectare area among Hiversum, Baarn, Soest and Bilthoven. Coming from the parking area (the parking is free) you reach the castle on foot. There is a huge orchard some meters away with free entrance. At this time of the year lots of flowers and herbs were dead. I guess best time of the year to visit it is indeed spring - or summer. The orchard was marvellou, anyway.

A closer view.

The original castle front door. But visitors reach the interior by a side door.

Detail from the castle entrance. Notice how clean and well preserved it is.

Here you can enjoy a view from the back of the castle with a terrace and huge lawn where kids could run around and play. And there were LOTS of kids around, really.

All the toys for the kids had information about the local wild animals - wolves, deers, skunks and birds.

Now we go inside the castle. The ticket entrance was a 4 euro fee per adult and 2 euros for a child from 6 to 12 years old. I think the prices were reasonable. The reception is situated near the entrance to the Grand Cafe and restrooms. The Grand Cafe is stunning with big aquariums and old furniture. There were flower arrangements in purple and orange colours everywhere: reception halls, corridors and near the stairs. I will be posting the flower displays latter on this week. They deserve a post apart !

Some of the salons located on the upper floor.

The salons, china, clocks and furniture collection are indeed pretty, but not impressive. I say that because I was comparing all the time to what I have already seen in the Rijksmuseum.

What is this ? A table with a lid ?

Aaaah, I see...

Owners of the castle along the centuries, coats of arms.

This was the stunning stairs that conducted us to the highest floor of the building.

This hanging arrangement gave the tone to what we were supposed to experience. While the first floor was more about culture and interiors, the following floor was more interactive and focused on bringing some awareness to pre teeners and children about nutrition, food industry, genetic manipulation and environment.

Children could play with these huge cubes and see a slide show about what used to be (animal) farming a century ago and what is now. You do not associate any longer the pices of meat you see in the display windows of shops and supermarkets and creatures which they once were. Living in the cities, you do not see animals grown for human consumption at all. You do not know how they are treated or slaughtered.

Thats a very interesting part: an interactive table where you can see (and read with subtitles in Dutch and English) short films about fish farming, green houses, nutrition and more. I discovered that salmon kept in artifical tanks get lots of antibiotics, bleargh ! And if one eventually escapes the tanks and mate a wild salmon then they will generate a type of sterile salmon.

These cabinets contained lots of information about the dangers of genetic manipulation.

Back to the interactive table: there were also lots of information from books of Michael Pollan and some of his most famous advices: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants".

"Food is only food if your grandmother would recognise it (as such). Instead of food we consume "edible foodlike substances" - and not products from the nature but from the food industry". (Michael Pollan, American bestseller author)

This was an area for very young kids. They could play and watch some films about the domestication of animals along the centuries in order to make they more suitable for human consumption. This is called in Dutch "verkipping".

In Holland there are 16 million people, almost 4 million cows, 12 million pigs and...

more than 96 million chickens !! This takes us to the attic.


De verkipping: once in the past there were the wild ox, the wild chicken and a type of wild boar. Due to domestication they all developed "softer" characterists more proper to human consumption. Now in the domains of Groeneveld farmers are trying to develop "wilder" cattle (terugfokken).

Lets go into the chicken machine, shall we ?

How does it feel being a chicken ? Do they have fun ? Would you like to become something else than a human ? Then what ?

Who shall win the competition ? Who can get more milk: the machine or the farmer ?

Photo below: Levi van Veluw.

There were also some salons were you could see videos about human action in the Dutch landscape in general. And the opportunity to think philosophically about nature. Interesting because while in Brazil "nature" is considered a wild place, where nobody wishes to live nor you would go for a couple of leisure hours, a place associated to myths, awe and fear... in Holland (and maybe Europe in general?) nature means a well organized place with fences and paths, sculptures and bridges connecting the parts, a domesticated and friendly area with visiting hours, trash bins everywhere and location maps. No unpleasant surprises, no attacks from animals or bandids, a place where people can enjoy their snacks (no fruits, please) and wear beautiful clothes. A place where they recover their energies for the week to come.

If you wish to know more about Castle Greenfield just check the site indicated on the photo below.

EatGreen Boat For a Better Climate

I just "heard" the following news from vegetarian Lizzy (from blog Lizzy Goes Dutch): Tomorrow, 26th September, from 14:30 - 17:00, the team of Eat Green Together will sail in the canals of Amsterdam with an environment friendly boat. Everybody is invited to participate in this project and during the sail participants can enjoy vegetarian bites. The contribution is on a free-will basis. When you leave the boat you get a nice starterkit with a chopping board and a small vegetarian cookbook - among other things.

