De straten van Marrakech

Geplaatst op door Henk Groenewoud

Random straatfoto’s in de Medina van Marrakech – overal gebeurt van alles tegelijk…


Met vlees gaan ze iets anders om dan wij gewend zijn


Bezoek aan de Koran school, waar studenten intern een opleiding kunnen volgen. Met tal van vakken zoals talen, geografie en wiskunde. Ook meisjes kunnen hier op school, en bijvoorbeeld op basis van de Koran en de sharia worden opgeleid tot rechter.


Als je je afvraagt hoe ze aan die prachtige mozaïeken komen: het is allemaal handwerk. Kleine vierkante tegeltjes in allerlei kleuren worden aangevoerd uit heel het land. De tegeltjes worden in kleine stukjes gebroken, en die stukjes worden zorgvuldig met de hand in vorm gehakt. Dan worden ze in een figuur gelegd, en aan elkaar gelijmd door er cement over te gieten.


Bakker aan het werk in ambachtelijke steenoven


Geen fabriekswerk hier. Ook de prachtige kleuren van de kleden en gewaden komen uit handarbeid


Street art van de jongere generatie


En hoe de straat zelf een kunstwerkje wordt


Een kijkje in de verwarmingsketels van de hammam – de warmte wordt ook benut voor het laten pruttelen van stoofpotjes


Prachtige kleuren en geuren in de Souk. En ook daar traditioneel ambachtelijk werk


’s Avonds bruist het centrale plein, de Djemaa el-Fna, van het leven


(Dag 1 van een Djoser reis met geweldig reisgezelschap. Fietstocht van Pikala tours, wandeling onder leiding van gids Mohammed)

Koningsdag Utrecht 2025

Geplaatst op door Henk Groenewoud

Heerlijk om even op Koningsdag naar Utrecht te gaan, en me onder te dompelen in het feestgedruis. Waar ik eerder portretten maakte, wilde ik nu vooral de sfeer vastleggen. De techniek is ‘intuïtieve fotografie”; een mooie term voor gewoon maar uit de heup schieten en dan thuis kijken wat er uit is gekomen. Onduidelijke, scheve, onscherpe foto’s: het hoort er allemaal bij. En ook de vrolijke voorbijgangers die vragen: “Wil je ons alsjeblief op de foto zetten?” Hier een selectie van de dag

More on Madagascar

Geplaatst op door Henk Groenewoud

It´s been a while since I’ve been there, but I just have to share some more pictures of this beautiful, intriguing island in the Indian ocean.

First part was in the south. Tulear with fishermen, water taxis and birds like the beautiful tropicbird.

Then up to Antsokay an Anakao with birds lik the olive bee-eater and magpie-robin.

Further to the Mangily spiny forest, and from there to Zombitse

Madagascar insects and arachnidae

Geplaatst op door Henk Groenewoud

“Looking forward to see your pictures of insects of Madagascar,” my former colleague Gert van Ee said when I posted the first results from the Madagascar trip. Gert is a well-known insect expert in the Netherlands.

“I’ll see what I can find, but I’m afraid we didn’t see many insects,” I replied. “And it will take some time to go through those 15.000 pictures.”

So this is the result. A couple of insects indeed, and some other arthropods as well (arachnids)

(lead picture: Brilliant blue – Junonia rhadama)
Madagascar Forest nymph  – Aterica raben
Green lady – Graphium cyrnus (feeding on dung)

Walker’s owl – Erebus macrops (Huge! Like 15 cm.)
Giraffe-necked weevil – Trachelophorus giraffa

Praying mantis ( I apologise for not always finding the exact species names – If you know them do not hesitate to mention them)
Green stick insect – Achrioptera manga

Madagascar Flatid leaf insect – Phromnia rosea. They look like flowers, but they are tiny insects (see detail)

Black & White curculionidae weevil – Rhytidophloeus rothschildi
Grasshopper – locust (pretending to be larger than life)

Madagascar black scorpion – Grosphus madagascariensis
Huntsman spider – Damastes sp. (Like 10 cm big. And spitting venom to the guides!)        

Golden orb web spider – Nephila sp. (Huge female, like 15 cm. And a tiny but very brave male behind her, hoping to mate but fearing to be eaten)

Zebra spider – Viridasius sp. (Huge! Like 15 cm, and living in our lodge)
Red crab backed orb weaver – Medium wing  kitespider – Gasteracantha versicolor (small but beautiful!)

Enormous, really huge wasp – Belonogaster sp.

Nationale Boomfeestdag 2023

Geplaatst op door Henk Groenewoud

Afgelopen 15 november was de Nationale Boomfeestdag 2023. Alweer de 66e editie van dit jaarlijkse feest. In Amstelveen gaf demissionair minister voor Natuur en Stikstof Christianne van der Wal-Zeggelink samen met burgmeester Tjapko Poppens en directeur Sylvo Thijsen het startschot in Amstelveen met het planten van een es. Directeur Nationale Boomfeestdag Marleen van der Ham en kinderburgemeester Milanka gaven hen een helpende hand. Deze es was de eerste van 200.000 bomen die door kinderen in heel Nederland zijn geplant en het komende half jaar nog worden geplant

And now: Birds

Geplaatst op door Henk Groenewoud

Yes, it was a birding trip to Madagascar. So it’s about time to show some of the beautiful birds that live there. Almost all of them endemic to the island as well, just as the lemurs. First the Madagascar Pygmy kingfisher Corythornis madagascariensis. An amazing success of our guide ‘Jacana’, who was able to spot this tiny bird in the trees of the rainforest


There is another kingfisher that looks a lot like our Eurasian kingfisher. At first glance they appear to be the same. But look closely: there is no blue cheek and less white on the chin. It’s a Madagascar malachite kingfisher Corythornis vintsioides


Incredibly graceful these Madagascar paradise flycatchers (Terpsiphone mutata mutata). Same species, white and brown morph

The Madagascar crested ibis Lophotibis cristata; quite shy and difficult to find. It took several days of searching before he showed up. “It has always been an endangered species,” the guide said, “but when the Covid pandemic broke out and tourists didn’t come anymore, lots of them were eaten…”


The hoopoe! And again an endemic: the Madagascar hoopoe Upupa marginata. I’m afraid I don’t see the difference with the Eurasian hoopoe


Souimanga sunbird – Cinnyris souimanga. That reflection of light on the feathers!  


