Sketches Home-Sweet-Home

I stayed at home in Vietnam for nearly four weeks from September to October this time. It was great to see Mum again after a long time apart. I often come back home on Christmas holidays to escape from freezing European winter days and because it's silly to face Christmas alone without surrounding myself with family and friends.

Mum is not only a gourmet but also a good cook. Staying at home with her means cozy atmosphere, good meals and healthy food.

I love to sketch food. While drawing I tried to remember how delicious the dishes looked like when they were served in front of me, how enticing they smelled and of course how their delicate taste melted on my tongue. These memories make me so happy and feel deeply grateful for what I got in life. 

Arabian-style dinners on the plane back home in Sai Gon:

Mum's lovely pets:

 

Dinners like a King at home:

Grilled Meat on Rice Noodles (Bún thịt nướng của mẹ) - One of my favorite things I love from my mum's cooking

Sushi and Sashimi at Tokyo Deli in Saigon: Salmon belly, herring fish roe sashimi, sliced octopus with wasabi and broiled eel nigiri.

Traditional dishes from Hue, the old imperial capital of the Nguyen dynasty- the last dynasty in Vietnam

 Keep this quote in my mind:

“No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.” – Lin Yutang

Language of flowers: Love-in-a-mist

Language of flowers:

Nigella (or Love-in-a-mist) - "You puzzle me."

Love-in-a-mist (Nigella damascena) is one of my favorites.

Love-in-a-mist gets its evocative name from the way a tangle of ferny, fennel like foliage form a mist around the flowers. However, obviously not everyone felt about it in the same way, as it was also known as devil-in-a-bush and Jack-in-prison (???). Because of its misty foliage like a veil of secrecy, the flower is a symbol of perplexity. In some regions in Europe, women used to give Nigella as a refusal to their undesirable suitors, since the flower is also a symbol of unrequited love.

"Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them." - A. A. Milne

Language of flowers: Phlox

Language of flowers: Phlox - "Our souls are united."

"A garden without a phlox is not only a mistake, but also a sin against summer." - Karl Foerster, gardener and garden writer

A phlox may not have a stunning beauty, but its gentle scent is just lovely. I love to receive flowers and actually receive them currently quite often. "What a lucky girl!" is what I talk about myself now. I have thought about creating a series of botanical drawings of the flowers I received. Each flower in the drawings will carry with it a common symbolic definition according to Western Culture.
Over the years I will have a great collection of drawings of flowers or plants people gave me, which is likewise a hand-made dictionary of the language of flowers, a nearly forgotten way of communication, and a treasure chest filled with warm memories of loving and being loved.

  “I must have flowers, always, and always.”- Claude Monet

Language of flowers: Thistle

Language of flowers: Thistle - Nobility of character

It's not usual to find thistle flowers in a florist's. They've appeared so rarely, that I almost forgot, how charming they are despite of the prickles occuring on their stems and their leaves, which can hurt me much, if I hold them a little bit tight.

Some peole may love to get a gorgeous bouquet of red roses symbolizing passion of love. A symbol of an everlasting love seems not to be what I am looking for, but these wild, violet planst covered by numerous tiny prickles, which symbolize nobility of character.

Sketches from Hallstatt in Austria

I went camping with two close friends of mine in Hallstatt in Austria.
Hallstatt is a lovely, small village located in the Salzkammergut, a region in Austria. My friends told me, that Hallstatt is so beautiful, that the replica of the village was built in Guangdong province in China last year. I don't like the idea, that Hallstatt was copied. The replica is just a waste. What makes Hallstatt a fairytale-like village is not only just its charming wooden houses, but also its wonderful location, i.e. the stunning beauty of the Alpine lake landscape surrounding the village, which is uniquess and unimitable.

I stayed in Hallstatt only two days and had just enough time to do two sketches. 

 09:40 a.m., 23.06.2013, House No. 133 Oberer Berg

 06:30 a.m., 22.06.2013, at the camping site

Hallstatt on Dwellable

Happiness is a butterfly

Two close friends of mine wrote on their card, sent to me on my birthday, a beautiful quote of Nathaniel Hawthorne- an American short-story writer and novelist:
“Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you”.
The quote is just so lovely. I was very touched and inspired at the same time. It immediately made me feel like drawing again. Thank you so much, my dear friends!

