Anne Frank - (1929-1945)

If she were alive, she'd be celebrating her 78th birthday today. Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank (born : 12 June 1929) died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen Concentration camp at age 15 in March 1945.

We were in Amsterdam last winter and the hiding place of Franks, now recognized by a sign that reads simply "Anne Frank Huis", was one of the places we could not stop ourselves from visiting though we were "officially" on honeymoon in Holland. Being there was like re-living the pages from her diary again. The secret attic, the bookcase that covered the door to it, her life in hiding all came alive and so did the questions. All through, I kept wondering what my life was like at 15. And all I could remember was a cocooned childhood, still nursing the first crush of teenage, petty jealousies amongst girlfriends, sibling rivalries.................Guess, so would have been hers, had the world let it be.

The pages of her diary are replete with such girlie delights:

and a wisdom that belies her age:

"It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet, I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can't build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever-approaching thunder, which will destroy us too, I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again.....I must uphold my ideals, for perhaps the time will come when I shall be able to carry them out." - Anne Frank

Shot at Amsterdam

Circa 1888!!!

The Langlois bridge at Arles (France) as painted by Van Gogh (1888)

The drawbridge in Amsterdam (The Netherlands), captured by Moi (2006) :D

The song for a windmill.............

Am back!!!! In Florida after a whirlwind of vacations.....married to the man I've loved and cared for more than half a decade now :) And back on the blogscene with this Quixotic li'l piece (remember "tilting at windmills", anyone????) from the pristine northernmost part of the Netherlands..........One of the most romantic part of our stay in the charming Groningen province (and city) was the sight of windmills almost singing with the breeze!!! Sigh!!!! "Up with the sun, the breeze arose, Across the talking corn she goes, And smooth she rustles far and wide Through all the voiceful countryside. Through all the land her tale she tells; She spins, she tosses, she compels The kites, the clouds, the windmill sails And all the trees in all the dales......................" (RL Stevenson) We cud not make it to the ever-popular Kinderdijk to witness the beauty of a score of windmills in action and this one is no Moulin Rouge (Red Windmill).......it was fascinating a place, nevertheless. The landscape refuses to fade from the memories I will cherish all my life.....the rivulets, the dykes, the sea, the canals, picturesque villages, the pastures .................................... Our li'l "Dutch treat" :) Wud have loved to shoot this at sunset too.....but Sunshine was a rarity in the parts we were staying at this time of the year. On a tangent, can you spot the two ppl framed with the windmill in the shot???? They seem dwarfed by the mill, don't they ..the pic's here for the two of them....:)....they are two of my fav ppl or as i call them Los Muchachos :)