If you want to know more about this project just sign up sending an e-mail to: info@eatgreen.nl Or visit their site clicking here.

Thanks for the tip Lizzy. And I wish all the readers a wonderful weekend, yippie !

Chemtrails [Trilhas Químicas]

Talk about obsession: I can't stop taking pics of everything around me. There is inspiration for a post in everywhere. I just arrived home and looked up to the skies and... voilà ! Lots of chemtrails, making a web = idea for a new post. Because I do believe in conpiracies. I do, I do, I do. If you do not know what I am talking about check this site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemtrail_conspiracy_theory or go to google, there are lots of films and info about it. I think the purpose of it is to weaken our immunity system. By the way, if you can read in Dutch check this: http://www.niburu.nl/index.php?articleID=21533

THIS IS SO SERIOUS !!

Pode falar que eu estou obcecada em sair fazendo fotos a rodo. Eu encontro inspiração para post em todo lugar. Chego em casa de viagem, olho pro céu e... voilà ! Cheio de rastros químicos (chemtrails). É claro que eu sou do tipo que acredita em organizações secretas, planos para dominar o mundo, conspirações e tudo mais. Se você não tem nem idéia do que eu estou falando busquem no google sobre "trilha química". Sim leitor, trilha química: spray de materiais sobre as populações do mundo todo, feitos por aviões comerciais pra não dar na pinta. Não confunda com as "Contrails" (vapor de condensação que surge com o ar quente das turbinas, em raras ocasiões quando o clima está em certo estado favorável). As chemtrails são a arma para a ... de população do planeta ? aumento de cânceres ? espalhar vírus de gripes ? abaixar as defesas do sistema imunológico ? Toda segunda-feira o ataque é feito no Brasil todo, transformando a atmosfera em uma névoa tóxica inacreditável. Na Holanda vejo todo santo dia, especialmente mais às quartas-feiras. ISSO E' MUITO PREOCUPANTE !!!

My-Your-Our Trash [Lugar de Lixo é no Lixo]

Since the temperature has gone higher I have noticed these ads at bus stops. In a first moment I did not pay much attention and even did not get the picture. Early in the morning, a bit asleep to go to work, no patience to check posters or small letters of texts... Then I started to see it more and more. It is a bubble gum. A chewed buble gum on the floor with a lovely fucsia bow around it. The text says: "do not make of your trash, a gift to other people". Mmmm. Summer means more tourists and more people celebrating life on the streets... therefore more trash.

"Do not make of you fag a gift to someone else". I like such campaign A LOT because it is very visual and goes straight to the point. It is well humoured and calls a lot of attention - however I think it could be more useful to tourists if it was also in English.

Desde que as temperaturas começaram a subir na Holanda eu venho percebendo esses cartazes no ponto de ônibus aonde vou todos os dias esperar meu cascudinho. A princípio não saquei o que era essa mancha rosa com um lacinho fofo na cor fúcsia. Lendo o texto achei bem legal: "não faca do seu chiclete um presente para os outros". E também: "não faça da sua bituca um presente para as pessoas". Para meio entendedor meia palavra basta, né galera ? Essa campanha é necessária porque agora na primavera verão a Holanda recebe mais turistas, há mais gente nas ruas e mais lixo é produzido. Vai direto ao ponto com bom humor e chama bastante a atenção para a falta de educação de algumas pessoas. Moral da história: lugar que permanece limpo não é o que mais foi cuidado mas o que menos se sujou.

Mugs, mugs and more mugs !! [Mokken]

I think I drink liters of tea while doing my work. Years ago in the company I work for, we used to have plastics cups for our drinks. At the end of the day, the bins were full with dirty plastic cups. People said they would be recycled. Very few people had their own mugs. I think it costs much less money to a company if it provides durable mugs to its employees. That is what happened: black mugs and transparent glasses were freely distributed. But lots of my colleagues have their own. I think they want to express themselves somehow... Check how different (and stylish !) they are below:

I guess this is Susana's (but I am not sure):

Franka's:

Heidi's:

Kees's:

Jeannine's and Lionel's:

Ambra's:

Natty's:

Ann's:

Tressia's:
Hakim's:

Petra's (maybe ?):
Fermin's fashionable bottle:

Now... where is this blog author's mug ? I can guarantee you I have the most boring of all: a big plain white porcelain one ! (no photos needed). I am happy like that.