Absence

Tomorrow I will leave for Galapagos, for little over two weeks. Together with my big brother Frank I will start an epic adventure of beautiful nature and wonderful animals. I'm so excited! That means I won't be posting anything on my blog (reason why top 5 Thursday is already up). When I return, I will give you a full story with photos. So long and see you soon! X Joyce

Top 5 Thursday: Animals I want to See in the Wild

After my wonderful adventure in Uganda, Africa last year I still have a big wishlist of places to go. And wildlife to see. I got to see some wonderful animals there, like gorilla's, lions, leopards, elephants, giraffes and hippo's. I made a list of the animals I still want to see in the wild someday.

5. Tiger
My brother is taking a trip to India next year to see the tiger. If I had the money I would go too, because tigers are such fascinating creatures. So gorgeous and breathtaking.

4. Polar Bear
I woud want to go to the cold world where the polar bear lives. Just being surrounded by all the white, I think that would be amazing.

3. Orangutan
Apes are one of my favorie groups of animals and I always likes Orangutan's the most. Now I saw the gorilla's I have two favorites, but I would want to see them in the wild as well.

2. Grizzly Bear
I love all kinds of bears, but this is my favorite. Wonderful animal!

1. Killer Whale
My favorite animals, such enormous creatures with so much grace. I think it would be a mighty feeling seeing them in the wild.

They Almost Made the Top 5: Panda, koala, wolf, emperor penguin

Top 5 Thursday: Uganda Trip Pictures

People who frequently check my blog know that I recently took a trip to Uganda, Africa. We took so many pictures that I decided to pick my five favorites. So here they are. All the pictures were taken by my brother.

5. Hippo
We encountered this hippo during a boattrip on the Nile. Some came very close. It's really hard to believe that they are very dangerous, because they don't look dangerous.

4. Crane
This is one of the national animals of Uganda and also one of the most beautiful birds I ever saw.

3. Baby Gorilla
This is just so endeering and adorable.

2. Impala
Impala's are very gracious and I'm in love with this photo.

1. Gorilla
The main reason I wanted to visit Uganda was to see the gorilla's in the wild. And I did, which was an amazing experience. And we made the most beautiful picture while tracking for gorilla's. This is just amazing.

Bye Buddy

“A dog doesn't care if you're rich or poor, educated or illiterate, clever or dull. Give him your heart and he will give you his.”

- John Grogan, "Marley & Me"

This is for my dog Tyson, who passed away so suddenly yesterday. I'll miss you pall.

4 Layouts, finally

I haven't done any scrapbooking for a long time. I just didn't feel like it. Last weekend I finally picked it up again, because my head was filled with good ideas. I just had to start again. So here are the four layouts I made this week.

Pearl Jam at Rockin' Park.

My bunny Oscar in the yard.

My trip to Walibi World, with my friends Irene and Evelien.

The Lifehouse concert.

I hope you liked them and you feel inspired.

Meet Jester

My friend Irene recently got a puppy, Jester. He's a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and very cute. My other friend Evelien already had a dog like that, Vykko. Friday I got to meet Jester and here's picture of him with me. He's only 8,5 weeks old.

Isn't he the sweetest? I am going to visit Irene thursday and I will bring a little present for Jester.

Zoo Time

My brother Frank and I love going to the zoo, so yesterday we visited Gaiapark in Kerkrade, The Netherlands. The zoo was awarder three times in a row for being the best zoo of the Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands en Luxembourg). I can understand why, because it's a beautiful zoo. The animals have plenty of space and the habitats are perfectly recreated. I'd like to share some of my pictures with you.

A gorilla. I would want to see them in the wild someday.

A hippo and her young.

A squirrel monkey, so cute. There were like 50 of them running around.

Me and on the left a very, very big rabbit. Not quite like my Oscar.

Yawn....

Frank with a lion in the background.

A cheetah, gorgeous.

A coypus. It looked like a beaver and had the tail of a rat. Cute animal.

