My siblings and I held snail races one summer with the neighbour kids, no lie. I don't think anyone won.

Contrary to popular belief, the King is alive and well and donating paltry sums to good causes.

summer in the city

There was a girl playing recorder (that most brilliant of instruments) across the street yesterday. Her grandfather was sitting nearby listening but not watching just staring off in the distance and there's such a large gap between being 6 and being 60, I wonder what he was thinking about.

on balloon animals

I don't know about you but I've always thought balloon animals pretty cool. I saw a kid at an art fair while in Groningen clutching one of these and he looked absolutely ecstatic.

a little more on Uncle Antlers, as he'd like to be called

Om Johannes

I met my Oma's brother (Om Johannes) while on my Holland travels; that made quite an impression on me.

I've also been exploring the world of ink lately; it takes some adjusting to as I'm used to the hard point of a pen (or sometimes pencil); a brush tip of course is much more pliable and my hand isn't as sure as I'd like it to be, but all in the good name of practice and growth.

Annecy!

The promised Annecy post, in pictures from my travel sketchbook!


Airport & other random observances while generally in transit. Annecy: it was great simply being there. The entire lower portion of the city was swarming with animators, animation-lovers, and the audiences went all out during the screenings. Met all sorts of incredibly interesting and highly talented animation folk- Mark Sperber, Paul Briggs, Max & Ru of Tiny Inventions, and Samantha Leriche-Gionet to name a few, as well as other student film-makers from the world over. Also took in crazy amounts of animated films. Very inspiring.


View of the older part of the city and mountain range from the vantage point of an old castle partway up the hill.


Food staple of the week!


Geraniums


Train pulling out of Annecy, on the way to London St Pancras.


A pigeon in Regent Park, with birdberry stains. I spent a few days up in London after Annecy, visited MacKinnon & Saunders in Manchester and had a lovely time there - extraordinarily talented artists, and on top of that, extremely kind.


Received an excellent suggestion from Peter Saunders regarding local sight-seeing; Chetham's Library, the oldest public library in the English-speaking world!


Made my way over to Holland following England - saw a lunar eclipse in Zeeland, walked to Germany and had a really gezellig time visiting relatives, learning family history and hometowns of my grandparents.


Waiting for my plane at Schipol to return to Canada, travellers moving in herds.

All in all, a really superb trip. For anyone who's entertained the idea of attending Annecy, GO!

And some pictographs, for your viewing delight:


La Grande Salle


The older part of the city is nestled along the lakeside and canals run through it; it's absolutely enchanting.


View from La Plage.