Haydock, England. It was depressing weather, wind, rain, cold, grey. You can tell from the sketch.

A week ago we had nice weather, and I was able to sit on the bank of the canal during lunchbreak, looking at this ship being loaded with sand.
Alas. It’s cold and raining again.

“No milk today” was a song by Hermans Hermits in the 60s.
I always thought that was something of the past. But during my visit to St Helens, England, last week, I saw this dairy delivery van replacing empty milkbottles at the local doorsteps in the early morning. The English still keep firm to their traditions.

St. Helens, England (near Liverpool). A typical suburban street, the Royal Grove, drawn last week during a business trip. http://www.renefijten.blogspot.com/

Last week in Tarbes (France), quick early morning sketch of my favourite restaurant, l’Epicerie.

Carnaval parade in Maastricht, sunday 15th. The Maastricht streetparade, called “boonte storrem” (the colourful storm) is less organized, more anarchistic and even more colourful and musical as the other parades. Impression on the backside of the cityhall; it was very cold and snowing a little.

Carnaval parade in Hoensbroek, Netherlands. The moment the wagon of the Prince and his “council of 11″ arrived at our market square. It was cold and a little snow.

Cowrunning, part of Carnaval in Hoensbroek, the south of the Netherlands. I am part of a team who join in a competition of cowrunning on the local market square. This is the “sjoepkarrerace” (wheelbarrowrace), in which the running cows meet halfway the track. Collisions are no exception, but luckily there were no broken legs this year.
My team won this race, but unfortunately another cow won the other sprints and walked away with the very big prize. But that’s a very ugly, rusty cup, so who cares….

Cowrunning, see also my post of two days ago. A competition on the marketsquare of my hometown Hoensbroek. Dressing up theme of our cow is “pipo the clown” (a television series for kids from the 60s).
Here you see us building the gipsy wagon and our cow, in the garage of Franck. Hardly enough room amids stored garden furniture, bicycles, a workbench, empty paint buckets, rusty tools and toys in different state of decay.
We will run in competition today (thursday evening). Wish us luck.

Cowrunning. Next weekend it’s Carnaval: the south of the Netherlands is having streetparades, dressing up, music, a lot of beer and a lot of fun.
In my home town, Hoensbroek, we organize “cowrunning”. 8 paper-and-wood cows with each 2 runners under it compete on our local market place for the big prize: a very ugly cup.
And we are all dressed up of course. This year the theme of my group is “pipo the clown” (and yes, being the coach, that’s me on the wagon).