Message from South Africa

My brother Frank is in South Africa right now. He's there for already three weeks and he will return september 13th. He's working there, at a shark project. He has to document the sharks, lure them with bait and he goes cage diving with the sharks. All really exciting. He already sent us some messages, but yesterday he also sent us an awesome, but scary, picture. This photo he made of a shark in action. Be prepared, it shocked me a little when I first saw it.




Cool huh! It's a beautiful picture. It actually surprised me how blue the water is in South Africa. And off course how huge the shark is.

Winter Birds

When it snowed here in The Netherlands I made some pictures of the birds in our yard.

Here is one of a Robin:



Two Sparrows:



A Tit Bird:



And a Blackbird:



These are great pictures for my scrapbook. Hope you like them too.

Harvest Delight

Of all the seasons I have one personal favorite. It might sound funny or even weird, but the fall has always been my favorite season. People only think of it as rainy and windy. It is, but the fall is so much more than that. Here are the reasons why fall is special to me:
- On rainy days you have time to read a good book, play boardgames with friends or family and watch a movie you've been willing to see for a while;
- It's cosy inside the house;
- Halloween;
- Toadstools in your yard;
- The leafs on the trees get beautiful colors;
- You'll see squirrels, hedgehogs, frogs and robins

Plenty of good reasons to love autumn!!!!

Walking with Dinosaurs

Yesterday my brother and I visited a very cool show. "Walking with Dinosaurs: the arena Spectacular". A couple of years ago the BBC aired a documentary with the same title, but this time we could see it in real life. There was one storyteller, a paleantologist, was sort of the voice over and he took is million years back in time. There was a Stegosaurs, Utaraptors, Brachiosaurs and of course Tyrannosaurs Rex. It was amazing how they made them look so real. A great show. Here are some photo's (it was really hard to make pictures, because you couldn't use a flash. That wasn't aloud)You can click on them to enlarge:

Will Ferrell vs. Mother Nature

Yesterday I saw a cool programm on Discovery Channel. Man vs. Wild (a.k.a. Ultimate Survuval), presented by Bear Grylls. He takes us on ultimate survival trips and had very handy tips for the audience, but this one was special. He had all over funny guy Will Ferrell with him. They were dropped somewhere in Sweden. They had to get out of the chopper, but it couldn't land. So they had to get out by hanging on a rope. Ferrell called out for his mommie! Hilarious. Later they had to make their own snowshoes, eat a deers eye, make fire and sleep in the cold snow. The funniest part was when the two guys had to climb back in the chopper, with a ladder. Ferrell couldn't do it, so he fell. He was hanging upside down from the ladder. That was very funny. Great episode....

BirDDay

I'm sorry for not updating the blog, but we had a computervirus. But, it's solved so here I am again.
Yesterday my brother Frank and I visited a demonstration with birds of prey. Wonderfull. Voltures, Owls, hawks, eagles, you name it, they had 'em. Cami and Nikita Capozzo did the show and the have over 300 birds, and many other animals. They have their own website. Check them out on www.aghiabirds.com
Here are some pictures I made:

The beauty of animals

Yesterday me and my brother Frank went to the zoo. Safari Park Beekse Bergen to be exact. My dad got the tickets from work and my brother and I decided to go to the park together. I'd rather see them in the wild, but I saw some wonderfull and beautiful animals yesterday. We shot some pictures. Here are some of our best shots:









Especially the tiger picture is great. Alltough it was pretty hot yesterday, we had a great time at the zoo. And we are very happy with the pictures we made!

And they call it....froggy love

The other day it was raining. When it rains in The Netherlands you should check your yard. Because it's frog time!!! It's hard to see them, but if you look closely you can spot them. They look like a leaf sometimes, so watch your step, but frogs rule. Look at these pictures I made. Froggy love. Very cute and a beautiful piece of nature.




So, rain doesn't mean that you have to be bored. Just go frog watching :) .

X Joyce

SNOW

Finally, snow! It doesn't snow much in The Netherlands, so I was really happy when I looked out of my window monday morning. Especially my dog Tyson loved playing in the snow. Here are some pictures, made in my backyard:





We didn't have a white Christmas, but the year couldn't start better. And Tyson agrees with me on that, haha!

X Joyce