Light vs Dark

This is the kind of thing I love about being Out and About, those strange coincidences you come across that flash by in a car and you never reach when on foot like this little chapel in Huissen. I love the fact that the street on which corner it is set is called Duisterestraat which translates as Darkness Street. Not being religious there's something that makes me curious about it. Was it put there to comment on the name of the street? Is the fight between good and evil, light and dark being played out on a level I have no awareness of? Or is it just a strange coincidence? You tell me.

The Chapel was built in 1954 and dedicated to the Virgin Mother, it was restored to it's former glory in 1996 and according to the commemorative plaque outside the sculpture (in Huissen's dialect) the artwork is by a local artist, Kees Berendsen.

Lovely isn't it?

What a difference a day makes

Sundays pics






Me being me I needed the get away of a spin on the bike on Sunday.
Having spent the morning and afternoon couped up waiting for the fine autumn weather that was predicted to begin for that day which never came, I finally ventured out into the grey misty late afternoon and following dusk and the solitude of misty greyness on a chilly day.

As usual I just followed my nose or in this case I went along the Linge.
The Linge is the longest river in the Netherlands. It's only about 100 kilometres and one day I want to cycle it's entire length. Sunday was not 'one' of those days or was Monday for that matter.

As cold and damp and misty as Sunday was, Monday was one of those glorious, warm
autumn days. The light was golden, Indian Summer I believe a day like that is called in the Americas and I took the opportunity to travel the same route I took the day before but in opposite direction.
Sadly I missed the last rays of sun as I stopped off my bike on the way through the
neighbouring town of Huissen to take some pics. I also didn't take any pics of the Linge near Elst where I'd started my journey the day before.

I will have to do it all again another day and leave earlier in the day as well. As the holidays have started I might get another chance if the weather holds up later on in the week. For some reason the towns of Pannerden and Millingen aan de Rijn are beckoning and I'd like to cycle in that direction. The Pannerdens Canal btw is where the Linge begins it's journey.
The Linge, canal-like in some parts and very well behaved, gentle meandering curves and bends in other parts, its gentle steady flowing through the landscape is why I love the Linge.

Nothing like the river I grew up next to (mind you that river is nothing like the river I grew up next to anymore - and in case you're wondering, for a brief but important part of my life I lived next to the river Mulcair in Ireland in the house my mom grew up in. Sadly gran's house is no longer in the family).

The Linge. No great cascading of water, no stretches of white water, no rocks to be canoe-wrecked on, no boats or barges transporting goods to the harbours near the sea or further inland into the wilderness called Europe.
I suppose if you really wanted to be dismissive about it you could argue the Linge doesn't really qualify as a river as such as it has no spring or other source in the landscape where water bubbles to the surface. The Linge is in fact an off-shoot of the Pannerdens canal at Doornenburg. The Pannerdens Canal connects the Rhine and the river Waal.

The Linge, a gentle, calmness that's a mirror in a flat landscape. Every couple of kilometres or so it drops about 50 centimetres into a slightly lower landscape and continues it's journey futher west for a 100 km where it flows into the Boven-Merwede at Gorinchem and adds itself to other watery travelers to the sea.






Mondays pics