Another colourful bird: the Pitta-like ground-roller Atelornis pittiodes. Also very difficult to find, as he is walking in dense dark forests. So many colours: Green wings, ruby breast, blue spotted head… truly amazing

The family of rollers is one of my favourites. This is a Broad-billed roller Eurystomus glaucurus, mostly brown but it has beautiful blue feathers in the wings and tail

Last one for now: two Madagascar scops owls Otus rutilus happy together

Madagascar – 01

Geplaatst op door Henk Groenewoud

Just returned from a trip to Madagascar. More than 16.000 pictures. Will make a selection – probably lots of birds, lemurs, chameleons, snakes and spiders. But first: people and the baobab

Van Mediterrane draaigatjes en mierengoudvisjes

Geplaatst op door Henk Groenewoud

Anderhalve week geleden bracht ik met collega’s een werkbezoek aan kolonies van de plaagmier (Lasius neglectus) en het mediterraan draaigatje (Tapinoma nigerrimum). Onder leiding van Jinze Noordijk van EIS Kenniscentrum insecten werden een woonwijk, een duingebied en een tuincentrum bezocht.


Na het oplichten van wat stoeptegels is een stukje zichtbaar van de kolonie, die zich hier uitstrekt over de hele woonwijk. De bewoners ervaren veel overlast


Snel worden alle eieren, poppen en larven in veiligheid gebracht


Even kijken hoe ze bijten


Groot was het enthousiasme toen Jinze in één van de nesten ook twee mierengoudvisjes (Atelura formicaria) vond. Deze soort is pas kort geleden in Nederland ontdekt (zie Nature Today en het wetenschappelijk artikel)

City of Mozart

Geplaatst op door Henk Groenewoud

So I visited his grave in Vienna. That is to say: He was buried here at the St. Marx cemetery, but the exact location is  a guess. Buried in an unmarked grave, according to the rules and habits of that time. Probably his bones were dug up after ten years to give room to other deceased. But it is nice to think that he was laid to rest here, at this memorial.

“Do you think this is it?”
Approaching the Mozart house at Domgasse 5  in Vienna, Austria. But no, the house where Mozart lived is just around the corner. The house is a museum, and you can walk in the rooms where you he and his wife lived from 1784 to 1787. He wrote the world-famous opera “Le Nozze di Figaro” there, and three of the six Haydn Quartets.

Well, this is it then. The Mozart house. Domgasse 5  in Vienna, Austria. Incredible that he has walked in the same streets, through the same door over the same stairs. With a little fantasy you can walk together.

View from his house.
This he saw when looking out of the window, thinking what the violins should play next.

The Stephansdom is just around the corner

I created Art. Capital A

Geplaatst op door Henk Groenewoud

I did it. I created Art with a capital A, and it hung in a museum. A dream come true. In the Belvedere museum in Vienna, Austria, amidst all grand names of art history.

In fact I completed the work Quasimodo of Franz West. “The title of the installation, “Quasimodo” by Franz West, can be translated as ‘the Incomplete’. Consisting of a forged iron hook and a video, this only becomes complete when the hook is hammered into a wall and objects – or in the worst case one’s self – are hung up on it at will, according to the artist…”

So I asked the attendant if I was allowed to hang up something there. He chuckled shyly, not really knowing how to react. “Oh dear… I just started working here. But I guess… if I you read what the artist says, the idea is to do just that…”

I smiled at him “I totally agree. You are so right, and I would really love to do it!”

While the other visitors watched in a bit of a shock, I hung up my camera. Like a statement: Look! I am temporarily pausing my photography as a tribute to the artist and his art.  Of course by hanging up the camera I prevented myself from taking professional high quality images. Thereby strengthening the incompleteness, as I was powerless and empty handed as a photographer. I could only take a snapshot with my mobile phone. For me, this snapshot now has become a piece of art in itself, mirroring different layers over the original work.

I call it: Sicut modo. So happy with it!

Art and adoration. I went to Vienna just to see this picture. Recently I visited the Klimt experience at the Fabrique de Lumières in Amsterdam. That raised a few memories: The shop in Amsterdam so many years ago when I was a high school teenager. The cards I found there – all about Jugendstil and fairies and so. And this one that I immediately loved.

So I decided to go and see it. No reproduction can give the feeling of the real thing. I tried to take pictures of the shimmering gold and silver particles, but it’s impossible. You have to see it for yourself. In the Belvedere museum in Vienna.

Art touches one´s sense of beauty. Museums always tickle my creativity and wake up my inner muse. There is so much beauty all around! Just a glimpse out of the window tells me there is a world full of splendor waiting to be transformed into masterpieces. And after leaving the building, I feel enlightened and ready to create the most stunning art myself. View of the Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna through the blackout screen of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien.

View from the Albertina museum in Vienna. Wherever you look, the world will show beauty.

It’s definitely not only the paintings that you should see in the Museum of Art History in Vienna. This is a view of the restaurant…

You just cannot not look up here. Is to too much Baroque here in the lower Belvedere?

All that glitters is… yes, gold!