Happy Easter

Jesus, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

Happy Easter to all readers of the blog and thanks for checking in. The photo uploaded to the blog is the result of a wonderful piece of software called AndreaMosaic which can create mosaics using a selection of ones photos, matching the colours of the individual photos to those of the image which one wants to create. The image being created here is one of the head of Jesus which had been painted as some piece of grafitti somewhere near the Forum in Rome last May. The grafitti states that Jesus protects Italy, whatever that is supposed to mean. The image created out of the mosaic looks a bit like the Turin Shroud, it becoming clearer the further away one stands away.
It was a beautiful sunny day today, not a cloud in the sky all morning or late afternoon, just some high cloud during the early afternoon, while there was also a bit of a cool wind. Still, one of the better Easter Sundays one could wish for. Fitfully, for a festival which has its origins in marking the spring equinox and the coming into leaf of all vegetation, the trees were all bursting out in leaf and the city looked a lot greener than it had just a week ago.
Green leaves are what Amsterdam really needs ot come into its own, together with bright sunshine. The chairs are all outside every cafe and every chair in the sun is occupied. The city is full of locals, people from outside as well as tourists, creating a gerat atmosphere. Fred, Henk and myself walked into town and back stopping by one of the canals for a tostie and a drink, me with my camera trying to gather the enthusiasm to take photos once again.
Back home we had drinks on the balcony while I cooked roast organic chicken, stuffed with home-made sage and onion stuffing. Quite a traditional English dish for Easter and delicious too!
In the meantime, last night we went to the cinema to see a film about which I might write about tomorrow. After the cinema we went to a bar to meet with a couple of chaps who I hae got to know through the flickr photo site. We had never met before so it was a sort of blind date. The bar was very full and we looked around to see if we could recognise anyone from the photos on their sites, but to no avail. Eventually, Walter did find us, but what he has done since he last put photos of himself was to grow his hair, which hardly made things easy to identify him. Anyway, he and his partner Marcel were excellent company and we hope to see each other again soon. Funny how this internet thing can work sometimes!