I like that you gave much importance to the sky. For the North Sea it was an unusually sunny day I suppose. And where is the Black Rooster?
26 Aug 2007 6:43pm
@Wolfgang Prigge: Thanks for your comment, Wolfgang! I realise that this kind of pictures is not everybody's thing and the number of comments is like watching figures for a TV program :-). But anyway, there are lots of sunny days in this area, as a matter of fact the Waddenzee has more sunny days than the rest of the Netherlands! The "Zwarte Haan" is a geographical name for this place, derived from "Swarte Harn" Old-Frisian for "Black Water Hole". De Waddenzee is a dry sandy / muddy area at low tide, you can walk to the islands at the other side (under competent guidance!), many places remain under water ("holes") or are kind of "rivers" filled with (very) strongly streaming water between the tides. So it has nothing to do with roosters. A nearby restaurant however has a rooster as a weathercock. I got this info also from a sign placed nearby. The Waddenzee is a "national park" of world class with much wildlife and a beautiful place to sail, I'll go there next year when my boat will be improved.
I know about the Waddenzee, I have walked it with a guide in East Friesland. For me it is very interesting, I like to learn about Nature in all it's manifestations. My family name is supposed to originate from northern Germany and there is a theory that it comes from the designation of the long poles rammed into the sand and mud to indicate the shipping channel. (Could that be Priel in Frisian?) The name for the poles is supposed to be "priggen" , but I'm not sure about this story. (Some not so nice people say that my name is connected to the English word prig.) Anyway, I love the history of languages, I studied it a bit in University, mostly of English, a little of French. Later I tried to transmit my fascination with it to my enriched students in High school. I think I succeeded for most students, no mean feat if your clientele is 16 to 17 years old. And of course there are so many points where Old English, Low German and the different old Dutch languages are connected. My Grandmother spoke Plattdeutsch, so if I read the comments in Dutch by some of your compatriots I can get an idea of what it means.
Love to look at it! Looks like painted. Wonderful colors from dark green about light green to light brown. And of course the wonderful light blue. The lines are perfect. You made me happy, Erik.