.. Eat out of your own city..

 

 

Urban farming is everywhere and here in the Rotterdam fruit harbour opened 'uit je eigen stad', 'out of your own city'. They have their own farming grounds, the products they grow can bought in the shop or eaten in the restaurant. What they can't grow they get from other farms around the city of Rotterdam. The place has a nice, laidback atmosphere where we could read and have a coffee and the kids where happy outside with their sand and shovels.

..Postcards from the urban edge..

I like postcards books. I never sent a card from them because I keep looking at them. One of my favorite one is People and Possessions, a tale through photos that show peoples possessions outside their home from allover the world. It is fascinating being able to see what people posses and maybe it is away for me to know what I don't have to posses. Which is always too much.

These cards of pavements in Barcelona, the city that posses the most beautiful graphic pavements in the world. I think I bought them at the Museu d'Historia de Barcelona.

In better times my office was kind enough to take us to Moscow for an excursion. I had no idea what to think of going there but it was an experience, from the rough repetitive housing, the strong architecture, to diamonds like the Melnikov house ( which we were lucky enough to be able to see from inside) or the Moscow metro. The stations are like ballrooms it almost seems surreal.
In the postcardbook I bought you can see them so well, because it is also a very congested metro.

..Weekend in the park..

There is no better thing then to enjoy the weekend outdoors. It is almost school holiday for our boys which means class barbecue’s and get together’s . One of them was at the Mullerpier here in Rotterdam. On the far end of the pier there is a vacant building lot that probably will take some years to get build in this crisis.

The people of the building blocks made a garden of it called ‘Tuin aan de Maas’, a vegetable garden, play and relax garden. With the sun finally sneaking out from under the clouds what a joy,with fresh picked strawberry smoothies and SUPER straws everybody is happy.

..M1..

This graphic poster of motorway nodes caught my eye. They are a M1 50 year celebration publication by Melissa Price. It is a dedicatory to the M1 roads in United Kingdom. Very soon I will take a trip to London, I found out that she also sells them as posters at the V and A museum. Let’s see if I can resist.

..Magic Mountain..

We just visited the Tiger & Turtle Magic Mountain in Duisburg Germany. This amazing walking Rollercoaster is situated in the Angerpark. It is a design by Heike Mutter und Ulrich Genth, who won a competition for a landscape sculpture in 2009. You have to walk to the top of the mountain to get there and you get a view of the very industrious landscape, typical for the area. But the rollercoaster walk detaches you from the surroundings because you experience it. It frees itself and yourself.

..Urban Knitting..

Urban knitting has also arrived to Rotterdam. The phenomena that has started some years ago in Houston is gradually taking over. I think it is funny to see these sweaters taking over trees bridges (this one at the ‘s Gravendijkwal in Rotterdam) etc etc. On the blog Ohjoy I saw these cosy mugs by Leifshop so then the knitting can take over your household as well.

..I make Rotterdam..

images by ZUS Zones Urbaines Sensibles

Recently the project I make Rotterdam launched. It is bridge between Rotterdam central station and the former railway line Hofbogen. The office ZUS tries to get the money together through crowd funding, so I thought this to be a great holiday present to our family. I like the bottom up idea of helping to create an part of town and of immortalizing yourself on the bridge, because if you participate you can buy a wooden plank with your name engraved on it. This will be used to build the bridge. Probably it will take days to find out where our names are. 

..Where do you see yourself..

In our casa our lives reflect in Holland and Spain (the pictures are not of me and O.)

But these mirrors by Walking Things sum it up, how to share a life through borders

and languages. The mirror countries can be put together to unite as Europe (partially).