First Blog on my Block
Hope Filled Jars is a catch-all of mindful snippets: from empathic journalistic snapshots, to fiction from life and heartfelt memoir pieces. From the launch in 2005, at the same time that my website went live, the emphasis was on hopeful reporting. I launched the Mariënhof Garden blog not long after, as a friendly gesture to old friends in the Netherlands.
Blog(ging) for Friends or Clients
The text on the Mariënhof blog is based on my frequent email correspondence (focused but not limited to the garden/park) with old friends in the Netherlands, combined with results of my research, thus creating more in depth texts. As an immigrant I derived great joy from maintaining the virtual garden in my motherland (my father was born in Belgium).
Since my name appeared at the bottom of each post and I clearly was not the gardener but the blogger, I posted all texts and even material written by me as though written by my friends AND in first person plural, combining their two voices in the one "we". Thus I became a ghostwriter.
Passion for Public Building
Since the opening at the end of May in 2004 I've been an architectural tour guide and docent at the Seattle Central Public Library. This Seattle landmark was designed by the brother of an old friend, the artist Thomas Koolhaas. If that notion alone didn't make me feel right at home in Rem Koolhaas's landmark design, the steep narrow escalator leading from the fifth to the tenth floor reminded me of the ship ladder stairs I climbed to my walk-up in my old hometown Amsterdam. But there is of course much more to like "at Central". Being a library it's one of my homes away from home and as such one of the most amazing ones on my list. That's why I call myself OMA Fan in Seattle
Blog(ging) at Writers' Conference
In 2008 I enjoyed a retreat at Fort Worden during Centrum's Port Townsend Writers Conference. Fort Worden is the place where "An Officer and a Gentleman" was filmed. To stay in that intriguing setting and otherwise barely touched natural environment is a real (re)treat.
Words & Images on the Go
Of course I Write Day-in Day-out
and in between I take my Dutchess Abroad iPics
Blog-a-Sleep
Some of the other blogs you'll find on my Blogger profile page are awaiting their real launch such as StudioVanPraag, mere try-outs, or dormant blogs such as the one I created for Paseo Press
I hope you enjoy your visit to any of my blogs!
Whether you're visiting here or there, do leave a comment, we bloggers love comments!
