Italian moments

Tags

blog, expat, italian, italy, theeveningglow, travel

— I am currently publishing content and updates on the evening glow. This blog is not being used anymore, so make sure to go and check the evening glow out for food and travel stories. You can subscribe via Bloglovin’ here. Thanks guys.

You will find more photos to this post there as well—

Landed in Nice I am finally reunited with my dad, even if just for a few days. He brought pizza and bread which he knows are some of the foods I miss the most living in the Netherlands. He asks me about my plans and I try to fill in the gaps as I haven’t really figured out much. I feel like I am rambling and I am relieved when we stop at the first highway bar in Italy. It’s a tradition, the barista somehow knows what we want to order without us even asking and we quickly drink the dark nectar of Gods, or at least that’s what I feel a real Italian espresso should be called.

My mum arrives with my nephew and we start playing as if I had never left. Very aware of what living in Italy means (it’s hard, and maybe it’s even harder for someone who has experienced northern Europe society), I dream of coming back one day. The many many pros on one part of the scales and the few very heavy cons battle in my head, but for now I decide I am happy where I am and I focus on the present day. I sleep for thirteen hours straight and I wake up feeling good.

My nephew screams “Goedemorgen!” (goodmorning in Dutch), one of the few Dutch words he has learnt from my brother. I pick field flowers, the most beautiful ones, for a friend who has recently passed away. I drive to the coast listening to Daughter and thinking about the time we spent together.

I meet friends at the beach and I run to hug them. It’s so nice to hear about their lives, their struggles, their moments of happiness and telling them about mine. We swim in the deepest water, we take pictures and part of me is back to being seventeen again.

I spend every moment outside, helping my mum to cook, taking photos, swimming and just listening to all the sounds I can hear all across the valley.

The last day I wake up early, my body knows I have to seize it. That feeling of melancholy starts hitting me intermittently; I don’t want to go and childishly I imagine that maybe there’s a way of staying here.

Still drives me every day

Tags

fotografie, holland, nederland, netherlands, portrait, portret

Since I have started my small business next to my work in the shop, I don’t have any real days off anymore. When I am not working, I am sitting at the desk sending emails, and mainly trying to figure out stuff. Lately I felt like it is all a little too much, and I need a real day off. One day I was full of plans and busy working on my website when my friend Mirjam sent me a text. It was saying: “I know this place where we should do a photoshoot”. We started talking about it and an hour later we were taking the bus to go there.

That afternoon hit me right in the heart and for how simple it was, it meant a lot to me. I learned that photography is still what makes my heart beat fast. Going out there, explore and venture into new places, see people and places through the lens, watching another world unfold itself in front of me; it may be all to mystical to some, but this is what drives me every day.

Launching: the evening glow

Hi there!

As I wrote in the last post, I haven’t been active on details naturally for a while now.
There is a reason behind it, though: Roberto and I recently launched our brand new website!

the evening glow

This has been an idea of ours for a while now, and we have been working on recipes and website since Christmas. The evening glow is a place for good food and adventures: recipes, food talk, and travel talk. We combined Roberto’s passion and knowledge about cooking and my love for photography and the evening glow was born.

Make sure to have a look and let us know what you think! Subscribe via Bloglovin, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook.

Over these years I have interacted with many of you and I would hate not to hear from you and talk to you anymore, so please make sure to ‘jump over’ to the evening glow and give this new blog a chance.

Hope to see you there!

xx Juliette

Life passing

Tags

family, fotografie, holidays, holland, leiden, life, nederland, netherlands, photography

Christmas has come and gone and so has the busiest period of the year at the shop. I I haven’t had much time to photograph, hence the lack of posts.

However, I have collected a few moments during these past (almost) two months of silence.

(I) On my birthday my dad, Roberto and I drove to Antwerp in Belgium, where I had a very interesting meeting about my photography. After the meeting we explored the city, which was pretty awesome, then drove back and had dinner at the Indian restaurant.

(II-III) On Christmas we cooked and baked (ravioli and cupcakes), and we spent some precious time together. Since our families aren’t here in the Netherlands, we are creating our own traditions. We spent a lot of time outside, wandering through the dunes and watching deer and birds quietly living their lives.

(IV) After long days at work I often found myself on the couch or on bed writing (or reading) until late.

(V) While the year was coming to an end Roberto and I started to gather our recipes on a new Instagram account “the evening glow” to store them and share them. Working together is amazing, I love how we are creative in different ways.