 

 

My trip to Bruges, Belgium

It's time to pack my bags to leave home, discover the world and open up my mind.
The destination this time is Bruges- the capital city of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. Some friends of mine went there and adore the place so badly, that they suggested me to visit the city all the time.
I now also adore the city exactly the same as my friends do, after I came back home from there.
I spent one week in Bruges. Most of the time I strolled around, looked for a nice spot to make some sketches, stayed in the spot for several hours to sketch and got me later something tasty to eat. I didn't feel lonely at all while sketching, since there were always people coming to talk to me. They asked, if they were allowed to have a look at the sketches  I made, where I come from, and where I'm planning to go to on my journey. I'm really happy, since no one came and asked me stupid questions, such as why I don't just purchase a camera to take pictures, then go to other sight-seeing spots.
Everyday at breakfast, the owner of the B&B, where I stayed in Bruges, asked me, if I made some new sketches. I showed the sketches and we talked about the buildings I drew. She showed me a catalog of a Japanese landscape painter, who used to stay at her B&B one month and made a lot of  lovely sketches of landscape in Bruges. On my 3rd day in Bruges, while sketching, I met one old Belgian artist. He invited me to visit his atelier. What lovely paintings he has done! (AQUARELLE Lucien Vanden Steen- Peerdenstraat 17b, Bruges)
I enjoyed my time in Bruges. Good food. Good weather. Nice people.

20.08.2012- My 1st day in Bruges
This sketch shows the view from my room upon the B&B's garden. I left it in the B&B's guestbook to acknowledge my visitation in Bruges.

21.08.2012- My 2nd day in Bruges
Belfort (13th century)- the bell tower in the historical centre of Bruges. Sketch done at the market square, at 00:40 am. I gave the sketch to a very good friend of mine as a birthday present.

Bonne Chiere windmill (1844, from 1911 in Bruges). Sketch done at 05:50 pm.

Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk (The Church of Our Lady) (1220). Sketch done at Rozenhoedkaai, at 22:45.

22.08.2012- My 3rd day in Bruges
Kasteel Minnewater- a charming restaurant located at the "Lake of Love". Next time when I come back to Bruges, I'd like to have dinner by candlelight with my beloved at this restaurant. Sketch done at 04:30 pm.

Guesthouse Coté Canal- House of Fidel- the most photographed dog in Bruges. You can see Fidel in the trailer of the movie "In Bruges" directed by Martin McDonagh. Sketch done on Groenerei street, at 08:30 pm.

23.08.2012- I headed to the sea.
Mercator ship (1931) in Oostende, used by the Belgian Navy for the instruction of the military sailors and navy-men. Sketch done at 05:00 pm.

24.08.2012- My last night in Bruges. It rained all night long.
Blinde Ezelstraat ( Blind-Donkey-Street)- a narrow street runs from the Burg to the fish market. Sketch done at 11:00 pm.

P.S.: While I was sketching the Blinde Ezelstraat, I met Lies Ackaert- a blogger in Bruges, Belgium. She writes blog entries in Dutch about interesting things and people she encountered in her beautiful hometown. Check her blog entry about me here.

West Flanders on Dwellable

Follow the travel bug

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain

It's now time to pack my bags, leave the house, follow the travel bug, open up my head and see what's on my mind. 

New travel sketches will soon be here. 

Fireflies Night

For years I've dreamed of getting lost in a meadow at night where a great number of fireflies usually gathers.

Born as a city child, I never had a chance to experience this spectacular scenery. I saw some fireflies in the garden of the house where I've lived since 4 years in Germany. However, the city light makes many things, such as the starry night sky or fireflies glow, less beautiful. What a shame! 

A Happy Summer Bride

Leafing through the lovely DIY wedding lookbook of Mollie Makes made me feel like sewing a wedding dress for myself. (I have a sewing machine at home.)

My best friend told me: "It's a good idea to keep you busy. Because of your lack of skill, it will take you years to finish the dress for sure. Until then you may have already found Mr. Right to wed."

What a clever friend she is!