Foggy beach walks, sea shells & and a rainy Sunday afternoon

For me, who's living in a landlocked country with no coast anywhere close, a trip to the beach is as exciting as birthday and Christmas together. Walking on the sand, listening to the sound of the waves, the fresh sea air in your face. It's so exciting, that it doesn't even matter that it's about 0 degrees C, the wind biting cold, and so foggy, that you can't see anything of the dramatic cliffs that stretch along the coast. In fact, the special mood created by the fog and dusk made it all even more beautiful.

And then of course there's the sea shells. Such beautiful treasures, that are just too irresistible not to be picked up, even if you can hardly bend down because off all the layers you're wearing to keep warm. Oh, there's another one, and another one, and another one, and yes I know, we already have loads of those, but just this last one. And that one... We returned with a whole pocketful of them.

The following Sunday afternoon was rainy, and after another walk on the beach in the morning, a warming soup at the pub, and a handful of more shells, it was best spend at home sketching those precious shells (or watching Rugby, wathever you prefer).

I'm especially pleased about that little pink shell we discovered, and which looks quite different than all the other ones we found.

Most of the more delicate ones were a little damaged, but I thought that just added to their charm.

I had taken my new cheap paints with me, which so far, I had only used in thick, opaque layers. But I was very pleased to see that they also worked very well with more water, creating those typical watercolour effects.

Happy Paint Party Friday!

A trip to the north

I've spent 10 days in the beautiful city of Hamburg last week. It was my first time up there in the northern part of Germany. Have you ever been there? It's totally worth a visit, and definitely not my last time up there! I spent four of the 10 days there at a conference, but still had enough time to explore the city and even take a couple of day trips outside the city. Of course, being so close to the coast, I just had to see the sea. There was just one question: North or Baltic Sea?

The Baltic Sea was closer and more convenient, so the Baltic Sea it was. I took the train to the little town of Travemünde, and, when I arrived there, was overjoyed to see a whole big sandy beach full of Strandkörbe ("beach baskets"). Those Strandkörbe are typical of North Germany's North and Baltich Sea beaches, and while I had seen a Strandkorb as such before, I had never seen one actually standing on a beach. I don't know how many photos I took of them. They just made me happy :).

Of course I didn't just take photos of Strandkörbe, but I just wanted to quickly share these with you. It's a busy week, my suitcase is still waiting to get unpacked, and I will need a little bit more time until I'm fully back, and present in blog world.

I was glad to see that my blog post scheduling worked perfectly last week, and that my two posts were published as intended. But I must admit that I didn't really think about the fact that it all gets a bit onesided, especially as I didn't have any internet access. So I'll have a bit of catching up to do. I'm really looking forward to visit everyone's blogs. I'll just need a bit of time. But I'm back. And it feels good :)