(VI) After walking in the countryside for a few hours we came back into town and had a coffee looking over Leiden. Planning our upcoming trip, but not too much, as per usual.

(VII) My mum came to visit on the coldest day. The three of us went to visit my grandma, which despite her age, never ceases to inspire me. Her wanderlust, her love for languages, her musicality..

(VIII) Walks on the beach on a hazy and cold afternoon. Wonderful silence, interrupted by us laughing about the video that Roberto made of me where I jump and of which the stop motion is hilarious.

December and traditions

Tags

christmas, december, dutch, italian, santa claus, sinterklaas, tradition, traditions

December brought the cold wind and freezing temperatures.

Every morning I bike to work as the day is getting a little lighter and come back home when it has gotten dark again. While at work in the shop I meet many friendly people: new parents who want to create new traditions with their little ones, even if they don’t really get who Sinterklaas or Santa are yet; elderly people telling me how they love the shop because it reminds them of when they were young, and they tell me how they celebrated Sinterklaas or Christmas; people getting excited about giving a present rather than receiving it,they choose carefully, doubting whether the recipient will like it or not.

December has always meant a lot to me: my birthday, Sinterklaas (the Dutch version of Santa, who gets here on the evening of the 5th of December), and Christmas recitals at school on Christmas Eve and hot milk with chestnuts around the bonfire in the village in Italy.

I am such a sucker for traditions. Unlike my family, I am really emotionally tied to them (otherwise they wouldn’t be tradition, would they?) and I miss them once they fade away.

As a child December started with Sinterklaas evening, on the 5th. After dinner Sinterklaas would knock on the door and we’d find lots of presents on the doorsteps. Every present would be accompanied by a poem in rhyme, and sometimes the poem would direct you outside where you’d had to follow clues to get to your present. There would also be hot chocolate, chocolate letters, pepernoten and speculaas.

Then, on the 9th, it was my birthday. Every year my parents woke me up by singing “Er is er een jarig, hoera, hoera!” and brought me tea or coffee on bed (depending on the age). They gave me a present, sometimes wrapped with Sinterklaas wrapping paper because they hadn’t decided beforehand which present would be for my birthday.

A few weeks later, on the 24th, Christmas Eve, I’d be spending the evening being nervous and excited because of the school’s recital. Being the shiest kid at school, I usually was one of the background angels singing, or the turkey the Little Match Girl dreams about while she’s starving and freezing to death. One year, the last year of Elementary school, I was the protagonist, I still am proud of that part, I was an awesome calendar, arguing with a clock on who was more important.

After the recital we’d go back to the village me and my family lived in. There always was a big bonfire in front of the church, everyone sitting around it, staring at the fire, while drinking hot milk and eating chestnuts.

These traditions slowly faded with the years. My parents didn’t really want t celebrate Sinterklaas, even though I would have loved to. My birthday lost a little the excitement I had when I was little, and Christmas isn’t celebrated around the fire anymore. Now christmas is in a totally different country, with other people around me. Fortunately these people remind me that traditions fade but new traditions can be created.

In fact, without even noticing, we have now celebrated our new version of Sinterklaas three years in a row. And although I am not sitting chatting with people around a bonfire with Christmas, I get to talk to people everyday at work, I get a glimpse of their lives, and then once I get off work, around Christmas, Roberto comes to pick me up and we go and have a glass of Mulled wine, however disgusting it might be, it is extremely heartwarming. Just like the awareness that we can create more traditions in the future.

What are your childhood traditions? Are you carrying them on or have you created new ones? I want to hear all of your stories!

Crunchy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Tags

food fotografie, food photography, food styling, fotografie, holland, leiden, nederland, photography, ZH, zuid-holland

 

The other day I just wanted to photograph something food-related really bad. I might be something weird to “crave”, but whacha gonna do about it, I just wanted to.

I could have made a salad, or a cup of tea, but I went for the Chocolate Chip Cookies; who knows why. After a short quest for a perfect recipe I found this recipe for Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies by Linda Lomelino (this lady inspires me so much).

Now, I know my post is called Crunchy Chocolate Chip Cookies and not Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies like hers (woah, hello alliteration!) but I guess that has to do with my oven being a tiny grill oven and not a fully functional ventilated oven. The cookies turned out super crunchy and delicious. To be honest, the best cookies I have ever made, so thanks Linda!

Hope you like the photos. If you like them please make sure to visit my website and like Juliette van Eijsden Visuals on Facebook.

What are your plans for this weekend? Anything exciting happening?

 

Tessa

Tags

fotograaf, fotografe, fotoshoot, holland, leiden, netherlands, photography, photoshoot, portrait, portret, zuid-holland

“Ask her what she craved and she’d get a little frantic about things like books, the woods, music. The plants and the season. Also freedom”.  Charles Frazier

For this shoot Tessa and I were inspired by the French look that she likes so much. Lots of black, and some black and white stripes. Classy and elegant as she can be. If I had to give it a name it’d be “Promenade parisienne”

A few hours walking around Leiden turned into this shoot that in my eyes really tells the story of a classy girl walking around town.

For more info about my photos visit my website juliettevaneijsden.com

An Ode to Leiden

Tags

explore, fotografie, holland, leiden, nederland, netherlands, photography, reizen, travel, wanderlust

(for more travel photography visit my portfolio at juliettevaneijsden.com)

This town, just between Rotterdam, the Hague, and Amsterdam is so magical. I have been living here for almost three years now and I still like to go out and explore it. It is made of canals, small streets and alleys were you will find the typical Dutch houses and a few windmills as well.

On Wednesdays and Saturdays the town is more lively because of the market. Along the canal there are stalls selling flowers (lots of tulips), fish (raw herring, anyone?), clothes, nuts, and all sorts of food. I am lucky to work in a shop along the main canal where the market life is the liveliest. People laughing, quarrelling, having a coffee or buying some cheese, I see it all and love every second spend around there.

During summer you can have a coffee or a drink on one of the boats on the canal, just in front of the cafe/ pub. When it gets colder fairy lights light up the trees, and when it gets really cold and the canals freeze you will see people ice skating on them.

I don’t know if I will live here for ever, or if I am going to move a hundred more times, but I am sure I will always come back to this beautiful small city.

Autumn in Italy

Tags

adventure, arma di taggia, autumn, explore, fog, italian, italy, liguria, montalto ligure, nature, photography, travel

Autumn always makes me think of the poem San Martino by Giosue’ Carducci; we had to learn by heart at elementary school.

It’s amongst my favourites, and I still know it by heart.

La nebbia agli irti colli
Piovigginando sale,
E sotto il maestrale
urla e biancheggia il mare;
Ma per le vie del borgo
Dal ribollir dè tini
Va l’aspro odor de i vini
L’anime a rallegrar.
Gira sù ceppi accesi
Lo spiedo scoppiettando:
Sta il cacciator fischiando
Su l’uscio a rimirar
Tra le rossastre nubi
Stormi d’uccelli neri,
Com’esuli pensieri,
Nel vespero migrar.

Translated by John Baker in:

Drizzling, the fog
the steep hills climbs,
and the northwest wind torments
the howling, foaming sea:
but in the village streets
the seething vats send forth
the pungent smell of wine
and cheer the weary souls.
On fiery logs the roast
turns on its spit and crackles;
the hunter stands and whistles
and watches from his door
the flocks of birds that,
back upon reddish clouds,
like forlorn thoughts gyrate
at dusk, preparing to migrate.

Lac de Serre Ponçon, France

Tags

alps, explore, fotografie, france, lac, lac de serre poncon, lake, photography, serre poncon, travel, visit, wander, wanderlust

Unlike other years, this year Roberto and I decided to stop in France overnight before heading to our parents and start the hectic meet-all-of-your-parents routine.

We chose to stay and visit the Lac de Serre Ponçon; my parents and I had been here last year after a road trip through Northern Italy and Southern France. It is a beautiful blue lake, not far from Briançon, Gap, and the Italian border.

We arrived very early in the morning, after sleeping in the car between Grenoble and Gap. We drove along the lakeside and stopped in the small town Savines-le-Lac, where we had a café au lait and pain au chocolat, after washing our faces and brushing our teeth in a parking lot.

After breakfast we went to a beautiful part of the lakeside, from where you can see a tiny island with a charming church on it. Then we went back into town and bought a baguette, goat cheese and tomatoes for lunch and drove back to the lake and photographed all afternoon.

We stayed at a cosy AirBnB on top of the mountain in Crots, just a few hundred meters from te lake. The next morning we went to a bakery to buy some more pain au chocolat and then we drove up the mountains Italy bound. From the top we could see how big and incredibly blue the lake was and we had to take a few more photos.

We noticed there are many activities on and around the lake, like paragliding, water skiing, SUP, climbing. One reason more to come back.